Texas scraps controversial projection measure in school accountability

Texas will no longer use a controversial provision that critics said artificially bumped up academic ratings at schools.

State Education Commissioner Robert Scott said Friday that the Texas Projection Measure was being scrapped because of the “lack of public support.”

The provision gave schools credit on state and federal accountability ratings for students who did not pass state tests but were expected to do so in the future. Last year, nine Tarrant County area districts and 260 schools had boosted ratings because of the TPM or other state provisions that allowed for higher ratings. Statewide, 774 school districts had a bump in their ratings because of the TPM measure.

“We think it was absolutely a valid measure, but it became so controversial that overshadowed the real progress students were making and hurt the credibility of the entire accountability system,” TEA spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said. “It was just so hard for people to understand how it worked.”

Earlier this month, the representatives in the House voted unanimously on an amendment to legislation that would have done away with using projection measures in accountability.

“What this amendment says is that the purpose of a projection is to set expectations but if you’re measuring growth, you need to report actual growth, not the projection,” state Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, told fellow lawmakers when he  brought forward the amendment.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Comments

[DrAnnSutherland]

Thanks, Eva for posting this.

Accurate reporting of student performance is fundamental to real accountability. Amazing: a unanimous vote--just like Senator Jane NElson's bill to say you can't give away grades. Let's hope they don't cook up another way to make student performance look better than it is.