Beth Nash, director of data and accountability, noted that the 2023 Accountability Manual, also known as A-F letter accountability ratings, have yet to be finalized.
"We still do not have the final, 'What's going to count? What is it going to look like? How will things be factored?'" she said.
Nash also emphasized the Texas Education Agency does not compare one campus to another within the district but instead uses data to compare other campuses outside the district that are similar in demographics based on enrollment numbers, economically disadvantaged percentages, emergent bilingual populations and special education numbers.
She explained once the district receives its accountability rating, it would be interesting to see how other schools did in comparison.
"That's really what we're going to need to really ground ourselves in, especially knowing that our own campus demographics across the elementaries—they're so vastly different; it's not always fair to compare one campus to another, and that's something I really want to drive home for the school board as well as the public that we can't expect all seven elementaries to be at the exact same level when the demographics are this different," she said.
Some context
According to the TEA, student performance is described in four categories:
- Masters grade level: passing
- Meets grade level: passing
- Approaches grade level: passing
- Did not meet grade level: not passing
Parents and legal guardians can find a sample report to better understand their child's STAAR score at www.texasassessment.gov/staar-score.
By the numbers
Preliminary data for the 2023 school year shows a small improvement across the board in third through fifth grade math compared to the previous year despite remaining below the state's standard. This year, preliminary reports show third through fifth grade students were just shy of meeting the math standards set by the state. For fifth grade, 72% of students were approaching grade level, which is seven percentage points below the state's average. Although 38% met grade level compared to the state's standard of 50%, 14% hit "masters," which is just below the state's standard of 21%.
But compared to last year, preliminary scores for third to fifth grades for reading have dropped and are also just shy of meeting the state's standard.
Only 75% of fifth graders met "approaches" compared to the state's standard of 81%, and only 23% of students hit "masters" as opposed to the state's expectation of 28%.
This year, only 13% of third grade students who tested for reading reached mastery level, compared to the 23% of students who reached a mastery level in 2022. Only 39% of fourth graders hit "meets" compared to 47% of students who hit "meets" in 2022, and in both instances the district was still below the state's standard.
Stay tuned
Official STAAR scores will be released in September and presented to the board Sept. 26. All official testing results will be available statewide at www.txschools.gov.
