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When authoritative sources present conflicting information, how do we determine which one to use? For example, The Success School in Glasgow, Kentucky, is an alternative high school. NCES and the Kentucky Department of Education list an address on Columbia Avenue. The local school district, and Google show an address on Cherry Street. Google Maps places it on Cherry Street, but notes it is located in Glasgow High. Glasgow High is at the Columbia Street address. NCES data is from the 2019-20 school year. KDE webpage is copyrighted 2020 and the Success Academy webpage is undated. |
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These situations will always have to be examined on a case-by-case basis, but the source you should always try to reference first is the one maintained by the entity in question, i.e., the actual school and/or district website. State DOE websites and NCES are certainly authoritative, but they are often a couple steps removed and may not contain as up-to-date info as an individual school website, even if the general website was recently updated. You can think of state DOE and NCES websites as being on lower rungs of the authoritative school resource hierarchy, even though they are authoritative. NCES gets its data from state education agencies, so if the state education agency hasn’t yet received current information from a district, then that information will not be reflected in NCES. Google can be used as a supplementary source but should never be used as a primary authoritative source. In this specific case, the parent agreement linked on the Success Academy website notes that the Success Academy "is an independent, home-based study program, offered as an alternative to regular attendance at Glasgow High School." Since this is a home study program, it does not need to be represented with a point in the TNMCorps editor. According to the Glasgow ISD website, the building located at 629 West Cherry Street houses the Glasgow Preschool Academy. The District website does not mention the Happy Valley Learning Center, which is what the point at that location is currently labeled, and since we aren't collecting preschools, the point located on the building at 629 West Cherry Street should be deleted. When in doubt, you can always give the school a call to confirm an address. |
