Greatschools

Across greatschools country, states and school districts have devised their own systems of letter grades and color-coded dashboards based on test scores greatschools 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 listings on national real estate websites Zillow, greatschools, Realtor.

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.

Greatschools

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. But eventually they find data through Google or the real estate website Zillow. And GreatSchools makes it easy: Almost every school in America is rated, 1 to But what do these scores measure? To find out, we collaborated with the education news website Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat reporters Matt Barnum and Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee found that these ratings correlate highly with socioeconomic levels — while not doing a great job at capturing how much a school helps students grow. In their excellent piece , they explain:. The result is a ubiquitous, privately run school ratings system that is steering people toward whiter, more affluent schools. And to keep up with Vox videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel. Will you help keep Vox free for all? Support our mission and help keep Vox free for all by making a financial contribution to Vox today.

A recent preliminary study found greatschools as the site rolled out an earlier version of its ratings, areas with highly rated schools saw increases in greatschools prices and rises in the number of white, greatschools, Asian, and better-educated families, greatschools. Despite these adjustments to the methodology, the ratings continue to generate criticism among parents and education stakeholders for their role in housing choices and reliance on indicators known to be associated with student race and income, greatschools. Media room.

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.

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?

Greatschools

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. In the past, the overall GreatSchools Rating in most states was based on test scores. GreatSchools ratings follow a scale, where 10 is the highest and 1 is the lowest.

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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. By Matt Barnum. A recent investigation by the news organization Chalkbeat suggests that the equity score has had some effect in reducing the correlation between GreatSchools ratings and school demographics, but the highest-rated schools still tend to have more white and Asian students, and fewer students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. In August , GreatSchools became the first school information site to add school climate data to its school profiles. For its part, GreatSchools says it remains engaged with questions about how to measure school quality. The conversations Kelly describes, steering homebuyers to one school zone or another, were vividly outlined in a recent investigation by Newsday , which sent potential homebuyers of different races and ethnicities to real estate agents, then secretly recorded what the agents told those buyers. Share article Remove Save to favorites Save to favorites. Some of this came on the advice of Innovate Public Schools, an advocacy group that works with low-income families and has supported the growth of charter schools. Group Subscriptions. Other research on different school rating systems have shown similar effects on housing values. These issues long predate GreatSchools. 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.

The Summary Rating is a multi-measure school quality metric intended to reflect how well a school is preparing students for postsecondary success. GreatSchools currently produces four themed ratings, all of which are included in the Summary Rating when available.

While the Fair Housing Act forbids real estate agents from steering potential homebuyers of different races to different neighborhoods, a recent Newsday investigation found that many agents on Long Island were doing just that, sometimes using schools as a vehicle to do so. SchoolDigger gives the school 2 of 5 stars, while Niche awards it a C. That could mean GreatSchools loses credibility with a powerful constituency of families. Sparks reports it was partially in response to advocates who were concerned about equity. Christina Samuels formerly covered educational equity for Education Week. Retrieved November 2, Group Subscriptions. 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. But eventually they find data through Google or the real estate website Zillow. Why abortion politics might not carry Democrats again in By Rachel M. Something went wrong. Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee. In addition to the ratings, the site also collects reviews from parents, who can offer their own star ratings. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K districts. March 29,