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Any thoughts on providing special scores for: - Special needs students. This could be a really active community for you. - Arts/Music/Theater programs and par

Any thoughts on providing special scores for: - Special needs students. This could be a really active community for you. - Arts/Music/Theater programs and participation rates. - Innovative educational programs. One of the HS I attended had an on-campus fish hatchery that was almost entirely student run, it also had a professional choral program--as in, students in the "varsity chorus" got paid professional rates for a summer show series. Another that I attended had a pretty unique combined history/literature and later math/science program. I could imagine parents being interested in finding those kinds of things. - University affiliation. Many colleges/universities are affiliated with K-12 schools where they are involved in applying the latest in educational practices. - Early college programs. My wife managed to get her first 3 semesters of her Mech-E degree paid for through an innovative relationship between her HS and the local Community College. The local CC also has a great direct-to-university relationship (all credits transfer) with two local Universities. Allowed her to graduate undergrad a year early and with half the student loans she otherwise would have. - Proximity to cultural institutions. Friends Select in Philadelphia is located on the Ben Franklin Parkway... walking distance to the Franklin Institute, Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila Art Museum, Barnes Foundation, Rodin Museum... It's almost embarrassing. Standardized test scores are important, but they aren't necessarily the only thing parents are looking for.

tixocloud 11y ago
Yeah, those scores/features are huge. There are lots of great detail around schools that many people just don't know about. If you can showcase that, your website could be a really powerful resource!
wsvincent 11y ago
I completely agree that standardized test scores aren't the only thing parents are looking for. The main issue is: What other data set is there that exists state/nationally given we're working with 100,000+ schools? -Special needs: Hadn't considered this, but the data is there to break out numbers and performance of special needs students. Are there other factors we should consider? - Arts/Music/Sports etc: Yes, would LOVE to include data on this. I'm not aware of a dataset that contains it. Manually it'd be tough to do for 100,000+ schools. - Innovative/college programs: Yup, great idea. As we expand the site we want to find ways to highlight features like this. A simple example we can do now is Language Immersion programs. But we want to extend it in the future. - Another "problem" with the education data in general is that there's no way to compare schools across states. Common Core might have addressed this but currently you can only say, This is a top high school in Massachusetts. What if I live across the border in New Hampshire? How do 2 schools compare?
- numbsafari 11y ago
  > What other data set is there that exists state/nationally given we're working with 100,000+ schools? You could try to crowdsource this information, or contact schools in an effort to get them to self report.
  - wsvincent 11y ago
    True, that has worked well for NPR's Playground app, for example. http://www.playgroundsforeveryone.com/ http://www.playgroundsforeveryone.com/ The two main issues when we've thought of this are: 1) how do you ensure the data is accurate/up-to-date? 2) the graveyard issue where you don't want to show what's NOT on your site. As an example (and I know I'm probably picking on them unfairly) check out GreatSchool's crowd-sourced photos here: http://www.greatschools.org/search/search.page?q=boston%20ma http://www.greatschools.org/search/search.page?q=boston%20ma)
    - numbsafari 11y ago
      Run contests for schools/clubs to incentivize people. Try scraping their websites to come up with guesses. Maybe go state by state initially, merge the data as it grows.
      - wsvincent 11y ago
        I think you're right that contests are the way to get reviews, at least, from parents/students. Niche is taking this approach actually, largely through FB I believe. It provides some interesting data. There is the same issue of timing--how relevant is a review from years and years ago--but it's interesting data. Scraping sites is probably more of the way to go or just using Wikipedia as Google does, for example, in their school info boxes. It's definitely something that, longer term, would be good to seriously look into.
    - numbsafari 11y ago
      You could possibly also try to partner with organizations that are focused on different special interest areas to get them to help coordinate getting the data.

tixocloud 11y ago

Yeah, those scores/features are huge. There are lots of great detail around schools that many people just don't know about. If you can showcase that, your website could be a really powerful resource!

wsvincent 11y ago

I completely agree that standardized test scores aren't the only thing parents are looking for. The main issue is: What other data set is there that exists state/nationally given we're working with 100,000+ schools? -Special needs: Hadn't considered this, but the data is there to break out numbers and performance of special needs students. Are there other factors we should consider? - Arts/Music/Sports etc: Yes, would LOVE to include data on this. I'm not aware of a dataset that contains it. Manually it'd be tough to do for 100,000+ schools. - Innovative/college programs: Yup, great idea. As we expand the site we want to find ways to highlight features like this. A simple example we can do now is Language Immersion programs. But we want to extend it in the future. - Another "problem" with the education data in general is that there's no way to compare schools across states. Common Core might have addressed this but currently you can only say, This is a top high school in Massachusetts. What if I live across the border in New Hampshire? How do 2 schools compare?

numbsafari 11y ago
> What other data set is there that exists state/nationally given we're working with 100,000+ schools? You could try to crowdsource this information, or contact schools in an effort to get them to self report.
- wsvincent 11y ago
  True, that has worked well for NPR's Playground app, for example. http://www.playgroundsforeveryone.com/ http://www.playgroundsforeveryone.com/ The two main issues when we've thought of this are: 1) how do you ensure the data is accurate/up-to-date? 2) the graveyard issue where you don't want to show what's NOT on your site. As an example (and I know I'm probably picking on them unfairly) check out GreatSchool's crowd-sourced photos here: http://www.greatschools.org/search/search.page?q=boston%20ma http://www.greatschools.org/search/search.page?q=boston%20ma)
  - numbsafari 11y ago
    Run contests for schools/clubs to incentivize people. Try scraping their websites to come up with guesses. Maybe go state by state initially, merge the data as it grows.
    - wsvincent 11y ago
      I think you're right that contests are the way to get reviews, at least, from parents/students. Niche is taking this approach actually, largely through FB I believe. It provides some interesting data. There is the same issue of timing--how relevant is a review from years and years ago--but it's interesting data. Scraping sites is probably more of the way to go or just using Wikipedia as Google does, for example, in their school info boxes. It's definitely something that, longer term, would be good to seriously look into.
  - numbsafari 11y ago
    You could possibly also try to partner with organizations that are focused on different special interest areas to get them to help coordinate getting the data.