School Atlas

What is School Atlas?

School Atlas is a national normalization layer for public K–12 accountability data.

State education systems publish school performance information using different methodologies, definitions, and reporting structures. School Atlas translates those public data sources into a consistent framework for cross-state comparison.

School Atlas does not generate measurements. It standardizes publicly reported state education data into a common structure for researchers, analysts, and policymakers.

How scores work

Each school receives a normalized Quality Score (0–100) derived from publicly reported state accountability metrics. Scores are not rankings — no school is compared against other schools.

Score range	Interpretation
90–100	Excellent
70–89	Good
50–69	Fair
Below 50	Needs Improvement

Metrics and weights differ by school level to reflect the accountability measures most meaningful at each grade span.

Elementary Schools

Metric	Weight	Direction
Reading Proficiency	35%	Higher is better
Math Proficiency	35%	Higher is better
Chronic Absenteeism	20%	Lower is better
Student–Teacher Ratio	10%	Lower is better

Middle Schools

Metric	Weight	Direction
Reading Proficiency	35%	Higher is better
Math Proficiency	35%	Higher is better
Chronic Absenteeism	20%	Lower is better
Academic Growth	10%	Higher is better

High Schools

Metric	Weight	Direction
Graduation Rate	40%	Higher is better
College Readiness	20%	Higher is better
Reading Proficiency	15%	Higher is better
Math Proficiency	15%	Higher is better
Chronic Absenteeism	10%	Lower is better

When a metric is unavailable, its weight is redistributed proportionally across the remaining metrics. No data is imputed or estimated. A minimum of 2 metrics must be present for a score to be calculated. Schools below this threshold receive no score and are shown in grey on the map.

Scores are calculated using a versioned, auditable policy framework (policy v1.4.1). They are standardized representations of publicly available data, not rankings or judgments.

Data completeness

Because states publish different levels of information, School Atlas displays a data completeness tier for every school. This tier reflects data availability only — it is independent of the Quality Score.

Coverage

Currently includes Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington for the 2025 academic year. Additional states are added as normalization pipelines are completed and certified.

Sources

School Atlas uses publicly available data from state education agency accountability systems, the NCES Common Core of Data, and NCES attendance zone boundary datasets.

Data reflects the most recently available academic year published by each state.