SARC BITE 19 | DECEMBER 19, 2003

The CDE Releases Long-awaited SARC Template Specifications

The format and data elements for accountability reporting for the 2002-03 school year have been released by the Office of Policy and Evaluation of the California Department of Education. The data guidelines were issued in late November.

See the template and the data definitions.

Not until early January will the CDE issue templates that contain live data for your schools.

OBSERVATIONS

For those of you relying on the CDE's SARC template, there is both good and bad news. The good news is (1) the report is less lengthy, and (2) there is less detail in the testing areas. One key improvement: links connect the more curious reader to additional detail online. (The bad news: less detail means less help finding pockets of success.)

Test results are no longer detailed at the grade level. All results are now at the schoolwide level. (Bad news: the reader seeking grade-level specific results will have to turn to the STAR site, which is linked from the template.)

For the California Standards Tests, the template reports results for only the top two proficiency bands: advanced and proficient. (Bad news: your public will not see how well you are moving students out of the bottom proficiency bands.)

The treatment of Adequate Yearly Progress is startlingly different from earlier drafts. Only the schoolwide and cohort results in their summary form are included. (Bad news: if a school's cohort didn't meet its AYP target, you'll find out the result, but you won't find out why.)

The graduation rate debuts. Dropouts are calculated entirely differently. This could have either a positive or negative impact on the public's perception of high school effectiveness. (Bad news: the data receives no supporting explanation in the template, leaving your public scratching their heads, at best.)

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you use the template at all in your reporting program, here are three suggestions.

Prepare to explain more about your test results to your public. Those schools with progress in test results below the advanced and proficient levels will need to draw out those results themselves.

Prepare to explain more about AYP. If your district includes schools that have not hit their AYP targets, you'll want to explain the reasons why. The data represented in the new template is not likely to help you here.

Prepare to explain your graduation rates. If you have high schools, the graduation rate is of great interest to your community. Since it makes its first appearance this year, it is bound to provoke questions.

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