BATON ROUGE – State school officials released a set of guides Tuesday aimed to help parents understand upcoming school report cards.

The Louisiana Department of Education will release school report cards on Dec 17.

Education officials say the report cards will provide important information about the performance of students at each school compared to the school district, the state and previous years.

The guides released Tuesday are aimed to help parents break down parts of the report cards to examine district level scores, high school readiness, and graduation and college readiness indicators.

The department developed guides for each level of the school system: elementary, middle, combination and high schools.

“The most important educational decisions are made at home and in the classroom,” State Superintendent John White said. “Because of this, the department embarked on an unprecedented effort to provide as many families as possible with a clear sense of the skill their children demonstrated on 2015 state assessments.”

White said the guides continue a statewide effort to help parents understand how their child and school are performing.

In October, the Department of Education released the Parent Guide to PARCC Results. Tens of thousands of parents received the guides through parent nights, business and community partners and social media, according to education officials.

WATCH: Understanding and interpreting PARCC test results

Parents can find the guides and other resources at the Family Support Toolbox on the Department of Education website.