Cooke Co. supers question TEA grading changes
Mar. 26—School districts and their superintendents statewide are concerned with an "A-F Accountability Refresh" coming from state education officials.
According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) website, these changes are "to refocus on goals that directly address post-pandemic student needs," and "to leverage lessons learned over the last five years to improve the rigor, transparency, and fairness of the accountability system."
The TEA is proposing to raise the score necessary for a high school to receive an "A" in the CCMR domain from 60 to 88.
"I understand what the system is designed to do; it is the commissioners' job to raise the bar, to continue to challenge our school systems to meet this bar, to do what we need to do to help our kids get better," said Gainesville Independent School District (GISD) Superintendent DesMontes Stewart. "The one item in the refreshment that really concerns us is the CCMR [College, Career and Military Readiness] where the cut point is raised 47 percent in one year. I've been in education for 25 years ... Generally, you see 47 percent over several years."
Stewart presented a letter to the GISD board Monday from more than 200 school districts addressing these concerns. The letter was sent to Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials.
"The A-F system was designed to make it easier for the public to understand how schools are truly performing. But increasing the cut score for an A for CCMR by almost 47% in a single year will create the misconception that high performing schools are drastically declining, even if their CCMR performance actually improved. In the midst of a teacher shortage, the last thing school districts need is another false narrative that drives a wedge between schools and the families they serve," the letter states.
Gainesville ISD, Callisburg ISD, Denton ISD and Era ISD all signed the statement, joining over 200 others around the state.
"We felt it was imperative that we as a collective group came together," said Stewart. "That's really the big, main concern ... but there are also some concerns because if I've heard a presentation 300 times, I've heard it explained 299 different ways. When I, the superintendent, don't feel comfortable sitting in front of my staff ... If we're going to be held accountable for a system, we definitely want to know how to explain this accountability system."
Stewart isn't the only area superintendent with concerns.
"It's very unusual when TEA changes the scores needed on a test that we don't get what's called a 'hold harmless' period of time, which is usually at least one year," said Callisburg ISD Superintendent Don Metzler. "We're not getting that this time; we're moving straight from the old cut scores into the new cut scores ... we're not getting that one year hold harmless that we have historically gotten so that everyone can get acclimated with the new test and new test expectations."
The letter also explains that there are concerns with the refresh happening at the same time as redesigning the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness [STAAR] exam. The STAAR redesign includes new question types and components teachers need to prepare their students to face.
"There is a lot more writing involved ... that wasn't there before, including in math and science," said Metzler. "The writing tests have been removed and instead writing is going to occur inside the math tests, science tests, social studies tests, whatever. That's a big change, especially for third graders who have never taken a test before ... And, of course, all the tests are being taken online this year."
School districts are concerned that changing the threshold for an "A" the same year as this new test is putting too much stress on already overworked teachers.
"It puts unfair stress on our educators who are already at wit's end; they're already doing more with less," said Stewart. "If we put this in place, it could potentially cause even more headache and heartache within our educational systems."
Another concern is that the increased standard will be applied to the Class of 2022.
"They have a new set of standards that they're applying to our 2022 graduates, even though the 2022 graduates didn't go through the same program," said Metzler. "Instead of having that hold harmless for a year and judging them based on the system they started with ... we have the new scores in place and the new expectations."
