Data Quality & Validation

1. Our Approach to Data Quality

ThinkKits aggregates data from multiple federal and state education agencies to build the most comprehensive school intelligence dataset available. Because procurement decisions, funding justifications, and compliance documents depend on this data, we hold ourselves to a rigorous validation standard.

Every data dimension is validated using a three-layer approach:

2. Authoritative Sources

We source exclusively from federal agencies and verified state department of education publications. Every data point traces back to an authoritative origin.

Source	Publisher	What We Use It For	Refresh
Common Core of Data (CCD)	NCES, Dept. of Education	School identification, enrollment, demographics, directory	Annual
F-33 Finance Survey	NCES / Census Bureau	District revenue, per-pupil expenditure, funding sources	Annual
EdFacts	Dept. of Education	Assessment proficiency rates by school	Annual
CRDC	Office for Civil Rights	Course access, discipline, staffing, equity indicators	Biennial
ED Data Express	Dept. of Education	Graduation rates (ACGR) by school	Annual
USAC E-Rate	FCC / USAC	Technology discount eligibility, vendor commitments	Quarterly
Census SAIPE	Census Bureau	Small area poverty estimates for Title I	Annual
Urban Institute	Education Data Portal	Supplementary enrollment and finance data via API	Mirrors NCES

3. Universe Validation

We validate our total school and district counts against the official NCES CCD publications for the most recent school year (2023-24).

Schools

Metric	NCES Official	ThinkKits	Delta	Status
Operating schools (50 states + DC)	99,297	98,374	-0.9%	Validated
Active schools (enrollment > 0)	~98,700	98,657	<0.1%	Validated
Total in database (incl. territories, inactive)	N/A	—	—	Full Archive

Districts

Metric	NCES Official	ThinkKits	Delta	Status
Total LEAs	19,066	—	—	Validated

The NCES count includes supervisory union administrative centers, LEAs with no operating schools, and service agencies. Our count reflects LEAs that operate at least one school — the relevant universe for procurement and sales intelligence.

State-Level Verification

All 50 states and the District of Columbia have been verified individually against NCES CCD 2023-24 Table 3. Forty-nine of fifty-one jurisdictions are within 10% of the NCES count. The average deviation is +3.6%, reflecting inclusion of recently closed schools.

4. Coverage by Data Dimension

For each data dimension, we track coverage as a percentage of the relevant universe and validate against external targets.

Enrollment

School Year	Target	Records	Coverage	Status
2023-24	98,657	97,040	98.4%	Strong
2022-23	98,657	96,979	98.3%	Strong
2021-22	98,657	96,198	97.5%	Strong
2020-21	98,657	96,198	97.5%	Strong
2019-20	98,657	95,816	97.1%	Strong

National enrollment cross-check: Our total enrollment of 50,012,296 is within 1% of the NCES reported figure of approximately 49.5 million students.

Assessment Proficiency

School Year	Subject	Schools with Data	Coverage	Status
2021-22 (primary)	Math	78,686	87.4%	Strong
	ELA / Reading	77,805	86.4%	Strong
2022-23	Math	69,142	76.8%	Expanding
	ELA / Reading	65,631	72.9%	Expanding
2023-24	Math	State data releases in progress — expanding through 2026
	ELA / Reading	State data releases in progress — expanding through 2026

Assessment data is sourced from EdFacts and supplementary state data exports. The 2021-22 school year represents our most complete assessment coverage (Math: 87.4%, ELA: 86.4%). Coverage for 2022-23 and beyond reflects the ongoing rollout of state-level data releases; coverage expands continuously as additional state datasets are ingested.

District Finance

Fiscal Year	Districts	Coverage	School Links	Status
FY2023	18,132	98.8%	99,282	Strong
FY2022	18,188	99.1%	99,306	Strong
FY2021	18,166	98.9%	99,187	Strong
FY2020	18,166	98.9%	97,816	Strong

Graduation Rates

School Year	Schools with Data	Coverage (of HS)	Status
2022-23	19,064	81.1%	Strong
2021-22	21,927	93.2%	Strong
2020-21	20,921	88.9%	Strong
2019-20	Not published (COVID-19 — NCES did not release ACGR data for this year)

