By David Taylor / Managing Editor
For two years, parents and the public have been denied access to the 2023 A-F accountability ratings for school systems and campuses statewide because of a lawsuit. The judge ruled in favor of Commissioner Mike Morath and TEA and released the numbers in late April.
The transparency was a welcome sight for parents who have been kept in the dark for most of that time.
“For far too long, families, educators and communities have been denied access to information about the performance of their schools, thanks to frivolous lawsuits paid for by tax dollars filed by those who disagreed with the statutory goal of raising career readiness expectations to help students,” said Texas Education Commissioner, Mike Morath. “Every Texas family deserves a clear view of school performance, and now those families finally have access to data they should have received two years ago. Transparency drives progress, and when that transparency is blocked, students pay the price.”
Not so fast, say school districts who joined to file the lawsuit. Most area districts agree to testing changes and raising the bar, but fairly. Area superintendents said TEA failed to deliver the rules for the 2023 test until the fall after the test had been administered.
“They had previously been held back by lower courts due to concerns from districts that TEA did not provide enough advance notice about changes to the calculations prior to their release,” said Aldine ISD superintendent LaTonya M. Goffney, Ph.D.
“It’s important to understand that these ratings are based on student data and STAAR scores from the 2022–2023 school year and earlier. They do not reflect the important work happening right now in our classrooms or the current performance of our students and staff,” Goffney explained.
In addition, TEA changed the rules after students had completed the STAAR/EOC testing for the 2022-2023 school year, applying new methodology to a group of students (class of 2022) who had already graduated from high school.
One of the biggest changes was related to the college, career and military readiness (CCMR) metric, increasing the required points to earn an “A” from 60 to 88!
That gave no districts time to meet the new metric and many were tagged in the 2023 scores.
In addition, the new STAAR 2.0 was mandated to be taken online with an expectation that students in third grade and older would have expertise in manipulating online tools including drag-and-drop, graphing, drop-down menus, highlighting and keyboarding for extended and short constructed responses on the exam, he said.
Those expectations resulted in the scores attributed to the 2023 test released just a couple of weeks ago.
Districts, in the past, were typically given a “grace” year to make adjustments to curriculum for the new standards. That also didn’t happen.
Aldine ISD was tagged with a disappointing “D” with 23 schools receiving a failing grade (F) and 17 receiving a “D”. That’s a little more than half of the schools in the district. With 11 elementary/PK-EE schools at “C” rating, that’s a majority of the schools mediocre or worse.
Now parents must decide if that’s acceptable, and if not, what should be done about it.
Congratulations should be offered to Avalos P-Tech School, Blanson CTE High School, Hinojosa EC/PK/K, La Promesa, Thompson Elementary, Vardeman EC/PK/K, Victory Early College High School, Worsham Elementary, and Young Womens Leadership Academy who posted the top grade of “A” proving excellence can be achieved. (9 schools out of 78)
Of the major high schools across the district, Aldine scored a D, Davis an F, Eisenhower an F, MacArthur an F, and Nimitz a D. Those are the students graduating from Aldine ISD this year.
Goffney defended the scores in a letter to parents.
“Please know that Aldine ISD remains committed to its mission of ensuring that all students receive a rigorous and enriching educational experience that prepares them for success in college, career, and life. As such, the district is always working to improve so that we can best support our students. Along with STAAR results, we also focus on things that matter deeply to our community, like providing students with choices and opportunities, supporting great teaching, building strong student support systems, staying connected with families, and using resources wisely. These are the values that guide everything we do.”
The A–F accountability system was established in 2017 by the 85th Texas Legislature through House Bill (HB) 22 to provide clear and consistent information on how schools are performing in three key areas: Student Achievement, School Progress and Closing the Gaps.
To view 2023 A-F ratings for school systems and campuses, visit TXschools.gov.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The agency remains prohibited from issuing 2024 ratings due to ongoing legal action.