Information is power. As with any business or private venture, information is critical to the success of any reform effort. Too often people overlook the complexity of education, from who's in control to what's actually happening in the schools. It is imperative to have information well in hand as you begin to make decisions about how and where to approach reform.

        Whether you're planning to crusade for change, or are simply taking on the important work of helping your child through school, you must be an informed parent about education in general and your local schools in particular. Even if you have no choices to make right now and your child's schooling is satisfactory, a working knowledge of your schools may come in handy should you suddenly face the decision whether to place your child in one particular program or pull her from another. You will also be better prepared to evaluate issues that are regularly brought to the community for consideration, such as tax changes, conversions to charter schools and elections of education officials.

        As you become involved with your local schools, you will find that those already in the education loop have the advantages on their side — whether they're working for change or against it. These people have access to facts and figures to support their position, and they have the respect, deservedly so, of the community's leaders. Take advantage of their resources to learn more about how your schools operate — use their expertise and access to get the information you need. As you begin to get a larger, clearer picture of how things work, use your own detective work to fill in the gaps. You will probably find that some of those education insiders will soon turn to you for the inside scoop on the issues.

        First, get a general idea how your school operates and how it is performing academically. Write a letter to your district’s superintendent requesting information on your community's individual schools. Ask for their standing compared to each other, to nearby districts and on a state level. Find out how they compare to other states and to national averages. Ask what tests are being used to determine such standings — by the school, the district and the state. Find out if the results of such tests are "normed," or curved, to account for demographic information, before they are used for comparison.

        Don't be surprised — or satisfied — if the answers come back that your school or community is ranked above average, particularly on test scores. If test results are even made available, then too often they are at best misleading, or at worst, completely unintelligible. As one expert explains, "The people who produce our information about educational performance are, by and large, the same people who are running the system whose performance is being assessed. It is simply not in their interest to give clear, objective outcomes information; and, at least as we are currently structured, nobody else is in a position to do so. The upshot is that the information people get about outcomes — with a handful of happy exceptions — is the information that providers want them to have. And that information tends either to contain false good news — the so called "Lake Wobegon effect" — or to be so dense and confusing as to be unintelligible to ordinary mortals. Nor is it readily available for the level of analysis one needs. For example, we can now get pretty good national data about educational outcomes; however, almost no decisions about education are made nationally. At the levels where the rubber hits the road in terms of policy (state, local, specific schools, specific classrooms, specific children) it's very hard to get the necessary information."

        The emphasis in evaluating the schools has been focused too long on how much money we're spending, rather than how our students are doing. So the effort to find out just how they're doing has been haphazard and met with much opposition. "Most of the data we need, [to accurately judge our schools] we cannot get. Much of what we get, we cannot trust. Of that which we can trust, far too much is obsolete, unintelligible to laymen, or unsuited to crucial analyses and comparisons."

        So, it's time to start your own researching. Find out what you can about your school and where it fits into the larger picture. This is not simple. In addition to test scores, you will want information on your district on everything from money to demographics, to give you the complete schooling picture. The information you'll need will fall into the following seven categories:

        Also, children usually take a basic achievement test, the results of which are supposed to be confidential, and you should be able to get such information on your own child. Norm-referenced tests are employed to determine how well a group of students is doing compared to other groups. Tests such as the Stanford Achievement Test, The Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), the American College Testing (ACT), and The Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills are all used throughout the country to assess progress. But test scores alone don't tell the whole picture, partly because they tell us very little about what our children actually know and partly because there are other important factors. In addition to test scores, find out about:

        Spending figures are generally broken down as follows:

· Spending on programs

· Per pupil spending by the school, the district and the state

· Average teacher salary

· Average class size (pupil/teacher ratio) — although this isn’t a monetary figure, it is a direct result of ‘inputs’

· District overhead — total budget and broken down for transportation, food services, maintenance and other services (compare this to the cost, quality, and method of delivery in other schools and districts)

· Central administration numbers and salaries

· Administration/teacher ratio

· Number of schools and school size

        You’ll want to know how the above figures compare to the previous year, the previous five years, the previous ten years, etc. How do these figures compare when adjusted for inflation?

        If you live in a large urban area, is there a record of mismanagement? You’ll want to find out if your district is in state receivership — that is, has the state taken over the financial responsibilities due to poor management and poor performance by the district? You’ll want to know what court orders are in effect (such as desegregation or equity orders) that mandate where the money comes from or how it is spent.

        Remember, these figures don’t mean much in a vacuum. If spending has increased over a certain period, you’ll then want to see if achievement levels have gone up proportionately. If not, why not? (And if not, as is often the case, then you’ll know that more money is not necessarily the answer.)

        Where to get the facts: School budgets are a good source of information on spending. The school board generally sets the budget; the superintendent administers it. You should be able to get your district's budget and previous years' budgets at the school board office or possibly through a local public or school library. In addition, the budget is usually presented at a public hearing — where you have a chance to voice your opinions — and the district may also publish a pamphlet or place an ad in the local newspaper to publicize the information before a vote. Your tax dollars are paying for the schools, and you have a right to the facts on how those dollars are being spent.

        A separate but related topic is the source of funding. You want to know where the money comes from, both in absolute dollars and as a percentage of the total budget, and how this may have changed over the past year or decade. It will come overwhelmingly from the first three of the following five sources:

· Local funding

· State funding

· Federal programs including Chapter 1, Bilingual, Goals 2000, magnet school assistance, etc.

· Business/private partnerships

· Fund raising

3) Leadership: Who is it and how does it operate?

4) Policies and Programs: Once you know the players, find out how they’re calling the game. Find out who stands where on the following issues, and any other issues that are of interest or concern in your community. Find out what is being supported, what sorts of partnerships or new efforts are underway, and what is being or has been blocked in your community.