If you are like many folks in the district’s front office, you may doubt whether SARCs work -- whether anyone reads them, and if they read them, whether they understand what they read. If this were true, what possible effect could accountability reports have on a district’s financial condition?

Plenty. If you can calm the nerves of parents in just ten families, parents who are worried whether your district can keep its schools' doors open, you can keep them from bolting, and keep their kids enrolled. This would mean $132,000 more funding, for just the first year. You are, after all, running schools in a competitive world, and your schools aren’t the only ones in town. You face competition from charter schools, private independent schools, private religious schools, and home schools. You also face competition from your neighboring districts whether you are a district of choice or not (Ed Code Section 48209). If parents elect to use the power that the Ed Code (Section 48204) gives them, they will take their children to other schools.

WHAT IS YOUR SHARE OF SCHOOL-AGE KIDS ENROLLED IN YOUR DISTRICT?

Let’s look at public school enrollment as a share-of-market factor. Private school enrollment statewide is about 9 percent of all kids who are school age, leaving public schools with a 91 percent share of the market. The variance by district is wide, however. For example, in the Bay Area in 2007, San Francisco USD enrolls only 70 percent of school-age children. Berkeley USD enrolls 75 percent. Livermore USD enrolls 91 percent. On the other end of the scale, in San Diego County, is Oceanside USD where 97 percent of kids go to public schools. Poway USD enrolls 95 percent.  And Carlsbad USD enrolls 91 percent.

Charter schools now number over 650 statewide, but they are clustered in several counties. Los Angeles County has 204 charter schools (156 of them are inside the boundaries of LA Unified) and Alameda County has 43 charters (32 of which are inside the boundaries of Oakland USD). They are intentional competitors of the bigger urban districts in the state, and those urban districts are feeling it.

When parents have meaningful choices, they choose schools with deliberation. While parents follow many paths as they make their decisions, there are two actions that almost all of them undertake: they visit the school and they do research on the school. Some parents do their research before the visit and some after. It is increasingly common for parents to conduct research online when shopping schools. What they find there includes the following:

• The schools’ SARCs
• The district’s Web site
• The Greatschools Web site, which includes parents’ comments
• Newspaper coverage of the district

The hardy explorers evaluating high schools who want to probe further can also read what students have written about their teachers at www.ratemyteachers.com. You may be surprised by what you find. Parents and high school students may also refer to national magazines like U.S. News & World Report whose reviews garner huge readership.

yOUR SARCS ARE COMPETING FOR PARENTS’ ATTENTION

Your SARCs face competition, too, just as your schools do. If a parent searching for schools finds your SARCs, they’ll read them. When they read them, you have their attention. What do you want the reader to learn when this occurs? Do you want parents to learn that your principals can write and think coherently? Do you want them to learn that your middle schools have suspended half as many students as they did two years ago because your new principal has a more effective, calming way of running the school? Or do you want them to wonder whether the principal has simply “gone soft?” You have the opportunity to explain and interpret, guiding your reader. Why not take advantage of it?

Why compete to broadcast your message? Promoting your schools’ annual reports to parents helps you give them reasons to enroll their kids in the district’s schools. SARCs are one place where parents turn for the facts. Accountability reports provide you with the opportunity to surround these interested parents with reasons to visit your schools, whether for the great buildings, exceptional teachers, award-winning principals, safe schools, or extraordinary before- and afterschool programs. Of course, the SARC is an accountability document and not necessarily a place for tooting your horn. However, your Web site provides an opportunity to showcase your schools’ achievements as parents navigate to your SARCs.

THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF ENROLLMENT DECISIONS

If your district is among the majority of districts with declining enrollment, you know that for every 100 kids who depart, your district is $600,000 poorer. It doesn’t take much to imagine the return on investment of reports that give parents reasons to visit your schools. Consider what value a district gains from persuading 10 more families to enroll their kids in your district’s schools.

If your SARCs and other online marketing messages help persuade 10 families to enroll in your schools, your district is $792,000 richer over six years. If you treat your SARCs as if they matter, your district’s potential gain can be quite large. If you treat SARCs as if they don’t matter, you’ll certainly gain nothing.

The PowerPoint demo on the School Wise Press Web site compares the dollar value of minimizing costs using the CDE template and in-house solutions with investing in SARCs that are effective using an outside solution.

You can also read the case study of Wiseburn ESD, whose prior superintendent, Don Brann, did much to bring new families into his district. The result was a happy one, boosting enrollment from 1,200 to 2,200 and adding two new schools to the district.

CONCLUSION

Lesson #1.  Parents are no longer captives. They are choosing schools (and districts), and you can influence their enrollment decisions by treating them as welcome customers. Your “welcoming spirit” should include providing your annual reports, but they should also be part of a larger plan. If your colleagues practice more customer-centered thinking and aimed for the high mark of customer satisfaction, you’d be more likely to retain more families. The key is deciding to act as if customers matter. If you act this way, no harm can result, and good results are far more likely to occur.

Lesson #2.  Small numbers of families can mean big dollars for your district. Measure the potential impact over the length of time in years that students will remain in your district. One-year analyses are too shortsighted.

Lesson #3.  Your annual reports face competition. When parents turn to other sources for your schools and district’s stories, you’re losing control of your story. When your present and future customers rely on you first for evidence of your district’s and schools’ vital signs and for explanations about what they mean, you’re winning. When they rely on you first, you’ve earned their trust and credibility; when they don’t, others have earned higher standing. This first position is worth a great deal.

REFERENCES

Greatschools.com. This parent-centered Web site informs more readers about schools than any other Web site whose traffic is measured. It includes parent and teacher opinions of schools as well as a wealth of facts. Here is a link to one San Diego school’s review

Angier Elementary School, San Diego USD
http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_school/ca/6095

Education.com.  This rather new magazine-like start-up is broader in scope and a more general, parent-centered site than Greatschools. It includes real estate information, community facts, and activities for kids. Click below to see its treatment of the same school, Angier Elementary.

Angier Elementary School, San Diego USD
http://www.education.com/schoolfinder/us/ca/san-diego/angier-elementary/

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Schoolfinder Web site. In July 2008, the governor created another source of information about schools to enable parents to compare schools “as easily as they shop for cars.” This site has no relation to the CDE.

RateMyTeachers.com. Students reviews of thousands of California high school teachers are available on this Web site. Students’ reviews of teachers are revealing, both of the student who wrote them, as well as the teacher. You can browse the site as you like. Or you can take a look at this entry page for Balboa High School in San Francisco.

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