An independent guide to New York education
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NYFERA’s reference hub for understanding New York school report cards, performance data, and student outcomes.
New York State publishes official school information through several NYSED systems, each built for a different purpose. The NYSED Data Site lists schools and their reported data…
The New York State Report Card is an annual public report from NYSED, required under ESSA, that covers state, district, and school performance. It includes accountability statuses,…
School-year data and publication dates are different things. The data year is the period the numbers describe; the publication date is when the data product is released.…
Test scores measure a narrow slice of student performance in tested subjects. They do not capture school climate, safety, access to advanced coursework, arts, counseling, or the…
Proficiency rates show how many students meet a performance standard at one point in time. Student growth measures show how much performance changes over time. They answer…
Correlation means two things move together; causation means one thing produces a change in another. Education research often finds correlations in test scores, funding, attendance, or school…
Enrollment trends describe how many students were counted at a school, in a district, or statewide during a defined reporting period — not how good a school…
School data can be suppressed or missing for several reasons: privacy rules hide small groups, some categories do not apply, districts may not report a value, and…
Comparing school results can be misleading because test scores and league tables often reflect student intake and demographics more than school quality. They are also noisy, and…
In New York State, four-year and five-year graduation rates measure the percentage of a ninth-grade cohort that earns a local or Regents diploma within four or five…
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