Opportunity Washington is out with the first update to its quarterly Opportunity Washington Scorecard. The Washington Research Council is a partner with Opportunity Washington on the Scorecard, which is a data-driven analysis of 50-state performance across three categories:

• Achieve (education quality and outcomes)
• Connect (transportation efficiency and reliability)
• Employ (economic vitality)

We track 16 variables, using data from reliable national sources. To normalize scoring across the data sets, the median score is set at 75 for each variable and the score of the 10th best state is set at 100.

This quarter, Washington drops four places to 28th overall with an Opportunity Score of 68. Utah takes the top spot with an Opportunity Score of 127. Previous leader, Massachusetts, falls to second overall but maintains a first place ranking in the subcategories of Achieve and Employ.

Read the whole update here.