Colorado parents seeking information on specific schools for their children can call the Parent Information Center in Golden for a report card on the school’s academic record, which is graded “A” through “F” depending on the percentage of students achieving at or above grade level.
Schools receive an “A” when at least two-thirds of the students perform at or above grade level. In “C” schools, about half of the students perform at grade level, while in “F” schools only about one-third of the students perform at grade level.
Three to five years of data are evaluated before grades are assigned to schools. The report cards, provided to parents free of charge, contain the following information on individual schools: four or more years of standardized test score data, high school graduation requirements, scores from college tests such as the ACT, and the mobility rate of students.
“It is our belief that children of normal intelligence, if taught effectively, should be able to achieve at grade level,” said US Congressman-elect and former Independence Institute president Tom Tancredo, who established the Parent Information Center in 1993. The Center, a project of the Independence Institute, compiles data on nearly all of Colorado’s 176 public school districts, ranging in size from 35 to 85,000 students.
