How we rank driving schools

Our rankings are built from one thing above all: what real students and parents say about a school in public. Every month our research team checks each driving school's listings on Google, Yelp, Facebook and the Better Business Bureau, plus other review sites and the school's social media, and records the star ratings, review counts and audience size we find, with a link to where we found them. Each school gets a score out of 100 for every town it serves, and because we recheck every month, the lists change as schools earn new reviews. No school can pay to be listed or to move up, and we don't count the testimonials schools publish about themselves.

What goes into the score

• Customer rating (45 points): The average star rating across every review site we find the school on (Google, Yelp, Facebook, BBB and other listings), weighted by how many reviews each site has. Facebook's “% recommend” is converted to stars. Schools with only a few reviews are pulled toward the local average, so a 5.0 from four reviews doesn't outrank a 4.8 from four hundred.
• Number of reviews (15 points): How many customers have taken the time to review the school, across all sites.
• Rated well in more than one place (10 points): Schools reviewed on several sites, with similar ratings everywhere, score higher than schools that look good on only one.
• Social media (10 points): The audience a school has built on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and whether it's present on more than one.
• Momentum (10 points): Change since our last check: new reviews coming in and the rating moving up or down. This is what lets a school climb the list over time.
• Distance (10 points): Closer to the town gets more points. Multi-location schools are measured from their nearest branch.

Schools lose points for a poor Better Business Bureau grade or a pattern of complaints. Schools that have closed are removed.

Who's included

Each list covers driving schools within about 20 miles of the town, because most schools pick students up and teach across several towns. The ratings on each card link to the listings we used, so you can read the reviews yourself.

Keeping it fair

Every school is scored the same way, using the same sources, on the same day. Ratings can change between our checks, so confirm prices and availability with the school before you book. Own a school and see something out of date or missing, like a review site we didn't find? Let us know and we'll check it at the next update.

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