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Quality Counts
Introduction
Holding Schools Accountable
Challenges
Indicators
Focus Groups
On School Report Cards
State of the States
Report Cards
Policy Updates
Indicators

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Return to the main story, "Report Cards for Schools."

Holding Schools Accountable

P articipants in the electronic focus groups were asked to consider which kinds of indicators are most important for holding schools accountable, with 10 being "very important" and 0 being "not very important at all."

Parents Taxpayers Educators
School safety 9.6 9.4 9.3
Qualifications of teachers 9.3 9.2 8.3
Class size 8.9 7.9 8.8
Graduation rates 8.7 8.2 8.3
Dropout rates 8.3 8.1 7.4
Test scores on statewide tests 8.2 8 7.1
Test scores on college-admission tests 8.1 7.9 6.9
Parental-satisfaction survey data 8.1 8 7
Percent of students promoted to next grade 8 8.1 7
Attendance rates 7.8 8 7.6
Different courses offered 7.8 7.9 7.3
Per-pupil spending 7.6 7.6 8
Student-satisfaction survey data 7.5 7 7.1
Salaries of teachers 7.3 7.8 7.6
Number of hours of homework every week 7.2 7.3 6.3
Number of students 7.2 7.2 6.7
Percent of students who go on to four-year college 7 6.9 6.8
Percent of students with A or B average 7 6.5 5.8
Number of students per computer 6.9 6.4 6.1
Percent of parents who attend conferences 6.4 6.6 6.3
Demographic characteristics of students 4.5 4.6 5

NOTE: The list is ranked by parent preferences.
SOURCE: Education Week

Education Week
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© 1999 Editorial Projects in Education

Vol. 18, number 17, page 29