In light of back-to-school season, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2016's States with the Best & Worst School Systems.

In order to identify the best school systems in America,WalletHub’s analysts compared the quality of education in the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 17 key metrics. The data set ranges from pupil-teacher ratio to dropout rate to average SAT and ACT scores.

According to an Economic Policy Institute report, income is higher in states where the workforce is well educated and thus more productive. In turn, workers with better earnings contribute greater taxes to beef up state budgets over the long run.

Louisiana ranks at the bottom with 30.33 points and ranks 49th for School-System Quality and 51 for School System Safety. The state also had some of the lowest math and reading and ACT test scores

At the top of the list is Massachusetts with 73.65 points and ranks first for both School-System Quality and School System Safety.

See complete study results and a complete description of methodology here.