Back-to-SchoolI ncreasing concern about education among parents and teachers has produced vastly moreinformation about school quality. Not only do schools issue report cards on students, but nearly all states now churn out report cards on public schools. Local newspa- pers are getting into the act, too, investing time and energy to produce their own report cards. Many states (and large districts) post school report cards on the Web. While this is a welcome trend — as report cards can reveal char- acteristics about a school that affect your child’s learning — they can be impossible to decipher. Some force readers to plow through a dozen or more narrative pages about school enrollment, per pupil expenditures, and more. Others manage to convey a wealth of information about pupil test scores and school indicators with a single-page graphic of tables and bar charts. A report card on Los Angeles public schools, for example, looks like the instrument panel on a car. Prepared by a research center at the University of California at Los Angeles, it has facts about school and class size, computers, money spent, discipline, safety, teacher credentials, ethnicity and English proficiency of students, poor chil- dren, extra help programs, and the all-important school results on the Stanford 9 achievement test, which allow district and national compar- isons. There is enough information to permit the reader to draw conclu- sions — if they don’t get lost first. Some states — Florida among them — have developed a straight- forward school report card that grades schools on the traditional and easily understood A–F scale. Oregon’s report card describes schools as exceptional, strong, satisfactory, low or unacceptable. Besides pupil performance on state achievement tests, it factors atten-dance, the dropout rate, SAT scores and staff teaching experience. Some states couch school report cards in gentler terms of “levels,” (perhaps hoping that the designa- tion “Level I” school will not resonate in the public conscious- ness in the same way that an “F” does). But it can be difficult for the education consumer to tell whether a Level I school is the best or the worst. There is no such confusion between “A” and “F.” What Should You Look for on a School Report Card? Schoolwide performance on state-mandated achievement tests should be central to a school’s grade on a state report card, although test scores alone won’t tell you whether the state’s standards and tests are rigorous enough to be meaningful. Some educators disagree, but grading schools based largely on achievement in such areas as reading, writing, mathematics and science can tell you whether there is reason to cheer or to start shopping. Large numbers of failures on such tests should be viewed as incrimi- nating evidence of serious deficien- cies in a school’s curriculum, teaching strategies, or staff. School report cards ideally should allow the reader to discern a school’s strengths and weak- nesses and to compare student performance to district, state, and perhaps even national educational standards and achievement levels. Certain school “indicators” are also quite important. A report card might show, for example, that teacher absenteeism is higher than average, resulting in a parade of substitute teachers in charge of classrooms. Other factors or “school indica- tors” that are relevant are: pupil and teacher attendance, the drop- out rate, graduation rate and the expulsion rate. Some states report on teacher credentials and certification. (Are teachers teaching within their certi-fied area of expertise or is the gym teacher assigned to teach the algebra class?) It’s less relevant that you know factors such as student and staff “diversity,” staff experience and leadership qualities and staff salaries. Many experts argue that the best state report cards on schools consider value added performance referenced to an external achieve- ment standard. For example, what progress has a class or entire school made from one year to the next? When viewing any state report card, It helps to look with a skeptical eye. Some states might trumpet that 60 percent of the third graders in a school improved their reading scores over the previous year. This is terrific news, indicating that staff has been working hard on reading skills, but what the report card might downplay is that those third graders are still performing far below average when compared to national, state, or district averages. Another prevalent “spin” is to group schools by the socio-economic level of pupils so that schools with high concentrations of poor families are compared only to similar schools and not to an objec- tive standard so that parents know where their children should be. Report cards are important because a school’s grade can bring consequences, both good and bad, ranging from financial rewards for successful schools to state interven- tion and takeovers of failing schools. They also can help you determine if you’ve chosen the right place for your child. Do some searching. Try to read what reports your state or district offers. And do not hesitate to ask more questions! Until schools are really consumer friendly, Parent Power! advises you to use the keen sense you use in shopping for a car to help evaluate schools.Carol Innerst is a freelance education writer and a former national educa- tion reporter for the Washington Times. She now resides in York, PA.School Report Cards: What Do They Mean?
