Symphony Homes

Michigan School Districts

Despite a 50 percent increase in per pupil spending over the past two decades, nearly one third of public high school students fail to graduate, and two thirds of all students leave high school unprepared for a four-year college, according to the Manhattan Institute. Given the diminishing economic prospects for Americans without a quality education, the need for reform is clear.

Policymakers, educators, and individual parents are working hard to improve our schools, and they deserve respect and gratitude for taking on such a difficult challenge. However, education leaders are often forced to make critical decisions based on incomplete information, simply because there hasn't been a national, easily searchable clearinghouse for education information and analysis-until now.

SchoolMatters gives policymakers, educators, and parents the tools they need to make better-informed decisions that improve student performance. SchoolMatters will educate, empower, and engage education stakeholders.

• The information and analysis will educate Americans about how schools and school districts are performing and help them understand the complex relationships between achievement and investment.

• SchoolMatters will empower educators and policymakers, giving them easy access to the information they need to craft strong education policies.

• Finally, SchoolMatters will engage the public in a widespread movement to improve our nation's school systems. For the first time, parents and the general public will have instant access to a wide range of data on local schools and schools districts, enabling them to make informed decisions, ranging from policies they advocate to the schools their children attend.

Visit SchoolMatters, the Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Site, to view written reports on your district's strengths and challenges as well as view academic, financial, and socioeconomic indicators, benchmark comparisons and trends in your district.  As part of SchoolMatters, S&P analyzes academic, financial, and demographic indicators and trends; provides valuable comparative benchmarks; and presents its impartial findings on the performance of schools. SchoolMatters features a unique synthesis of financial and academic performance factors and promotes the sharing of "best practices" among schools.

Since 2001, Standard & Poor's has provided data and analysis to help parents, taxpayers, educators, and decision makers in Michigan make better-informed decisions about their schools.

Standard & Poor's, now with funding from The Broad Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in collaboration with the Council of Chief School Officers, is making its analytical services available in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico on SchoolMatters.

SchoolMatters Analytical Framework:

S&P's analytical framework includes hundreds of data points available on SchoolMatters, so users no longer have to visit multiple sources to find the education information they want and need.

S&P goes beyond the mere presentation of data by providing a written analysis of both academic and financial performance in a demographic context that includes comparative benchmarks and multiyear trends. Written reports will be released for states in 2005 and for school districts in 2006.

Users of SchoolMatters will have access to a broad set of information about schools and school districts, including:

• Student Performance: SchoolMatters analyzes student achievement measures, including national and state test results, as well as participation, attendance, graduation, and dropout-promotion rates.

• Spending, Revenue, Taxes, & Debt: SchoolMatters analyzes extensive financial data for each school district, along with state and county comparisons.

• School Environment: SchoolMatters analyzes performance in the context of the learning environment, which includes class size, teacher qualifications, and student demographics.

• Community Demographics: SchoolMatters analyzes community characteristics, such as adult education levels, household incomes, and labor force statistics. Independent research has shown that these factors affect student achievement.

SchoolMatters Commitment to Public Education:

By continuing to develop and promote the use of SchoolMatters, S&P is committed to doing what it can to provide education leaders, policymakers, and parents across the country with information and analysis to help improve student performance.

How SchoolMatters Can Help Parents:

• Learn about your child's school - Learn about the size, performance, and student body of your child's school by reviewing the "School Overview" on SchoolMatters.com.

• Compare schools before you move - Create a side-by-side comparison of key information about the test scores, student-body, and surrounding community of up to five schools you select using the "Compare" tool.

• Select a new school - Generate a list of schools, district, or charter schools that share characteristics most important to you and your child using the "Advanced Search" tool.

• Prepare for school board meetings - Understand your district's relative strengths and challenges by comparing student achievement, demographic, and financial information for your district with the same information for up to four other districts using the "Compare" tool.

• Ask the right questions - Find out how the students in your child's grade are doing on the state assessments.

• Learn where your child's school can improve - federal No Child Left Behind law requires all schools to make AYP in order to avoid certain penalties. To make AYP, each student group in the school must meet yearly performance targets set by the state in reading and math. If your child's school did not make AYP, identify the subject(s) and student group(s) where the school needs to focus attention in order to make AYP next year.

• Target your time and money - Determine which schools in your community have the greatest need for financial support, community volunteers, technology equipment, and other in-kind donations using the "Advanced Search" tool.

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