Making the Grade: A deep dive into the state’s accountability rating system

BELTON, Texas (KWTX) - For the last five years, the Texas Education Agency has released “Accountability Rating” scores for public schools in the state. It’s an A through F rating based on factors relating in large part to how districts score on STAAR tests.

The list includes how a district’s score compares to how it did 2019, the last time the scores were released. The state paused ratings during 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.

You can see how your child’s district ranked in 2022 in the list below:

This year, 24 districts scored an “A” in Central Texas, 48 a “B”, seven “C”s and four were not rated, meaning they got a “D” or an “F.”

To help explain the process the TEA took to get those scores, KWTX sat down with Holly Moore, the director of accountability at the Belton Independent School District, who’s sole job is monitoring the accountability system and supporting campuses in the district as they try to work in ways that could improve the district’s rating.

“I look at my role as a support for our district and all of our campuses to make sure that we understand all of the policies, the processes that are part of the Texas state accountability system. And then I have an intervention role that makes sure our students are successful. So if we do have students who are struggling academically or behaviorally, how are we supporting them? What systems and processes are we putting in place for our students?” Moore explains.

According to data shared by the TEA online, the state looks at three domains to calculate a score. Student Achievement, School Progress and Closing the Gaps.

Student Achievement

Three sub-categories make up a Student Achievement score. To help you understand we’re using plants in a garden.

The first plant, growing purple flowers represents the STAAR performance category. The more students who approach, meet or master their grade level on STAAR, the more flowers that grow on the plant and the higher score the district gets in that section. The 74% used in the example is representative of the state average.

The plant with yellow flowers represents College, Career and Military Readiness. Moore says there are several factors the state uses to evaluate that in seniors.

“There is a list of indicators, there are quite a bit of them, that the state says that each graduating senior should have at least one of those to show that they are college or career ready so they are ready to leave our public educations system and be successful outside of it,” Moore explains.

According to the TEA, the state average, 65% of Texas seniors are College, Career or Military ready.

The red flowers represent a district’s graduation rate, 90% is the state average.

The three scores are combined and converted, according to TEA conversions and scales to produce a Student Achievement score.

School Progress

School Progress looks at STAAR performance again, but instead of rating based on whether a student met their grade level requirement, students are measured on whether or not they performed better than the did before.

That’s represented on the left side of the bus in our example. Ten students started on the left side of seats. All ten students took the STAAR test but three did not test better than they did last year. The other seven saw improvement. This is a rounded score from a sample district in Central Texas of 70%.

Moore says Academic Growth is one her district highly endorses.

“That’s what we all want for all kids is that they’re growing, they’re seeing success, we’re helping them and its not just about a test but its about what can they achieve,” Moore said.

The right side of the bus is Relative Performance. It looks at how students perform on STAAR tests compared to students in other districts with similar socio-economic disadvantages. In the example above, the ten students on the right side of the bus took the STAAR test. Eight students are rewarded for having higher achievement compared to similar districts. That results in the rounded score from the same sample district of 80%.

The TEA only takes the higher score between Academic Growth and Relative Performance to calculate the School Progress score.

Closing the Gaps

For Closing the Gaps, student data is broken up into specific groups for things like race, language and special needs. The groups are measured through four categories. To help you understand we’re measuring with test tubes and beakers.

The test tubes represent the number of student groups that that meet a specific target in academic achievement, graduation rate, english language proficiency and school quality (measuring a specific groups CCMR).

Those groups include African American, Hispanic, White, American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander, Two or More Races, Economically Disadvantaged, Emergent Bilingual / English Learners, Receiving Special Education Services, Formerly Receiving Special Education Services, Continuously Enrolled, Non-Continuously Enrolled students.

Those scores are combined and converted using the TEA’s scale for an overall Closing the Gaps score.

Moore says her department stresses the importance of this area to each campus in her district.

“”If you’re concentrating on each and every student and you’re looking at each student for growth, then {Closing the Gaps} really shouldn’t scare us,” Moore said.

Final Equation

The state takes all of that data from each of the three domains and use an equation to calculate a school’s score.

It only takes the higher score between Student Achievement and School Progress and scale that at 70%. Its added to a districts Closing the Gaps score, scaled at 30%. The total is rounded to a whole percentage point as the districts Accountability Rating.

Districts are currently being evaluated for their next grade. KWTX is continuing to explore the topic, next you can expect to hear how the state is changing the way those scores are calculated and why schools have questions and concerns.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. TWEET TO ANCHOR MEGAN BOYD TO SHARE YOUR COMMENTS, QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS REGARDING YOUR CHILD’S SCHOOL OR DISTRICT:

You can also email Megan at megan.boyd@kwtx.com.

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