Colorado parents soon will receive the School Accountability Reports on their children’s schools, jam-packed with information, graphics, trend lines and education buzzwords.
It’s an important and useful tool, but, like some schools, it needs improvement.
Gov. Bill Owens and education leaders heralded the sixth annual accountability reports at a news conference Tuesday, saying the documents arm parents with important information, including CSAP scores, teacher-student ratios, budget numbers, and data on overall academic performance and academic growth of students.
Empowering parents is a key tool for improving our schools, which is why it would be wise to make the reports more user- friendly. We urge the legislature to consider additional changes in the accountability reports to make them more useful, including a better explanation of the sometimes- conflicting accountability systems in Colorado.
Colorado has three accountability measures – district accreditation, SARs and No Child Left Behind – that can conflict and confuse parents. For example, a student may attend a school the state has deemed excellent because of CSAP scores, yet, according to the federal government, the school is not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress, both of which are noted on that school’s report card. State education board member Rico Munn says all three systems measure different things, and those differences should be better communicated to parents.
There have been whispers of scrapping the reports, but that would be foolish. Parents want, and deserve, the information.
Owens acknowledged that “everything we do in government can be improved,” but said changes must be made with parents as consumers in mind. We agree.
The state Board of Education currently lacks the flexibility to improve the system, largely because SARs have been so scripted – everything down to the size of lettering is written into the law. Board members often hear from parents about ways to make the system better, but can’t comply. That needs to change.
We still think the information the state collects and distributes to parents is invaluable. Just over a decade ago, no such data existed. Owens is fond of saying, “That which we measure, we improve,” and so far it seems to be true. Fewer students than ever are attending classes in schools deemed unsatisfactory by the state.
But like schools, there’s still room for some improvement in the accountability system.
