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High Quality Education Requires Data Transparency
During my engagement process as the Rochester Education Fellow, it became clear to me that parents don’t have easy access to information that would allow them to make informed decisions about where to send their child to school. READY believes that by providing families with an accessible, easy-to-understand knowledge base about school options, Rochester’s school selection and enrollment processes can be more equitable.
To address this gap, over the past several months I have convened Parent Leaders to design and pilot the READY School Finder. Not only have Rochester parents identified the issue, but they are developing the solution. The READY School Finder will be a mobile-first website that will serve as a resource hub through an interactive application that facilitates the school search process for Rochester’s families. The READY School Finder will provide school profile and performance data, as well as link to existing websites that currently facilitate applying to Rochester’s K-12 schools. The target audience for the tool is all Rochester parents with school-age children, from entering Kindergarten all the way through 12th grade, who want information about the school options available to them.
To create the READY School Finder, we have used publicly available data, from the district and state department of education. But parents want to know more about their school options to make an informed decision - they have a broader definition of student success beyond academic achievement.
They want to see data about schools that includes things like:
- Student access to academic and nonacademic programs.
- Highly effective teachers and administrators.
- Equitable access to technology.
- School safety, culture, and climate metrics, including social-emotional learning, cultural and linguistic competence, school discipline policies and equitable application, emotional and physical safety for both students and staff, student and family sense of belonging.
- School-level student supports, including tutoring, counseling, college and career readiness, and disability services.
- Financial equity in how funds are spent to support students and their learning needs.
As we launch the READY School Finder, we are centralizing the data that exists and have the opportunity to advocate for policy to increase the collection, transparency and access to high-quality data about our schools and school systems. We anticipate the READY School Finder will launch officially in August…stay tuned!
Yours in service.
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