How do you determine whether the schools in a neighborhood are good or not? Do you use test scores? Graduation rates? Student and teacher ratings?
Some real estate companies pull scores from sites like GoodSchools to give potential homeowners a sense of whether the neighborhood they're considering is a good fit. but the scores aren't meant to give families a singular data point to make a decision about which neighborhood to move into, schools officials and GreatSchools executives say.
“We are not trying to tell people, ‘Hey, take this information and make your final decisions based on it,’” GreatSchools CEO Jon Deane said.
The numerical scores don't take into account the school's socioeconomic makeup, for one. That's partly why many news organizations, including the Minnesota Star Tribune, do not report on these school rankings.
Anna Garnaas-Halvorson, a former teacher who now works in real estate, said it's sometimes demoralizing when parents don't look past the number. That sometimes makes it so struggling schools suffer because families aren't willing to invest in the surrounding neighborhood.
“It’s kind of devastating that no one’s looking at the whole picture,” Garnaas-Halvorson said. “It’s a mess. Some people dig further, but others see a number and figure that’s enough information for them.”
Education reporter Mara Klecker has the full story here.
