About Schools.now
Schools.now makes public K-12 education data accessible and understandable. We aggregate data from federal and state sources so families, educators, and researchers can compare districts across meaningful metrics.
Every family deserves easy access to reliable information about their local schools. Schools.now was built to bridge the gap between raw government datasets and the actionable insights that parents, educators, policymakers, and researchers need.
We believe in transparency, context, and fairness. That means every number comes with a comparison to help you understand whether a metric is above or below average, and every data point links back to its original source.
Data Sources
Schools.now aggregates data from NCES Common Core of Data, the U.S. Census Bureau (SAIPE), the NCES School District Finance Survey (F-33), and state education agencies.
Methodology
Data Collection
We pull data from official federal datasets (NCES CCD, Census SAIPE, F-33) and supplement with state-level data where available. All data goes through automated validation to check for outliers, missing values, and year-over-year consistency.
Benchmark Calculation
State benchmarks use the enrollment-weighted average of all districts in the state. National benchmarks use the enrollment-weighted average of all districts nationwide. Metro benchmarks use the enrollment-weighted average of all districts in the same CBSA.
Normalization
Per-pupil metrics are normalized using fall enrollment counts. Demographic percentages are calculated from the total reported enrollment. Financial figures are adjusted to current-year dollars when comparing across multiple years.