Secretary DeVos Releases Guide to Help Families Understand School Report Cards Required by ESSA
WASHINGTON – Building on her commitment to empower parents and guardians with relevant, transparent information on their local schools, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos released today a resource guide to understanding state and local report cards required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
ESSA directs states and districts to publish report cards that show important measures of state, district and school performance, and progress. Specifically, states and districts will report on graduation rates, student achievement, school climate, state accountability, teacher qualifications and other key indicators. For the first time ever, states will be required to report funding from federal, state and local sources, and how much money is spent per pupil. Parents will be able to utilize this valuable information to make informed decisions about their child’s current education, as well as future learning pathways.
“Parents deserve to know what is happening in their child’s school,” said Secretary DeVos. “They should not have to parse through a 500-page legal document to understand how a law or policy affects their children’s education. This guide demonstrates our ongoing commitment to providing parents with user-friendly tools and the information necessary to make informed decisions. Informed parents become empowered and engaged parents who are able to better advocate on behalf of their children.”
For more information on ESSA report cards, please see the parent guide that is available here. ESSA requires that report cards be concise, understandable and accessible to the public.
Later this week, the Department’s Office of Educational Technology is hosting a Report Card Design Challenge. The event, which will take place Nov. 8 – 9, 2018, will challenge web content creators to design user friendly, easy to understand report card landing pages and per pupil expenditure pages. Learn more about the design challenge here.
You can find these materials, along with all the other ESSA resources, including A Parent’s Guide to ESSA, by clicking here