Currents

Educational Data at Your Fingertips

Volume 6 / Issue 1 / Fall 2005

A new Web site, www.schoolmatters.com, provides the general public with search and comparison tools applicable to a wide range of data about local schools and school districts. Using these tools, parents can find high-performing schools and make more informed decisions about their children’s education. Data are provided on student demographics, state test scores, the progress of a school’s student body toward reading and math proficiency, school spending amounts, scores and participation rates on the SAT and ACT, school environment (i.e., class sizes, student-teacher ratios, suspension and retention rates), community information (i.e., income levels, property values, the educational attainment of adults in the area), and teacher compensation.

The Reading and Math Proficiency indicator determines how close a school, district, or state is to meeting the No Child Left Behind goal of proficiency among all students in these areas by 2014. The Return on Spending Index, the most controversial information on the Web site, uses data on student achievement and school finances to suggest whether a school or district spends its money effectively. Many feel that this index unfairly labels low-performing schools that continue to demonstrate inadequate student achievement despite receiving an influx of resources and making some strides.

The Web site does not compare schools across state boundaries, because each state has unique circumstances. However, users can compare results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress across states, as well as U.S. Census figures on nonacademic data. The Web site advises users not to draw conclusions about a school system’s performance from ratios alone. Such data are but one piece of a large and complex puzzle.