VT Census Case Studies : Great School Ratings

Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:

Overview of schools with community rankings, reviews, number of clubs, number of sports, number of world languages offered, enrollment, school type, admission statistics, and some schools with have a GreatSchools rating.

Linkhttp://www.greatschools.org 

Date Inventory Completed:  6/4/15 

Screening

  • Is the data collected opinion-based?
  • Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
  • Is there data available for 2013?
  • For Education: Is the data collected at least the school level?
  • Can we access the data by August 15th?
  • Can the data be linked to other education/workforce datasets (e.g., K-12, higher education, workforce)? Yes, but not at the student level, only by school name

Purpose

  • What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?

“Compare K-12 school ratings nationwide to find the best schools…”

  • Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?

So parents can see how their children are doing, support their learning, and find great education resources.

  • Who else uses the data?

Parents, educators, policy-makers, education stakeholders. Current and former students also use and submit data to this site.

  • Who do they sell the data to?

N/A


Method

  • What is the data collection method? 

Online entry

  • What is the type of data collected? 

Observational

  • If designed, who created the questions?

N/A

  • What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)? 

Teachers, students (current and former), and parents.


Description

  • What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?

K-12 Education

  • What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?

Earliest data not specified. Since it is a live feed of reviews latest date would be 2015.

  • Is data collected and available periodically?

Yes

  • How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided? 

Reviews available immediately, no information given on when GS ranking are calculated.

 

Selectivity (conversely, the representativeness)

  • What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents (consider inclusion/exclusion criteria)?

Individuals who choose to post about elementary, middle, high school, public district schools, private schools, and public charter schools.


Accessibility

  • How is the data accessed?

Must be screen scraped from what level you want it at (i.e. county or school).

  • Is it open data?

Yes

  • Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?

No

  • Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

N/A

Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? UNDECIDED

Explanation: Data is not available at the student level and is difficult to access even at the school level.