Even though she is tapped into to the schools around her, Jones said she still found things on the site that surprised her. But she's concerned that the site mostly will benefit affluent families who truly have choice. And she isn't sure that the test-score comparisons provide enough context. It isn't entirely fair, she said, to compare Vesey Elementary, where 90 percent of the students get free and reduced-price lunches, with schools in affluent areas. She said there is no acknowledgment of the vital role Vesey has played in the neighborhood, where its former graduates now send children to walk the same halls.
Some schools have more information than others.
Principals were asked to contribute mission statements and expound on school philosophies and techniques. About 350 of the state's 1,500 principals took the roughly 45 minutes required to enhance the report. Annette Barnard, principal of Tempe's Arredondo Elementary School, said it's tough to find a school mission statement that doesn't list academic achievement as a top priority. The additional information let her flesh out her school's culture and personality, such as advising parents that students will use math skills to plot out a garden and build a greenhouse, or letting them know that it hosts a Harry Potter reading club. Keegan, who loaned her staff to help with the nonprofit Web site, said she spent hours on the site and still found things she couldn't have discovered without ruining a whole day for her chief numbers cruncher.