Expert: Report raises public awareness

Ms. Doherty is research director for the national publication, Education Week. She is also in charge of the newspaper's annual publication, "Quality Counts," a report card on the state of education throughout the nation. The report card grades states based on their educational policies and academic standards.

"There's a similar value in doing district report cards," she says of Times-Shamrock Newspapers' extensive computer analysis of public school districts in Northeastern Pennsylvania. "It is drawing public attention to school or district performance and holds people accountable."

Whether people agree or not with the results of the analysis, it raises public awareness, she says.

While test scores are important to measure performance, Ms. Doherty stresses that those unmeasurable things districts teach students -- leadership skills, trade skills, the fine arts -- should not be forgotten.

Harris Zwerling, assistant director of research for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, says that comparing predicted scores with actual scores is a good way to measure performance. Using information and data from the 480 districts in the state creates a more comprehensive database, he says.

However, Mr. Zwerling stresses that no test is a perfect measure.

"Personally, I put little stake in SAT scores," he says. "Some schools don't have curriculums designed to increase SAT performance, some do. . . It's inappropriate to say that school is better than this one based on SAT scores."

He points to the University of California's recent proposal to eliminate the SATs as a requirement for admission. The university's president argues that the reliance on the SAT is compromising the nation's educational system and that the test is not an accurate predictor of college success, especially among minority and low-income students.

However, 83 percent of colleges and universities use SAT scores as a requirement for admission, according to the College Board, which administers the college entrance exam.

"Not only does it incorporate the highest standards of what is required for success in our nation's most demanding colleges but it is the only common yardstick in an era of grade inflation, and where students complete different courses with different teachers who use different grading standards," says College Board President Gaston Caperton.