4.2.3 State and National Resources for Comparing Schools

In addition to providing comparative data on public schools, The Colorado Department of Education site contains information on other schools and school districts in Colorado and on private schools and home schooling. It is also an important source for information on test results in schools across the state:

• CSAP Results -- results from Colorado educational testing program
• ACT Results -- results from national college admissions testing
• Accountability Reports -- reports of performance of individual schools

The National Center for Education Statistics is the best single source information on schools, school performance, and the demographic composition of communities and schools. If you go to their list of Data Search Tools, you'll find a wealth of useful data. You might want to look at:

• School District Demographics In a minute or two, for example, you can pull up data and compare the average household income and education levels of residents in the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain school districts.
• Locate School Districts This link will allow you to find out what school district your target community is in and get basic information on the district and contact information as well as a list of all the schools within the district.
• Locate Public & Private Schools, Colleges and Libraries This link will tell you what public and private schools are located in a given community -- or close by. The site provides basic contact information for each school, student teacher ratios, and enrollment information by grade and by race and ethnicity. You can also locate the closest colleges and get some good information on local libraries.

A non-government site that can also help you compare Boulder County Schools to schools elsewhere in the country is Sperling's Best Places, making it easy to compare schools.