Key School Properties — Current Coverage

Property	Coverage	Status	Notes
Enrollment	94.8%	Strong	Active schools in 50 states + DC; territories and closed schools excluded from denominator
Free/Reduced Lunch Rate (FRL)	84.7%	Expanding	Sourced from NCES CCD; charter schools, non-NSLP schools, and CEP community eligibility schools report differently; remaining 15.3% use alternative poverty proxies
Locale Classification	97.6%	Strong	NCES urban-centric 12-category locale codes; missing records are small/new schools pending classification
Virtual / Online School Flag	97.4%	Strong	CCD virtual indicator; remaining unclassified schools are flagged for manual review
ELA Proficiency	86.4%	Strong	State assessment data from EdFacts; some states publish ELA-only files with 1-year lag
Math Proficiency	87.4%	Strong	State assessment data from EdFacts; slightly higher coverage than ELA due to math-only state reporting
Opportunity Score	97.6%	Strong	ThinkKits composite score; requires enrollment + FRL + at least one proficiency or equity signal; missing for very new or small schools
Title I Status	97.2%	Strong	Derived from NCES CCD Title I indicator; ~2.8% unresolved due to recent funding designation changes
Graduation Rate (high schools)	93.1%	Strong	ACGR from ED Data Express; high school universe only (denominator ~23,500)

5. Accuracy Cross-Checks

Beyond counting records, we verify that aggregate values match published national figures.

Metric	Our Data	Published Reference	Delta	Source
Total national enrollment	50,012,296	~49,500,000	+1.0%	NCES Press Release, Dec 2024
Operating schools (50 states + DC)	98,374	99,297	-0.9%	NCES CCD 2023-24 Table 3
High schools (all types)	23,372	~23,519	-0.6%	NCES Fast Facts #84

All aggregate metrics are within 1.5% of their published reference values. The minor positive delta in enrollment reflects inclusion of territory schools and recently opened schools.

State-Level Validation

School counts have been validated against NCES CCD 2023-24 Table 3 for every state individually. Forty-nine of fifty-one jurisdictions (50 states + DC) fall within 10% of the NCES count, with an average deviation of +3.6%.

6. Known Limitations

We believe transparency about what we don't have is as important as what we do. The following are known constraints of our dataset:

• Federal data lag: Education data from NCES, EdFacts, and the F-33 survey is published 12-24 months after the school year ends. This is inherent to all federal education data, not specific to ThinkKits.
• Assessment cross-state comparisons: Proficiency rates reflect each state's own assessment and cut scores. A 50% proficiency rate in one state is not directly comparable to 50% in another. We display these rates for within-state analysis.
• Graduation rate methodology: We display school-level ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate) data. Our unweighted school-level national average differs from the NCES cohort-weighted national rate. Individual school values remain accurate.
• Territory schools: We include 988 schools in U.S. territories (PR, GU, MP, AS, VI). These are excluded from NCES 50-state totals, which can cause our overall count to appear slightly higher than published benchmarks.
• Closed and inactive schools: Approximately 5,500 schools in our database are marked closed or inactive. They are retained for historical analysis but excluded from active coverage metrics.
• ELA proficiency coverage: Some state data sources report math proficiency but not ELA proficiency in a machine-readable format. We are expanding ELA coverage as additional state data becomes available. Current best-year coverage: 86.4% (Math: 87.4%).
• FRL / lunch rate coverage: Free/Reduced Lunch Rate is available for 84.7% of schools. The remaining 15.3% includes charter schools that don’t participate in NSLP, districts using Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) reporting, and schools missing recent CCD membership submissions. Where FRL is unavailable, our scoring models substitute SAIPE poverty estimates as a proxy.
• Opportunity Score coverage: The ThinkKits Opportunity Score requires a minimum of enrollment data, FRL rate, and at least one equity or academic signal. Approximately 2.4% of schools in our database lack sufficient data to generate a score — typically very small or newly opened schools. These schools display available profile data but show “Score pending data” rather than a numeric score.
• Locale and virtual flags: Locale (97.6%) and virtual school flags (97.4%) are sourced from NCES CCD. The small gap reflects schools that opened after the most recent CCD publication or that are pending NCES classification review.

7. Validation Schedule

Data quality is not a one-time event. We validate continuously as new data becomes available:

Check	Frequency	Trigger
Universe counts vs NCES	Annually	New CCD release (typically December)
State-level school counts	Annually	New CCD summary tables
National enrollment total	Annually	New CCD membership file
National graduation rate	Annually	New ACGR publication
Finance totals	Annually	New F-33 release (typically September)
Property completeness	After each data load	Automated post-ingestion audit
Relationship integrity	After each data load	Automated post-ingestion audit

8. See Something Wrong?

If you encounter a data point that doesn't look right, we want to hear about it. Every report is investigated and tracked.