Credit rating company branches into education

Credit rating company Standard and Poor's has developed a web tool that will allow parents to compare the performance of US public schools.

The website, under construction, will allow users to compare statistics for up to five schools or districts at a time. For each public district there will be a 'return on resources' analysis comparing student performance with district spending.

As well as allowing customised searches, the site will automatically compare a school's statistics to state and national averages, and to a peer group of schools with similar demographics.

A director of Standard and Poor's school evaluation services division, Bob Durante, said calls for accountability in education were increasing.

He said the tool - based on measurements such as test scores, spending, and demographics of students and teachers - would help provide transparency and objectivity about school performance.

"There is currently a great deal of data available, but not much information," he said.

The ambitious US$40 million project covering 92,000 public schools is funded by private foundations and the federal government and is scheduled for completion by the end of the year. Standard and Poor's contract to run the service lasts for two years.

Vanessa DeCarbo - communications and research director for Hispanic CREO, a Washington DC-based organisation that helps low-income Hispanic families with educational options for their children - said user-friendly applications and solutions were needed for parents, educators and community-serving organisations to access school information.

The existence of so many comparison systems that did not connect with each other was a problem, she said. A centralised parental resource was needed.

A number of organisations provided good products, such as: www.greatschools.net, www.schoolresults.org and www.just4kids.org.

"We are all for technology but we are finding that there are also huge concerns about the digital divide in our communities," Ms DeCarbo said.

"Issues around the maintenance of the websites and the information on them also need to be addressed."

Ms DeCarbo said Hispanic CREO and a number of non-profit education organisations were planning a similar and cost-effective technology solution to reach parents, educators, policy makers and groups.

A New Zealand website launched in May by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority contains profiles of each of the country's secondary schools but does not rank schools in 'league table' form, though it does compare each school against national averages and similar schools.

Education Forum policy advisor Norman LaRocque has argued that information in league table-style is badly needed to help New Zealand parents make informed decisions about which schools were best for their children and to make schools publicly accountable for their academic results.

The Standard and Poor's web tool (under construction) is at http://ses.standardandpoors.com/

A Subtext story on a Canadian school comparison web tool is at this web page.

A Subtext story on the NZ school profiles website is at this web page.

The Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (CREO) website is at http://www.hcreo.org/