State Accountability Rating Systems: A Review of School Report Cards as Indicators of School Quality

Policy Brief - Jun 22, 2022

Author(s) - Gail L. Sunderman, University of Maryland

The federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 provided states with slightly more flexibility in the design of their school accountability systems. However, while states may take different approaches to measuring and reporting school performance, they have consistently chosen approaches of public reporting that collapse multiple school performance indicators into a summative rating. In a new NEPC policy brief, State Accountability Rating Systems: A Review of School Report Cards as Indicators of School Quality, Gail L. Sunderman, co-founder and former director of the Maryland Equity Project at the University of Maryland, discusses the difficulties that arise when state's school report cards use this summative-rating approach.