School Accountability Report Cards

Since November 1988, state law has required that schools receiving state funding are to prepare and distribute a School Accountability Report Card (SARC). The purpose of the report card is to provide parents/guardians with important information about each school. A SARC can be an effective way for a school to report on its progress in achieving goals. The public may also use a SARC to evaluate and compare schools on a variety of indicators.

Although there is great variation in the design of the school report cards, they generally begin with a profile that provides background information about the school and its students. The profile usually summarizes the school’s mission, goals, and accomplishments. State law requires that the SARC contains the following:

• Demographic data
• School safety and climate for learning information
• Academic data
• School completion rates
• Class sizes
• Teacher and staff information
• Curriculum and instruction descriptions
• Post secondary preparation information
• Fiscal and expenditure data

School report cards must be updated annually and published by February 1.