School Leaders React to a Mixed Report Card from the State

The Texas Education Agency has released a first look at state’s new A-F accountability ratings for public school districts, which are set to be officially implemented next year, and the results weren’t too pretty for some local schools.

Beginning in 2018, the TEA will assign A through F letter grades to each school in the state’s annual accountability ratings. Previously the state issued ratings of “met standard” or “improvement required.” The Legislature ordered the agency to present a “work-in-progress” report with ratings for all schools in the state at the end of last year. Those are the results which came out this month.

See the chart on page A4 for the results of all five Fayette County public schools and five other nearby school districts. Among the county schools, Round Top-Carmine ISD topped the list with three Bs and an A. La Grange came in at the bottom with a C and three Ds. The other schools fell in between. 

The state judges schools in four domains: student performance, student progress, closing performance gaps and post-secondary readiness. The scores in each domain are based on a variety of indicators such as standardized testing results, attendance, number of economically disadvantaged students, dropout rates and the number of students enrolled in various graduation plans.

“No inferences about official district or campus performance in the 2015–16 school year should be drawn from these ratings, and these ratings should not be considered predictors of future district or campus performance ratings,” the TEA wrote on its website.

All the superintendents interviewed by the Record raised concerns with the rating system. La Grange Superintendent Bill Wagner said the ratings focus too much on standardized testing scores.

“Three of the four grades which comprise Domains I, II, and III are totally associated with the STAAR test,” Wagner said. “It is almost as if an entire school year is based on just a few days of testing and a standardized test at that.  

“So much more goes into the total school experience, from extracurricular activities, fine arts programs, career and technical programs, athletic programs, to the total educational experience in the classroom each day that constitutes an overall picture of the success of a school,” Wagner added. “Our teachers work very hard each day to educate students.  There are just so many components of a successful school that you can’t assign a grade to measure.”

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