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Methodology

How the Government Data Grade Works

A starter grade from public data — clearly labeled, never confused with parent grades.

Why two grades?

Other sites mostly grade schools from government data. GradeYourSchool exists so parents and students grade what they actually experience. Until enough parent ratings land, every public and charter school can still show a Government data grade built from federal EdFacts files. It sits next to the parent grade and is labeled: “Based on state test scores and graduation rates. Not from parents.”

Private schools do not report these federal metrics the same way, so they do not get a government data grade.

Data we use

  • Math and reading/ELA proficiency — school-level EdFacts assessments (all students, all grades rolled up), via the Urban Institute Education Data Portal.
  • Adjusted cohort graduation rate — for high schools, same portal, EdFacts grad-rates endpoint.
  • Join key — NCES school ID, matched to our directory.

Data years currently on the site: assessments school-year field 2020 for most states (latest year the Urban Institute API returns nationwide); graduation rates 2019. Washington state uses 2018 for both assessments and graduation rates because later years are empty in the portal. When newer years appear, we will refresh and update this page.

Alaska and Rhode Island schools are not yet in our directory export, so they do not show a government data grade yet. U.S. territories and D.C. have limited or no EdFacts coverage in the years we pulled.

How the letter is calculated

  1. We take each school’s proficiency midpoints (Urban’s handling of ranges like “40–44” or “GE80”). Suppressed or invalid values are skipped.
  2. We rank schools only against other schools in the same state and level (elementary, middle, high). Proficiency definitions differ by state, so cross-state comparisons would be misleading.
  3. Elementary/middle composite = average of available math and reading percentiles. High schools also fold in the graduation-rate percentile when available.
  4. We map the composite percentile to a letter: A top 20%, B next 20%, C, D, F bottom 20%. Within each band, the top third gets a “+” and the bottom third a “−” (except no F−).
  5. Schools without enough public data show no government grade.

What this grade is not

It is not a parent rating. It is not a judgment of teachers’ character. Test scores and graduation rates miss classroom culture, safety, communication, and inspiration — which is why the parent grade is the one that leads once families start rating.

Sources