Highly educated people are more likely to live in more than 100 other cities before Toledo.
That’s according to a WalletHub report, “2017’s Most & Least Educated Cities in America,” published Tuesday.
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But officials from the University of Toledo and Toledo Public Schools say the city and its educational institutions have ramped up efforts to improve the quality of education in Toledo and entice bright, talented people to stay in the area once they graduate.
WalletHub, a web-based personal finance company that aggregates data on lifestyles, finance, and education, ranked Toledo No. 104 of the 150 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas included in the report. Ann Arbor ranked No. 1, and Columbus (34th), Cincinnati (57th), Cleveland (64th), Dayton (74th), Akron (75th), and Detroit (78th) all fared better than Toledo.
The rankings reviewed how many adults 25 and older have a high school diploma, some college experience, a bachelor’s degree, and graduate degrees, as well as the quality of the public school system and universities in each city. WalletHub used data from the U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings, GreatSchools.org, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to compare each city’s performance.
University of Toledo leaders are working toward bolstering UT’s academic reputation outside of Toledo by becoming a top 100 public, national research university. They solidified those goals in a five-year strategic plan finalized in June, which also included goals to improve student retention and graduation rates.
UT spokesman Meghan Cunningham said the WalletHub ranking is only one way to measure UT’s impact. She pointed to an economic impact study written in the spring by two associate professors of economics that shows the university contributes $3.3 billion annually to the region’s economy. The study also found 33 percent of living alumni reside in Lucas, Fulton, and Wood counties.
“We are the top-ranked institution in the region and second in Ohio for social mobility,” Ms. Cunningham added. “The university provides an opportunity to students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and that’s a way that the university can strengthen our region.”
Toledo Public Schools received an F grade in achievement on the most recent school report card, released in November by the Ohio Department of Education. That reflects how many students passed state tests and how well they performed. But the district’s graduation rate grew from 63.9 of its class of 2014 graduating in four years to 70.3 percent for the class of 2015.
Jim Gault, Toledo Public Schools’ chief academic officer, said the district will continue to “move the bar” on graduation rates and has been partnering with area colleges, universities, and industry to let students pursue an advanced degree or trade certificate while still in high school.
“Those are two things that we’ve been working in conjunction with our community that we hope in the future will raise Toledo’s ranking when you look at it across the nation’s landscape,” he said.
Contact Sarah Elms at selms@theblade.com or 419-724-6103 or on Twitter @BySarahElms.
First Published July 26, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
