Center on Reinventing Public Education reposted this
Check out this new report I led with the Center on Reinventing Public Education, focusing on the transparency and usability of state school report cards. We can do so much better in providing parents with clear, understandable data about how schools are doing, and our report points the way toward some state models that are much better!
🎒 How easy is it to tell how your child is doing in school? According to new research released this morning by our team at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, not easy at all, depending on where you live. Our research team, (Morgan Polikoff, Nadja Michel-Herf, Heather Casimere, M.A., Cara Pangelinan, Travis Pillow, and Janette Avelar) graded all 50 state report cards (plus DC) on 1. how easy it would be for a parent or average user to compare how their student is performing pre- and post-COVID and 2. in general, how easy the report card site is to navigate. Only seven states got an A, with 34 states plus DC receiving a C or lower. This was a super interesting, fun project to work on, and I feel lucky to have been a part of a report that could make a marked difference in data transparency. There are clear solutions to better data access, and our team hopes that the states that didn't rank so well (like my adopted home state and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction) use their grades as a reason to examine their systems and do better. The first step to fixing a problem is knowing it exists—so hopefully some of these states can make it easier for parents and advocates to take that first step.