Making the grade -- Area schools receive letter grade for accountability

Report cards are out – not for students, but for the county’s school districts.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) posted accountability ratings for all multi-campus school districts and charter schools on Aug. 15, and while districts’ grades across Cherokee County were passing, not one received an overall A.

School districts or charter schools comprised of only one campus, including New Summerfield ISD, received either a met standard or improvement required rating for 2018 to align with the campus rating. Of the 272 single-campus districts and charters, 254 earned a met standard or met alternative standard overall rating, and 12 earned an improvement required rating.

Overall grades for schools were tabulated based on student performances in three key areas, or domains -- student achievement, school progress, and closing the gaps.

According to the TEA’s website, the student achievement portion of a district’s overall grade “shows how much students know and are able to do at the end of the school year.” The “grade” for student achievement is calculated by three criteria – the district’s STAAR performance, which accounts for 40 percent of the total grade; college, career and military (CCM) readiness, accounting for 40 percent of the grade; and the district’s graduation rate, accounting for 20 percent of the grade.

The school progress portion of a district’s letter grade “shows how students perform over time and how that growth compares to similar schools,” and considers two criteria -- academic growth in reading and math skills over the course of the school year; and relative performance, which is determined by “looking at a school's performance in the student achievement domain relative to the percentage of economically disadvantaged students at the school.”

“Using data from 2016–17, every school in Texas was plotted with its student achievement versus its students' poverty, to establish a baseline for this comparison,” the TEA’s website states. “Schools with student achievement above the achievement at schools with similar levels of student poverty receive higher scores.”

Closing the gaps shows how well different populations of students in a district are performing. Criteria used to calculate that score are grade level performance, for 50 percent; academic growth/graduation rate, 10 percent; English language proficiency, 10 percent; and student achievement, 30 percent.

To tally the final overall grade for a district, state officials then “take the higher score between how much students know and can do (student achievement) or how much better students are doing than last year or than peers in similar schools (school progress),” TEA’s website states. “We then consider whether performance gaps exist among different groups of students (closing the gaps).

“This design reflects a commitment to recognizing high student achievement and the impact of highly effective educators while maintaining focus on the students most in need.”

Ratings options for the overall score out of 100 are:

- A: 90–100 - Districts earn an A for exemplary performance when they serve most students well, encouraging high academic achievement and/or appropriate academic growth for almost all students. Most students will be prepared for eventual success in college, a career, or the military.

- B: 80–89 - Districts earn a B for recognized performance when they serve many students well, encouraging high academic achievement and/or appropriate academic growth for most students.

- C: 70–79 - Districts earn a C for acceptable performance when they serve many students well, but there are still many other students who need more support to succeed academically.

- D: 60–69 - Districts earn a D (60–69) for performance that needs improvement when they serve too few students well. Not enough students are making adequate academic progress to be eventually prepared for success in college, a career, or the military.

- F: 0–59 - Districts earn an F (below 60) for unacceptable performance when they serve only a small number of students well. Most students in these districts need far more academic support to be ready for eventual success in college, a career, or the military.

“This report card is designed to tell us how well we are helping students reach grade level and how well we are preparing them for success after high school,” TEA’s website states. “Much like the grades we give students, we can use these grades to identify ways to help schools improve over time.”

Alto ISD (670 students on three campuses) scored a C (acceptable) with an overall grade of 77 of 100: 72 of 100 in student achievement – 73 of 100 in STAAR testing, 59 of 100 in CCM readiness and 95 of 100 in graduation rate; 79 of 100 in school progress – 79 of 100 in academic growth and 65 of 100 in relative performance; and 73 of 100 in closing the gap – the district met 39 percent, or seven out of 18, grade level performance goals, met 100 percent, or two of two, academic growth/graduation rate goals and 100 percent, one of one, of English language proficiency goals, but scored zero of three student achievement goals. All three of Alto’s campuses met standards.

Alto ISD also scored an A (100 of 100) in the financial integrity rating system of Texas, for the third consecutive year.
“We are pleased that all campuses in Alto ISD met standard,” AISD Director of Assessments and Special Programs Paula Low said. “In addition, Alto Middle School received five distinction awards in the areas of reading/language arts, math, social studies, closing the gap, and post-secondary readiness. Our teachers and staff will continue meeting the educational, social, emotional, and physical needs of our diverse students on a daily basis. One letter grade cannot accurately reflect the complex work of our staff and students; they are so much more. For the 2018-19 school year, Alto ISD has targeted areas for improvement and new systems in place. One of our goals is to be rated a “B” district next year, but most of all, we want our students and staff to be energized, be encouraged, be excellent.

Jacksonville ISD (4,987 students on eight campuses) scored a B (recognized) with an overall score of 81 of 100; 73 of 100 in student achievement – 73 of 100 in STAAR testing, 78 of 100 in CCM readiness and 65 of 100 in graduation rate; 83 of 100 in school progress – 65 of 100 in academic growth and 83 of 100 in relative performance; and 76 of 100 in closing the gap – the district met 27 percent, or six out of 22, grade level performance goals, met 17 percent, or one of six, academic growth/graduation rate goals, met 100 percent, one of one, of English language proficiency goals, and scored 78 percent, seven of nine, student achievement goals. All JISD campuses, excluding the Compass Center, met standards. The Compass Center was not rated.

