December 2023
Product documentation shifted to the Precisely Help Center (help.precisely.com).
No major changes were reported by GreatSchools.
November 2023
No major changes were reported by GreatSchools.
As of the December 2023 release, product documentation will shift to the Precisely Help Center (help.precisely.com).
October 2023
GreatSchools remove the -flat reference from all file and folder names. Refer to the Oct23_structural_changes_3.xlsx workbook for information about this change, as well as other changes made in this release. The following table also provides information about this change:
| Current Feed Folder Name | Current Feed File Name | New Feed Folder Name | New Feed File Name | |
| GreatSchools_TXT | local-greatschools-feed-flat | local-greatschools-feed-flat | local-greatschools-feed | local-greatschools-feed |
| local-gs-census-feed-flat | local-gs-census-feed-flat | local-gs-demographics-feed | local-gs-demographics-feed | |
| local-gs-new-test-result-feed | local-gs-new-test-result-feed | local-gs-test-result-feed | local-gs-test-result-feed | |
| local-gs-new-test-feed-flat | local-gs-new-test-feed-flat | local-gs-test-feed | local-gs-test-feed | |
| local-gs-new-test-subgroup-feed-flat | local-gs-new-test-subgroup-feed-flat | local-gs-test-subgroup-feed | local-gs-test-subgroup-feed | |
| local-gs-overall-rating-feed-flat | local-gs-overall-rating-feed-flat | local-gs-official-overall-rating-feed | local-gs-official-overall-rating-feed | |
| local-official-overall-rating-result-feed-flat | local-official-overall-rating-result-feed-flat | local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed | local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed | |
| local-gs-parent-ratings-feed-flat | local-gs-parent-ratings-feed-flat | local-gs-community-ratings-feed | local-gs-community-ratings-feed | |
| local-gs-parent-review-feed-flat | local-gs-parent-review-feed-flat | local-gs-community-review-feed | local-gs-community-review-feed | |
|
GreatSchools_TXT_ Subratings |
local-gs-subrating-feed | local-gs-subrating-description-feed | local-gs-themed-rating-feed | local-gs-themed-rating-description-feed |
| local-gs-subrating-feed | local-gs-themed-rating-feed | |||
|
GreatSchools_TXT_ 1-10 |
local-greatschools-feed-flat | local-greatschools-feed-flat | local-greatschools-feed | local-greatschools-feed |
| local-gs-census-feed-flat | local-gs-census-feed-flat | local-gs-demographics-feed | local-gs-demographics-feed | |
| local-official-overall-rating-feed-flat | local-official-overall-rating-feed-flat | local-gs-official-overall-rating-feed | local-gs-official-overall-rating-feed | |
| local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed-flat | local-official-overall-rating-result-feed-flat | local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed | local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed | |
| GreatSchools_XML | local-gs-new-test-feed | local-gs-new-test-feed | local-gs-test-feed | local-gs-test-feed |
| local-gs-parent-review-feed | local-gs-parent-review-feed | local-gs-community-review-feed | local-gs-community-review feed | |
|
GreatSchools_XML_ Subratings |
local-gs-subrating-feed | local-gs-subrating-description-feed | local-gs-themed-rating-feed | local-gs-themed-rating-description-feed |
There were no changes to file or folder names in the GreatSchools_XML_1-10 file.
The following fields were added to the local-greatschools-feed file in the GreatSchools_TXT delivery file:
| Field Name | Data Type (Length) |
| display-address | VARCHAR (8) |
| physical-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| physical-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-lat | FLOAT |
| physical-lon | FLOAT |
| mailing-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| mailing-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-lat | FLOAT |
| mailing-lon | FLOAT |
The following fields were deleted from the local-gs-demographics-feed file in the GreatSchools_TXT delivery file:
- grade
- level-code
The following fields were deleted from the local-gs-community-rating-feed file in the GreatSchools_TXT delivery file:
- avg principal
- avg teachers
- avg activities
- avg parents
- avg safety
The id field of the local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed file in the GreatSchools_TXT delivery file was renamed summary-rating-id.
