NYFERA’s information should be traceable to identifiable evidence. This policy establishes how sources are selected, attributed, and cited across articles, school and district profiles, data resources, charts, downloads, and tools.
Its purpose is to help readers locate the underlying material, understand what it supports, and distinguish published evidence from NYFERA’s analysis.
Sources must be appropriate to the claim. Priority is given to original documents and records where they are available. Relevant sources include official education publications, school and district records, legislation, regulations, original research, and documented datasets.
Source selection must also consider authority, currency, methods, relevance, and potential interests. No source should be treated as reliable for every purpose simply because it is official, widely cited, or professionally presented.
| Information being supported | Preferred starting point |
|---|---|
| School identity and status | Official institutional records and directories |
| Programs and admissions | Current school, district, or authorizer publications |
| Education statistics | Original dataset and accompanying documentation |
| Policy requirements | Applicable official text, with relevant guidance |
| Research findings | Original study and suitable evidence reviews |
| Historical claims | Dated records, contemporary publications, and verified archives |
A school’s description of its programs may establish what it advertises or offers. Claims about effectiveness require additional evidence appropriate to that question.
Citations must support the specific statements attached to them. Readers should not have to guess which source supports a consequential fact, quotation, statistic, or disputed claim.
Use direct links, notes, or clearly associated source statements close to the relevant material. A reference list may provide fuller details, but it does not replace clear attribution within an article.
Where practical, links should lead to the exact report, document, dataset, or institutional record rather than a general homepage. PDFs and lengthy reports should include page numbers, table identifiers, or section references when these help readers find the evidence.
Only material actually consulted should be presented as directly reviewed. If information comes through another publication, that source must be acknowledged. An article must not imply that NYFERA examined an original study or document when it relied on a secondary account.
Repeated coverage does not necessarily provide independent confirmation. Researchers should identify whether multiple publications ultimately depend on the same report, press release, interview, or unsupported assertion.
Search snippets, AI responses, and automatically generated summaries may help locate sources. They are not substitutes for examining the underlying material.
References should contain enough detail to identify the work. Depending on the source, this includes the author or issuing organization, title, publication date, relevant version, publisher, and stable link or DOI.
For changing webpages, record the date consulted where useful. If a publication date cannot be established, do not invent one. Distinguish the original publication date from a later update or archive capture.
Publisher-recommended citations should be followed where appropriate. NCES publications, for example, provide suggested citations identifying authors, publication details, and report numbers.
Further reading should be labeled separately from sources used to substantiate the article.
Data citations must identify the dataset and reporting period. A figure should be traceable to its publishing organization, dataset or report title, release version where available, and relevant table, indicator, or file.
School-year, fiscal-year, cohort, and publication dates must remain distinguishable. School and district identifiers should be included where needed to avoid ambiguity.
The applicable definitions and business rules must also be consulted. NYSED identifies glossaries, business rules, and database ReadMe documents as sources for interpreting its report-card information.
When NYFERA calculates or transforms a result, attribution must distinguish the original data from our work. A source note should identify the underlying release and explain material filters, exclusions, calculations, or adjustments. Charts and downloads require their own accessible source information.
Quotations must preserve meaning and context. Quoted language must accurately reflect the material reviewed. Omissions, explanatory insertions, and translations must not change the speaker’s or author’s meaning.
Statements taken from reports, emails, speeches, or press releases must be identified accordingly. They must not be presented as interviews conducted by NYFERA.
Paraphrasing requires original wording and appropriate attribution. Changing a few words does not make another publisher’s work original. Attribution also does not, by itself, establish permission to reproduce protected text or images.
Historical and archived sources require clear dating. An archived page can document what appeared at a particular time; it does not establish that the information remains current. Historical contact details, policies, affiliations, and school arrangements must not be presented as present-day facts without verification.
When a link becomes unavailable, an authentic replacement or archived copy may be used with an appropriate explanation. An unrelated page must not be substituted merely to keep a citation clickable.
AI-suggested references must be independently located and checked. Fabricated sources, unsupported page numbers, and citations that do not support the associated claim are prohibited.
Source inclusion does not imply endorsement, partnership, or adoption of every position expressed by its author. Relevant conflicts and limitations should be disclosed.
Readers can report missing, broken, inaccurate, or misleading citations through our Contact Us page. Material citation problems that affect a claim or conclusion must be addressed under NYFERA’s Corrections Policy.