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The Best Online Tools to Help You Evaluate Portland Schools

by | Aug 16, 2017 | Living Urban | 0 comments

Maybe you are in the market for new Portland home. In that case, you may want to move into a desirable school district. Perhaps, you’re already settled and you want to compare schools in and around your area.

You might not know quite how to go about finding the right schools for your kids. Here are a few online tools that can help you to make an informed decision.

Oregon School and District Report Cards

The Oregon Department of Education has a lot of resources. They can help families evaluate schools in and around their Portland neighborhoods. One of the best for apples-to-apples comparison is the Oregon School and District Report Cards. They are released annually. They date from 2000. Plus, they’re available in English and Spanish.

There are general report cards by district. These provide information pertaining to overall enrollment, demographics, district-wide programs, and more.

However, families are more likely interested in the actual school report cards. They rank schools in four categories. They include student performance, student behavior, school characteristics, and improvement adjustment.

Thus, you get a comprehensive profile of every school in a district, complete with an overall rating. However, be aware that ratings weren’t assigned for the most recent (2015-2016) school year. That is due to the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

It is also because Oregon’s ESEA flexibility waiver expired in 2016. Therefore, you may have to go back to prior reports to compare overall ratings. PDF downloads of report cards can be found at: http://www.ode.state.or.us/data/reportcard/reports.aspx.

Your Schools

The Oregonian is, of course, a great source for daily news. Additionally, it’s an excellent resource for parents who are too busy with kids, jobs, and their upkeep on Portland condos. Thus, they can’t devote a ton of time to thoroughly vetting neighborhood schools.

Check out the Your Schools tool (http://schools.oregonlive.com/). It is interactive and intuitive. It gives a way to quickly break down and compare information released annually by the Oregon Department of Education.

You’ll get a snapshot. It will include ratings, test scores, class sizes, and more. Thus, it will help you to quickly evaluate and compare schools you’re interested in.

Great Schools

There’s a lot more to finding suitable schools near Portland modern homes than simply comparing test scores and class sizes. Additionally, you want to know if students and parents are happy.

Great Schools (https://www.greatschools.org/) is a tool that provides a school rating. Yet, it also offers parents the opportunity to post one review per child enrolled. This can give you some insight.

You’ll learn what other families experience as members of the academic community. Additionally, perhaps, it will offer clues as to whether or not you and your kids will be happy at a particular school.

Image credit: Oregonian