A school score that critics say tracks neighborhood income as much as teaching.
What it's really for A nonprofit school rater; researchers and reporters say its score tracks neighborhood income as much as teaching.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its 1-10 school ratings, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
The schools being rated do not pay and cannot buy a higher score; the parties that pay GreatSchools are real-estate platforms (licensing, under ~20% of revenue) and school-choice-aligned foundations like the Walton Family Foundation (nearly $25M since 2004), so payment does not correlate with a school's placement, though funder ideology and the real-estate licensing tie are the relevant conflicts.
Source →- Operating since
- 1998 (28 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- A nonprofit funded mostly by philanthropic foundation grants, supplemented by data-licensing fees from real-estate sites (Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, Apartments.com) and display/sponsored advertising sold against its parent audience.
- What they do
- It assigns US public PK-12 schools a 1-10 summary rating built from state standardized test scores, year-over-year student academic progress, and (for high schools) college-readiness measures.
- What to watch for
- Education researchers and reporters have found its 1-10 score closely tracks a school's income and demographics, so a low rating can reflect who a school serves more than how well it teaches. Treat it as one signal, not a verdict.
- Composite score
- 3.50 / 5.00 → grade B
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- Chalkbeat's analysis found GreatSchools ratings strongly correlate with student race and socioeconomic status; schools serving predominantly low-income, Black and Hispanic students scored 4-6 points lower on average. GreatSchools draws licensing fees from Zillow, Realtor.com and Redfin (less than 20% of revenue), with most funding from philanthropy including nearly $25M from the Walton Family Foundation since 2004. Source: Chalkbeat investigation (Dec 2019) →
- The published methodology details the 1-10 GreatSchools Rating as a weighted average of up to three themed ratings (Student Progress, Test Score, and College Readiness for high schools), with explicit base weights (0.45 for the stronger of progress/test score, 0.27 for others), an information-quantity adjustment, and worked examples, all built on state education agency assessment data. Source: GreatSchools ratings methodology page →
- GreatSchools Inc has been tax-exempt since January 1999 and is a 501(c)(3) classified under Educational Institutions; FY2024 IRS Form 990 data shows total revenue of about $5.5M from contributions ($2.23M), program services ($1.92M), other revenue ($1.27M), and investment income. Source: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (IRS 990) →