Update & New Downloadable Data: Academic Scores and Overall Scores

Academic scores have been recalculated using a new formula. The new score is based on six categories:

  1. 4 Year Postsecondary Enrollment - 6 Month
  2. College & Career Readiness Metric*
  3. College & Career Preparatory Course Index*
  4. Impact Score*
  5. Performance Score*
  6. Higher of ACT/SAT Scores

*Definitions of items 2-5 can be found on the NYC DOE website.

For each category, a school is given a percentage score out of the maximum possible value. The maximum values for each category are as follows:

  1. 100 (4 Year Postsecondary Enrollment - 6 Month)
  2. 1000 (College & Career Readiness Metric)
  3. 1000 (College & Career Preparatory Course Index)
  4. 100 (Impact Score)
  5. 100 (Performance Score)
  6. 36 or 1600 (Higher of ACT/SAT Scores)

All 6 percentage scores are totaled and then expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible score (6).

There is also a new Excel spreadsheet available for download that encompasses these changes, called “NYC-SIFT Scores for all schools” which can be found on “Data Downloads” section under “Guides”.

The spreadsheet contains three sheets:

  1. Combined Score
  2. Academic Score
  3. Survey Score

On each sheet, schools are listed in order by “Score %”, highest to lowest. You will see a raw score and the corresponding score %. The “Combined Score” sheet is the closest thing you’ll find on NYC-SIFT that gives an overall school ranking.

The “Academic Score” sheet shows raw and percent scores for all six categories that are used to generate the new Academic Score.

A very important thing to keep in mind that these are only summarizations and should not be used to make broad judgements on a school’s ability to teach or the capabilities of its students. These numbers should only be used as a rough guide.