NCJ Number
222364
Journal
Journal of Correctional Education Volume: 59 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2008 Pages: 33-47
Date Published
March 2008
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study highlights high-quality correctional education school report cards and compares them to those used in K-12 education.
Abstract
Findings suggest that school report cards are a meaningful way to tract and to improve the effectiveness of correctional education. School report cards provide a data platform through which school programs can be evaluated and improved. Likewise, school report cards have the potential to transform correctional education towards the culture of continuous improvement. One of the greatest challenges that face is correctional education is the wide variety of data collection and reporting that exists in the field. All of the correctional education professionals interviewed in this study remarked that they were increasingly being asked report data, yet they were sometimes concerned about how the data were generated and used. School report cards in correctional education are currently employed in several States, including exemplary formats in Maryland and Texas. This important form of assessment is a contemporary and vital way to better realize school improvement, program accountability, and the advancement of best practice in correctional education. Recommendations include that States develop an action plan based on A Guide to Effective Accountability Reporting (2002). Regardless of the resources available to the agency, from staff to information management systems, there are some basic process elements to consider: take stock of the current reporting system, form the design team, review other agencies’ reports, design a dissemination plan, and sketch out the reports. Tables, references