Young children in five New England states are more likely to succeed in elementary school than children elsewhere in the United States, according to the 10th annual State of the World's Mothers report issued recently by Save the Children, a U.S.-based global independent humanitarian organization.

The new report presents a first-ever U.S. index on how well prepared young children are to succeed in school in 50 states and the District of Columbia, based on indicators that include parental involvement in learning activities, quality of home life and preschool participation.

The top five states: Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine.

The bottom five states: New Mexico, Nevada, Mississippi, Arizona, and Alabama.

However, when compared with other wealthy nations, the report says the United States is losing ground in educational attainment and ranks toward the bottom on a number of key indicators that measure national commitment to early childhood development.

The report includes a comparison of the United States and 24 other developed nations on how they meet 10 benchmarks of early childhood development. Sweden meets all 10, while Canada and Ireland meet only one. The United States ranks near the bottom, meeting only three. Save the Children says these shortcomings are directly related to falling educational achievement in the United States.

Four decades ago, according to the report, the United States had the best high-school graduation rate in the world, but by 2006 it had slipped to 18th out of 24 industrialized countries. As recently as 1995, the United States was still tied for first place in the proportion of young adults with a college degree, but by 2000 it had slipped to ninth place, and by 2006 to 14th place. The United States also has one of the highest college dropout rates in the industrialized world: 53 percent of Americans who enter college do not finish.

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