School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs) are documents describing a school’s enrollment, learning conditions (e.g., teacher and facility quality) and academic performance. SARCs, which are required to be made available annually to every parent in the state by their child’s district, are the primary piece of information for parents and the public about individual school conditions and performance. They were made a part of the California Constitution by Proposition 98 in 1988.
In the past few years, in the Williams case and by separate legislation, Public Advocates has succeeded in adding important new information to the SARC concerning teacher quality, textbook availability, facility quality, and per pupil school site expenditures. The latter is the first public reporting of school site expenditures in the nation. Also, in the last few years, Public Advocates has undertaken ground-breaking work to monitor and enforce SARC compliance statewide, reviewing thousands of SARCs and following up with deficient districts to ensure that all their SARCs are posted on the Internet, have complete information, and are translated into languages other than English when required. Since the organization’s efforts began, compliance rates have jumped from 50% the first year to nearly 9 in 10 schools now publishing their SARCs on time. In particular, the most recent report points to a significant jump in compliance with the requirement to translate SARCs into multiple languages. As a result of Public Advocates’ investigation and enforcement of SARC compliance, parents across California now have significantly increased access to the data they need to make informed choices and to hold their schools accountable.
SARC Investigation and Enforcement
On April 15, 2009 Public Advocates released its fifth School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs) report, which found the majority of California schools met a new February 1 deadline for publishing their SARCs and continue to make gains in accountability reporting in the wake of four years of private investigation and enforcement by Public Advocates. Since the organization’s efforts began, compliance rates have jumped from 50% the first year to nearly 9 in 10 schools now publishing their SARCs on time. In particular, this year’s report points to a significant jump in compliance with the requirement to translate SARCs into multiple languages.
Quezada v. Statham: Lawsuit to Enforce SARC Requirements
In August 2007, Oakland parents, represented by Public Advocates, sued the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) for failing to disclose to the public legally required data, including per-pupil spending figures, for each school through the School Accountability Report Card (SARC). Two months later, a superior court judge approved a lawsuit settlement in which the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) agreed to fulfill its legal obligation to issue school report cards for each of its schools. In the settlement, OUSD acknowledged that it had failed for the prior two years to issue SARCs for each of its schools and make them available in multiple languages when required by law. Between the filing of the suit in August and settlement in October, the District corrected over 400 separate SARC violations, reaching full compliance on its SARC obligations for the prior two years. OUSD also sent a letter to all district parents informing them of the SARC and, under the settlement, is required to report on its SARC compliance at the end of the 2007-08 school year.
