EDITORIAL & DATA VERIFICATION POLICY

Editorial purpose

The site is designed to make public education data easier to find, compare and understand. Content may cover public school enrollment, school and district counts, staffing, spending, educational attainment, assessment results, tuition and other education-related indicators.

The publication of a statistic does not imply that the statistic measures the complete quality, performance or effectiveness of an education system. Context, definitions, source years and limitations are included whenever they materially affect interpretation.

Core editorial principles

• Accuracy: Numerical claims should be traceable to an identified source, dataset, table or calculation.
• Transparency: Reporting periods, source agencies, release status and important limitations should be disclosed.
• Consistency: The same indicator should use a consistent definition across comparable pages.
• Independence: Editorial conclusions are not controlled by government agencies, schools, districts, advertisers or other outside organizations.
• Neutrality: Data should be described without presenting unsupported political, institutional or geographic judgments.
• Correctability: Documented errors should be reviewed and corrected through a visible correction process.

Source priority

Primary institutional sources are preferred whenever available. These may include the National Center for Education Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the U.S. Department of Education, state education departments, public university systems and other official statistical agencies.

Secondary sources may be used to locate, explain or cross-check information, but they should not replace an available primary dataset for numerical claims. Search snippets, unsourced summaries, social media posts and automatically generated answers are not treated as authoritative evidence.

Verification process

Before publication, numerical content should be checked against the cited source and reviewed for internal consistency. Verification may include:

• Confirming that the reporting period matches the page description.
• Checking that geographic coverage includes the stated states, jurisdictions or institutions.
• Comparing displayed totals with the number of table rows.
• Testing percentages, differences, averages, rankings and other derived values.
• Confirming that the highest, lowest and median values described in the text match the underlying table.
• Reviewing whether provisional, preliminary, revised or final data is being used.
• Checking that suppressed, unavailable or non-comparable values are not treated as zero.
• Comparing unusually large changes with the original source documentation.

Definitions and comparability

Education indicators can vary according to grade coverage, school type, reporting date, membership definition, accounting method and source release. Similar labels do not always represent identical measures.

Where two sources use different definitions, the distinction should be identified rather than presenting the values as directly interchangeable. A more recent local value may be displayed separately from a nationally comparable value when both are useful.

Calculations and rankings

Derived statistics may include percentage change, per-student values, averages, medians, ratios, bands and ranks. Calculations should be based on the displayed or cited data and should use a consistent rounding rule.

Ranking tables should disclose how ties are handled, whether ranking is based on rounded or unrounded values and whether a higher value should be interpreted as favorable, unfavorable or neutral. Rankings are descriptive comparisons and should not be presented as complete measures of education quality.

Use of automated tools

Automated systems may assist with formatting, calculation checks, duplicate detection, data comparison or content organization. Automated output is not treated as an independent source. Factual claims and calculated values should remain traceable to identifiable source data.

Updates and revisions

Pages may be updated when an agency publishes a revised dataset, a newer reporting period becomes available or an error is identified. A current page can therefore contain data from an earlier year when that year represents the latest complete or comparable release.

Material changes should include an updated review date, source version or correction notice when appropriate. Older data may remain available for historical comparison when its reporting period is clearly labeled.

Editorial independence

US School Index is an independent information resource and is not operated by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Center for Education Statistics, a state education department, a school district or a university system.

Advertising, sponsorships or commercial relationships must not determine which statistical values are reported or how source data is interpreted. Sponsored material, when present, should be distinguishable from editorial content.

Corrections

Potential errors can be reported to support@usschoolindex.org. Reports should identify the page, disputed statement, relevant source and proposed correction when available.

Correction submissions are handled under the Corrections Policy.