HISD girds for release of ratings
TEA to roll out results that could force closure of schools, takeover by state
The release of Texas’ academic accountability ratings this week will mark a new chapter in the state’s constant tweaking of school performance evaluation — and a watershed moment in Houston ISD as it faces the possibility of major state intervention, depending on the results.
Texas Education Agency officials on Wednesday will roll out results from the state’s newest accountability system, which the agency redesigned to comply with legislation passed in 2017. Under the new system, districts for the first time will receive A-through-F letter grades that denote overall performance, while campuses will continue to be rated “met standard” or “improvement required” this year before moving to letter grades next year.
In the Houston area, the results will be most closely watched at HISD, where four chronically low-performing schools must meet the standard to stave off forced campus closures or a state takeover of the district’s locally elected school board. A
top-ranking HISD official said in mid-July that the district is “hopeful” all four schools will meet the standard, but her comments came before a late change to the accountability system that could drop more campuses into “improvement required” territory.
Compared to previous years, the redesigned accountability system now rewards districts and schools more if they show strong student progress and higher scores relative to other campuses with similar percentages of economically disadvantaged students. TEA Commissioner Mike Morath heralded the changes last week in a meeting with journalists.
“It’s really fairer than any system that has ever happened in Texas in terms of its appraisal of campus performance,” Morath said. “We will recognize high student achievement, but we will also recognize the impact of highly effective educators while maintaining a focus on students most at need.”
The new system, however, has received widespread criticism from many educators, who call it unnecessarily complicated and over-reliant on standardized test scores.
“To think that one letter grade somehow accurately reflects the complex work of hundreds of teachers and thousands of students on one campus, let alone an entire district, is really an insult to their hard work,” Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators, said in a statement. “We expect more for our children and our schools.”
Thirteen states use an A-through-F letter grade system, with nearly all others producing some form of ratings, according to the Education Commission of the States, a nonprofit that tracks education policy across the country.
Under Texas’ previous accountability system, districts and schools were rated “meets standard” or “improvement required,” with roughly 3 to 5 percent receiving the latter mark every year. To meet the standard, a district or school had to hit preset targets tied to raw student achievement or student progress, and it had to hit targets for closing performance gaps and post-secondary readiness.
Under the new system, 70 percent of each district or school rating will be determined by the highest scaled score earned among three categories: raw student achievement, student progress and performance relative to percentages of economically disadvantaged students. The remaining 30 percent will be tied to success at closing achievement gaps among various demographic groups.
Morath said the new rating method produces results that “are not strongly correlated with poverty,” a common criticism of A-through-F systems. Schools labeled “improvement required” in 2017-18 served about 80 percent economically disadvantaged students, compared to 58 percent at campuses that met standard.
Most Houston-area districts will receive an “A” grade or a “not rated” label this year after getting waivers tied to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey. In addition, a small percentage of local campuses that would have received an “improvement required” rating will receive a “not rated” label due to Harvey.
In HISD, 10 schools were in danger this year of triggering a new state law that sanctions districts for allowing any campuses to receive five consecutive “improvement required” ratings. Six of those 10 campuses received Harvey waivers, leaving four that must meet the standard: Mading and Wesley elementary schools, Woodson PK-8 and Worthing High School.
In a meeting with the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board last week, HISD interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan demurred when asked about the prognosis of the four schools, replying, “I have confidence in all 284 of my campuses.”
All four campuses showed growth on standardized tests in 2018, but state and local education leaders have not said whether it will be enough to earn “meets standard” ratings.
HISD leaders will be closely watching to see whether a late addition to the accountability system will impact any of the four schools.
Under a rule added by the TEA in recent weeks, any school with a scaled score of 59 or lower, which correlates with an “F” rating, on three of the four measurements — raw student achievement, student progress, relative performance and closing gaps — automatically receives an “improvement required” rating. Prior to the new rule, a tiny fraction of schools were in line to meet standard despite scoring 59 or lower on three measures. Morath described the change as “a check at the end of the system consistent with improving the accuracy of the rating system.”
State Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, took issue with the new rule at a Texas House of Representatives public education committee hearing last week.
“It seems to me that in the rule, we’ve created another scenario that isn’t in the bill,” Bernal said.
One district, San Antonio ISD, already has announced the Texas Education Agency will close one of its elementary schools because the campus will be rated “improvement required” this year, its fifth consecutive mark.