Parents Gain Instant Access to www.SchoolResults.org for Powerful Student Achievement Data, Analysis

5/25/2004

From: Melissa Bonney Ratcliff of The Broad Foundation, 310-954-5050, mbr@broadfoundation.org or David Wargin of Standard & Poor's, 212-438-1579, david_wargin@sandp.com

LOS ANGELES, May 25 -- Parents can now easily review online detailed performance data for every school in their state to determine how their child's school compares to other schools and whether they need to take action to improve their child's education. The School Information Partnership (SIP) announced today that student achievement data from all public schools in Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin are now available instantly online at http://www.SchoolResults.org

"Parents have a right to know how their students are performing in school, and whether they are learning in a particular school," said Dan Katzir, managing director of The Broad Foundation. "The School Information Partnership provides a powerful tool for parents so that they can acquire the information they need to make informed decisions about their children's futures."

SIP is an unprecedented public-private initiative between The Broad Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education. SIP's goal is to dramatically improve the general public's access to easy-to-understand information about public schools, districts and state academic achievement results. SIP is focused on:

-- Giving parents powerful and comparable information about the performance and demographic makeup of their children's schools, as well as other schools and districts across their state;

-- Providing educators useful tools to diagnose areas that need improvement and identify other schools from which to learn effective practices;

-- Empowering state and local policymakers with comparative tools and benchmarks to monitor the relative progress of their state's schools and districts in order to make better informed policy decisions; and

-- Reporting critical student achievement data to members of the media to help inform their readers about their local schools and the progress they are making under the historic No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

The growth of tan exciting development in the quest to improve public education because parents finally have ready the data that will help them make informed decisions to improve student achievement." Quote could be stronger. And move it higher.

The newly added states join Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Virginia on http://www.SchoolResults.org. By the end of 2004, data from all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico will be available on the web site.

About the School Information Partnership

On Sept. 9, 2003, President Bush announced the creation of the School Information Partnership. This public-private collaboration, funded by The Broad Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, is designed to give all education stakeholders online resources that will help them make informed decisions about student achievement. SIP's first effort -- http://www.SchoolResults.org --- is powered by a unique suite of analytical tools from Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services and the National Center for Education Accountability's Just for the Kids. The web site displays timely, relevant and comparable school, district and state data required to be publicly reported by Congress's No Child Left Behind Act.

About the U.S. Department of Education

The U.S. Department of Education was created to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation. The Department is a partner with the states as they implement the No Child Left Behind Act, the historic education reform initiative championed by President George W. Bush and supported by broad bipartisan majorities in Congress. The law is based on four main principles: accountability for results; local control and flexibility; more options for parents; and an emphasis on teaching methods that have been proven to work. The law aims to provide a quality education to all children, regardless of race, ethnicity or socio-economic status and to ensure that all children read and do math at grade level. For more information, visit http://www.ed.gov

About The Broad Foundation

The Broad Foundation was founded in 1999 by Eli and Edythe Broad, with an initial investment of $100 million that has since been increased to more than $400 million. The Foundation's mission is to dramatically improve K-12 urban public education through better governance, management and labor relations. In addition to investing in a national portfolio of grants, The Broad Foundation's four flagship initiatives include: The $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education, The Broad Center for Superintendents, the Broad Institute for School Boards and The Broad Residency in Urban Education. For more information, visit http://www.broadfoundation.org

About Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services

Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services provides an independent analytical service that includes data analysis and powerful decision-making tools for parents, taxpayers, educators and policymakers committed to improving student achievement and the management of schools. Standard & Poor's has provided highly valued, independent analysis and widely respected benchmarks for more than 140 years. For more information, visit http://www.sp-ses.com

About The National Center for Educational Accountability

Launched in 2002, the National Center for Educational Accountability (NCEA) is a collaborative effort of the Education Commission of the States, the University of Texas at Austin and Just for the Kids to improve learning through the effective use of school and student data and the identification of best practices. The NCEA's mission is to promote higher student achievement by improving state data collection for better decision making, creating the Just for the Kids School Reports to focus communities on the potential of every school, conducting research on school improvement issues and identifying practices that distinguish consistently high-performing schools from other schools.