User:Nmoore23/GreatSchools

Section I'm Adding to:
In 2017, GreatSchools introduced a "Summary Rating" to individual school profiles. The Summary Rating is a score on a 1-10 scale composed of themed ratings including how well schools serve students from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds (Equity), how much students are improving within a school year (Student Progress), performance on state tests (Test Score), and how well schools prepare students for college (College Readiness). In 2020, GreatSchools further evolved its Equity and Summary Ratings for K-12 schools to emphasize equity and elevate student academic progress as a key measure of school quality.

The increased emphasis on equity had the effect of lowering the summary scores for many highly-rated schools and raising ratings for poorly performing schools, as schools with a small population of disadvantaged students do not receive an Equity rating. GreatSchools ratings also do not take college level courses other than Advanced Placement into consideration when calculating "college readiness." As a result, high schools with the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program or Cambridge Program score lower on this criteria, which gives an artificially lower overall school score.

Despite these adjustments to the methodology, the ratings continue to generate generate criticism among parents and education stakeholders for their role in housing choices and reliance on indicators known to be associated with student race and income.

Sentences I'm Adding to the Wikipedia Article
For example, real-estate websites like Zillow and Redfin allow for prospective homeowners to filter their searches based on school quality. The controversy surrounding the link between school quality and housing choices centers on the fact that public schools are largely funded by property income taxes. High quality schools raise home value, and higher home value means more money being put into the schools. On the other hand, low-valued property leads to less funding for schools, which then further decreases property value.