Like a story with no end, the Texas legislature has taken on the issue of school accountability once again. In January the Lt. Governor appointed five people to the Select Committee on Public School Accountability and charged them with investigating whether accountability standards are in fact working as intended and recommending changes to the Texas Legislature in time for the 81st session next year.
Ex Lt. Governor Bill Ratliff justifies the process:
We have learned over the last decade that the current system is too complex. If someone wants to see a district's performance, the information is overwhelming. Using five demographic subpopulations in multiple grades and subjects creates 36 categories.
We must continue to evaluate the performance of the various subgroups of students, but a new accountability system must provide a clearer understanding of a school's performance. There must be a simpler way to show how our schools are doing, with additional detailed data available for those who want it.
We need to make sure the new system is a tool for improving student performance and ensuring achievement at the highest levels. The system must clearly reflect the overall performance of a school, while identifying those students who are not succeeding and need additional help.
Currently, the performance of just a few students can cause an entire school to be rated low-performing even when the majority are achieving high results.
No business would identify its overall success based on the performance of its weakest division. Such a system is punitive and unfairly punishes schools, particularly larger schools and districts with diverse populations.
A new system should recognize schools for making progress. Many are making significant gains, including those with substantial challenges. If schools show gains from year to year, those students and teachers should be recognized.
Limited-English-proficiency students must come into the system after an initial exemption and be evaluated as they learn English; their progress must be recognized by the system. If we continue to ask our educators to work in challenging environments but don't recognize their work, we will lose teachers.
A truly effective accountability system will show how schools are doing and if they are making progress, without demoralizing our students, teachers and communities.
With the advent of No Child Left Behind, we have two systems of accountability that are not aligned. NCLB brings a different set of performance standards and measurements, which is confusing to the public.
Some schools improve their rating in the state accountability system yet are downgraded in the NCLB system. The Texas system should seek to reduce conflicts between NCLB and a high-quality state system.
The Legislature has mandated that the current system be replaced by 2011. Let's come up with one that reflects more fairness and simplicity, one that aligns with federal laws, recognizes the progress schools are making and improves student performance.
