Extra Credit

Fort Worth students show "encouraging gains" in early STAAR results

Fifth and eighth grade students in the Fort Worth school district made "encouraging gains" on this year's standardized tests, administrators announced.

Preliminary results show an increase in the percentage of students who passed the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Skills (STAAR) tests in math and reading. But scores for Asian students as a whole dropped. The tests were given earlier this month.

This week, third, fourth, sixth and seventh graders took the reading and math tests. Fifth graders took the science test and eighth graders took the science and social studies tests.

On the math test, fifth graders improved their passing rate by seven percentage points. Last year, as fourth graders, 59 percent of those students passed the test. This year, as fifth graders, 66 percent of students passed. African American students showed double digit gains, improving from 40 to 50 percent.

On the reading test, fifth graders improved four percentage points, from 63 to 67 percent passing. And students who took the reading test in Spanish improved nine percentage points, from 68 to 77 percent.

For eighth graders, students jumped 13 percentage points in math, from 58 percent passing as seventh graders to 71 percent passing this year. Gains were even greater for Hispanic students, who jumped from 60 percent passing to 75 percent, a 15 point boost. African American students, too, jumped 15 percentage points, from 41 percent passing to 56 percent.

On the reading test, eighth graders improved four points, from 66 percent to 70 percent passing. Hispanic students had a seven point gain, from 65 to 72 percent passing.

"These preliminary numbers are telling us that we are on track in narrowing the achievement gap among our students," Superintendent Walter Dansby said in a statement. "We are studying the successes as well as those opportunities for improvement during re-test."

The district is studying the results to determine why there were some drops in passing rates for Asian students. For instance, fifth grade math scores dropped nine points from 90 to 81 percent. And eighth grade reading scores dropped 15 points, from 56 to 41 percent. 

Spokesman Clint Bond said that it could be due to an influx of students who are still learning English.

The school district point out that the district launched block scheduling for middle schools this year, which provides an extra eight weeks worth of instruction time. Also, the district created learning networks, teams of educators who support teachers and administrators on campuses.

Jessamy Brown

 

Texas Senator Wendy Davis to hold town hall meetings on public education

Two town hall meetings on Saturday will focus on public education topics, including funding, accountability and curriculum issues.

The town halls are being held by Texas Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth). (Davis at a 2011 education town hall at Paschal High School/Joyce Marshall)

• In Arlington: 9:30 a.m. at the Mac Bernd Professional Development Center, 1111 W. Arbrook Blvd.
• In Fort Worth: 2 p.m. at Nichols Martin Hall at Texas Wesleyan University, 1309 Wesleyan St.

Jessamy Brown

When is my kid taking the STAAR test?

Testing under the state's standardized exam program known as STAAR starts this week and school districts are taking to social media to remind parents. 

Last week, the Fort Worth school district posted on its website a list of tips to help children prepare for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests and the program's End-of-Course tests for high school students (EOCs).

Children should get a good night's sleep and eat a good breakfast.

This morning, Fort Worth ISD tweeted: "EOC and STAAR tests this week. Take your time and think. You can do this."

High school freshmen and sophomores will take STAAR end-of-course tests in certain subjects. Juniors and seniors are still tested under the Texas Assessments of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) program.

Here's the STAAR 2013 schedule as posted by the Texas Education Agency:

Monday: High school English 1 and 3 writing

Tuesday: High school English 1 and 3 reading; grades 4 and 7 writing day 1; grades 5 and 8 math

Wednesday: High school English 2 writing; grades 4 and 7 writing day 2; grades 5 and 8 reading

Thursday: High school English 2 reading

April 23: Grades 3, 4, 6 and 7 math

April 24: Grades 3, 4, 6 and 7 reading; grades 5 and 8 science

April 25: Grade 8 social studies

May 6 to 17: High school end of course tests

Jessamy Brown

 

 

Prep, practice for high school STAAR at Fort Worth schools' first Spring Break School

Forget that spring break trip to the beach. Why not stay here and polish skills in reading, writing and biology?

The Fort Worth school district is launching its first-ever Spring Break School, offering high school students the chance to spend four days preparing and practicing for the End-Of-Course exams required for graduation.

Sign up for the free program started today and runs through Thursday, Feb. 21. The classes are March 11 through 14 and students can sign up for 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. or 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. or both

Classes will be offered in algebra 1, biology, English 1 reading, English 1 writing and world geography.Transportation and meals included.

Jessamy Brown

Ninth grade passing rates on STAAR tests rise after second attempt

UPDATE:

Ninth graders who failed the STAAR end-of-course standardized tests in their initial go around did better during retakes, the Texas Education Agency announced.

Here's a link to an Associated Press report.

