Reporting student test scores can tell us some things about a school. But parents need to know more in order to make good educational choices for their children. Here are some areas where parents need to do a little testing of their own.

The No Child Left Behind law requires each school to send annual report cards to parents with data showing how well the school is doing academically. The report cards also must state whether the school is identified as low performing, whether it has qualified teachers and how this school compares to other schools.

While the focus is on reporting test scores, teachers know-and parents do, too -- that there is much more to report.

Much of what is really important in education does not lend itself readily to countable numbers. These are the big-ticket items related to personal motivation and learning environments.

My experience from more than 45 years on the school/ home front lines reveals there are at least eight more important categories that need to be included in report cards to parents.

These are the numbers parents need to know:

  1. Discipline incidents. Ask what kind of incidents schools report. Are they the usual student pranks or do they amount to something more serious? Keeping these categories separate is important. When they are put together, they skew the picture of a school as either a safer or more violent place. Parents also need to ask how schools handle disciplinary problems when they do take place. 
  2. Attendance and tardiness. These numbers say a lot about the morale of the school -- and the attentiveness of staff to student attitudes and behavior. These numbers provide the initial clues to later dropout rates. 
  3. Class size. As a longtime teacher and parent, I do not need more research to tell me that smaller classes are better. It doesn't take a genius to know that putting more mature adults next to children is a good idea. We all want to send our children to schools where they are names and not numbers. 
  4. Strength of parent involvement. Is this a school where parents and teachers care about being involved in a cooperative effort? How many parents come to PTA and other school-related meetings? How many parents show up at parent-teacher conferences? How many volunteers are involved with the school? 
  5. Experience of educators. What is the average teacher salary at the school? What is the average number of years these teachers have taught? Are staff development and in-service training offered? Ideally, a school should have a combination of older and younger staff so they can learn from and energize each other. 
  6. Grading practices. Is this a school where lots of students get A's or is this a school where lots of students get low grades? Unlike test scores, grades are not often discussed except when critics bemoan grade inflation. Grading patterns, along with test scores, tell a big story about the school. 
  7. Student aspirations and school support. At the secondary level, numbers about student hopes and school support are revealed in dropout rates. But beyond those are the numbers detailing how many students from this school go on to college and how many and what kinds of Advanced Placement classes are offered. These are the kinds of numbers that schools know and need to share. 
  8. Test results. Test scores are useful but only when results come back to schools in a timely fashion. This means before the end of the school year. How many months go by between the taking of a test and the return of the results? Are the results used to help children master what they have not yet learned before they move on?

These are questions about tests that a growing number of parents care about and need to ask. For children to get the benefit of high-priced tests-let's not kid ourselves, tests cost a lot of money-the results need to come back as soon as possible for teaching and learning purposes.

Report cards are designed to communicate, to make assessments, and also to help us learn and to move to the next step.

When parents receive a number of numbers-such as those in these eight categories-there's more learning for everyone and a fairer chance for more schools and children to make the grade.

 

Dorothy Rich is founder and president of the Home and School Institute and its MegaSkills Education Center,Washington, D.C. Reprinted with permission of School Board News, March 5, 2002. (c) 2002. National School Boards Association. All Rights Reserved.