ED.gov Readability Technical Education

Jun 27

ED.gov Readability

In “Are You Smart Enough to Read ED.gov?” Mike Petrilli suggested that the content on ED.gov requires the most advanced reading levels of all websites in the federal government.

As all of us in education policy have learned over the past decade, it’s important to disaggregate data. When you slice the readability data across various sections of ed.gov, you see a significantly different story. The overall readability levels for ed.gov are driven higher by a large volume of research and statistics aimed at a specialized audience of researchers and policy analysts. However, the content designed to reach the general public scores significantly better on the Google readability scale than other federal websites.

Here’s a quick analysis:

ED.gov includes the Institute for Education Sciences (IES). IES is independent from the Department of Education. IES is home to several research institutes and the National Center for Education Statistics. IES operates its own website that is run and managed independently of ED.gov. The IES site servers are filled with statistical and research reports.

Here are the readability results for IES:

ies.ed.gov

Basic 1%

Intermediate 24%

Advanced 76%

By comparison, the National Institutes of Health has a research-based mission that is similar to IES’s. The Google readability result for NIH and IES are almost identical.

Basic < 1%

Intermediate 21%

Advanced 79%

When IES is excluded from the Google readability analysis, the results for the ed.gov are significantly different. (This is accomplished by putting in the search box.)

Basic 7%

Intermediate 90%

Advanced 2%

By disaggregating data for specific sections of , we see that most of the site’s most read features are accessible to the general public. These top 10 areas account for almost three-quarters of all page views on ed.gov. In these sections, the readability of sections that are designed for parents, the news media, and the general public is much easier than the site at large.

Here are the readability scores for the Top 10 sections:

1. Programs

Basic < 1%

Intermediate 74%

Advanced 26%

2. About ED

Basic < 1%

Intermediate 79%

Advanced 21%

3. Policy

Basic < 1%

Intermediate 88%

Advanced 12%

4. Funding

Basic 0%

Intermediate 82%

Advanced 18%

5. News (press releases, media advisories, speeches)

Basic 6%

Intermediate 91%

Advanced 3%

6. Administrators

Basic 3%

Intermediate 68%

Advanced 29%

7. No Child Left Behind

Basic 7%

Intermediate 76%

Advanced 17%

8. Parents

Basic 48%

Intermediate 48%

Advanced 4%

9. Blog

Basic 11%

Intermediate 88%

Advanced < 1%

10. Research and Statistics

Basic < 1%

Intermediate 23%

Advanced 76%

Technical Education