Some North Texas school districts are pushing back against a state agency’s methodology after a preliminary accountability report suggested the districts have not excelled at preparing their students for life after high school.
Texas Education Agency officials on Friday said no conclusions should be drawn about school performance based on its preliminary accountability ratings, which grade schools and districts on an “A-F” scale.
“The ratings in this report are for informational purposes to meet a legislative requirement and represent work-in-progress models that are likely to change before A-F ratings become effective in August 2018,” Commissioner of Education Mike Morath said in a statement.
State lawmakers approved the A-F accountability ratings system in 2015. Although the first official ratings are not scheduled be issued until August 2018, the law requires the TEA to deliver this preliminary report to the Legislature as the agency fine-tunes its grading methodology.
But the preliminary nature of the ratings hasn’t stopped local districts from raising questions about the methodology. School districts in Frisco, Plano, Allen and McKinney received mostly “A” or “B” grades in student achievement and student progress—but all four districts received “C” grades in the category for post-secondary readiness.
Plano ISD Superintendent Brian Binggeli said the system appears to place traditional high schools at a disadvantage when evaluating how students are prepared for their next stage in life. Schools that score well on post-secondary readiness, he said, include early-college programs or academies, which select high-aptitude students and report few scores for students with disabilities. Binggeli said the system also appears to favor small schools with fewer course offerings, prompting more students to take career and technical courses.
“The result is that large comprehensive high schools, even those with tremendous track records of preparing students for college and career, are locked out of the ‘A’ category” in post-secondary readiness, Binggeli said. “Telling a community that their high schools are not high quality because they serve all children and offer a robust curriculum fails every major rationale for an accountability system.”
The preliminary report graded schools in four areas: student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps for the economically disadvantaged and post-secondary readiness.
The state currently operates under an accountability system in which schools are deemed to have “met standard” or require improvement. The preliminary system released Friday is based on many of the same indicators as the old system, which will remain in effect through the 2016-17 school year.
Plano ISD plans to lobby state lawmakers to change aspects of the report, which the TEA considers a work in progress, Binggeli said.
In a statement released Friday by Frisco ISD, spokesperson Chris Moore said the district would prefer a "community-based accountability system" that allows districts to innovate locally while still being subject to general state standards.
"A new system should reduce the use of high-stakes, standardized tests, encompass multiple assessments, reflect greater validity, and, more accurately reflect what students know and can do in terms of the rigorous standards," Moore said in an email to
Community Impact Newspaper.
Here is how some districts in Collin County graded, according to the preliminary system:
Allen ISD
- Student achievement: A
- Student progress: A
- Closing performance gaps: A
- Post-secondary readiness: C
Frisco ISD
- Student achievement: A
- Student progress: A
- Closing performance gaps: B
- Post-secondary readiness: C
McKinney ISD
- Student achievement: B
- Student progress: A
- Closing performance gaps: C
- Post-secondary readiness: C
Plano ISD
- Student achievement: A
- Student progress: A
- Closing performance gaps: C
- Post-secondary readiness: C
