Michigan revamps K-12 schools website to make comparisons easier

Michigan’s Center for Educational Performance and Information has updated its web portal for the first time since 2011. (Shutterstock)

By Mike Wilkinson (Bridge)

Michigan parents and educators wanting to learn more about the state’s K-12 schools, from test scores to enrollment trends, have a revamped online data tool.

Michigan’s Center for Educational Performance and Information has updated its web portal for the first time since 2011.

The site allows for easier comparison of schools — both those that have similar student characteristics or those that are simply nearby. The state determines “similar schools” by looking at enrollment, student-teacher ratios, spending per-student and the economic status of students. The location search finds the 30 closest schools.

Those tools allow someone to find a school and then see other schools on a map and a summary of how one school compares academically with its peers or neighbors and the state as a whole.

The changes make it easier to find data and to download larger datasets.

“A key goal of the redesign was making the site easier to navigate so that visitors can quickly locate the education data they are looking for on MI School Data,” Tom Howell, executive director of the Center for Educational Performance, said in a statement.

In the past year nearly 370,000 unique visitors went to the site and looked at more than 3.1 million pages.

For as little as $1 a month, you can keep Manchester-focused news coverage alive.

by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.