No Educator Left Behind is a series providing answers from the U.S. Department of Education to questions about the federal No Child Left Behind Act and how it will affect educators. If you have a question about No Child Left Behind, send an e-mail to Ellen Delisio, and we will submit your question to the Department of Education.

Question:

How are district report cards compiled and what kind of information do they provide?

U.S. Department of Education:

Reports on individual schools are part of the annual district report cards, also known as local report cards. Each school district must prepare and disseminate annual local report cards that include information on how students in the district and in each school performed on state assessments. The report cards must describe student performance in terms of three levels: basic, proficient, and advanced. Achievement data must be disaggregated, or broken out, by student subgroups according to race, ethnicity, gender, English language proficiency, migrant status, disability status, and low-income status. The report cards must also tell which schools have been identified as needing improvement, corrective action, or restructuring.

Read previous questions and answers in our No Educator Left Behind archive.