The following is a guest post from David Hoff, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communication Development at the Department of Education.
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 www.ed.gov in the search box.)
Basic??????????? 7%
Intermediate??????????? 90%
Advanced??????????? 2%
By disaggregating data for specific sections of www.ed.gov, 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 www.ed.gov's Top 10 sections:
1. Programs
http://www.ed.gov/programs/ -- 26.72% of all pageviews
Basic -- < 1%
Intermediate -- 74%
Advanced -- 26%
2. About ED
http://www.ed.gov/about/ -- 17.65% of all pageviews
Basic -- < 1%
Intermediate -- 79%
Advanced -- 21%
3. Policy
http://www.ed.gov/policy/ -- 9.82% of all pageviews
Basic -- < 1%
Intermediate -- 88%
Advanced -- 12%
4. Funding
http://www.ed.gov/fund/ -- 7.40% of all pageviews
Basic -- 0%
Intermediate -- 82%
Advanced -- 18%
5. News (press releases, media advisories, speeches)
http://www.ed.gov/news/ -- 5.39% of all pageviews
Basic -- 6%
Intermediate -- 91%
Advanced -- 3%
6. Administrators
http://www.ed.gov/admins/ -- 4.72% of all pageviews
Basic -- 3%
Intermediate -- 68%
Advanced -- 29%
7. No Child Left Behind
http://www.ed.gov/nclb/ -- 3.42% of all pageviews
Basic -- 7%
Intermediate -- 76%
Advanced -- 17%
8. Parents
http://www.ed.gov/parents/ -- 2.17% of all pageviews
Basic -- 48%
Intermediate -- 48%
Advanced -- 4%
9. Blog
http://www.ed.gov/blog/ -- 1.61% of all pageviews
Basic -- 11%
Intermediate -- 88%
Advanced -- < 1%
10. Research and Statistics
http://www.ed.gov/rschstat/ -- 1.44% of all pageviews
Basic -- < 1%
Intermediate -- 23%
Advanced -- 76%