Our Mission
To provide equitable public K-12 school rankings for US parents. The current ranking systems out there favor privileged communities, and overlook many performing schools that have socio-economic diversity. Our recently published rankings are normalized for parent income, which elevates diverse schools to the forefront. Eventually we will integrate our rankings with property listings, helping buyers find great schools with affordable homes for sale. In this way, we hope to help all families in their search for a quality education.
Read more about how the current ranking systems out there are misleading parents.
Please sign up to learn how you can help in the fight to bring equitable school rankings to all parents in the US.
Our History
SchoolSparrow.com was started in Chicago in 2012 to help Chicago parents find affordable homes in great school boundaries. But our school rankings were based on standardized test score data, just like most ranking sites that exist today. Over the years, SchoolSparrow started to recognize that some awesome schools had low rankings on the prevailing school ranking websites, including our own. In response, SchoolSparrow introduced a new school ranking system for Chicagoland in late 2019 that normalizes for parent income.
Then in mid 2020, SchoolSparrow released the same ranking system to 24 major metropolitan areas in the United States. We normalize for parent income because research has shown that parent income is the biggest driver of NAEP standardized test results. Our ranking system elevates to the forefront diverse schools that are outperforming expectations.
Visit our website to learn more about our Founder and Our Team.
Our School + Home Search
SchoolSparrow will change the way parents approach a home purchase by synchronizing the home and school search. Most parents select schools for their children based on school rankings and/or word of mouth recommendations from friends and family. As a result, they overlook many quality schools with less expensive homes, shorter commutes, and more diversity. Our search functionality allows users to find the top 30 schools that have affordable homes for sale right now. This search uncovers Out-Performer schools that are outperforming their peers, with homes in the attendance boundaries that match their requirements. No realtor could do that for their clients.
But more importantly, we think all the major search portals should include more balanced school rankings. Parents are making one of the biggest purchase decisions of the lives with bad data about school quality.
Final Thoughts
One number cannot possibly capture the essence of any K-12 public school. However, a defacto ranking system has become ubiquitous in America. This ranking system ties into all the real estate portals, and everyday, parents are making the biggest investment of their lives based on a biased ranking system that favors schools in wealthy areas and discounts schools with socio-economic diversity.
We want to urge all the real estate search portals to use more equitable school rankings so that parents can make a home purchase decision based on a more balanced view of school quality. Please help us in this fight by signing up above. When we launch a social media campaign aimed at achieving our mission, we will need your shares/reweets.
Thank you for visting, and keep healthy out there in these challenging times.
The SchoolSparrow Team
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