Good measures for good schools - Center for Public Education

How good are our nation's schools? How good are the schools in your own community? Good measures for good schools can help you answer these questions and more. This guide gives you

The right questions to ask for a full picture of the quality of your schools.
National data and easy links to state data to help you gauge the performance of your schools on 28 key measures. We also link you to district and school-level data as much as possible.
An explanation of each measure including how the data is useful and how it is limited.
Other questions to ask when the available data doesn't say enough.

Getting the most from good measures for good schools

If you are a policymaker or school official, good measures can play a big role in reinforcing the areas you judge successful and help identify those that may need improvement.
If you are a parent, community, or business leader, good measures can help you judge how well your schools are doing and also help you become a better advocate for the programs and resources you want for your youth.
If you are a member of the media, good measures can give you background information when writing about the most current education issues.

Good measures for good schools is an ongoing effort of the Center, so you'll want to visit us often. We will continually update this site as new data and information become available.

Good measures for good schools is organized as follows:

At-a-glance: An overview of all the measures in an easy-to-scan table format with links to details.

Measures by category

Student achievement: The work of schools is teaching and learning, so we start with measures for how well all students are performing academically.

Student graduation and beyond: Along with achievement, communities want to know that students are successfully moving through grade school and middle school to high school graduation and beyond. These measures help you evaluate, among other things, how many students receive a high school credential, how many are enrolling in college, and how many are performing well in college and the workplace.

School resources, staffing: The most valuable resource for any school system is its staff. These measures shed light on the quantity and quality of teachers in your schools.

School resources, funding: Of course, schools need dollars to operate. These measures provide information about the funds available in your schools.

School resources, programs and facilities: These measures look at instructional resources that provide sufficient opportunity for all students to learn and excel. They also include measures such as the availability of pre-kindergarten, enrollments in challenging courses, and facilities that will take students well into the 21st Century.

District and school climate: These measures offer information about the extent to which schools are safe, healthy, and nurturing places for your young people.

School demographics: The school context measures provide information about the student population and the surrounding community so that you can view the other measures in the context of the communities your schools serve.