School Wise Press SARC Services

SARC BITE 4

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in Accountability Reporting

The state Board of Education has heard the recommendations of the committee of nearly twenty educators who have been meeting since January 2001. Their proposals will no doubt be accepted, and they'll define the content of SARCs for at least the next year.

This is, indeed, progress. But when you look at the way that district staff bring these standards to life in real reports, the results are often amateurish and at times unreadable. A recent article in the CONTRA COSTA TIMES by reporter Suzanne Pardington assessed the state of accountability reporting in their county. What she discovered ranged from thorough and complete (Mt. Diablo USD) to entirely missing in action (Pittsburg USD).

The Pittsburg staffer, D'Anne Andrews, tried to explain why her district had'nt published SARCs in six years. "Frankly, there just wasn't anyone here to do it, We've had a lot of turmoil, a lot of changes, a lot of transitions." Read the story in full.

Eric Crane, head of the CDE's Research and Analysis Unit, revealed that their compliance monitors turned up 10 percent of the state's districts that had not yet posted their SARCs online.

This is bad news for K-12 credibility. In an era when Worldcom and Enron are heightening citizens' sensitivity to lying with numbers, it would serve educators well to take the high road. This means publishing accountability reports of the highest quality, on-time, in print and online, and making sure parents receive them and understand them.

Here are some examples of SARCs to be found in Contra Costa or Alameda Counties.

West Contra Costa USD
Creator: School Wise Press
Summary: The district is about to go live with summary SARCs like these which we published for them in June. Reports distill key factors into two pages, and will connect to supplementary sources.

Mt. Diablo USD
Creator: Bob Rayborn's team
Summary: Well written implementation of the CDEs SARC template. But it still seems like this is the appendix to a narrative report that is missing.

Martinez USD
Creator: internal department
Summary: Technically awkward, poorly designed, but well written and thorough. Unlikely to be read because all schools are bundled into one huge document.

Acalanes UHSD
Creator: Not known
Summary: Six-pages, chock full of information, but statistical presentations are gaudy and flawed.

San Leandro USD
Creator: School Wise Press
Summary: Reports present key factors in a two-page summary SARCs in English and Spanish. These, in turn, are linked to a 14-18 page full-length SARC and to the CDEs own data supplement.

(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.)