OUSD mends its ways, provides school info
By Katy Murphy
Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 5:41 pm in lawsuits, OUSD central office.
It may have been prompted by the threat of a lawsuit — and then, indeed, a lawsuit — but the Oakland school district has plugged the gaping holes in its state mandated “School Accountability Report Cards.”
Now, you can see how much money each school (including charters) spent per student, how many teachers were teaching out of their areas of expertise, what the safety situation is like, and so on.
Si usted habla espanol, se traduce la informacion. The report cards are translated into other languages, too.
All of this has been required for almost 20 years, but the district acknowledged in a legal settlement signed today that it had failed to provide it all.
The only catch is that the “snapshot” these report cards present is outdated the moment it comes out. The most recent school year represented in the data is 2005-06.
Want to see the profile of a particular Oakland school? Click on this link.
image from Mobilski’s site at flickr.com
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October 17th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Who knows how accurate they are or how they compare to current figures, but here are two interesting sets of data from the SARC:
2005 – 2006 OUSD per pupil expenditures for High Schools
(If a school is not on this list, that is because per pupil data is not posted.)
Far West $5,392
Rusdale Continuation $5,288
Merrit Middle College $4,404
East Oakland School of the Arts $4,313
Street Academy $4,268
Business and Information Tech $4,158
YES $4,081
Life Academy $4,057
Leadership Preparatory $3,991
Met West $3,935
College Prep & Architecture $3,919
Media College Prep $3,871
Oakland Tech $3,854
Mandela $3,802
Robeson Visual Performing Arts $3,790
Oakland High $3,568
Skyline $3,530
District average $5,389
State average $4,743
Teacher and Administrative Salaries (Fiscal Year 2004-05)
This table displays district-level salary information for teachers, principals, and superintendents, and compares these figures to the state averages for districts of the same type and size. The table also displays teacher and administrative salaries as a percent of a district’s budget, and compares these figures to the state averages for districts of the same type and size. Detailed information regarding salaries can be found at the CDE Web site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/fd/cs/ and http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/sa/salaries0405.asp.
Category District State Average
Amount For Districts In Same Category
Beginning Teacher Salary $37,090 $37,540
Mid-Range Teacher Salary $51,070 $59,426
Highest Teacher Salary $67,720 $73,925
Average Principal Salary (Elementary) $93,520 $96,377
Average Principal Salary (Middle) $95,450 $100,144
Average Principal Salary (High) $102,921 $109,130
Superintendent Salary $239,640 $185,251
Percent of Budget for Teacher Salaries 35.2 40.9
Percent of Budget for Administrative Salaries 6.1 5.3
October 18th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Something is wrong with the figures for per pupil expenditures because almost every school listed is far below the district average.
October 21st, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I hope the agreement mandated more accurate data. Reports that are two or more years past are useless. There is no reason that by January of any school year, current year figures couldn’t be available. The gross incompetence of the administration of OUSD is appalling, and getting worse, rather than better as time goes on.
October 21st, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Actually, there will still be a lag with the data, even if OUSD completes the report cards on time. That’s because of the nature of the information that’s collected and the timelines established by the state legislature.
The SARC information (such as per-pupil expenditures and teacher vacancies) is supposed to reflect an entire school year, so it can’t be compiled until the following one. So, for example, the 2007-08 report card won’t come out until February 2009, which is what the law requires.