The subrating field in the local-gs-themed-rating-description-feed file of the GreatSchools_TXT_Subratings delivery file was renamed themed rating.
The following fields were added to the local-greatschools-feed file of the GreatSchools_XML_1-10 delivery file:
| Field Name | Data Type (Length) |
| display-address | VARCHAR (8) |
| physical-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| physical-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-lat | FLOAT |
| physical-lon | FLOAT |
| mailing-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| mailing-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-lat | FLOAT |
| mailing-lon | FLOAT |
The id field in the local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed file of the GreatSchools_XML_1-10 delivery file was renamed summary-rating-id.
The following fields was deleted from the local-gs-demographics-feed file of the GreatSchools_TXT_1-10 delivery file:
- grade
- level-code
The name of the id field in the local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed file of the GreatSchools_TXT_1-10 delivery file was changed to summary-rating-id.
The following fields were added to the local-greatschools-feed file in the GreatSchools_XML delivery file:
| Field Name | Data Type (Length) |
| display-address | VARCHAR (8) |
| physical-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| physical-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-lat | FLOAT |
| physical-lon | FLOAT |
| mailing-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| mailing-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-lat | FLOAT |
| mailing-lon | FLOAT |
The subrating field in the local-gs-themed-rating-description-feed file of the GreatSchools_XML_Subratings delivery file was renamed themed rating.
September 2023
GreatSchools will implement file name changes, as well as adding and deleting fields from files, in their October 2023 release.
The -flat reference will be removed from all file and folder names. The following table provides details about this change:
| Delivery Folder Name | Current Feed Folder Name | Current Feed File Name | New Feed Folder Name | New Feed File Name |
| GreatSchools_TXT | local-greatschools-feed-flat | local-greatschools-feed-flat | local-greatschools-feed | local-greatschools-feed |
| local-gs-census-feed-flat | local-gs-census-feed-flat | local-gs-demographics-feed | local-gs-demographics-feed | |
| local-gs-new-test-result-feed | local-gs-new-test-result-feed | local-gs-test-result-feed | local-gs-test-result-feed | |
| local-gs-new-test-feed-flat | local-gs-new-test-feed-flat | local-gs-test-feed | local-gs-test-feed | |
| local-gs-new-test-subgroup-feed-flat | local-gs-new-test-subgroup-feed-flat | local-gs-test-subgroup-feed | local-gs-test-subgroup-feed | |
| local-gs-overall-rating-feed-flat | local-gs-overall-rating-feed-flat | local-gs-official-overall-rating-feed | local-gs-official-overall-rating-feed | |
| local-official-overall-rating-result-feed-flat | local-official-overall-rating-result-feed-flat | local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed | local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed | |
| local-gs-parent-ratings-feed-flat | local-gs-parent-ratings-feed-flat | local-gs-community-ratings-feed | local-gs-community-ratings-feed | |
| local-gs-parent-review-feed-flat | local-gs-parent-review-feed-flat | local-gs-community-review-feed | local-gs-community-review-feed | |
|
GreatSchools_TXT_ Subratings |
local-gs-subrating-feed | local-gs-subrating-description-feed | local-gs-themed-rating-feed | local-gs-themed-rating-description-feed |
| local-gs-subrating-feed | local-gs-themed-rating-feed | |||
|
GreatSchools_TXT_ 1-10 |
local-greatschools-feed-flat | local-greatschools-feed-flat | local-greatschools-feed | local-greatschools-feed |
| local-gs-census-feed-flat | local-gs-census-feed-flat | local-gs-demographics-feed | local-gs-demographics-feed | |
| local-official-overall-rating-feed-flat | local-official-overall-rating-feed-flat | local-gs-official-overall-rating-feed | local-gs-official-overall-rating-feed | |
| local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed-flat | local-official-overall-rating-result-feed-flat | local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed | local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed | |
| GreatSchools_XML | local-gs-new-test-feed | local-gs-new-test-feed | local-gs-test-feed | local-gs-test-feed |
| local-gs-parent-review-feed | local-gs-parent-review-feed | local-gs-community-review-feed | local-gs-community-review feed | |
|
GreatSchools_XML_ Subratings |
local-gs-subrating-feed | local-gs-subrating-description-feed | local-gs-themed-rating-feed | local-gs-themed-rating-description-feed |
There will be no changes to file or folder names in the GreatSchools_XML_1-10 file.
