About PlainSchools

Our Mission

PlainSchools provides factual, transparent data on every public school and school district in the United States. We believe families and researchers deserve direct access to official education data without the filter of subjective ratings or scores.

School rating sites typically aggregate test scores into a single number. Research consistently shows that test scores correlate strongly with parental income levels, not necessarily with school quality. A school rated "low" may be doing exceptional work with the resources available, while a "top-rated" school may simply serve an affluent community.

We present the data as-is and let you draw your own conclusions. Student-teacher ratios, funding levels, demographics, and program availability paint a more complete picture than any single rating could. Our philosophy is that informed families make better choices when they can see the complete data, not a simplified score that hides important nuance.

Data Sources

All data comes directly from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the U.S. Department of Education. Our primary data source is the Common Core of Data (CCD) for the 2024-25 school year, which is the federal government's comprehensive annual collection of education statistics. This includes:

  • School profiles: Enrollment, grade levels, school type, charter/magnet status, Title I eligibility
  • Student demographics: Student body ethnic composition from NCES enrollment reports
  • Staffing data: Teacher counts, student-teacher ratios, and full-time equivalent staff
  • Lunch program participation: Free and reduced-price lunch eligibility rates, a commonly used proxy for economic disadvantage
  • District finances: Per-pupil expenditure, revenue by source (federal, state, local), and total budget figures from NCES F-33 fiscal survey

We also use NCES geographic data to associate schools with cities, counties, and metropolitan areas, enabling community-level analysis of education patterns across the country.

Methodology

Our approach to processing education data prioritizes accuracy and completeness. We download the NCES Common Core of Data flat files for the most recent school year and transform them into individual school and district profiles. Each profile includes enrollment figures, student-teacher ratios, free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, staffing counts, and per-pupil expenditure data directly from CCD reporting.

Schools are geocoded and linked to their host cities, counties, and metro areas to enable geographic exploration. District financial data is matched to the schools within each district. Unlike school rating sites that compress complex data into a single number, we present the underlying metrics so families can weigh what matters most to their situation.

No data is modified, adjusted, or weighted. Where NCES reports a value, we show that value. Where data is suppressed by NCES for privacy (typically enrollment counts below a threshold), we show it as unavailable rather than estimating.

Data Freshness and Update Schedule

NCES releases updated CCD data annually, typically in late fall. The current database reflects the 2024-25 school year, which is the most recent collection available from NCES. We update our database within weeks of each new NCES data release to maintain data currency.

District financial data from the F-33 survey follows a separate release schedule and may lag the main CCD release by several months. When new financial data becomes available, we incorporate it into our district profiles. The last updated date for all data dimensions is tracked in our ETL pipeline to ensure transparency about the data vintage you are viewing.

Editorial Independence & How Content Is Produced

PlainSchools profiles are generated directly from official source data. Raw NCES, F-33, and CRDC files are read through a documented data pipeline and rendered into school and district profiles using shared templates. No profile is hand-written; each figure is read from the official record at build time, with systematic validation that screens implausible values and shows missing data as unavailable rather than estimating it. Our editorial team is responsible for the judgments a pipeline cannot make on its own: the datasets we use, how each metric is defined and computed, the methodology, and the corrections process. The full process is set out in our Editorial & Corrections Policy.

We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from schools, districts, states, or education companies. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense — advertisers do not influence which schools we cover or how we present data, and they do not receive preferential placement.

Limitations and Disclaimer

This site is for informational purposes only. Data comes from U.S. government sources and is presented as-is. Important caveats to understand:

  • CCD data is self-reported by states and school districts to NCES — occasional reporting errors may exist
  • Private schools, homeschooled students, and non-traditional programs are generally not included in CCD
  • Free and reduced-price lunch data may undercount eligible students in districts that have adopted universal meal programs
  • Per-pupil expenditure figures vary in what they include across states due to different accounting practices
  • School enrollment and staffing reflect a snapshot in time and may not capture mid-year changes

PlainSchools is not affiliated with the US Department of Education, NCES, or any government agency. We are an independent data portal providing public information in a more accessible format. Always verify important education decisions with official sources and the schools themselves.

Contact

For questions, feedback, or data correction requests, email us at hello@plainschools.com. We welcome reports of data discrepancies and suggestions for improving the site. Our goal is to help families, educators, and researchers access the education data they need.