SA school districts give accountability ratings failing grade

New system to use letter grades A-F to gauge performance

SAN ANTONIO – The controversy that has followed the new school accountability ratings system that passed during the last session of the Texas Legislature is not going away.

Even before it is fully implemented, many school districts are already giving it a failing grade.

The board of trustees of the Northeast Independent School District unanimously passed a resolution Monday night calling for its repeal.

The resolution in part reads the new system “creates a false impression about students, ignores the unique strengths of each school, and unfairly reduces each student’s worth to the school’s assigned grade.”

Sylvia Rincon, spokeswoman for the Southside Independent School District, said many districts are urging lawmakers to re-think what was adopted. “Absolutely, that is definitely something we hope lawmakers take very seriously is the possibility of rescinding this,” Rincon said.

Dr. Brian Woods, superintendent of the Northside Independent School District, said he would like to see it “go away completely.”

“I just don’t see how it’s going to do anything good. I think it’s bad policy,” Woods said.

In a letter to parents, Woods also writes, “The reduction of a school or districts to a single grade misrepresents a large portion of what happens in schools.”

But in a statement, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency said, even though it is now law, the new system is still being developed.

“The goal is to provide parents accurate information regarding campus and district performance,” said DeEtta Culberson with TEA.

She said the agency will be seeking feedback from school districts and other stakeholders over the next several months before the system is implemented in the 2017-2018 school year.

A major concern of school districts is how a district’s wealth, or lack thereof, can influence performance.

Woods said in his letter, “We should not have a state accountability system that punishes schools and school children for the economic situation that exists in families.”

Rincon said Southside ISD is one of those districts.

“Based on what’s going on in the other states and in the other schools that are very similar, it did not go well,” Rincon said.

Southside has had five superintendents and a TEA monitor is looking over the district’s shoulder.

But Rincon said Southside is making progress thanks to the programs being implemented by its new superintendent Mark Eads.

“Can you imagine in the middle of that work that we’re doing, we get a D or an F?” Rincon said.

She said even then, the upcoming trial run of the new system beginning next year will be based on the district’s performance prior to its new superintendent coming on board.

The mock ratings will be based primarily on STAAR, the state test that judges Texas student knowledge of various subjects, said the Northside superintendent.

He said, “We’re just going to slap a letter grade on it, using some kind of complex methodology.”

The following links detail some of the new criteria that will be used to determine the letter grades that will be given once the system is implemented.

Woods said state testing is necessary, “But have a lot more of the accountability system based on what the community thinks is important.”

“We just need something better, something that’s fair,” Rincon said.


About the Author:

Jessie Degollado has been with KSAT since 1984. She is a general assignments reporter who covers a wide variety of stories. Raised in Laredo and as an anchor/reporter at KRGV in the Rio Grande Valley, Jessie is especially familiar with border and immigration issues. In 2007, Jessie also was inducted into the San Antonio Women's Hall of Fame.