What are parents saying about GreatSchools.net?
What are the press and educational thought leaders saying about GreatSchools.net?

Parents also request additional information and make suggestions to further strengthen our offerings. Through all their feedback, one message is consistent: GreatSchools.net's parent users value our information, trust our unbiased analyses and understand that we're on their side.

Here's a sampling of what parents have recently told us:

BobB***@aol.com: "This is the best school info site I have seen on the net! The Web site was built by a master; the info is not biased or slanted. It's been very helpful to me. Keep up the good work!"

V**G@starband.net: "What a great site! Finally, a place where we can get the facts, including information on ethnicity. I only regret that it wasn't available (or I didn't find it?) three years ago when I moved to California. Please, please get the Minnesota and Colorado sites complete so that I may make an educated choice for my children when I move back to the Midwest. PS: The pie charts and graphs are especially helpful. Thank you again!"

CrystalW****@att.com: "GOOD GOING!!! I cannot express the fulfillment that I have received from reading your story about overcoming obstacles [to improve schools]. I am currently working with a school system that is suffering from financial stress and is unable to afford many things our children need to get properly educated. But the tips you shared are working. Thanks to your advice, I have formed a parent volunteers group that is making headway in improving our local school. And it's things you don't need money to buy! Our sincerest thanks."

Alex****@yahoo.com: "My daughter is having trouble learning to read and I have been worried that maybe she's just a slow learner. But your site showed me that our school ranks very low in the reading scores relative to other schools in my area. So it gave me the courage to go talk to the principal. The best part is that my daughter is now spending more time in class on reading skills and I feel good about that. Thanks, GreatSchools ... I couldn't have done it without you."

ZHoll***@msn.com: "I LOVE this Web site! I feel like it gives me an excellent picture of my child's school--the way I want to see it. If test scores are most important to me, the information is there. If demographic info is equally important, that information is there as well. I'll never again feel insecure during a parent-teachers conference or at the next school committee meeting."

RDiaz***@earthlink.net: "I attended one of the community events you recently held in our neighborhood on our school choices for our children entering kindergarten next year. Like many of my friends, I've been concerned that I don't know enough about the schools I can send my son to. After the meeting, many of us agreed that we now know a lot more. PS: Some of my friends don't use computers, so I know they were happy you came to our area. Please say thanks to everyone."

Angela***@sbcglobal.net: "Thank you ... thank you ... thank you!!! What a wonderful Web site. The detailed information is just what I needed. I'm looking for a house and the quality of the local schools is my NO. 1 criteria. Your information will be a tremendous help in narrowing my search."

New York Times
"The Great Schools site offers visitors a wealth of [information], using simple language to explain such things as how to interpret scores on California's new statewide student testing program."

Los Angeles Times
"GreatSchools.net allows us to provide our users with detailed school information in an easy-to-understand format. We think it's an extremely valuable tool for parents of school-age children."

Democratic Leadership Council
"Educational accountability depends on clear and comparative information about school performance, based on meaningful standards and measurable results. That's how you get Great Schools."

The Heritage Foundation
"A one-stop shop complete with school report cards, parent guides on what to look for when selecting schools and relevant news articles, this site is a model of how the Internet can facilitate the process of deciding where to send your children to school."

eSchoolNews Online (Columnist Nora Carr)
"Every once in a while ... I come across a site that makes me realize that proactive, personalized and relevant communication with parents isn't just a PR person's fantasy. GreatSchools.net is such a site."

USA Today
"Whether parents are relocating to another state or just looking to make a change as the fall term begins, doing online research on the quality of schools has gotten a little easier. Of the top 10 sites that gauge US school's strengths, no site earned an A, but GreatSchools earned [our top ranking] an A-."

San Jose Mercury News
"The good news [on GreatSchools] is that the school gets to tell some of the story, others tell another part of the story, and then there's the straight facts."

Education Week
"Click on the profile of [a typical public middle school] and you'll find that the school is using the 'Success for All' reading program. You'll learn that 12 of its 689 students were suspended last year, most of them for fighting; and that 20% of the teachers have been on the job less than two years. You'll also discover that the principal thinks his middle school is a "happy place" where parents feel at ease and there's a 'culture of trust.' ... [GreatSchools'] reliance on qualitative as well as quantitative information to describe a school sets it apart from many such report card projects."

The Arizona Republic
"Controversy continues to swirl around standardized testing in Arizona schools, particularly the AIMS test. But all the controversy highlights the fact that if you're a parent in Arizona, you care about how well your child does and the quality of the school he or she attends. A new feature on AZcentral.com, The Republic's online site [in partnership with GreatSchools.net] serves as a vast resource for this type of school information."