How Accurate are Sites that Rank Public Schools? | Teachers College Columbia University

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How Accurate are Sites that Rank Public Schools?

In a column titled "Data Are Good; More Data May Not Be Better," published in Gothamschools.org, TC Professor Aaron Pallas takes a close look at schooldigger.com, a Web site that ranks public schools from best to worst based on a variety of data.
In a column titled “Data Are Good; More Data May Not Be Better,” published in Gothamschools.org on July 22, TC Professor Aaron Pallas takes a close look at schooldigger.com, a Web site that ranks public schools from best to worst based on a variety of data.  

Pallas notes that there has been a proliferation of such Web sites in recent years and concludes that schooldigger.com and other such sites “can never adequately address the question that I think is of greatest interest to parents: How would my child fare in this school, as compared to another school? If this is, indeed, the question, then school comparison websites are doomed to provide poor and potentially misleading answers.”  

To read Pallas’ column, go to http://gothamschools.org/2009/07/22/data-are-good-more-data-may-not-be-better/.  

Published Tuesday, Jul. 28, 2009
Aaron Pallas

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