| Resource | Format | What's inside |
|---|---|---|
| districts.csv | CSV | All 10,671 districts: name, state, county, NCES LEAID, 1–10 rating, state percentile, students, per-pupil spending (Census FY2024), served zip codes |
| index.json | JSON | Master index of every zip code with its district and rating |
| api.schooldistrictfinder.us/zip/{zip}.json | JSON | Per-zip endpoint, e.g. /zip/90210.json — no key required |
| llms.txt | Text | Machine-readable site guide for AI assistants and crawlers |
What the data contains
Ratings are the state percentile of each district's combined reading + math proficiency, converted to a 1–10 scale. In 25 states the figures come from that state's own most recently published district-level assessment — for example ISASP 2024–25 in Iowa, PSSA 2024–25 in Pennsylvania, CAASPP 2023–24 in California. Everywhere else they come from the U.S. Department of Education's EDFacts collection, using the 2021–22 school year where a district appears in that file and falling back to 2017–18 where it does not. Each district's row in the CSV and each page's "Show the math" panel states which year was used. Directory data (enrollment, schools, contacts, counties) comes from the NCES Common Core of Data 2024–25. Per-pupil spending comes from the US Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of School System Finances, FY2024 — current spending per pupil, which excludes capital outlay and debt service. It is blank for the districts whose federal record does not support one. District-to-zip mappings were computed by point-in-polygon lookup of Census ZCTA centroids against TIGER/Line school district boundaries.
License & citation
Free to use under CC BY 4.0. Please cite as: "School district ratings data from SchoolDistrictFinder.us, derived from NCES CCD, EDFacts, and 24 state assessment programs." A link back to this page is appreciated. For questions or bulk-use inquiries: [email protected].
Why we publish this
Most school-rating sites keep their scores proprietary. We think families, researchers, and journalists should be able to check the math — every rating on this site can be reproduced from the public federal data above, and our methodology page explains each step.