Districts losing credit for grads in military
Texas public high schools and school districts no longer will receive credit under the state’s academic accountability system for graduates classified as enlisting in the military, a change made after dozens of campuses and districts reported abnormally high rates of students joining the armed forces.
In recent messages to districts, Texas Education Agency officials said military data will not be included in the accountability framework until the Defense Department provides information on graduates who enlist.
In the past few years, districts have been allowed to use different methods to identify graduates joining the armed forces. However, TEA described some enlistment rates as “inflated and potentially bad faith.”
A small but notable number of districts reported large percentages of class of 2018 and 2019 graduates enlisting in the military, well above the state average of roughly 5 percent. In several cases, the high enlistment rates dramatically boosted state-issued accountability ratings in schools and districts with poor standardized test scores, college readiness metrics and graduation rates.
Without abnormally large enlistment totals, four districts that scored B grades from the state in 2019 likely would have received D
or F grades.
“TEA has been seeking individual-level enlistment data from the (Defense Department) for three years,” agency officials said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we have learned that federal privacy rules prohibit the sharing of personally identifiable information with state agencies without explicit permission from each individual or without the sharing of information providing a direct benefit to the individual.”
Defense Department officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The immediate effect of the change remains unclear amid the pandemic. Texas education leaders have not yet decided whether to issue A-through-F ratings in 2021 or give state standardized tests, a cornerstone of the accountability system.
Texas legislators and education leaders generally have opposed issuing ratings in 2021, arguing the grades will not accurately reflect school and district quality amid the pandemic. Opinions on administering standardized tests are more divided, with supporters claiming the test results will offer important data on student achievement and the pandemic’s effect.
State officials nixed letter grades in 2020 after the cancellation of standardized tests traditionally given in the spring. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath is expected to announce accountability decisions for the current school year later this month or in early 2021.
Concerns about military enlistment rates arose in the fall of 2019, shortly after the August release of accountability ratings.
TEA officials launched investigations into 12 small districts that said 30 percent or more of their class of 2018 graduates joined the armed forces. Annual accountability ratings are based in part on data from the prior year’s graduating class.
In interviews with Hearst Newspapers last year, some of those districts said they counted graduates as enlisting if they attended a recruiting event, communicated with a recruiter or indicated on a survey that they intended to enlist.
“The preliminary investigation reports are pending internal review and are anticipated to be released for the districts’ response by the end of this month,” TEA officials said.
Concerns about military data carried over into this year, when 12 districts and 27 high schools reported at least 30 percent of graduates enlisting.
Included on that list was Houston Independent School District’s Kashmere High School.
Kashmere’s administrators said 45 percent of their class of 2019 graduates enlisted. No other HISD high school reported more than 18 percent.
HISD officials said Kashmere High administrators followed district protocols for identifying graduates intending to enlist, which involved surveying students about their plans after high school.
For the vast majority of districts and schools, eliminating enlistment rates from the state accountability would have relatively minimal effect.
Most report only a small percentage of seniors enlisting, hardly enough to bump up their letter grade.
Under TEA rules, district administrators still must collect and provide data on class of 2020 graduates enlisting in the armed forces. However, they now must have documentation that can “conclusively demonstrate and accurately account” for the number of graduates who joined or imminently planned to enlist.