We’re measuring educational opportunity in
every community in America.
We’re measuring educational opportunity in
every community in America.
The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University has built the first national database of academic performance. We create applications, research reports, and interactive articles to enable anyone to explore and understand our data.
The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University has built the first national database of academic performance. We create applications, research reports, and interactive articles to enable anyone to explore and understand our data.
The 2009-2018 Educational
Opportunity Explorer
View charts and maps that show scores on 3 key measures of educational opportunity; filter by demographics, explore opportunity gaps, export reports, and more.
go to the explorer
The 2019-2022 Education
Recovery Explorer
Compare learning loss in districts across the country and gain insights into how remote learning, federal funds, and other factors impacted students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
go to the explorer
Research
Papers produced by (and using data from) the Stanford Education Data Archive.
School District and Community Factors Associated With Learning Loss During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Erin M. Fahle, Thomas J. Kane, Tyler Patterson, Sean F. Reardon, Douglas O. Staiger, Elizabeth A. Stuart
Local Achievement Impacts of the Pandemic
Erin Fahle, Thomas J. Kane, Tyler Patterson, sean f. reardon, Douglas O. Staiger
The Geography of Rural Educational Opportunity
Jessica Drescher, Anne Podolsky, Sean F. Reardon, Gabrielle Torrance
Discoveries
Read our featured articles, illustrated with dynamic charts & graphics.
Learning vs Average Achievement for Native Students by County
Erin Fahle & sean f. reardon
Increasing School Segregation Widens White-Black Achievement Gaps
Kaylee T. Matheny, Marissa E. Thompson, Carrie Townley Flores, & sean f. reardon
Racial Socioeconomic Inequality Predicts Growing Racial Academic Inequality
Kaylee T. Matheny, Marissa E. Thompson, Carrie Townley Flores, & sean f. reardon
Learning vs Average Achievement for Native Students by County
Increasing School Segregation Widens White-Black Achievement Gaps
Racial Socioeconomic Inequality Predicts Growing Racial Academic Inequality
Affluent Schools Are Not Always the Best Schools
What Explains White-Black Differences in Average Test Scores
Download the Data
Download and access SEDA and related datasets to start your own research on educational opportunity.
ACCESS THE DATAIn the News
May 16, 2023
Opinion Today: The pandemic’s devastating effect on children’s learning
“The pandemic was a public health and economic disaster that reshaped every area of children’s lives, but it did so to different degrees in different communities, and so its consequences for children depended on where they lived.”
May 12, 2023
How much learning did students miss during the pandemic? Researchers have an answer.
“New research paints the clearest picture yet of just how much learning students missed during the pandemic, and what it may take to help children in the hardest hit districts to make up ground."
May 11, 2023
Op-Ed: Pandemic Learning Losses Were Very Steep. They Don’t Have to Be Permanent.
“We have been sifting through data from 7,800 communities in 41 states ... our detailed geographic data reveals what national tests do not: The pandemic exacerbated economic and racial educational inequality."
November 28, 2022
Pandemic Learning Loss: The Role Remote Learning Played
“In a sophisticated analysis of thousands of public school districts in 29 states, researchers at Harvard and Stanford Universities found that poverty played an even bigger role in academic declines during the pandemic.”
November 23, 2022
The science on remote schooling is now clear. Here’s who it hurt most.
“Academic progress for American children plunged during the coronavirus pandemic. Now a growing body of research shows who was hurt the most, both confirming worst fears and adding some new ones.”
October 28, 2022
COVID-19 pandemic massively set back learning, especially for high-poverty areas
The COVID-19 pandemic devastated poor children’s well-being, not just by closing their schools, but also by taking away their parents’ jobs, sickening their families and teachers, and adding chaos and fear to their daily lives. The scale of the disruption to American kids’ education is evident in a district-by-district analysis of test scores shared exclusively with The Associated Press.
