SchoolMatters

SchoolMatters is a web-based national education data service that provides in-depth information and analysis about public schools, districts and state education systems. It is a free public service sponsored by the National Education Data Partnership, a collaboration among the Council of Chief State School Officers, Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services, Achieve, Inc., and the CELT Corporation.

"The Schoolmatters site allows 'parents, educators and leaders to research information about public schools.' The site provides a simple to use interface to search for information and compare schools at the local, state, and national level. The results include tables and colorful graphs of school performance, staffing, and safety information as well as community demographics. Also included is a benchmarking tool, called Better Performers, which 'allows you to find schools or districts in the state with higher performance than your school or district in the subject, grade level, and among the group of students you specify.' A particular strength is the inclusion of numerous visually appealing graphs. This is an excellent place to start for anyone interested in comparing schools and communities"--Reviewed March 11 2006, "Best Free Reference Web Sites 2006," RUSA Quarterly, Fall 2006. Comp. by the MARS Best Free Websites Committee, RUSA, ALA.