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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2005 > August > 17 > Entry
So what’s it all mean?
The scores are out and the question now is, how did your school do? How can you use report card information to learn more about the school where your child attends?
Here’s my advice:
First, maintain perspective. Test scores do not tell the whole story of a school’s effectiveness. I’ve seen good schools score low and bad schools do well. But test scores and report card information can help you learn about your school.
Remember, test scores are volatile. Every year a different group of kids are tested. Your school might be best in the district one year, then third, then first again in consecutive years. Don’t worry too much about small drops or get too excited about modest gains from year to year.
Compare to like schools. How does your school rank vs. similar schools? For instance, Kettering has nine elementary schools. Is your school first, last or somewhere in the middle? Or if your looking at Kettering Fairmont High School, how do its scores compare to other Montgomery County high schools?
Consider the scores for three or four tests — certainly reading and math, maybe science and social studies. The writing test is the least useful to compare. Is your school first or second in its comparison group on all of them? That’s good. Is it repeatedly at the bottom? That could be a worry.
Pay attention to trends. You want your school moving forward, not backward. I like to see at least a three year trend. If every year your school’s scores went up, that’s a good sign. If they went down each year, it could be cause for concern.
Did you school meet AYP? That’s the federal government’s progress measure. Not meeting it can put the school on a path toward sanctions. The state now also offers a performance index score, a measure of how the school did across all tests. That number can be compared with other schools, and again check the three-year trend. Is the index score going up or down?
Look at attendance. I think this is an under appreciated signal of school quality. Kids who attend great schools want to come everyday. A very high attendance rate is an excellent sign. The trend is important here, too. Good jumps up over three years are encouraging. A steady decline is a red flag.
Ask questions. Once you get a sense for your school’s trends and how it compares, see if the teachers and the principal are paying attention. Ask what they are doing to address their weaknesses. How do they hope to build on their strengths?
