Parents, educators, advocates, and policymakers need timely information about their students and schools to make informed decisions and advocate for student success. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) builds on a critical component of No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) by maintaining the requirement for states to publish annual report cards, providing families and the public with transparent information about student outcomes.
The Department of Education (ED) should support states in their efforts to make report cards understandable and useful by making sure that basic requirements are clear and reflect best practices. ED’s newly released resource can serve as a tool to clarify expectations and push states to continuously improve their report cards. DQC recently looked at report cards for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and together with the organizations listed in this document, offer comments on the proposed report card resource.
