US School Index reviews credible reports concerning factual errors, calculation mistakes, outdated source releases, broken citations and misleading descriptions.
What can be reported
A correction request may concern:
- An incorrect number, percentage, rank, total, average or ratio.
- A discrepancy between a table and the accompanying text.
- An incorrect state, institution, district or geographic label.
- A source year or reporting period that is described incorrectly.
- A newer official release that replaces the cited dataset.
- A source link that no longer works or points to the wrong document.
- A methodology statement that does not match the calculation.
- A material accessibility problem that prevents data from being understood.
- A statement that creates a misleading comparison between non-comparable values.
Information to include
Correction reports should be sent to support@usschoolindex.org and should include as much of the following information as possible:
- The URL of the affected page.
- The page title.
- The exact sentence, table row, chart value or section in question.
- The value currently displayed.
- The proposed corrected value or wording.
- A link or citation to the relevant primary source.
- The dataset name, table number and reporting period.
- A brief explanation of why the existing information appears incorrect.
Messages containing only a general disagreement, unsupported replacement value or promotional request may not provide enough information for a correction.
Review process
A correction report may be evaluated through the following steps:
- The affected page and statement are identified.
- The cited dataset or original source is reviewed.
- The displayed value is compared with the source value and page methodology.
- Related pages are checked when the same metric appears elsewhere.
- The effect of rounding, revisions, suppression and definition differences is considered.
- A correction, clarification, source update or no-change decision is recorded.
A submitted correction is not accepted automatically. The original source, metric definition and reporting period control the review.
Types of changes
Minor corrections
Typographical errors, broken links, formatting problems and wording changes that do not alter the meaning of the data may be corrected without a prominent notice.
Factual corrections
An incorrect number, rank, calculation, date, jurisdiction or source description should be corrected after verification. A correction note may be added when the error materially affected the page’s conclusion.
Methodology clarifications
Additional wording may be added when the original value is accurate but the definition, limitation or comparison could be misunderstood.
Source revisions
Values may be updated when the publishing agency releases revised or final data. Such an update may be labeled as a source revision rather than an editorial error.
How changes are recorded
Depending on the significance of the change, a page may display:
- A revised “last reviewed” or “last updated” date.
- A corrected source or reporting-period label.
- A correction notice near the affected section.
- A brief description of the previous and corrected information.
- A new dataset version or release-status label.
Minor punctuation, spelling and presentation changes do not normally require a public change log.
Material correction notices
A visible notice should be considered when an error changes:
- The state or institution identified as highest or lowest.
- A top-ranking or bottom-ranking position.
- A national total, average or median.
- A major conclusion in the analysis.
- The reporting year or source definition.
- The apparent direction of a trend.
A material notice should explain what changed without unnecessarily removing the corrected information from context.
How older data is marked
Older information is not necessarily incorrect. Education data often remains the latest complete comparable release for a period of time.
When newer data is available but has not yet been incorporated, a page may be marked with language such as:
- Latest complete data currently used on this page.
- A newer preliminary release is available.
- This page is scheduled for source-version review.
- Historical data retained for comparison.
- Superseded by a revised source release.
An outdated page should not be presented as current when a newer directly comparable official release has replaced it.
Related-page review
When an error affects a shared metric, related rankings, state profiles, summaries and comparison tables should also be checked. Correcting one page alone may be insufficient when the same source value was reused elsewhere.
Responses and publication decisions
Correction submissions are reviewed according to relevance, available evidence and the significance of the reported issue. A fixed response or completion time is not guaranteed.
Repeated messages, abusive communications, requests to manipulate rankings or requests unsupported by source evidence may be disregarded.