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Education data
Find the Best Public Schools

Wow your clients with detailed school information for areas they want to live in.

REVIEWED BY KELLY QUIGLEY

SchoolMatters

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. Impress your clients by taking advantage of this useful Web site to research the quality of public schools in communities they’re considering. It’s a particularly helpful tool for clients 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.


Recommend a Great Web Site
REALTOR® Magazine Online's Web review editor surfs the Internet to find sites useful to your business and off-hours lives. Have a favorite real estate Web site that you would like to see reviewed? Send your suggestions to mediatech@realtors.org.

Please Note: this column does not review individual practitioner or brokerage sites. The columns focus on free sites, as well as sites that charge for goods and services but still offer a free component of practical, sustained value to real estate practitioners.
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REALTOR® Magazine Online's "Web Review" summarizes the content of Web sites that may be of interest to members. NAR and REALTOR® Magazine Online are not responsible for, and nothing in the Web site profile shall constitute NAR's or REALTOR® Magazine Online's endorsement of, the web site, its content, products and services, or its provider. NAR and REALTOR® Magazine Online believe the information contained in this profile was correct and accurate as of the time it was prepared, but do not warrant or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of that information and are not responsible for changes in the Web site. Members should conduct their own independent review of the Web site prior to any use of Web site, its content, products, or services to determine their suitability for the member's intended purpose.

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