The 2012 school grades are now on our pages for all elementary and middle schools. The updated information is one of many data points on SchoolBook to help you compare and evaluate schools. Check it out.

The SchoolBook team has added and updated helpful guides explaining the intricacies of the nation’s largest school system, which has grown to a total of 1,750 schools this fall. Check them out for the latest on deadlines, rules and a road map to the Department of Education.

SchoolBook is poised for another year of the best news, data and conversation about the city schools, with a particular focus on its readers and listeners. That means you.

SchoolBook has updated its schools data, and the pages for all public schools (that includes charters) now have the latest available information on: English language arts and math scores for grades 3 to 8; parent survey results; Regents exam results; graduation rates; SAT scores, and official public school enrollment, broken down by race.

SchoolBook has published the teacher data reports using a new tool that was created by interactive journalists at The New York Times and WNYC. The goal of the tool: to make the data easier to understand and put the rankings into context. Read our explanation.

Conversation — along with news and data — is one of the three key pillars of SchoolBook, and we wanted to do everything we could to make it flourish. So we have added open-ended comment threads on posts to make it easier for you to weigh in on all the issues, ideas, news and opinions that touched, angered, inspired or entertained you.

We know that principals are extremely busy. But perhaps the holiday break offers a few minutes for reflection, and some more principals can use SchoolBook to explain their schools to the greater education community. Just e-mail us for the link.

Ask a question, hear the conversation, learn about how to better navigate New York City’s massive school system. SchoolBook is hosting its first live event. Join us in Brooklyn on Thursday night, as the WNYC host Brian Lehrer moderates a Town Hall discussion with the schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott and a panel of in-the-trenches educators and parents.

At SchoolBook, we are assessing the site every day, discussing tweaks and larger changes, and testing the experience against our expectations. If we were issuing ourselves a progress report, SchoolBook at three months has probably earned a … well, you tell us. Meanwhile, here are a few things that are on our agenda for improvement.

Your school’s 2011 Progress Report grade is now available on its SchoolBook page. The new grades have been added to the pages for all elementary and middle schools that were assessed this year.