A side-by-side look at the Education Data and Brightspace MCP Server MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Education Data for education work as a local process; choose Brightspace MCP Server for education as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
education_find_schools, education_find_districts, education_district_finance.get_my_courses, get_upcoming_due_dates, get_calendar_events.Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Education | Education |
| Quality signal | 53/100 · Good | 68/100 · Great |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | Not declared | other |
| Pricing | Not declared | Free |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 0 | 57 |
| Directory activity | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 3 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 4 | 16 |
| Full listing | View Education Data | View Brightspace MCP Server |
education_find_schoolsFind US K-12 PUBLIC SCHOOLS by state, with optional city or name filter. Keyless federal data (NCES Common Core of Data via the Urban Institute). Returns each school's NCES id, name, district, city, enrollment, charter/magnet status, grade range, and free/reduced-price lunch counts. Use for "public…education_find_districtsFind US PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS (local education agencies) by state, with optional name filter. Keyless federal data (NCES Common Core of Data). Returns each district's LEA id, name, county, city, number of schools, enrollment, and teacher counts. Use for "school districts in <state>", "how big is…education_district_financeSchool district FUNDING AND SPENDING — revenue by source (federal / state / local) and expenditure by function, plus computed PER-PUPIL spending. Keyless federal data (NCES CCD school district finance survey, F-33). Use for "how much does <district> spend per student", "school funding by district i…education_child_povertyCHILD POVERTY by school district — Census SAIPE estimates of the number and percentage of school-age children (5-17) in poverty, which drive federal Title I funding. Keyless. Use for "child poverty rate in <district>", "poorest school districts in <state>", "how many students in poverty in <distric…get_my_coursesFetch your enrolled Brightspace courses with names, codes, and IDs. Use this when the user asks about their courses, enrolled classes, what they're taking this semester, or needs a course ID for other queries.get_upcoming_due_datesFetch upcoming due dates across all your courses, derived from the due dates on assignments (dropbox folders), quizzes, and graded discussion topics themselves, plus course calendar events such as exams and labs (type: event). Use this when the user asks about deadlines, what's due, upcoming work, or what they need to do this week.get_calendar_eventsFetch course calendar events — exams, midterms, labs, recitations, review sessions, schedule changes, and deadlines instructors typed straight onto the calendar — across all your courses or one course, in a time window (default: the next 7 days). Use this when the user asks when an exam is, what's on their calendar, or what's happening this week.get_my_gradesFetch your grade breakdown for a specific course or all enrolled courses. Shows grade items with points, percentages, and comments. Use this when the user asks about grades, scores, marks, GPA, academic performance, or how they're doing in a class.get_announcementsFetch recent announcements from your courses. Can filter to a specific course or get announcements across all courses. Use this when the user asks about announcements, news, updates from instructors, recent posts, or what professors said. Attachments are listed per announcement; fetch them with download_file (newsId + fileId) or read them with get_announcement_files.get_assignmentsFetch assignments and quizzes for a specific course or all enrolled courses. Shows dropbox submissions and quizzes with due dates, status, and rubric info. Use this when the user asks about assignments, homework, what to submit, quizzes, or assignment details and rubrics.get_assignment_filesRead the files an instructor attached to an assignment: the spec or instructions PDF, a starter workbook, a rubric document. Call it with just courseId to see which assignments have attachments, then with folderId and fileId to read one. Use this when the user asks what an assignment requires, what the instructions say, or to summarize a handout. Returns the text itself. Use download_file instead when the user wants the file saved to disk.get_announcement_filesRead the files an instructor attached to an announcement: prompt questions, a rubric, an updated schedule, slides. Call it with just courseId to see which announcements have attachments, then with newsId and fileId to read one. Use this when the user asks what a file attached to an announcement says. Returns the text itself. Use download_file (newsId + fileId) instead when the user wants the file saved to disk.get_course_contentFetch the content tree for a course showing modules, topics, files, and links. Use this when the user asks about course materials, lecture slides, uploaded files, content structure, or what's in a course module. Use moduleTitle to filter to a specific module (e.g. 'Labs', 'Staff', 'Homeworks') instead of fetching the entire tree. Use maxDepth to limit recursion depth for a table-of-contents view.download_fileDownload a file from course content, assignment submissions, or an announcement's attachments to a local directory. Use this when the user wants to download, save, or get a file from Brightspace course content, dropbox submissions, or an announcement (newsId + fileId, from get_announcements). IMPORTANT: You MUST ask the user where they want to save the file before calling this tool. Never guess or assume a download directory. After identifying the file to download, suggest a clean readable filename to the user (e.g., 'Lecture 7 - Memory Management.pdf' instead of 'L07_CS251_2026SP_v2.pdf') and ask if they'd like to rename it. Pass their preferred name as customFilename, or omit it to keep the original.get_classlist_emailsFetch all email addresses for everyone in a course — instructors, TAs, and students. Use this when the user wants a list of emails for a class, needs to email the whole class, or wants contact info for everyone enrolled.get_rosterFetch the roster for a course including instructors, TAs, and optionally students with their names, emails, and roles. Use this when the user asks about classmates, instructor contact info, TA emails, professor names, or who's in a class. By default returns only instructors and TAs for privacy. Use includeStudents to get full class list.Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
{
"mcpServers": {
"education-data-2": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@pipeworx/mcp-education-data"
]
}
}
}
{
"mcpServers": {
"rohanmuppa-brightspace-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"brightspace-mcp-server@latest"
]
}
}
}