Changing Standards for TEA School tests means changes in School Rankings

The new 2011 Test scores were just released and there were a number of changes in how individual schools were rated for the coming school year. Many schools that had been rated Exemplary in 2010, have a new Recognized rating coming into 2011. The same is true for Recognized schools, Academically Acceptable schools and Academically Unacceptable schools--many dropped in test score ranking for 2011. Did Texas students lose it in 2010 or was something else going on here? Well, there is indeed more here than just a change in rankings. The standards changed, and the new standards will become even more strict over the next couple of years, according to press releases issued by Texas Education Agency (TEA), July 29, 2011. According to the TEA, Texas is strengthening accountability measures to create greater excellence among Texas students.

“'Each year, we raise the bar to push our schools to keep growing and improving. These changes will help prepare schools and districts for the new accountability system in 2013, which will be based on the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR™) and in response to House Bill 3 passed by the Texas legislature in 2009,'” (quote from Commissioner of Education Robert Scott).

As a result of these changes, in 2011 we have seen changes in Eanes ISD, Round Rock ISD, Austin ISD, Leander ISD, Lake Travis ISD--in all Greater Austin area school districts and across the state. 

Some of what has changed includes:

• Elimination of the Texas Projection Measure (1); this may be the single largest impact to the standard from the past couple of years.
• Inclusion of results for more than 119,000 students receiving special education services who were tested on the TAKS-Modified and TAKS-Alternate assessments
• Inclusion of a measure for English language learners based on TAKS passing standards and progress on the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) reading, an assessment that measures a student’s English reading proficiency and progress
• Increasing the TAKS indicator standards for the Academically Acceptable rating by five points each for mathematics and science.
• Adding a new commended performance indicators
• Increasing the annual dropout rate riggor for grades 7-8 from 1.8 percent to 1.6 percent for the Recognized and Exemplary rating categories.

So, Texas standards for testing and rating is becoming more demanding on several fronts. In the end, this should give us a clearer picture of how well our schools are performing, with a rising bar of excellence.

Reference TEA press release:
http://www.tsta.org/news/current/accountability2011.pdf

(1) According to an article in the NY Times, July 23, 2011, TPM rating worked like this: Instead of using students’ actual scores on standardized tests, the TPM ratings formula gauged students’ future test scores based on a campus-wide average.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/us/24ttaccountable.html

Rating standards for each category:
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2011/manual/table8.pdf