School scores, data now available on the Web

How do your school's test scores stack up to the school across the valley?

How many of your teachers have master's or doctorate degrees?

How many students are taking college entrance exams?

Every Utah parent can access that information with the click of a mouse.

The State Office of Education on Wednesday unveiled an online database, www.usoe.k12.ut.us/U-PassWeb/UpassServlet, containing information from some 40 million school records.

Anyone now can go online and access a performance report for any Utah public school, including charter schools, and look up student attendance, test scores and other facts and figures.

Want to know how many workers have graduate degrees at American Fork High? The answer is 38 percent.

How about how many English-as-a-second-language students at Dee Elementary in Ogden? Between 41 and 55 percent, depending on the grade.

Is there much difference between girls' and boys' math scores at Churchill Junior High in Granite District? Girls scored at higher levels than boys on seventh-grade math and pre-algebra but fell behind the boys in elementary algebra and geometry.

The Web site, which took three years and just under $1 million to create, is required under a 2000 state law intended to hold schools more accountable for student achievement. The law is called the Utah Performance Assessment System for Students, or U-PASS.

The purpose is to give people information to help them interpret student achievement. Student performance often is influenced by a school's environment, as well as characteristics of the faculty, students and staff, the Web site states.

"Never before in Utah schools have we been able to see how schools are doing to this extent. It's my belief, based on our U-PASS (development), that this is the most comprehensive reporting of any state in the nation," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper and sponsor of the U-PASS law. "We hope that parents and teachers and employers will look at the data and then ask the tough questions and also give praise where it is deserved."

Parents might use the information to scout out schools in a neighborhood they're moving to. They also might see if there's another school out there that might better fit their child's needs.