State Board Approves
2006-07 SARC Template and Data Definitions
At its July 2007 meeting, the California State Board of Education (SBE) approved the 2006-07 School Accountability Report Card (SARC) template and data definitions as proposed by the California Department of Education (CDE). The SARC template is intended to guide the preparation of report cards to be published in the 2007-08 school year.
These documents and a Summary of Data Definition Changes, Summary of Template Changes, and the 2006-07 SARC Template are now available. The template is currently only available in a Word format (without data). In addition, the data definitions that support the template are available by selecting Data Element Definitions.
The SARC template with data will be available for review and comment during late September 2007. In early October 2007, the SARC template and the associated data files will be final. At that time the template and data files will be released for use by districts and schools in creating SARCs for the 2007-08 school year.
Only one significant change in the area of school facilities was made to the 2006-07 SARC template. Last year's State of California Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) Interim Evaluation Instrument (IEI) was used to determine the safety, cleanliness, and adequacy of school facilities, including any needed maintenance to ensure good repair. The IEI assigned a "yes" or "no" value to component systems and school facilities to indicate whether a school facility was in good repair. The OPSC-developed IEI was replaced by a Facility Inspection Tool (FIT) in June 2007. The FIT will evaluate the same conditions as the IEI, but will do so with ratings of "good," "fair," or "poor." Additionally, the FIT will provide an overall summary of the conditions at each school on a scale of "exemplary," "good," "fair," or "poor." All data table titles are hyperlinked to the corresponding topic in the Data Element Definitions and Sources 2006-07. In addition, several clarifications have been made to table instructions throughout the template.
SARC Translations
The CDE will provide the SARC template in additional languages for the 2007-08 school year. Additional language translations will include the top five language groups based on the "15% and above" statistics for schools, pursuant to Education Code Section 48985. Based on this criteria the top five language groups that constitute 15% and above in California public schools include Spanish (1), Cantonese (2), Vietnamese (3), Mandarin (4), and Korean (5). This translation work is already underway. Translated SARC templates will be posted on the CDE Web site.
Additionally, the CDE is exploring the possibility of providing the SARC template with data in other languages. This means that a SARC template with data will probably be available in at least Spanish. The CDE will also determine whether this is possible to do for the other languages.
2006-07 SARCs will be Dynamic
The CDE is redesigning the database structure to “dynamically” populate the SARC Template With Data. This improves on the current “point-in-time” structure by allowing SARC templates with data to have the most current data available during the entire school year. This will also enable a district or school that has submitted data updates to the CDE to access a SARC template with current data.
Update on Pending Legislation Affecting the SARC
Assembly Bill 1061 (Mullin) (Outside Source) — This bill would establish February 1 as an annual statewide publication deadline for all SARCs beginning with the 2008-09 school year and would require the CDE to report to the Legislature and the Governor, by February 1, 2008, on the possibility of improving the usability and readability of the SARC by combining data elements, linking to other reporting of data elements, or other alternatives. The bill adds visual and performing arts to the content areas, subject to the sufficiency of instructional materials requirement, and requires that the CDE modify the SARC template to include the following information:
- Provide a description concerning the Dataquest Web site, including the Uniform Resource Locator for the Web site;
- Provide a description of the admission requirements for California’s public universities, including the Uniform Resource Locator for those Web sites; and
- Provide a statement concerning the availability of Internet access at public libraries and other publicly accessible locations.
In addition, the bill would repeal the following reporting elements from inclusion in the SARC:
- Local assessment results
- Scholastic Assessment Test results
- Class size reduction
- Classroom discipline and climate for learning
- Quality of school instruction and leadership
- The degree to which pupils are prepared to enter the workforce
- The total number of instructional minutes offered in the school year
- The total number of minimum days in the school year
- The Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program (II/USP)
- The Governor’s Performance Awards Program
- Courses for University of California (UC) and/or California State University (CSU) Admission
- Whether a school has a college admissions test preparation course program
- Availability of qualified substitute teachers
This bill is currently awaiting legislative action in the Senate. If enacted, the bill would be transmitted to the Governor for his signature or veto. If it becomes law, the bill would take effect on January 1, 2008.
Senate Bill 835 (Scott) (Outside Source) — This bill contains provisions similar to Assembly Member Mullin’s bill. The bill is awaiting action in the Assembly.
Assembly Bill 1015 (Brownlee) (Outside Source) — The bill requires that the assessment of estimated expenditures per pupil include a reporting of the average of actual salaries paid to fully credentialed teachers and teachers with emergency teaching permits. By potentially requiring school districts to include additional information or otherwise modify the existing information in their school accountability report cards, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill is awaiting action in the Assembly.
Senate Bill 759 (Alquist) (Outside Source) — The bill requires a comprehensive review of the SARC with the participation of the State Board of Education, the Governor, the Legislative Analyst, relevant committees of the Legislature, and a wide variety of governmental agencies, school districts, and organizations representing parents, guardians, and other involved parties to make the SARC more clear, readable, and useful if it were streamlined and modernized. The bill is currently awaiting action in the Senate.
SARC Data Files
The CDE is working on an improved Record Layout (Data Dictionary) for the 2006-07 SARC Data Files.
The Data Dictionary will conform to current CDE Database Design Rules. These design rules require the actual naming of the data elements used within an application. Additionally, good descriptive information must be maintained for all tables and columns. Columns will be designed to contain atomic values only. For example, in naming tables and columns instead of PrincipalName, the CDE will use PrincipalFirstName, PrincipalMiddleName, and PrincipalLastName. In creating the Data Dictionary the CDE will use the minimum number of words that adequately identify a column and the names will be clear, accurate, and self-explanatory.
The Data Dictionary will conform to the structure and format currently produced in other CDE dictionaries. Additionally, the SARC Data Dictionary will include last year’s data element name alongside of this year naming convention.
The CDE will release the Record Layout (Data Dictionary) prior to actually making the data files available this fall.
Contact the SARC Team
If you have questions or comments about the topics covered in this newsletter, or suggestions for topics for a future newsletter, please contact us as indicated below.
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