Grading school report cards 

Amid the frequent news stories about “failing” public schools, it’s easy to lose sight of the many highly successful schools. But knowing where one’s local school falls on this spectrum can be hard to determine. In part, this is because gathering information on school quality can be difficult and time consuming, leaving many to rely on school demographics, personal observations, or word of mouth within one’s social network to estimate a school’s quality.  

Recognizing the need for information in public education, Congress mandated in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that all states create and disseminate annual school performance report cards. A decade after NCLB passed, school report cards are widely available for nearly every school in the country. As the amount of school performance data grows, so too has public attention. In major cities like New York and Washington, D.C., days of media coverage often follow the release of the annual report card as schools become publicly identified as high flyers or huge disappointments. Research suggests the public does pay attention to these reports, with report card grades influencing parent satisfaction and housing prices (Jacobsen, Saultz, & Snyder, 2013; Figlio & Lucas, 2004). But this responsiveness should be viewed cautiously because report card elements not related to school performance, like how data are presented, also influence satisfaction (Jacobsen, Snyder, & Saultz, in press). Thus, while school performance report cards hold potential to inform, they also can distort views about public education performance and affect parent and voter support for public education. 

Providing performance report cards can enlighten the public and lead to an improved education system.