School Digger vs. Great Schools - which is more accurate?

[Anonymous]

I've noticed the rank and score at times are off. For instance Cool Spring in Leesburg is 622nd (out of 1099 schools) on school digger but ranked a B and a 7 on great schools. How is this possible?

[Anonymous]

I find school digger more reliable because its based on exam results. I believe and I'm happy to be proven wrong, that Greatschools is entirely based on the ratings given by individual reviewers - so you could have a bunch of folks plumping it up for you with 5 stars, or some disgruntled parent who goes back 10 times with 2.

[Anonymous]

My DD attended a school that is only 15 years old but has over 50 reviews. Every time someone posted an honest assessment of the school the board of directors (there are over 40 which are the twenty original investors and spouses) all sign in with glowing reviews as parents of current students. Needless to say, the glowing reviews are not accurate.

[Anonymous]

Oh sorry this is in reference to great schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find school digger more reliable because its based on exam results. I believe and I'm happy to be proven wrong, that Greatschools is entirely based on the ratings given by individual reviewers - so you could have a bunch of folks plumping it up for you with 5 stars, or some disgruntled parent who goes back 10 times with 2.

completely false (above).

GS is based entirely on state exams... all of them. https://www.greatschools.org/about/ratings.page

[Anonymous]

Neither. They are not websites designed to carefully evaluate schools they are basic tools used as a guide for real estate. They were both designed and maintained for this purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Neither. They are not websites designed to carefully evaluate schools they are basic tools used as a guide for real estate. They were both designed and maintained for this purpose.

The School digger site does not care about reporting accurate information. They are only a part of a politically motivated system interested in maintaining the status quo. It's all about reporting info to move the real estate market in a specific direction. Do not trust them to be a reliable site!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Neither. They are not websites designed to carefully evaluate schools they are basic tools used as a guide for real estate. They were both designed and maintained for this purpose.

Do you know why homebuyers want this information? Because they want to select a house with a good school. For many parents, schools are one of the most important qualities of a potential house.

[Anonymous]

why did you revive this silly old thread???

[Anonymous]

It doesn't tell you whether the school is top performing. It is mostly a commentary on the demographics of an artificially bounded area. One needs to compare apples with apples for an actual rating. These sites don't attempt to do this, but rather serve as a means to fluff real estate values and promote segregation.

[Anonymous]

I looked up my home state and school digger is accurate with current high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't tell you whether the school is top performing. It is mostly a commentary on the demographics of an artificially bounded area. One needs to compare apples with apples for an actual rating. These sites don't attempt to do this, but rather serve as a means to fluff real estate values and promote segregation.

yup the higher the score the better the school

[Anonymous]

School Digger just gives the results of the state exams, at least in California, and ranks the schools by that criteria. In California, at least, areas that have high percentages of Asians are most likely to be
highly ranked. Great Schools adds other criteria such as diversity (If the reviewer thinks that the school is not diverse enough, for example too many Whites, the points may be deducted), also if certain minority groups are not doing as well then points are deducted. For example, a school ranked 9 from test results can be downgraded to an 8 if it does not have enough minorities. My daughter teaches in a school which has mostly poor Hispanics, but Great Schools cannot deduct any points, because it is already rated one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School Digger just gives the results of the state exams, at least in California, and ranks the schools by that criteria. In California, at least, areas that have high percentages of Asians are most likely to be
highly ranked. Great Schools adds other criteria such as diversity (If the reviewer thinks that the school is not diverse enough, for example too many Whites, the points may be deducted), also if certain minority groups are not doing as well then points are deducted. For example, a school ranked 9 from test results can be downgraded to an 8 if it does not have enough minorities. My daughter teaches in a school which has mostly poor Hispanics, but Great Schools cannot deduct any points, because it is already rated one.

It would be very sad for a school to get negative points...

[Anonymous]

I tried to leave a Great Schools review and make it specific enough that a potential family could make a decision for themselves based on the review. I wanted to substantiate the claims I made in the review too. However, I also tried to make it vague enough not to give away anyone’s personal information or to make any claims that could be viewed as overly personal. My review was removed. I tried rewriting it twice, and it kept getting removed. In short, I think it’s hard to write a poor review that you back up with evidence and get it left on the site.