The Latest News
Score Reports: Empowering Parents and Families with Information
As summer winds down, parents across the country are learning how their children performed last year on tests aligned to their state’s academic standards. End of year tests are just one measure and should be used in combination with report cards, teacher feedback, and classroom work to create a complete picture of a student’s progress in school. And while the way that student performance is communicated to parents continues to change and improve, one thing is clear—the new reports provide a valuable resource for parents.
Far from providing just an arbitrary data point, score reports now show parents at what level their child achieved and importantly, what each level means. Score reports also contain a number of key changes from reports of the past, including year-by-year score comparisons and detailed information on school, district, and state averages. They make it easier for parents to identify where their child is and where their child may need more help.
Are these reports perfect? Of course not.
Score reporting is still a work in progress. But as administrators continue to receive feedback from parents about what works and what doesn’t, the way that student performance is communicated to parents will only continue to improve.
Check out the links below to learn more about score reports as well as the resources for parents that are free and available right now.
- Sample Score Reports:
- Tools to help parents:
- Be a Learning Hero’s Readiness Roadmapidentifies a number of tools and resources available to help parents better understand what their kids are learning and how they’re performing: http://bealearninghero.org/readinessroadmap
- Descriptions of the skills and knowledge children in each grade are expected to learn are available in the PTA Parents’ Guide to Successat http://www.pta.org/parentsguide or Univision’s Clave al Éxito at http://exito.univision.com/
- The Great Kids State Test Guideprovides English language arts and math help for parents: org/gk/common-core-test-guide/
About the Collaborative for Student Success
At our core, we believe leaders at all levels have a role to play in ensuring success for K-12 students. From ensuring schools and teachers are equipped with the best materials to spotlighting the innovative and bold ways federal recovery dollars are being used to drive needed changes, the Collaborative for Student Success aims to inform and amplify policies making a difference for students and families.
To recover from the most disruptive event in the history of American public schools, states and districts are leveraging unprecedented resources to make sure classrooms are safe for learning, providing students and teachers with the high-quality instructional materials they deserve, and are rethinking how best to measure learning so supports are targeted where they’re needed most.