An excerpt: "Students who retook those tests as 10th-graders this year saw their scores in all subject areas improve dramatically, according to Education Commissioner Michael Williams.

The English I writing passing rate jumped from 54.4 percent last spring to 72.6 percent after retesting. English I reading jumped from 67.7 percent to 81.2 percent; world geography climbed to 84.8 percent from 79.7 percent; and 91 percent of students passed biology exams, up from 86.4 percent."

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/01/29/4584930/twice-is-a-charm-ninth-graders.html#storylink=cpy

And here's Tuesday's news release from the Texas Education Agency.

ORIGINAL POST:

The majority of Texas students who took the state’s new standardized exams last year passed it, results show.

Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams released results Tuesday from elementary and middle schoolers who took the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests in spring 2012.

In a news release, Williams said the passing rates for most of the tests were 70 percent or higher. Third and fourth graders posted passing rates of 68 percent on the math test.

And eighth graders posted a 59 percent passing rate on the social studies test. Education officials attributed that to new curriculum content and use of more primary sources in test questions. Eighth graders posted the highest passing percentage on the tests, with 80 percent passing the reading exam.

The new tests are designed to be harder than the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exam. That program is being phased out. (r: 9th grader works in STAAR end of course remedial class in June 2012. ST/Ron Jenkins)

Students took STAAR tests in the same subjects that were tested on the TAKS. For grades 3 through 8, students must take tests in math and reading. Students are also tested in writing at grades 4 and 7, science at grades 5 and 8, and social studies at grade 8.

“I recognize there has been a lot of anxiety surrounding STAAR tests, but I believe these are encouraging passing rates for the first year of a new more rigorous test,” Williams said in a statement. “Clearly, we still have work to do, but I remain optimistic that passing rates will rise this spring in the second administration of the STAAR, just as they have traditionally done in the second year of a new testing program.”

Several greater Tarrant County school districts, including Fort Worth, Mansfield, Arlington and Grapevine-Colleyville, did not release scores for their students on Tuesday. Some officials said administrators want to share the scores with school trustees before releasing the data.

Fort Worth schools officials received the last of their scores from the state on Saturday, said Clint Bond, a spokesman.

“They haven’t been reviewed or analyzed. We just got some of them. The superintendent hasn’t seen them and the board hasn’t seen them,” Bond said.

This year, exam results will be used to create accountability performance ratings for school districts and campuses. No ratings were issued in 2012 as the state made the transition to the new test.

High school students must get a passing average on 15 end-of-course STAAR tests to graduate. There are three exams each in math, science, social studies, reading and writing. This year, ninth and 10th graders took the tests. Other students continue to take the TAKS. Williams has suspended a requirement that the scores count as 15 percent of the course grade.

Jessamy Brown

Texas school districts seek to overturn federal Adequate Yearly Progress ratings

A coalition of more than 80 Texas school districts is seeking to overturn all federal accountability ratings issued since the program started in 2003.

The school districts filed a legal case against the Texas Education Agency on Thursday, challenging the Adequate Yearly Progress ratings issued under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The 87 school districts say all AYP ratings issued under the program are invalid, said Ken McCraw, executive director of the Texas Association of Community Schools, an Austin group that organized the legal proceeding.

“It’s a pretty big deal because it could set aside the AYP ratings of school districts if it is upheld,” McCraw said in a Friday telephone interview. “What we're saying is that the feds only contribute a small amount of money but they’re trying to control 100 percent of the accountability. We don’t think the federal government ought to be devising the accountability system.”

DeEtta Culbertson, a TEA spokeswoman, said Friday: “We are reviewing the filing.”

The group is asking the State Office of Administrative Hearings to review the case.

“The challenge asserts that the ratings constitute an unlawful, costly and destructive federal intrusion into local school operations and that the Texas Education Agency, in its efforts to comply with federal mandates, acted without authority from the Legislature and denied school district leaders their right to due process,” the Community Schools group said in a Thursday news release.

If the challenge is successful, the TEA will be required to "withdraw its AYP regulations, wipe the federal ratings slate clean for the past nine years, and start AYP implementation over," the release said.

The school districts involved in the case include several from Greater Tarrant County, including: Alvarado, Castleberry, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Everman, Grapevine-Colleyville, Lake Worth and White Settlement.

Additional school districts are expected to join the case, McCraw said.

Jessamy Brown

Texas Education Commissioner seeking staff recommendations on improving accountability system

ARLINGTON—Texas Education Commissioner Michael L. Williams told business leaders Thursday that he has charged senior staffers with making recommendations on ways to “enhance and improve the accountability system.”  

