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SARC BITE 2

Get Ready for District-level Accountability Reporting

The new federal legislation known as the "No Child Left Behind" law spells out some tough mandates for school district accountability directors. By the start of the next school year, you will be required to publish "report cards on school performance" not just at the school site level, but at the district level as well. If you are hoping that this will pass unenforced, like the historically lax enforcement of Title I legislation, you may be surprised. The new administration at the Federal Dept. of Education is getting ready to bust knuckles. This crew is ready, willing and able to force compliance, especially in the realm of accountability reporting. Susan B. Neuman, the department's assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, was quoted in the March 13 issue of Education Week: "It's called tough love. We really want to, where we can, be flexible. ... However, we are very clear about the importance of accountability for change and school improvement." She added: "We are here to enforce the law." Read the full story. As a result, district staff are scrambling to get district accountability reports ready that meet the federal standards. Those specs require that at the very least, district reports include:

Student academic achievement on statewide tests, disaggregated by subgroup
Comparison of students at basic, proficient and advanced levels of achievement
Percentages of students not tested
The names of schools identified for improvement
Teachers' professional qualifications
High school student dropouts and graduation rates.

A longer list of optional information is also specified. While our state has the data for most of what is called for, other elements will prove difficult. The state Board of Education has not yet even defined graduation rates, although the subject is on the agenda for the June meeting. And the CDE's position is that no graduation rates should be issued until a student tracking system is in place. Read more information on the debate over dropouts and graduation rate reporting. The federal law also is explicit about the distribution of these reports — both at the school and district level. The law, in fact, details that the reports must go to "all parents of students attending those schools in an understandable and uniform format" and be made "... widely available through public means, such as posting on the Internet, distribution to media, and distribution through public agencies." For more information, I recommend the U.S. Dept. of Education's website on the No Child Left Behind law. If you're curious enough (and brave enough) to read the text of the law itself, you'll find it in Section 1111. To go directly to the section (h)(2) on local education agency's responsibilities to publish accountability reports, use your browser to the phrase "report cards".

(If you want help making budget conscious investments in your SARC program, give us a call at (800) 247-8443. Or contact us via e-mail at raghur@schoolwisepress.com.)