Gold Medal District

The December issue of Expansion Management rated Chesterfield County as a Gold Medal District, which is a score of 126-150, and a National Ranking in the top 18%. The publication has applied a formula to calculate the EQ™ (Education Quotient) as a way of giving companies a basis for comparing the kind of work force they may encounter in a number of communities across the country. The 250 school districts they rated over the past few years have now grown to roughly 2,500 school districts this year.

The following is an explanation from Expansion Management: “A school district’s EQ score is composed of three major indices: the Graduate Outcome (GO), the Resource Index (RI), and the Community Index (CI).

The Graduate Outcome measures the final output of a district’s schools, and includes College Board results and graduate rates. This is the most important, as well as the most heavily weighted.

The Resource Index measures a community’s financial commitment to public education and includes things such as teacher’s salaries, student-teacher ratios and per pupil expenditures. While important, it has a lesser weight in the final calculation because we feel that a school district should be measured by its results, not by how much money it spent.

The Community Index, which measures the economic and educational background of the adult population, has almost no weight in the final calculations. Instead, is used as a benchmark for site selectors and other people engaged in evaluating a work force.

These three indices, as well as the final EQ score, are calculated on a scale of 50 (lowest) to 150 (highest), with 100 being the midpoint.”