Much anticipated school ratings—somewhat feared and almost universally disliked, at least by Texas school administrators—are out.
All Milam County schools got passing grades and were assessed as having met the standards set by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
It was the first time for districts to receive a “letter grade” in the annual school report card.
Thorndale and Milano received B’s with Rockdale and Cameron getting C’s.
Gause and Buckholts did not receive letter grades but were ranked with campuses in a “what if” listing. (See page 8A).
Campuses were not actually rated in 2018, but are expected to be next year.
AREAS—According to the TEA, the new ratings are based on three “domains”— Student achievement, school progress and closing the gaps.
Rockdale ISD received a grade of 74 (C) overall, 76 (C) in student progress, 75 (C) in school progress and 68 (D) in closing the gaps.
The TEA said student achievement “tells how much students know and are able to do at the end of the school year,” school progress “shows how students are performing over time and compares that progress to similar schools” and closing the gaps “tells how well different populations of students on a campus are performing.” The district grade is an aggregate of the three.
REACTION—“When you analyze the scores, we showed improvement from last year, even though the standards have changed from last year’s assessment,” Pam Kaufmann, assistant superintendent, said.
“Even so, we are not in any way pleased with these scores,” she added.
Kaufmann said one positive from the new approach seems to be a general shift from raw data on district and campus performance to those of individual students.
“It’s student-by-student, skill-by-skill,” she said. “It’s individualized. That’s definitely our goal, the student level.”
Thorndale ISD received the county’s highest overall rating, an 83, but Supt. Adam Ivy is not a fan of the A-F ratings.
He alluded to much of the ratings being derived from the STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) tests.
“I am very proud of our staff and students for their accomplishments,” he said. “We got a B for our district score but I am no more proud than if the students had come in as a C or D.”
“I recognize that this rating is almost entirely dependent on how our students performed on one test, on one day.”
“Regardless of that rating there are so many more things that define Thorndale ISD,” he said.
(For some of Ivy’s list, see editorial, page 5A).
‘WHAT IF’—The TEA also sent out campus ratings, even while noting the campus numbers don’t carry the force of official ratings and essentially comprise a “what if campuses were getting grades this year” list.
That list does, however, include the “distinctions,” recognition above and beyond the basic “met standards” stamp of approval.
Rockdale High School earned an academic achievement in science.
Thorndale High School, received three distinctions and Milano High School picked up four.
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