The Every Student Succeeds Act requires your school district and state to release a school report card every year. The report cards include important information about school environment, student demographics and academic performance on the state, local and school level. Although the reports need to be accessible to every parent, the information doesn’t always speak for itself. Getting familiar with this information can help you turn these reports into results for your child’s school.

It is PTA’s mission to ensure that parents and families are meaningfully supported and engaged in their children’s education. We are committed to helping parents understand, interpret and advocate for meaningful, understandable and transparent education information.

Here are four steps on how you can learn more and take action:

• Step 1: Why Does Education Data Matter?
• Step 2: Finding the Information
• Step 3: Interpreting What You Find
• Step 4: From Information to Improvements

Step 1: Why Does Education Data Matter?

To understand your child’s educational experience, you need to know more than just their test scores. By exploring information about your school, you can gain a deeper understanding of their day-to-day life at school and also have specific insights into what you want to change. Here are some resources to help you understand why education data matters to you:

• 3 Ways to Engage in New ESSA Report Cards
• What Makes a Good ESSA Report Card? (Webinar) (Click here to download the slides)
• A State Guide to Building Online Report Cards
• Parent Resource on Education Data
• Why Report Cards Matter 

Step 2: Finding the Information

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) puts a special emphasis on making sure parents are empowered to engage in their children’s education. One way the law makes that happen is by making education data accessible to all parents and families through school, district and state report cards. Here are some resources to help you find important sources of education data such as ESSA report cards.

• Click your state on our interactive map to find links to ESSA report cards

Step 3: Interpreting What You Find

These report cards include information that reveal some important details about your child’s school. The information available includes deep insights that go far beyond test scores. However, to find the most interesting information you may need to take a closer look. Here are some resources to help you understand and interpret education data:

• Parents Deserve Clear Information About Student Growth in Schools, National PTA and Data Quality Campaign (DQC)
• Disaggregated Data: Not Just a Box Checking Exercise, DQC, Learning Heroes, and National PTA
• State Report Cards: More Than Just Test Scores

Step 4: From Information to Improvements

Without complete data for the 2019-2020 school year, states will need to find new ways to demonstrate school and student performance and address learning loss caused by school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents must be a part of this conversation and be able to work alongside school and district leaders to ensure school closures do not adversely affect students, especially those from historically underserved populations.

Here are some resources to help you ask the important questions of your school and district leaders as schools begin planning for the next school year. You can use these in a variety of ways: schedule a small group conversation with your school leader or host a virtual PTA meeting—or virtual town hall—with your district superintendent. Choose the resources that best fit the needs and context of your PTA:

Start Here!

• A Guide to Using these Resources

Getting Ready for your Discussion:

• Tips for Having a Meaningful Conversation
• Sample Email
• School/District Leader One-Pager
• Guide to Hosting a Virtual Town Hall

Asking the Right Questions

• 10 Critical Questions

After the Discussion:

• What’s Next?
• Follow-up Surveys
  • Parent Survey