The following fields will be added to the local-greatschools-feed file in the GreatSchools_TXT delivery file:
| Field Name | Data Type (Length) |
| display-address | VARCHAR (8) |
| physical-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| physical-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-lat | FLOAT |
| physical-lon | FLOAT |
| mailing-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| mailing-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-lat | FLOAT |
| mailing-lon | FLOAT |
The following fields will be deleted from the local-gs-demographics-feed file in the GreatSchools_TXT delivery file:
- grade
- level-code
The following fields will be deleted from the local-gs-community-rating-feed file in the GreatSchools_TXT delivery file:
- avg principal
- avg teachers
- avg activities
- avg parents
- avg safety
The id field of the local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed file in the GreatSchools_TXT delivery file will be renamed summary-rating-id.
The subrating field in the local-gs-themed-rating-description-feed file of the GreatSchools_TXT_Subratings delivery file will be renamed themed rating.
The following fields will be added to the local-greatschools-feed file of the GreatSchools_XML_1-10 delivery file:
| Field Name | Data Type (Length) |
| display-address | VARCHAR (8) |
| physical-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| physical-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-lat | FLOAT |
| physical-lon | FLOAT |
| mailing-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| mailing-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-lat | FLOAT |
| mailing-lon | FLOAT |
The id field in the local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed file of the GreatSchools_XML_1-10 delivery file will be renamed summary-rating-id.
The following fields will be deleted from the local-gs-demographics-feed file of the GreatSchools_TXT_1-10 delivery file:
- grade
- level-code
The name of the id field in the local-gs-official-overall-rating-result-feed file of the GreatSchools_TXT_1-10 delivery file will be changed to summary-rating-id.
The following fields will be added to the local-greatschools-feed file in the GreatSchools_XML delivery file:
| Field Name | Data Type (Length) |
| display-address | VARCHAR (8) |
| physical-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| physical-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| physical-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| physical-lat | FLOAT |
| physical-lon | FLOAT |
| mailing-street | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-city | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-state | VARCHAR (2) |
| mailing-zip | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-county | VARCHAR (127) |
| mailing-fipscounty | VARCHAR (5) |
| mailing-lat | FLOAT |
| mailing-lon | FLOAT |
The subrating field in the local-gs-themed-rating-description-feed file of the GreatSchools_XML_Subratings delivery file will be renamed themed rating.
August 2023
In this release, GreatSchools revised their Academic Progress (also known as a "growth proxy") Rating methodology. Impact, timeline and next steps are described below:
Impact
As a result of the revised methodology, schools in the following 15 states may have experienced changes to their Academic Progress, Equity, and/or Summary ratings:
- Alaska
- California
- Georgia
- Kansas
- Maine
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Mexico
- North Dakota
- South Carolina
- Virginia
- Vermont
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
Timeline
Updated ratings were scheduled to go live on greatschools.org on August 9 and in GreatSchools' APIs on August 23.
Next Steps
Please update this information as soon as possible after August 23.
This change will not result in any structural changes to GreatSchools' products, files, or data schema. The rating data contained in their products may change, but the technical components of the delivery will remain the same.
GreatSchools has also announced significant changes planned for the October 2023 release, in which their data feeds will undergo structural improvements. To provide a clear understanding of the enhancements being made, GreatSchools has compiled a summary of planned changes, along with the rationale for each change, in the table below.
