Los Angeles Unified School District

School, Family and Parent/Community Services

Parent Community Services Branch

1360 W. Temple Street

Los Angeles, CA 90026

(866) 669-7272   or (213) 481-3350

 

I’m a parent. What can I do with the School Report Card? 

 

Find out more about your child’s performance

Most of the measures you see on the School Report Card are about how well students are doing. As you read them, think about how much you know about where your own child is performing in the areas shown. For example,

· How is your child doing in reading and math? In Algebra I and II? In making progress toward graduating from high school?

· If you have a high school student, it is essential for you to know what your child needs to accomplish to be college and career ready. Use the School Report Card as a guide to things like credits, SAT tests, A-G requirements, and the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).

 

Talk to your child’s teachers

Parent-teacher partnerships help students succeed. Consider the following questions about what you see on the School Report Card when talking to your child’s teachers:

· Is my child performing at grade level in math and English language arts?

· What should I pay attention to at home to make sure my child is staying on track?

· What kinds of services are available to help if I am worried my child is falling behind?

 

Learn about learning standards

Student test scores are based on learning standards, which is what students are expected to learn in each grade level in different subjects.

Ask your child’s teacher what these are for his or her grade level in each subject.

Visit http://www.starsamplequestions.org/ to become familiar with the types of questions students should be able to answer in different subjects at each grade level.

 

Help your child learn at home

Remember that a parent is the child’s most important teacher. What you do at home makes a big difference in how well a child will do in school.

· Make sure your child completes homework. Talk to your child about what he or she is learning in each subject. Ask your child about tests and projects that are coming up.

· Turn every-day activities into learning. Cooking dinner can be a science lesson. The supermarket can be a math or a vocabulary lesson. Reading the newspaper can be a reading or history lesson.

Get involved

Our schools need help from parents to help their students succeed. The School Report Card helps the community understand a school’s areas of strength and weaknesses. Ask your school about parent organizations, volunteering opportunities, or other ways you can help improve the environment where your child and others come to learn.

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

What is the School Report Card?

The School Report Card (SRC) is a document published each year (since January 2009) by the Los Angeles Unified School District in collaboration with various community-based organizations and foundations, summarizing performance for each one of over 600 individual schools. Each SRC summarizes data about the individual school for a particular academic year in a format designed for the typical LAUSD parent.

 

The SRC represents the district’s initiative to create a culture of accountability and transparency about its schools’ performance and growth in areas of student learning as well as the context in which learning takes place.

 

Where did you get the data for the School Report Card?

The data were gathered from a variety of sources, including state test data from the California Department of Education (CDE). Internal data are provided by the LAUSD School Information Branch (SIB) and the Information Technology Division (ITD). Principals preview the data for their schools to ensure they are familiar with the data before it is released to the public.

 

Do all schools get a School Report Card?

Currently School Report Cards are published for all comprehensive high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, multi-level or “span” schools (e.g., schools with a K‐8 configuration), and standalone magnet centers.

 

Why is the School Report Card published in the middle of the school year?

Some of the data on the School Report Card, such as graduation rates, cannot be calculated until the district finalizes its enrollment numbers for the current academic year, which is usually in early October.  Many weeks of processing time are then needed to perform calculations, validate the data, print and distribute the School Report Cards. This usually brings the publication date to mid-December, which is right before the winter holiday break. Publication is purposely moved to after the break, which is a better time for schools and families to focus on the data.

 

Why do we need a School Report Card? Can’t parents already get these data?

The School Report Card is the only document that pulls all the most key data elements about school performance and puts them in a single place for parents to read. In addition, some data elements, such as the graduation rate, are not available elsewhere. Most importantly, the School Report Card is designed primarily for parent use, using a narrative layout that helps parents know what kinds of questions the data can help answer, setting it apart from most data reports available.

 

In which languages is the School Report Card available?

The School Report Card is published in the nine languages most commonly spoken in our students’ households, according to the annual R30 language census. These include Spanish, English, Korean, Eastern Armenian, Cantonese, Tagalog, Farsi, Vietnamese, and Russian. The families of students who have any of these languages listed as their home languages automatically receive the document in the corresponding language. English is the default language for all others.

 

How can LAUSD afford to publish a School Report Card during hard budget times?

When resources are short, students rely on parent and family support more than ever to succeed. The School Report Card facilitates school-parent partnerships at a fairly low cost: about $0.30 per student. In addition, much of the work required to produce the school report card is donated or funded by organizations outside of the district that consider it to be a wise investment in their communities. Given the tough economic times we are in, the district has taken numerous steps to reduce the cost of producing and distributing the School Report Card. For example, School Report Cards are now distributed to elementary school parents by their schools to reduce postage costs.

 

How is the School Report Card useful for schools?

Along with the MyData tool, the School Report Card facilitates planning among teachers, principals, and others at a school around data related to student learning and the learning environment. It assists teachers in recognizing specific needs of students and plan interventions to reduce the risk of failure.

 

What is MyData and what does it have to do with the School Report Card?

MyData is a web-based tool that provides administrators and teachers with comprehensive student-level data. Using the School Report Card as a starting point, MyData allows staff members to drill deeper into the data, understanding what underlies growth and decline in the numbers on the School Report Card, and plan strategically to move the numbers in the right direction. Used together, the School Report Card and MyData facilitate conversations between teachers, administrators, and parents, driving accountability, collaboration and information sharing in LAUSD.

 

How can parents use the School Report Card?

There are a number of key ways to use the School Report Card. The School report Card serves as a check list of sorts for parents interested in keeping track of where their children and their school should be progressing; for example, a parent of an English learner should know what the elements of reclassification are and how students are progressing toward English language proficiency. The School Report Card can also help parents advocate on their children’s behalf; for example, if students are not proficient in math at this school, parents and community members can mobilize around these data to partner with a school around improving its math instruction. Third, the School Report Card can be used to reach out to parents who are not yet engaged in their children’s education by bringing school performance and learning environment matters to their attention.

 

Great. I am a parent, and I want to get involved. What should I do next?

The back page on a school report card is a good starting point. It lists the principal at the school, the

person at the school and the local district responsible for supporting parents and how to contact them. 

School Report Card

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