Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's deputy web editor.
E-mail: ccournoyer@governing.comTwitter: @governing
Idea Center
New Colo. Education Website Gives Schools Letter Grades
A new system backed by 18 community groups gives parents and educators an easy-to-understand system to compare schools.
Thanks to the No Child Left Behind law, parents who live near certain underperforming neighborhood schools have the choice to send their kids to a better school. Aside from word of mouth though, knowing which schools are high-performing ones can be difficult. That's why a coalition of 18 community organizations created a website, ColoradoSchoolGrades.com, to give every Colorado public school a letter grade ranging from A through F. The state Department of Education already has a similar website with the same information, but Colorado School Grades says that its system of labeling schools makes it easy for parents and educators to see what schools are doing well. Schools are graded on a curve: The top 10 percent get A's, the next 20 percent get B's, and the next 40 percent get C's. The website went live last week -- the same time open enrollment kicked off for next school year, according to the Denver Post.
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