DAYTON — About 10,000 Dayton families will again receive a guide to more than 80 local schools in the mail over the next several days, but this year it will include quality ratings based on test scores.

Besides those mailed to Dayton city zip codes last week, another 10,000 School Chooser Guides will be distributed through public library branches and community organizations. The guide is a joint project of the University of Dayton, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and greatschools.net.

Beyond basic information, such as each school's address, phone number and principal's name, the guide also includes information about academic philosophy, programs, after-school offerings and for some schools, test scores. Several private schools declined to provide test data, but that information was available for public schools and is in the guide.

The public schools also were given quality ratings of 1 through 10 based on their state test scores. The private schools largely are not rated in that way in the guide.

"Obviously it's not perfect," said Andria Perkins, greatschools.net's outreach manager in Dayton. "It's not trends over time. It's just a quick way to assess if a school is in middle, top or bottom academically. We don't want parents to choose solely on that."

Dayton's charter school movement has blossomed since 1998. The city now ranks second in the nation for the percentage of kids attending charters. Those new schools, added to an already robust private school sector, prompted a need to help parents maneuver through myriad school choices now available to them.

The project costs about $200,000 a year, and organizers hope to add more area schools. For greatschools.net, a Web-based nonprofit with more than 100,000 school profiles online, Dayton is a pilot project for more expanded local involvement in cities with strong school choice movements.

Parents also get school choosing tools in the guide, such as worksheets for determining their own preferences, checklists for school visits and a system for ranking schools based on each family's needs and desires.

For more information, call (937) 229-2637 or e-mail

daytonschoolchooser@great

schools.net.