Wyoming had the best average starting salary for teachers and ranked second in the category of 10-year change in teacher salaries according to data compiled by WalletHub.com. these two factors helped propel The Cowboy State to its Top-10 ranking. Other high rankings for Wyoming included ranking 8th in average salary for teachers and in Pupil-to-Teacher radio. The state was ranked 9th in Public-School Spending per Student and 12th in Quality of the School System.

The top-ranked state for Teacher-Friendliness was New York, followed by Connecticut, Minnesota and Illinois. North Dakota was the highest ranked western state at #5.

Utah was ranked #11 overall. Montana was ranked #17, Nebraska came in at #23 and Idaho was #26 overall. Colorado was ranked #28 and South Dakota was #35.

Hawaii was ranked 51st and Arizona was 50th.

According to WalletHub.com, their methodology compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia cross two key dimensions, “Opportunity & Competition” and “Academic & Work Environment.”

The two dimensions were evaluated using 22 relevant metrics, which were listed along with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for living and working as a teacher.

Finally, we determined each state and the District’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the sample.