Greatschools

Across the greatschools, states and school districts have devised their own systems of letter grades and color-coded dashboards based on test scores and graduation rates, greatschools. But arguably the most visible and influential school rating system in America comes from the nonprofit GreatSchools, whose ratings appear in home greatschools on national real estate websites Zillow, Realtor, greatschools, greatschools. But GreatSchools ratings effectively penalize schools that serve largely low-income students and those serving largely black and Hispanic students, generally giving them significantly lower ratings than schools serving more affluent and more white and Asian students, a Chalkbeat analysis found.

We conducted a data analysis of their scores. In America, most children go to school based on where their family lives. So affluent parents often take the quality of schools into consideration when they make housing decisions. It can be hard to determine the quality of a school, though. Parents can use test scores as an indicator, or they can do their own research within their own social networks.

Greatschools

With more than 40 million unique visitors each year, the school ratings site GreatSchools. GreatSchools is also licensed by real estate listing sites such as Redfin and Zillow, which allow potential homebuyers to easily see the school zones for houses for sale, or permit users to search for houses for sale that are zoned to a particular school. In addition to the ratings, the site also collects reviews from parents, who can offer their own star ratings. Nationwide, the population of public school students is becoming more diverse, and a growing percentage of schools are predominantly black and Hispanic, with high concentrations of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch. Such schools tend to have fewer experienced and effective teachers, a more challenging school climate, and less rigorous academic offerings than schools with a wealthier student body. One research paper receiving renewed attention suggests an earlier version of the GreatSchools scoring system may have accelerated already existing trends of racial and socioeconomic segregation. To be clear, that segregation existed well before GreatSchools came on the scene, said Sharique Hasan and Anuj Kumar, who examined demographics and housing trends between and , when GreatSchools was expanding its reach. He studies how information technology affects the behavior of organizations and individuals. Hasan and Kumar looked at demographic changes and housing prices during the time that GreatSchools was growing to incorporate ratings of schools throughout the country. At that time, GreatSchools ratings related almost entirely to test scores.

Watch greatschools video produced in partnership with Vox based on the reporting in this story. EdWeek Top School Jobs.

GreatSchools is an American national nonprofit organization that provides information about PK schools and education. The website provides ratings and comparison tools based on student growth, college readiness, equity, and test scores for public schools in the U. The next four years — , the school ratings expanded statewide in California and expanded nationwide in In , GreatSchools introduced a "Summary Rating" to individual school profiles. The Summary Rating is a score on a scale composed of themed ratings including how well schools serve students from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds Equity , how much students are improving within a school year Student Progress , performance on state tests Test Score , and how well schools prepare students for college College Readiness. In , GreatSchools further evolved its Equity and Summary Ratings for K schools to emphasize equity and elevate student academic progress as a key measure of school quality.

As an independent nonprofit, our mission at GreatSchools is to help all parents get a great education for their children and for communities to ensure that all students receive a quality education. We believe that every parent — regardless of where they live or how much money they make — needs reliable information in order to ensure their child is being served by their school. On our profiles, we strive to display a variety of indicators of school quality to provide a well-rounded picture of how effectively each school serves all of its students. Our ratings are intended to provide a better understanding of school quality and to help parents compare schools within the same state. We are constantly working with state and national agencies to acquire more representative school data in every state. This helps us provide a more in-depth picture of school quality nationwide and allows us to improve our school profiles and ratings.

Greatschools

Over 49 million parents in the U. As a nonprofit, our mission is to provide high-quality information that supports parents pursuing a great education for their child, schools striving for excellence, and communities working to diminish inequities in education. For school leaders, we offer resources to help you connect with parents and share more information about what makes your school special. As a school leader, you know your school best. For school officials who are looking to promote their school and encourage prospective families to visit or enroll, we offer two paid programs:. Upload your message, select targeting parameters and assess results. GreatSchools weekly: a round-up of our best articles, worksheets and more. What does on-track learning look like? This free collection of short videos helps make standards tangible for parents by showing what successful learning looks like, with real children demonstrating mastery of key parents understand what proficiency looks like skills their child will need to master at each grade level. The K-8 Milestones collection shows real students demonstrating what success looks like on a grade-by-grade basis in reading, writing and math.

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Media room Press release. Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. For its part, GreatSchools says it remains engaged with questions about how to measure school quality. The school was rated a 5, whereas many other schools in the area scored only a 1, she said, and her son is doing well after the switch. The increased emphasis on equity had the effect of lowering the summary scores for many highly-rated schools and raising ratings for poorly performing schools, as schools with a small population of disadvantaged students do not receive an Equity rating. Communicator Awards. Walton is also a funder of Chalkbeat. All Topics. Still, labeling schools in poor communities and communities of color as bad could make it even tougher to create integrated schools, which research has found benefit students. Another study — by Peter Bergman, Eric Chan, and Adam Kapor — found that when GreatSchools scores were made available to families with housing vouchers, they chose neighborhoods with schools that had a tiny bit better GreatSchools rating. The site has partnered with a researcher at Columbia University, Peter Bergman, who has found that families with housing vouchers who are given GreatSchools information were more likely to choose neighborhoods with higher-rated schools. Explainers Israel-Hamas war election Tax season. By Christina A.

GreatSchools is the leading nonprofit providing high-quality information that supports parents pursuing a great education for their child, schools striving for excellence, and communities working to diminish inequities in education. We collect and analyze data from all 51 state departments of education and the federal government to provide analysis, insights, and school quality ratings for parents, partners, researchers, and policymakers.

GreatSchools ratings also do not take college level courses other than Advanced Placement into consideration when calculating "college readiness. Another study — by Peter Bergman, Eric Chan, and Adam Kapor — found that when GreatSchools scores were made available to families with housing vouchers, they chose neighborhoods with schools that had a tiny bit better GreatSchools rating. GreatSchools argues that only statewide comparisons are appropriate; in six states where GreatSchools provided data, a substantial connection between student poverty and school ratings remained — though in some cases it was smaller than the connection in the metro area Chalkbeat focused on in the same state. Still, some lawyers consulted by Chalkbeat said the fact that the GreatSchools ratings are so correlated with race raises questions about whether their use by real estate companies could run afoul of the Fair Housing Act, because the ratings effectively nudge families away from communities with more black and Hispanic residents. UChicago Consortium on School Research. Around the same time, charter schools and other school choice policies were gaining traction. In their excellent piece , they explain:. This survey has been validated by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and shown to predict the likelihood of school improvement in school climate and student outcomes. Current Issue. Myron Long, who is starting a charter school in Washington, D. Probably in part because many schools serving low-income students of color are genuinely struggling. The result is a ubiquitous, privately run school ratings system that is steering people toward whiter, more affluent schools. Group Subscriptions. Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.