Report Cards are provided for all public, charter, and alternative schools operating during the 2012-13 school year. However, Report Cards for charter and alternative schools will vary slightly. Because charter schools are not part of a school district, only state comparisons are provided on their Report Cards. Additionally, quality teacher data are limited for charter schools due to the flexibility allowed in their operations. Federal schools, state-operated schools, and other special schools do not receive Report Cards due to differences in the way data are reported for these schools.

In most instances, data in the Report Cards are reported at the school, district, and state levels. School data are based on information from all grades within the school. However, for several indicators, including School Size; School Safety; Attendance; and all information in the Quality Teachers’ section, data from all schools in the same grade-range category are averaged to produce district and state comparison results. Based on their grade range, all schools have been assigned to one of six categories - elementary; middle; high; combined elementary, middle and high; combined elementary and middle; or combined middle and high. A detailed listing of the grade ranges included in each category is available from the NC Department of Public Instruction.