Here’s the TEA press release about the school accountability ratings for 2013, which came out on Thursday.
The Texas Education Agency today released the 2013 state accountability system ratings for more than 1,200 school districts and charters, and more than 8,500 campuses. The ratings reveal that almost 93 percent of school districts and charters across Texas have achieved the rating of Met Standard.
Districts, campuses and charters receive one of three ratings under the new accountability system: Met Standard; Met Alternative Standard; or Improvement Required. School district ratings (including charter operators) by category in 2013 are as follows:
RATING DISTRICT CHARTER TOTAL PERCENT Met Standard/Alternative 975 161 1,136 92.5% Met Standard 975 126 1,101 89.7% Met Alternative Standard N/A 35 35 2.9% Improvement Required 50 30 80 6.5% Not Rated 1 11 12 1.0% TOTAL 1,026 202 1,228 100.0% “A transition to a new accountability system comes with a great deal of uncertainty,” said Commissioner of Education Michael Williams. “The 2013 ratings confirm that the vast majority of districts and campuses are meeting the state’s standards and providing a quality education for our students.”
The 2013 ratings are based on a revised system that uses various indicators to provide greater detail on the performance of a district or charter and each individual campus throughout the state. The performance index framework includes four areas:
- Student Achievement – Represents a snapshot of performance across all subjects, on both general and alternative assessments, at an established performance standard.
(All Students)- Student Progress – Provides an opportunity for diverse campuses to show improvements made independent of overall achievement levels. Growth is evaluated by subject and student group.
(All Students; Student Groups by Race/Ethnicity; English Language Learners; Special Education)- Closing Performance Gaps – Emphasizes improving academic achievement of the economically disadvantaged student group and the lowest performing race/ethnicity student groups at each campus or district.
(All Economically Disadvantaged Students; Student Groups by Race/Ethnicity)- Postsecondary Readiness – Includes measures of high school completion, and beginning in 2014, State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) performance at the postsecondary readiness standard.
(All Students; Student Groups by Race/Ethnicity; English Language Learners; Special Education)Districts and campuses with students in Grade 9 or above must meet targets on all four indexes. Districts and campuses with students in Grade 8 or lower must meet targets on the first three indexes (excluding Postsecondary Readiness).
Under the 2013 state accountability system, campus ratings (including charter campuses) by category and school type are as follows:
RATING ELEM MIDDLE HS MULTI TOTAL PERCENT Met Standard/Alternative 4,062 1,511 1,338 295 7,206 84.2% Met Standard 4,062 1,504 1,156 264 6,986 81.7% Met Alternative Standard N/A 7 182 31 220 2.6% Improvement Required 477 133 129 39 778 9.1% Not Rated 73 62 280 156 571 6.7% TOTAL 4,612 1,706 1,747 490 8,555 100.0% For eligible campuses that achieve the rating of Met Standard, distinction designations in the following areas have also been assigned: Top 25 Percent Student Progress; Academic Achievement in Reading/English language arts; and Academic Achievement in Mathematics.
Approximately 3,600 campuses that achieved the Met Standard rating earned some type of distinction. More than 750 campuses earned distinctions in all three potential areas. These distinction designations are based on campus performance in relation to a comparison group of campuses. Distinctions earned (by campus type) in 2013 are as follows:
DISTINCTION(S) EARNED ELEM MIDDLE HS MULTI TOTAL Top 25% Progress & Read/ELA & Math* 385 182 152 40 759 Top 25 % Progress 326 94 117 16 553 Top 25% Progress & Reading/ELA 186 88 34 11 319 Top 25% Progress & Math 209 93 48 10 360 Reading/ELA 547 183 63 28 821 Reading/ELA & Mathematics 164 81 147 32 424 Mathematics 133 122 84 24 363 * Denotes campus received Met Standard rating plus all three possible distinctions under the 2013 state accountability system.
“Under the new accountability system, these designations recognize outstanding work at the campus level that would not be acknowledged in previous years,” said Commissioner Williams. “Despite the many positive numbers, I am confident school leaders across our state share my concern for the number of campuses where improvement is still required, especially at the elementary level. If we can target our efforts in those grade levels today, the state will see improvements for all students in the years ahead.”
Commissioner Williams noted that while the four components of the new accountability system are in place, future adjustments will be made based on district and stakeholder feedback. In addition, House Bill 5 (passed by the 83rd Texas Legislature) requires stronger measures of postsecondary readiness to be added to the system
To view the 2013 state accountability ratings for districts, charters and campuses, visit the Texas Education Agency web site at http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2013/index.html.
That last link will take you to the accountability system overview page, which has all the explanations and summaries of the numbers. All district and individual campus ratings can be found here. HISD schools begin on page 80. As the Chron reported, HISD has some work to do.
Terry Grier
More than 20 percent of campuses in the Houston Independent School District failed to meet the state’s tougher academic standards this year, according to data released Thursday.
Across Texas, 10 percent of schools fell short in the new rating system, which for the first time holds them accountable for results on the state’s more challenging standardized exams that launched last year.
Most districts in the Houston region fared well. Every campus in Cypress-Fairbanks, the second-largest local district, met the standards. In Fort Bend ISD, which ranks next in size, one school fell short.
Aldine ISD struggled, with 27 percent of its schools missing the mark.
[…]
In HISD, the largest district in Texas, 58 of the 268 rated campuses – or 21.6 percent – received the “improvement required” label.
Unlike last year, HISD fared worse than the Dallas school district, which has similar demographics and ranks second in size. About 15 percent of the Dallas campuses missed the standards.
Superintendent Terry Grier said he was pleased that most schools did well on a measure that looks at test scores across all subjects and grade levels.
“At the same time,” Grier said in a statement, “these ratings clearly highlight areas where we must focus our resources to ensure every student in every neighborhood is prepared to succeed in college and in the workforce.”
Half of the 20 schools in Grier’s signature reform program, Apollo, earned the “met standard” rating. The multimillion-dollar effort, which started three years ago, includes specially hired tutors and increased class time.
All of the schools in North Forest ISD missed the standards, except for one run by a charter school.
HISD’s press release on the accountability standards is here. One point to note:
HISD campus results for each of the four indexes were:
Student achievement: 251 out of 268 rated schools (94 percent) met standard
Student progress: 235 out of 263 rated schools (89 percent) met standard
Closing performance gaps: 232 out of 265 rated schools (88 percent) met standard
Postsecondary readiness: 42 out of 46 rated schools (91 percent) met standard
That sounds a little better than “21.6 percent of HISD campuses failed to meet the standard”. Not meeting any one of the four standards gets you the “improvement required” label. What that suggests is that most of the HISD schools that were classified as “improvement required” met at least one of the three or four indexes. A look through the HISD schools on the master list confirms this – only Wheatley High School and Hartsfield Elementary School struck out completely. That may make bringing them up to standard a little easier. On the other hand, four of the eight non-charter North Forest schools (see page 126) rated Needs Improvement in each index. HISD definitely has its work cut out for it there. Everyone is still figuring out what the new system means, and it will get tougher over time, but HISD has budgeted money to improve the schools that failed to satisfy one or more index. We’ll see how much progress they make next year.