Find the Best Public Schools
(as reviewed by Kelly Quigley in REALTOR® Magazine Online)
 

For most families, quality of schools is a major factor in where they search for homes. A good school district promises a solid education for their children and ensures the home will be in high demand when it’s time to sell. Take advantage of this useful Web site to research the quality of public schools in communities you are considering. It’s a particularly helpful tool for buyers who are relocating and aren’t familiar with the area. Although the site’s ultimate goal is to get more people involved in improving public schools, it’s full of rich information on how school districts are performing all over the country. SchoolMatters is run by Standard & Poor’s and provides a wide array of academic, spending, tax, and demographic data. Here’s a rundown of the site’s best features and how to use them:

• Find Your School or District. Easily accessible from the home page, this tool is the main reason to visit the Web site. Just enter the name of your school or school district, along with the city and state, and you get a detailed profile of how the school performs. The profile includes how students fared on standardized tests, ratio of students to teachers, enrollment of students with special needs, enrollment of students from racial/ethnic groups, and community information such as household income and home value. On the left side of the profile report, you have the opportunity to compare the school with others in the state or produce a new report that shows only the schools with better performance.

• Site Tools. There are countless ways to analyze school data and compare it to other districts in the state or country. On this page, you’ll find brief tutorials on how to use the site’s many comparison tools. You can view interactive training tutorials or print out a PDF version of them. It’s easiest to follow the training if you’ve already done some exploring of the features mentioned in the above paragraph. By clicking on the Parents tab at the top of this page, you will have access to a training module made just for parents.

• Newsletter. This e-newsletter is delivered to your e-mail inbox each month if you Register for Updates at no charge. It includes tips how to make the most out of school data, as well as updates on new tools and resources available to you on SchoolMatters.com. You also will receive articles, information, and resources on education topics.

• State Overview. Want a snapshot of your state as a whole? Just click on the name of your state for information on spending per student, statewide student performance, adult education levels, and more. You also will find links to compare states, compare schools within the state, and to contact the state department of education.