VIDEO: If you haven't already, get a look at SchoolView

If you are a parent who shuns data, test scores and rankings but wants to know more about how your child’s school – or a school you are considering for your kid – is doing academically, Colorado offers you a beautiful solution known as SchoolView. Basically, this nifty web interface captures a mind-numbing amount of Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) data and allows you to sort it how you like and see where the school ranks against other schools.

For instance, if you really just want to know how lower income students are doing in a certain school, you can break that out and compare students’ progress on CSAP tests over time in reading, writing and math to other similar students. The key here is progress over time. One would expect certain students to do better than others based on a variety of factors. That’s OK. Students start where they are. The key is how they improve – or not – over time. The site takes some time to figure out. If you’ve got some time, check out SchoolView. If you want a little more info first – before you lose yourself in a sea of colorful student achievement bubbles, listen to the state’s associate education commissioner talk about SchoolView here.

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