Category: Press Releases

Group co-hosts National School Choice Week event on January 30th, kicking off the most important open application period in the school selection season.

Milwaukee, WI – January 28, 2013 – GreatSchools Milwaukee will co-host a special National School Choice Week event on January 30th from 8:30-10:00 a.m. at the Grain Exchange. More than 350 students, parents, teachers, community members, and elected officials are expected to attend. The January 30th Milwaukee stop will bring together an unprecedented bipartisan coalition of educators and education reformers with representatives from all school sectors – private, public and charter. Governor Scott Walker, Mayor Tom Barrett and others are scheduled to speak and students from eight local schools will perform. Now in its third year, National School Choice Week is Jan. 27- Feb. 2 and boasts 3,500 local events spanning all 50 states.

The Milwaukee chapter of GreatSchools, a national nonprofit that promotes parental engagement in education, offers free resources to local families choosing a K-12 school. Interested families can call the organization’s bilingual hotline at 414-748-1211 or visit their website at www.greatschools.org/milwaukee for the most up-to- date information about the city’s more than 300 public, private and charter schools. The GreatSchools.org website includes profiles of every elementary, middle and high school in the city, performance ratings for all schools—public and private—interactive maps, school visit checklists and more. Parents can even read reviews of schools posted by real parents, students, and teachers to get the inside scoop. The site is mobile-friendly, so it works on either a computer or a smartphone.
Continue reading “GreatSchools Milwaukee Offers Free Resources to 17,000 Families Choosing Schools, Joined by Mayor and Governor at School Choice Event”

Partnership delivers the most comprehensive school-level data coverage available

Location-based data provider Maponics announced today that education and parenting website, GreatSchools, has launched an interactive school ratings and attendance zones mapping tool featuring Maponics School Boundaries^TM. Now, GreatSchools visitors can enter an address and see school locations, attendance zone boundaries, district lines, and ratings for all nearby schools on one map. The partnership marries two best in class datasets to deliver a powerful tool that will help millions of families plan for their future.

“With Maponics school attendance zones visually displayed we can finally show people a more complete view of their real school options,” said Bill Jackson, Founder and CEO of GreatSchools. “We have always had school pinpoints on our maps. But before, if parents wanted to know whether an address was assigned to a specific school, they had to do their own research. Showing mapped school attendance zones alongside our school ratings adds significant value and saves parents a lot of time.”
Continue reading “GreatSchools and Maponics Team Up to Offer New School Ratings and Attendance Zones Mapping Tool”

Funds Support Program to Help Parents Improve Their Children’s Reading Skills in Bay Area Schools

San Francisco, CA —  March 20, 2012  — GreatSchools today announced its receipt of a $250,000 donation from Target, which will be used to bring the College Bound parent education program to eight elementary schools in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012. This contribution is part of Target’s commitment to helping more U.S. children reach the critical academic milestone of reading proficiently by the end of third grade. Target has donated millions of dollars to educators, schools and nonprofit organizations across the country to help ignite a love of learning among children.

“We are excited to announce our partnership with Target to help parents support and inspire their children in reading achievement through our College Bound program,” said Bill Jackson, CEO, GreatSchools. “GreatSchools has empowered thousands of parents across the country to support literacy efforts at home and at school. Target’s support not only ensures that young children in the Bay Area will become better readers, it also dramatically increases the likelihood that those children will graduate from high school with a world of opportunity ahead.”
Continue reading “GreatSchools Receives $250,000 Donation from Target as Part of the Retailer’s Longstanding Commitment to Education and Reading”