How we rate UK schools
Source: UK Department for Education — Get Information About Schools (Edubase)
| Ofsted grade | Outstanding = 10, Good = 7, Requires improvement = 4, Inadequate = 1–2. |
|---|---|
| School size | Schools with 200+ pupils receive a small stability nudge. |
| Scale | Final score is a 1–10 SchoolFinder rating. |
How we rate US schools
Source: US NCES Common Core of Data + state assessment data
| Test proficiency | 50% of the score — share of students meeting standards. |
|---|---|
| College readiness | 30% of the score — AP/IB or college-prep indicators. |
| Equity | 20% of the score — performance of disadvantaged subgroups. |
| Scale | Weighted blend rescaled to a 1–10 SchoolFinder rating. |
Every school receives a single 1–10 SchoolFinder rating, also shown as a familiar A–F letter grade. We never collect our own data — we summarise official open-government sources so parents can compare like-for-like. UK ratings are built from the Department for Education (Get Information About Schools / Ofsted); US ratings use the NCES Common Core of Data together with state assessment results. Where a school has no published result we show Not rated rather than guessing.
Editorial standards & data attribution
Where the data comes from
US Great Schools is a data aggregator: we do not collect our own test scores. Every rating is derived from the official open-government sources below, so numbers are comparable and auditable.
- United Kingdom — Department for Education, Get Information About Schools (GIAS / Edubase), including Ofsted inspection grades and published attainment (GCSE / A-level) data. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- United States — National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (NCES CCD), plus state assessment results published by each state education agency. School locations and identifiers (NCESSCH) come from the NCES.
How we turn data into a rating
Each input is normalised to a common scale, weighted, and blended into a single 0–10 School Finder rating, shown alongside a familiar A–F letter grade. Full per-market weights are shown above. Where a school has no published result in the source data, we display Not rated and never substitute a guess.
Accuracy & corrections
We refresh from the official releases as they are published. We list sources for every rating and we correct errors quickly when they are reported. To flag a mistake, email contact@usgreatschools.com and we will check it against the source data.
Independence & advertising
No school can pay for a better rating or a higher position, and our rankings contain no sponsored placements. Our only commercial relationship with this site is the product we build: a free, transparent school comparison tool. See our editorial policy for the full standards.