This week, the Texas Education Agency will release a tsunami of reports rating Texas public schools under a new accountability system.
Designed to credit schools that increased academic achievement even if they didn't deliver glowing test scores, the new system grades schools and districts across four indexes: student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps and postsecondary readiness.
It also might credit those schools in which poor scores rise higher at a greater rate than others, but unfortunately, like the old system, schools will still be penalized if students fall below the grading curve of 5%.
The accountability system is the state's way of measuring how well schools are doing in educating kids. The old one could sink a school based solely on the standardized test scores of its lowest-performing students. Educators pleaded for more flexibility, and the TEA didn't rate schools at all last year while it overhauled the system.
But some who have looked closely at Index No. 2, the new method of calculating student progress, say it might be as much a curse as a blessing when the reports come out Thursday.
Despite being necessary to have 3-4 years or testing data to vet the new system, it is being implemented immediately.
“It doesn't look right, feel right or smell right,” said Mike Lara, director of research and technology services for North East Independent School District, the second largest in San Antonio.
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