BY KIM HILSENBECK
The latest state accountability scores for Texas schools show the Hays and San Marcos districts met the standard on the newly developed accountability ratings system. This is the fi rst year TEA used the system. No ratings were calculated in 2012. Under the performance indexbased approach to academic accountability, districts and schools receive a rating of either “met standard” or “improvement required.” To receive a “Met Standard” rating, the district and high school campus had to meet targets in four applicable indices: 1. Student achievement, 2. Student progress, 3. Closing performance gaps, and 4. Postsecondary readiness. While schools must continue to meet the four indices, the standards were written in such a way that the underlying concepts can be changed over time, according to TEA Director of Media Relations Debbie Ratcliffe. Elementary and middle schools were required to meet targets on the first three indices. Ratings will be issued each summer, Ratcliffe said, and changes to the standards are expected over time. All campuses in Hays CISD met the standards, while San Marcos CISD had only one school which didn’t mean the standard. San Marcos CISD school, De Zavala Elementary, fell short of meeting the standard on Index 2: Student Progress. De Zavala Elementary was two points shy of meeting the new index target, which looks at scores of 10 student groups, including ethnic groups and special education students, for reading, writing and math tests categorized as having met or exceeded progress standards. The campus will receive the “Improvement Required” designation for 2013. In addition, several campuses in both districts earned what are called distinctions, which demonstrate high performance when compared to other schools that are similar in terms of number of students, percent of English language learning students, percent of economically disadvantaged students and mobility rates. TEA calls 2013 a transitional year for ratings. This means that the accountability system will again undergo changes before 2014, in part due to legislative changes that will introduce a letter grade rating system for districts in the future. Texas House Bill 5, passed during the 83rd Legislative session, requires that the TEA commissioner assign performance ratings of A – F to districts and ratings of exemplary, recognized, acceptable, and unacceptable to campuses beginning with the 2016-17 school year. This fall, accountability advisory groups will make recommendations to TEA Commissioner Michael Williams on the accountability rating labels that will be assigned in the 2013-14 through 2015-16 school years. Schools are compared in groups of 40 similar campuses from across the state. The schools were chosen because they had similar characteristics, such as size, demographics and the percentage of poor students. For example, Hays High was grouped with Anderson and Austin high schools in Austin, A&M Consolidated in College Station, Canyon High in Comal ISD and Hendrickson High in Pfl ugerville, among others. Lehman High was compared to Seguin High in Arlington, Desoto High School, George Bush High in Fort Bend ISD, Lubbock High School and Victoria East High in Victoria, among others. Elementary and middle schools were compared as well on a campusby-campus basis to similar schools throughout the state.
