New Online Source Offers Help Assessing School, District Performance

By Sandy Boyd
Vice President, Human Resource Policy
National Association of Manufacturers

Business leaders in search of an independent, credible source to assess the relative performance of schools and school districts may point their Web browsers to www.SchoolMatters.com. The service, which is a project of the National Education Data Partnership, offers student performance, financial and demographic data, as well as objective analysis provided by Standard & Poor's. Developers of the site say it is the largest collection of education data ever assembled.

SchoolMatters.com may be particularly helpful for manufacturers that are relocating and are in search of high-performing schools. Likewise, it may provide additional guidance for companies that are investigating ways to better target their philanthropic efforts or help policymakers cost-effectively boost student results in nearby schools. While not meant to be an exhaustive study of all of the factors that affect student achievement and district performance, the site offers a holistic approach to analyzing data that takes into account demographic context and provides users with unique metrics to more closely examine the relationship between spending and student achievement.

The partnership is a collaboration among the Council of Chief State School Officers, Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services, Achieve, Inc. and the CELT Corp. It is funded by The Broad Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Launched March 29, the service is available at www.schoolmatters.com.