Under No Child Left Behind, states and districts must provide the public with information about schools and teachers. Among the required reports are annual state and district report cards and notifications under the "Parents' Right to Know" provisions in the law. These reports will begin with data from the 2002-03 school year.

Report Cards

Annual state report cards must include:

• State assessment results by performance level (basic, proficient, advanced), broken out into groups of students by: race, ethnicity, disability status, English language learners, low-income status, gender, and migrant status.
• Accountability information comparing achievement goals and actual performance.
• Percentage of each group of students not tested.
• An additional indicator of student performance, selected by the state, for elementary and middle school academic achievement.
• Graduation rates for secondary school students.
• District and school progress in making Adequate Yearly Progress goals.
• Teacher information:
  • Professional qualifications of teachers in the state (degrees, certification).
  • Percentage of teachers teaching under emergency or provisional credentials.
  • Percentage of classes statewide taught by teachers not meeting the highly qualified teacher requirements, in total and broken out by high-poverty and low-poverty schools.
  (Note: State report cards may include other information for parents.)

Annual district report cards must report the same information as the state reports, broken down by district level and school level.

States and districts must present this information, to the extent that is feasible, in a language that parents can understand, and make it available to the public. For more information on state and district report cards, see the U.S. Department of Education guidance at www.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/reportcardsguidance.doc.

Parents’ Right to Know

The Parents' Right to Know provision requires that two types of communication be provided to parents of students in Title I schools.

Parent notification by district: A district receiving Title I funds must send a notification to parents, informing them of their right to request information on the qualifications of their child's teacher. The information that the district must provide (if requested) includes the following:

• Whether or not the teacher has met the certification requirements of the state.
• Whether or not the teacher is teaching under an emergency or other provisional status.
• The bachelor's degree major of the teacher and any other graduate certification or degree held by the teacher in the field or discipline of his or her certificate or degree.
• Whether or not the child receives service from a paraprofessional and, if so, his or her qualifications.

Parent notification by school: Additionally, schools receiving federal Title I Funds must send parents certain information in a timely manner, in a language that is understandable, to the extent that is feasible. Title I schools must provide the following:

• Information on the child’s level of achievement on state assessments.
• Timely notice that the child has been assigned to or been taught by a teacher who does not meet the highly qualified teacher requirements for four or more consecutive weeks.