Web site contains detailed statistics

The information is intended to be used to ask about districts, not judge them.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
In the Canfield Local School District last year, 93.1 percent of pupils passed Ohio's reading proficiency standards.
At South Range Local Schools in North Lima, 89.4 percent of pupils passed math proficiency tests.
More than 86 percent of pupils in Youngstown City Schools qualified as economically disadvantaged, well above Mahoning County's average of 41.5 percent and the state average of 30.7 percent.
These are a few examples of the information to be gleaned from SchoolMatters (www.schoolmatters.com), which is compiled by School Evaluation Services of Standard & amp; Poor's, an independent firm that provides analysis on nationwide educational data and many other topics.
The Web site's purpose is to provide data to help parents, educators and other leaders as they make decisions regarding pupil performance.
What's there
If you know the name of a school or school district, or even just a ZIP code for a community, it's enough to access volumes of information on the SchoolMatters.org Web site.
Bar graphs show how local school districts compare with counties and states in terms of collective math and reading proficiency test scores.
Other pie charts and bar graphs indicate percentages of pupils with special needs; school enrollment in terms of racial and ethnic data; spending per pupil; even the percentage of adults in a geographical area who earned high school diplomas and bachelor degrees.
SchoolMatters also tracks Adequate Yearly Progress, which is tied to the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools are required to set minimum percentages for student competency in math, reading and graduation rates.
The goal is 100-percent proficiency in all fields by 2014.
S & amp;P prefers that its information is used to ask questions about school districts rather than to judge them, as that can lead to apples-and-oranges comparisons.
For example, some schools have higher rates of economically disadvantaged children in their enrollments. That can affect spending per pupil and performance.
Using the information
Other applications for SchoolMatters data have been highly effective.
Leaders of the Reading, Pa., school district used SchoolMatters to persuade Pennsylvania legislators to provide more funding for the financially challenged school district in 2003.
Teachers in Tyrone, Pa., a rural borough, turned to SchoolMatters to inform the public about their below-average salaries, which were later increased to countywide standards.
An elementary school principal in Midland, Mich., shared Web site information with his teachers that showed their pupils were performing well on proficiency tests, but they were being outperformed by other schools in their peer group. The staff then re-evaluated its goals for pupils and professional development plans.
Even casual Internet surfers will find interesting tidbits about local school systems on SchoolMatters.
The pie chart of Warren City Schools' racial and ethnic makeup reflects a diverse pupil population -- 50.5 percent white, 43.5 percent black, 5.3 percent multiracial and less than 1 percent of other backgrounds.
Lisbon Exempted Village School District spent less than average among Columbiana County and all Ohio schools in terms of operating and instructional expenditures during 2003.
Demographics of the Hermitage School District show slightly higher numbers of adults with high school diplomas (86.8 percent) and college degrees (25.3 percent) than the state averages in Pennsylvania (81.9 and 22.4 percent, respectively).
shaulis@vindy.com