School Accountability Report Cards

The School Accountability Report Card (SARC) is a required report by the California Department of Education. It provides important information about the school and its students, including demographic data, school safety, academic achievement, graduation rates, class sizes, teacher and staff qualifications, curriculum and instruction, as well as fiscal and expenditure details.

Hard copies of the SARC are available upon request at your school office, the District Office, or by emailing Vanessa Lee at VLee@mcsd.k12.ca.us.

What is a School Accountability Report Card (SARC)?

Since November 1988, state law has required that schools receiving state funding are to prepare and distribute a SARC. A similar requirement is also contained in the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The purpose of the report card is to provide important information about each school so parents/caregivers can make meaningful comparisons between public schools that will enable them to make informed decisions on the school in which to enroll their children. 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.

What information does the SARC contain?

Although there is great variation in the design of 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 contain 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
Postsecondary preparation information
Fiscal and expenditure data

How often must a SARC be updated?

How can a parent obtain a SARC?

Parents with Internet access can go to the CDE Find a SARC web page (https://sarconline.org/public/findASarc). This web page contains the current and one prior year of SARC Reports that have been submitted to the California Department of Education (CDE) by the schools/local educational agencies (LEAs). For purposes of the SARC, an LEA is a school district or a county office of education or a direct funded charter school or a nonpublic nonsectarian school.