Jacksonville ISD also scored an A (100 of 100) in the financial integrity rating system of Texas, for the third year in a row.

New Summerfield ISD (544 students on one campus) met standards with an overall score of 88 out of 100 -- schools earn a met standard rating for acceptable performance when they serve many students well.

“We’re very proud of our kids, our teachers and our staff,” NSISD Superintendent Dr. Brian Nichols said. “They worked hard to get us where we’re at and we’re going to use the information we’ve been provided to make sure we continue to progress from where we are.”

NSISD earned 84 of 100 in student achievement – 65 of 100 in STAAR testing, 98 of 100 in CCM readiness and 95 of 100 in graduation rate; 83 of 100 in school progress – 84 of 100 in academic growth and 91 of 100 in relative performance; and 80 of 100 in closing the gap – the district met 38 percent, or five out of 13, grade level performance goals, met 100 percent, or two of two, academic growth/graduation rate goals, met 100 percent, one of one, of English language proficiency goals, and scored 100 percent, four of four, student achievement goals.

New Summerfield ISD also scored an A (100 of 100) in the financial integrity rating system of Texas, for the second year in a row – much improved over 2015-16 school year’s grade of F.

Rusk ISD (2,108 students on five campuses) scored a B (recognized) with an overall grade of 84 of 100: 83 of 100 in student achievement – 80 of 100 in STAAR testing, 79 of 100 in CCM readiness and 95 of 100 in graduation rate; 83 of 100 in school progress – 76 of 100 in academic growth and 83 of 100 in relative performance; and 85 of 100 in closing the gap – the district met 64 percent, or 14 out of 22, grade level performance goals, met 100 percent, or four of four, academic growth/graduation rate goals, 100 percent, one of one, of English language proficiency goals, and 80 percent, four of five, of student achievement goals. All of RISD’s campuses met standards.

Rusk ISD also scored an A (100 of 100) in the financial integrity rating system of Texas, for the third consecutive year.

“We are very pleased with our numbers in the reports we’ve received,” RISD Director of Special Programs and Assessments Theresa Gates said. “Of course, we’ve identified those areas we need improvement, and have targeted those areas, but overall we’re very pleased with our students’ performance.”

Troup ISD (1,081 students on three campuses) scored a C (acceptable) with an overall grade of 79 of 100: 79 of 100 in student achievement – 86 of 100 in STAAR testing, 63 of 100 in CCM readiness and 95 of 100 in graduation rate; 80 of 100 in school progress – 80 of 100 in academic growth and 72 of 100 in relative performance; and 78 of 100 in closing the gap – the district met 72 percent, or 13 out of 18, grade level performance goals, met 100 percent, three of three, academic growth/graduation rate goals and 100 percent, one of one, of English language proficiency goals, but met none of three student achievement goals. TISD campuses all met standards.

Troup ISD also scored an A (100 of 100) in the financial integrity rating system of Texas, for the third consecutive year.

“These letter grades have received a lot of attention,” TISD Superintendent Tammy Jones said. “But they don’t offer a true look at all the great things that are happening in our district. We saw tremendous improvement – our test scores were above state average in most areas, and we’re continuously looking for ways to provide our students optimal opportunity to prepare for the future, whatever they decide that future’s going to be. I want to recognize the challenge smaller, rural school face when the system utilized domains that don’t necessarily have anything to do with actual test scores.”

Wells ISD (286 students on two campuses) scored a C (acceptable) with an overall grade of 78 of 100: 80 of 100 in student achievement – 70 of 100 in STAAR testing, 85 of 100 in CCM readiness and 90 of 100 in graduation rate; 79 of 100 in school progress – 76 of 100 in academic growth and 79 of 100 in relative performance; and 74 of 100 in closing the gap – the district met none of its 11 grade level performance goals, met 100 percent, or one of one, of academic growth/graduation rate goals, 100 percent, one of one, of English language proficiency goals, and 100 percent, one of one, of student achievement goals.

All of WISD’s campuses met standards.

Wells ISD also scored an A (100 of 100) in the financial integrity rating system of Texas, for the third year in a row.

“I’m all for accountability,” WISD Superintendent Jim Moore said. “But to put a letter grade on it, I don’t think that really shows what our district is really doing for our students. When our community sees a letter grade, I just want to remind them, this doesn’t define us – it’s not a fair testament to what really goes on at any school. That’s not an excuse though. I like the direction we’re going, and our teachers and staff are more than up to the challenge of continuing to improve.”

Parents are encouraged to visit TXschools.org to view online report cards designed to be useful tools in seeing how a school or school district is doing in different areas. The report cards spotlight specific strengths, in addition to any challenges, that can assure the needs of all students are being met. Parents can search by district or school name and compare that district’s or school’s performance to others in their area.

Troup ISD is included in Cherokee County’s school districts because the Cherokee County Appraisal District collects the district’s school taxes.