The Georgetown ISD school board is expected to take action March 26 on whether or not to defer a requirement that ninth grader's scores on the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam count toward 15 percent of their final grade.
"The problem is the test has never been given, and we don't know how well our students are going to perform, and the [Texas Education] Agency hasn't published the passing standards yet, so we are kind of going into this blind," GISD Assessment Director Becky McCoy said. "Having a year at least to examine student results, determine if our conversion chart for taking a scaled score to a numerical 0–100 grade is fair and appropriate, it just gives us more time to make good decisions for kids and do what's best for students."
The option to defer for one year became available after Texas Education Agency Commissioner Robert Scott announced he would defer the requirement for the 2011–12 school year only, and districts could chose to take advantage of the deferment.
"I will definitely recommend that we defer the 15 percent requirement for this school year," Deputy Superintendent Brenda Albright said in statement.
