Fund-raising.

Volunteering.

Partnering with businesses.

The Inquirer's 2004 Report Card on the Schools takes as its theme the connections that bind families, communities and local schools.

Parents have a long history of volunteering as reading tutors and in school offices, lunchrooms and libraries. They chaperone on the playground and on class trips, and serve on countless committees.

But parents are being counted on even more these days as cash-strapped districts look for ways to limit increases in property taxes. As a result, parents are raising funds to pay for everything from ceiling fans to library books. Their contributions subsidize the cost of playground and sports equipment, classroom materials and field trips.

And, by necessity, families with students in private school help underwrite the operating costs of those institutions, too. Beyond the financial support, parent volunteering builds "a sense of involvement and commitment to the school," said Barbara Kraus-Blackney, executive director of the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools.

Technical schools in the region get advice and support from businesses because employers recognize the benefits of a well-trained workforce. "Businesses play a key role in... every aspect of our operations," said Alan Slobojan, director of the Chester County Intermediate Unit's vocational education programs. And, in Philadelphia, the corporation-education connection figured prominently when Microsoft Corp. entered a novel partnership with the city district to build a $46 million, 800-student high school by September 2006. Microsoft is not providing funding for the project, but software, expertise and personnel.

This year's Report Card explores all of the ways parents are involved in the schools. The information can be gleaned from the charts, the school profiles, the stories and photographs. There is also an online conversation on fund-raising and other projects.

Teachers check in, too, through interviews, with veterans explaining why they have spent their careers in the classroom. Said Margaret Preis, an English teacher at Upper Darby High School: "We have to be very committed and persistent. It takes a variety of approaches and skills to meet the needs of the students."

This report goes further - documenting trends in student diversity, special education, programming for gifted students, class size, teacher salaries and education spending.

And we focus on what may become the issue of the decade: No Child Left Behind, the 2002 federal law that pushes schools to improve student performance under threat of sanctions.

Districts are adding programs to boost proficiency in math and reading. But after-school and summer-school programs and tutoring cost money - and there's the rub: Where will the funding come from? Will other programs be cut to pay for it? The debate over No Child Left Behind may have only just begun

The Inquirer's 2004 Report Card on the Schools - the seventh such report since 1997 - is intended to take the measure of the region's public schools, technical schools, charter schools and nonpublic high schools. The report offers readers a place to begin their own study of schools in five counties in Pennsylvania (including Philadelphia) and three in South Jersey.

This year alone, the region's public schools enroll more than 750,000 students at a cost of about $8 billion.

A note of caution about this report: The data, the various indicators, the test results cannot fully describe a single school or school district.

A school in a well-heeled community can be more flash than substance, while a scrappy school in a hard-luck neighborhood may use an amalgam of effective strategies.

Some school superintendents bristle at the notion that this annual report can properly convey the talent of teachers, the inquisitiveness and creativity of students, the many successes recorded in classrooms - and the daily challenges.

Yet school leaders also have said they are proud of what they accomplish every day. The Inquirer sent reporters and photographers to the region's schools, and sent a survey to collect much of the information in this report.

All in all, the 2004 Report Card on the Schools is our way of helping you - parents, residents, policy-makers and taxpayers - understand the state of education in the region.