Published: August 07, 2008 04:16 am            

Frankston ISD takes hit in TEA ratings

PALESTINE — It’s rough to be punished for doing the right thing.

Such is the case for Frankston Independent School District, which took significant hits in its district and campus accountability ratings released by the Texas Education just a few days ago.

Last year, the district received the state’s second highest rating of “Recognized,” but that ranking dropped two levels to “Academically Unacceptable” this year.

In 2007, “Recognized” ratings were bestowed upon the district’s three campuses as well. But they all took hits this year, as well — to “Academically Acceptable” at the high school and elementary and to “Academically Unacceptable” at the middle school.

There were a couple of contributing factors to the ratings, FISD Superintendent Austin Thacker said, with the largest being the inclusion of special education students in the testing.

“The state told us we had to test a certain number of those students with the regular TAKS tests — some of whom had never taken a standardized test before,” Thacker said. “We were doing what we were supposed to do and our scores took a hit as a result.”

Thacker said that scores dropped the most in science, with students in fifth, eighth, 10th and 11th grade required to take that exam. Low scores in a science subgroup contributed to the rating drop.

“Particularly at the middle school, we will be working with the Region VII Education Service Center to bring up those scores,” he said. “They will be helping us find ways to address our needs in that area and help our students.”

Thacker said, like any district, that he knew there would be areas that needed improvement. But he wasn’t quite prepared for the results that came from including new students in the testing.

“Maybe we ‘rested on our laurels’ too much after last year’s ‘Recognized’ ratings,” the superintendent said. “And maybe we were not as prepared as we should have been to test special education students.

“But we are going to turn this into a positive opportunity to make improvements at our schools,” he added. “We do not intend to have these ratings next year.”

Thacker said that he and district administrators were in the process of developing documentation to appeal the TEA’s ratings, which must be done by Aug. 15.

“We won’t know until October what their decision will be,” Thacker said. “But regardless, we will continue to work with our students to bring up the scores next year.”



About Accountability Ratings

The TEA determines accountability ratings — from highest to lowest, Exemplary, Recognized, Academically Acceptable and Academically Unacceptable — based on a district’s TAKS results as well as completion and dropout rates.

To achieve an “Academically Acceptable” rating, at least 70 percent of tested students passed the Reading/ELA portion of the TAKS, at least 65 percent passed Writing and Social Studies portions, at least 50 percent passed the Math portion and at least 45 percent passed the Science portion.

To be designated as “Recognized,” at least 75 percent of the tested students must pass every portion of the TAKS test. An Exemplary rating is achieved when at least 90 percent of the tested students pass all portions of the TAKS.

Completion rate measures the percent of students who first attended ninth grade in the 2003-04 school year and have completed or are continuing their education four years later.

These students were tracked over the four years using data provided to TEA by districts and data available in the statewide General Educational Development (GED) database.

To receive an academically acceptable rating, a district must have a completion rate of 75 percent or higher, with a 85 percent rate or more for a recognized rating and 95 percent or more for an exemplary rating.

The dropout rate is used to evaluate campuses and districts with students in seventh and eighth grades. This is a one-year measure, calculated by summing the number of dropouts across the two grades.

The standard for the Annual Dropout Rate is 2 percent or less for all rating categories.

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Mary Rainwater may be reached via e-mail at mrainwater@palestineherald.com

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On the Net:

Texas Education Agency 2008 Accountability Ratings, http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2008/index.html

        

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