'Government and library open data using Creative Commons tools' photo (c) 2011, opensource.com - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

I’m a big believe in being “data-informed” and not being “data-driven” (see The Best Resources Showing Why We Need To Be “Data-Informed” & Not “Data-Driven”). In order to be data-informed, you have to have data that is reliable, valid, accessible, and useful. Much of that, I believe, is generated by formative assessment in the classroom (see The Best Resources For Learning About Formative Assessment). However, there is a place for more “big-picture” data, and there are several good places to find it.

I’m not necessarily saying that ALL the data at these sites fit that point criteria, but I’ve certainly found that a fair amount does. I hope readers can offer additional suggestions.

Here are my choices for The Best Places To Get Reliable, Valid, Accessible & Useful Education Data:

* The Migrant Policy Institute has launched the English Language Learner Information Center. They say it’s designed to:

provide informative fact sheets, maps, and state-level data resources that chronicle the demography and trends of immigrant families and their children.

It has a ton of accessible info, and may become the “go to” place for ELL data. It’s also on The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current ELL/ESL/EFL News & Research list.

* Data First is a new website developed by the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) Center for Public Education to provide all sorts of…data about schools. Since I’m a believer in being “data-informed,” rather than being “data-driven,” I wish the site had a different name but, nevertheless, it seems pretty useful. You can read more about it Learning First.

* WikiEdData is a very impressive site I learned about from Cheryl Capozzoli. I haven’t fully explored it but, from what I’ve seen, it appears to have a wealth of information that can be displayed in an exceptionally accessible manner.

* I also recently learned about the Google Public Data Explorer. Even though most of the information that can be visually displayed doesn’t relate to education issues, it does have some ed-related data. You can learn more about it at Read Write Web.

* A List Of Education And Related Data Resources comes from The Shanker Blog.

* The Federal Education Budget Project is a new site for researching data about….education. You can read more about it at this article by California Watch, New site provides nationwide education data.

ProPublica has unveiled an impressive new interactive where anyone can get school data. It’s called The Opportunity Gap: Is Your State Providing Equal Access to Education? You can read more about it at ProPublica’s newest news app uses education data to get more social, a post by the Nieman Journalism Lab.

The U.S. Department of Education recently revamped its data website. You can read about it at this Ed Week article, and you can visit the site here.

Ed-Data is a great place to get info on California’s K-12 schools. The just released a completely new version that’s pretty impressive

New “State Of Our Cities” Education Interactive Looks Intriguing

Two Important Reports On Education Released Today

Education by the Numbers is from The New York Times.  It provides a good overview of present ed stats.

New Report: “The Condition Of Education 2018”

Deep Data Dive Into “Global Education”

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT CALIFORNIA – DISPLAYED VISUALLY

Education Week published a nice review of Education Statistics: Facts About American Schools. It highlights – in a very accessible way – key stats about education in the U.S.

“DIGEST OF EDUCATION STATISTICS, 2017” IS JUST RELEASED

HOT OFF THE PRESS! THE MOST UP-TO-DATE STATISTICS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN THE U.S.

Education Statistics: Facts About American Schools is from Ed Week.

The Urban Institute has created the Education Data Explorer.

The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University looks impressive: “Using public-school test scores in grades 3–8 from 2008–09 through 2015–16, we have created the first comprehensive view of educational opportunity in the United States.” Read more about it at Ed Week.

The Education Data Portal: Making federal data accessible to study ‘small’ student populations is from Brookings.

NEW MAP: SEE ELL DISTRIBUTION ACROSS THE UNITED STATES

Literacy Scores by Country, in Reading, Math, and Science is from Flowing Data.

Bento lets you create visualizations of lots of education data.

Additional suggestions are welcome.

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You might also want to explore the over 600 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.