Mississippi Report Card for 2001-2002
(Part A: No Child Left Behind Act of 2001)

Welcome to the Mississippi Report Card for 2001-2002. Since 1993, a report card has been published annually containing a variety of information about the districts and schools in the state. The report card for school year 2000-2001 marked a departure from the original publication format due to the amount of information required under federal law. That report card comprised a set of electronic files available on the web and on a single CD. An abridged printed document containing only selected district level information was produced in limited quantities.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was signed into law in January 2002. That legislation requires each state's report cards to include additional information and to be published much earlier than in the past. For these reasons, the Mississippi Report Card for 2001-2002 is being released in two parts. Part A includes all the information (to the extent it was available for inclusion in this year's report) specifically required under NCLB and was released immediately after all the informaton had been compiled. Part B will include all the district level information that was included in the earlier report cards. Some of that information is not available until the middle of the fall, so Part B of the Mississippi Report Card for 2001-2002 will be released early in 2003.

Under NCLB, each school district (called an LEA, or local educational agency, in the law) is required to publicly disseminate report cards. There are requirements for what the report cards must contain (including information at the school, district, and state levels). While the law states that the report cards are to be concise and understandable, the amount of data that must be provided in the report cards is massive. This precludes the use of a simple format such as a tri-fold brochure. Click here to display the NCLB text related to report cards.

It is very easy to locate the information you need using this web site. You select the information you want to view using a set of links. Clicking on a link will either display the information you requested or provide a different set of links for making a more detailed selection (for example, selecting a particular school).

Viewing the NCLB Report Cards:

There are three levels of report card data -- state, district, and school. The overall, comprehensive state report card can be viewed by simply clicking on the link labeled "State Report Card" on the main page.

A district level report card comprises the report card for a selected district plus an appendix containing the state level data. A school level report card comprises the report card for a selected school, an appendix containing the data for that school's district, and an appendix containing the state level data.

Follow the steps below to access a school level or district level report card. The instructions assume that you will be printing the report card pages to produce a hard-copy report. If you are only interested in viewing the report on your computer screen, you can disregard the printing set up instructions in step 1 and the instruction to print the displayed pages in the other steps.

Step 1: Set Up Browser Printing Specifications [OPTIONAL]

You will be printing pages from the web that will be assembled into a report. Most web browsers are set up to print certain information in a header and footer on each printed page. That information usually includes the title of the displayed web page, the location of the page on the web (the URL), a page number, an overall page count, and the date. Your web browser allows you to turn this feature on and off. You will want to turn the feature off when you print the pages for your report cards. You can turn the feature on again once the report card pages have all been printed. The feature control panel is accessed using File > Page Setup. In Netscape, there are check boxes indicating the information that will be printed in the headers and footers. Uncheck all the boxes. This will cause Netscape to print only the information actually contained on the web page. If you use Internet Explorer, the header/footer information is controlled by a set of alphabetic codes. You can suppress the header and footer information by deleting the codes (remember to write the codes down before deleting them in case the default values do not reappear the next time you launch your browser).

Step 2: Access the State Level Appendix

Go to the main page for the 2001-2002 Report Card and click on the "Report Card for a Selected District or School" link. Your browser will display a list of school districts with a state level link at the top. Click the link for the state level data. The state level page will appear in your browser. Print the page in LANDSCAPE (horizontal) format. You should get four printed pages. The first page will have the text, "Appendix B" at the top. Put these pages aside--they will comprise the last three pages of the assembled report card. Note: The state level data comprising Appendix B in a school report card is different from the complete State Report Card that can be selected using the link on the Report Card 2001-2002 main page.

Step 3: Access the District Level Report Card Data

Use your browser's BACK button to return to the school district list. Locate the school district and click on that link. A list of schools will appear with a link for the district level data at the top. Click the link for the district level data. The district level page will appear in your browser. Print the page in LANDSCAPE (horizontal) format. For most districts, you should get four printed pages. The first page will have the text, "Appendix A" at the top. Put these pages aside--they will comprise three pages of the assembled report card.

Step 4: Access the School Level Report Card

Use your browser's BACK button to return to the school list. Select a school and click on its link. The school level page will appear in your browser. Print the page in LANDSCAPE (horizontal) format. You should get 2-4 printed pages depending on the grade levels in the school and the tests that were administered during 2001-2002. The school level pages will comprise the first pages of the report card.

Step 5: Assemble the (Printed) Report Card

Now assemble the complete school report card. The school level pages come first, followed by Appendix A and Appendix B.

NOTE: The two appendices, without the school level pages, comprise a district's "Annual Local Educational Agency Report Card."