The preliminary results for the Texas Education Agency’s new A-F accountability rating system, which were published Jan. 6, has school districts across the state up in arms, especially the portion  of the ratings that measure postsecondary readiness.

In a Senate Finance Committee hearing held Jan. 24, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath said he has heard “buckets” of feedback regarding the A-F system. He said there has been a small, quiet group in support of the evaluation but a multitude of others with louder criticism.

Morath said although three of the categories within the new rating system have clear metrics, the category that measures postsecondary readiness is a strange mix of remaining qualifiers that do not necessarily fit well together.

“It reads more like anything the commissioner can think of except for the {State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness] test,” Morath said.

The new rating system is required by House Bill 2804, which was passed during the 2015 Texas legislative session. The bill required the TEA to present an informational report to the state Legislature by Jan. 1.

The A-F system will replace the existing accountability system that simply says whether school districts Met Standard under certain performance indicators. The A-F rating system, which will be fully implemented in 2018, will give districts and their campuses an overall grade of A, B, C, D or F, as well as an individual grade in five domains: Student Achievement, Student Progress, Closing Performance Gaps, Postsecondary Readiness, and Community and Student Engagement.

The results published Jan. 6 only measured the first four domains and reflect a system that is a work in progress, TEA spokesperson Lauren Callahan said.

Domain IV measures postsecondary readiness. More than 60 percent of the nearly 1,000 school districts that received a grade in Domain IV received a C, D or F.

Most school districts in Fort Bend and Harris counties, which in large part received As and Bs in the first three domains, did not score higher than a C in Domain IV. Katy ISD scored two As and one B in the first three domains but scored a D in Domain IV.

The KISD board of trustees, along with numerous other school districts across the state, passed a resolution asking the Legislature to repeal the new A-F rating system.

“We are not afraid of accountability at all,” said Debbie Gillespie, a regional director on the board for the Texas Association of School Boards. “I think that’s part of what has made public education better. But it needs to be fair, and it needs to be meaningful.”

Calculating Domain IV

Domain IV looks at three variables on the high school level to measure postsecondary readiness: the graduation rate, the percentage of students graduating with a higher-level graduation plan, and college and career readiness.

To measure college and career readiness, several indicators are considered, including SAT and ACT scores, postsecondary credits earned and how many students took Advanced Placement courses. The indicators that were not measured for the preliminary ratings but will be used in the final ratings in 2018 include the number of students who enlisted in the armed forces and the number of students who earned an industry certification.

Callahan said the Domain IV ratings may change by 2018 because the TEA did not have all the data required under HB 2804. The bill requires the TEA to gather data the agency was not required to gather before.

Under HB 2804, all campuses are to be graded on postsecondary readiness, but a district’s score will only consider the score for its high schools in most cases. For Domain IV, elementary schools are graded on the number of students who are chronically absent, and middle schools also are graded on the absenteeism rate as well as the dropout rate.

Domain IV trends

Out of the 150 school districts that received an A rating in Domain IV, more than two-thirds of them are categorized as “rural” school districts by the TEA. By comparison, KISD is categorized as a “major suburban” school district, meaning it is one of the largest school districts in Fort Bend and Harris counties. Rural school districts can have an enrollment of less than 300 students.

Weimar ISD, for example, which scored an A in Domain IV, is a rural school district with one elementary school, one junior high school and one high school. The district had an enrollment of 635 in 2015-16, according to the TEA.

No “major suburban” school districts scored an A in Domain IV. Only eight of the 79 “major suburban” school districts scored a B in Domain IV, while 13 scored an F in Domain IV.

College Readiness

The problem with determining whether students are ready for college-level courses is there is no common definition for college readiness, said Raymund Paredes, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board commissioner of higher education.

“There’s a great variance in what might be college readiness at a community college and what might be college readiness at [the University of Texas] or Texas A&M University,” Paredes said. “There’s no certain definition of college readiness. It means different things to different people.”

According to The College Board, only about 32 percent of Texas students in the class of 2015 met the SAT College and Career Readiness Benchmark.

“There’s a persistent problem with the numbers of students who require developmental — or what is also known as remedial—education before they are able to take credit-bearing courses, particularly at community colleges but also at universities across the state,” said Harrison Keller, UT deputy to the president for strategy and policy.

Paredes said most first-time college students struggle with math, writing and science.

Domain IV measures SAT scores and students who take AP classes but does not specifically measure skills in math, writing or science.

Keller suggested students struggle with math because high school seniors are not required to take a math course, giving them an entire year of not using those skills.

“If you take time away from math, it’s like learning language—you can lose it fairly quickly if you don’t practice,” Keller said.

Karla Hernandez DeCuir, the executive director of the University of Houston-Victoria Katy, said the UH System works with local school districts to help better prepare students for college through outreach, mentoring, orientation and summer camp programs.

Additionally, the system is expanding its dual credit programs to allow high school students to earn an associate degree at the same time they earn their high school diploma or former community college students to earn an associate degree while working on a bachelor degree. The system is also adding more college and career counselors to help high school students understand what steps they can take to prepare them for education or work after graduation.

KISD also offers career and technical courses and numerous other postsecondary programs to students.

“I believe our school district does a phenomenal job [with regard to postsecondary readiness],” KISD Superintendent Lance Hindt said. “I’m not going to moan and groan about Domain IV and then gloat about Domains I, II and III—where we made an A, an A and a B. The bottom line is, overall, I believe this system is not a true reflection of what’s occurring in our schools.”

Next steps

Despite the fact that school districts across the state are seeking to appeal the A-F rating system, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said A-F will not be repealed or replaced. State legislators seem poised to move forward with the new system.

Some bills that have been filed in this legislative session either add more indicators to Domain IV or slightly change the wording in the Education Code for the accountability system.

In a statement, state Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, who sponsored HB 2804, said the new system is staying.

“Our students and parents deserve a grading system that helps individual students, their campuses and their districts transparently measure academic success and clearly delineate where improvements are needed,” Taylor said. “I realize that some folks are frustrated with accountability, but the taxpayers of Texas deserve to know if their hard-earned tax dollars are being wisely spent and that our students are getting the quality education they deserve.”

During the Senate Finance Committee hearing held Jan. 24, Taylor said he would devote part of this session to refining the domains so they would be better indicators of student performance going forward.

The primary author of HB 2804, former Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen, retired in 2015. The joint bill author, Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-Dallas, declined comment to Community Impact Newspaper.

Emily Donaldson contributed to this story.