As part of these changes, GreatSchools has revised their data feed manual and data feed dictionary to align with the latest improvements. For reference, the GreatSchools Data Feed Dictionary 10-20-23 and GreatSchools Data Feed Manual 10-20-23 are provided in the product delivery file, along with Precisely's Oct23_structural_changes.xlsx workbook, showing the expected folder, file, and column changes.
| Data Feed (Current Feed Name) | Changes | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Directory (local-greatschools-feed) | Both physical and mailing addresses will be included. Each current address field will be replaced with two new fields prefixed with physical - and mailing -. A new column – display-address – will be added to denote which address type is used in the GreatSchools profile. | GreatSchools stores both physical and mailing addresses for many schools. It is important for customers to be able to differentiate between those two address types. |
| Demographics (local-gs-census-feed) | The name of the Demographics file will change from local-gs-census-feed to local-gs-demographics-feed | The new file name more accurately describes file contents |
| Head official name and email rows will not have an associated year value | Unlike other data types in the Demographics file, head official data is not associated with a specific school year. GreatSchools updates head official data on a rolling basis. | |
| The following demographic data types will be removed: percent teachers in first year percent classes taught by highly qualified teachers percent classes taught by non highly qualified teachers percent teachers with valid license percent teachers with bachelor's degree percent teachers with doctorate degree percent teachers with master's degree percent teachers with other degree percent of teachers with three years or less experience percent of teachers with master's or higher average years teaching in district average teacher experience years |
These data types have not been updated in several years and will not be updated in the future | |
| The grade and level-code columns will be removed | These are inactive fields and are not applicable to the Demographics file | |
| Test Descriptions (local-gs-new-test-feed) | The name of the Test Descriptions file will change from local-gs-new-test-feed to local-gs-test-feed | The new file name more accurately describes file contents |
| Subgroup Results (local-gs-new-test-subgroup-feed) | The name of the Subgroup Results file will change from local-gs-new-test-subgroup-feed to local-gs-test-subgroup-feed | The new file name more accurately describes file contents |
| Rating Results (local-gs-official-rating-results-feed) | The test-rating-id column will be renamed summary-rating-id | This is a more accurate name for this ID value, as it refers to the GreatSchools Summary Rating ID in the Rating Description (local-gs-official-overall-rating-feed) file, not the test scores-themed rating |
| Themed Rating Descriptions (local-gs-subrating-descriptions-feed) | The name of the Themed Rating Descriptions file will change from local-gs-subrating-description-feed to local-gs-themed-rating-description feed | The new file name more accurately describes file contents |
| The Subrating column will be renamed Themed Rating | This is the correct name for this value | |
| Themed Rating Results (local-gs-subrating-feed) | The name of the Themed Rating Results file will change from local-gs-subrating-feed to local-gs-themed-rating-feed | The new file name more accurately describes file contents |
| Community Ratings (local-gs-parent-ratings-feed) | The name of the Community Ratings file will change from local-gs-parent-ratings-feed to local-gs-community-ratings-feed | The new file name more accurately describes file contents |
| The following inactive columns will be removed:
avg-principal avg-teachers avg--activities avg-parents avg-safety |
These columns are no longer populated | |
| Community Reviews (local-gs-parent-review-feed) | The name of the Community Reviews file will change from local-gs-parent-review-feed to local-gs-community-review-feed | The new file name more accurately describes file contents |
June 2023
No major changes were reported by GreatSchools.
May 2023
In the GreatSchools Data Feed Dictionary, under Directory (local-greatschools-feed), the zip field had a data type of INTEGER when the data type should have been VARCHAR. GreatSchools updated the data feed dictionary to show the correct data type.
April 2023
No major updates were reported by GreatSchools.
March 2023
No major updates were reported by GreatSchools.
February 2023
No major updates were reported by GreatSchools.
January 2023
The length of the test-abbrv field in the local-gs-new-test-feed file was updated from 20 characters to 50 characters. This change is noted in the latest data feed dictionary provided by GreatSchools.