Williams was a keynote speaker at the Arlington Chamber of Commerce annual dinner and business meeting. Eugene Powell, University of Texas System board of regents chairman, also gave a keynote address.(Photo: Williams at 2010 rally in Burleson. Special to ST/Bob Haynes)

“You’ve heard parents teachers and others say that what we’re doing is way too many tests, we’re teaching to the test, there have been benchmarks and worksheets,” Williams explained in a brief interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “We think there are some things we can do to still maintain the force of the accountability system -- because we can't retract from that. We still have to go about the business of teaching every youngster in every classroom in the school. But there may be other ways to look at our accountability system, things that are within the control of the commissioner.”

The state is phasing in the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, which includes tests for students in grades 3 through 8 and new end-of-course exams for high schoolers. It replaces the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exams.

Williams added there are “things we might be able to do to release some of the anxiety in the current system but still keep the integrity of that system intact.”

Any decision or announcement based on the staff report, due in mid-November, would come several months later, perhaps by spring, Williams said.

Williams and his wife Donna own a house in North Arlington. Both Williams’ parents worked as teachers in Midland, with a combined 83 years of classroom experience.

The commissioner oversees the Texas Education Agency and the state’s 1,200 school districts and charter schools. Williams is a past chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, and was assistant secretary of education for civil rights, U.S. Department of Education. He has been on the job at TEA for three weeks and three days, he told the crowd. He plans to meet with Arlington interim superintendent Marcelo Cavazos in coming days.

Also at the event, at the Arlington Convention Center, the chamber gave its Star Award --its highest honor -- to James D. Spaniolo, the University of Texas at Arlington’s seventh president, who has announced plans to retire.

Jessamy Brown

Texas educators criticize federal AYP, state accountability programs

Texas school employee groups are issuing tough words in reaction to federal Adequate Yearly Progress results for schools and campuses released Wednesday.

The Texas Education Agency says that 48 percent of Texas campuses failed to meet the 2012 federal Adequate Yearly Progress standard in the face of tougher requirements. Eight percent of campuses were not evaluated because they were new schools or other types of campuses and 44 percent met the AYP target. In 2011, 26 percent failed to meet the target.

Here's where to look up results by campus and district on the Texas Education Agency's AYP web page.

The Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA) said the AYP results are “not surprising.”

“The simple truth is that Texas’ alleged ‘accountability’ system, on which the AYP ratings are based, was designed to fail,” President Rita Haecker said in a Thursday statement. “The governor and the legislative majority have spent too much time focusing on a high stakes test while cutting the resources our teachers and students need to succeed.” (right, TSTA president Rita Haecker)

For its part, the Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE) said that the results show a failure of the federal accountability system, rather than the students. 

"The federal adequate yearly progress goals under the No Child Left Behind Act are unrealistic. This is a good example of the federal government overstepping their boundary in education policy," said APTE President Deann Lee in a statement. "Instead of creating a student success system, we’ve created a system that focuses on student failure. And this is why Texas needs to apply for a waiver from these requirements, so that we can reshape our system to meet the goals of our students and not the goals of a federal bureaucracy.”

Jessamy Brown

 

 

48 percent of Texas schools failed to meet federal Adequate Yearly Progress

Update on Thursday: The Texas Education Agency says that 48 percent of Texas campuses failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards this year, compared with 26 percent of campuses that missed the federal benchmark in 2011.

That means 44 percent of campuses met the federal AYP targets for 2012; 8 percent of campuses were not evaluated because they were new campuses, for example.

Original post:

We're still going through the data. But locally, Arlington, Birdville, Crowley, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Everman, Fort Worth, Grapevine-Colleyville, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Keller, Kennedale, Mansfield and Northwest are among the Tarrant County area districts that failed to meet the AYP standards.

Aledo and Southlake Carroll school districts are among those that met the federal requirements.

Read more in the Star-Telegram. We'll keep updating the article this afternoon.

Here's the news release from the Texas Education Agency.

Look up your school's results here.

Jessamy Brown

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/08/08/4165114/majority-of-texas-schools-fail.html#storylink=cpy

TEA releases performance standards on new state tests

Today state officials released the passing standards for the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness end-of-course tests for high schoolers. 

The standards are a three-teired setup with Level I being unsatisfactory academic performance, Level II being satisfactory and Level II meaning students reached the advanced status. The Level II satisfactory passing standard will be phased in over four years. Level II will be phased in over two years in English III reading and writing and Algebra II only.

TEA officials said in a release that the transition will give districts time to adjust instruction and provide additional staff training as the new STAAR tests are aimed to be more rigorous than the outgoing TAKS tests.

The phase-in is as follows:

Algebra I, Algebra II, geometry, biology, chemistry, physics, world geography, world history and United State history-- students must have a scale score of at least 3500 if taken in 2012 or 2013 or a 4000 thereafter.

English I, II and III reading and writing assessments -- students must earn a score of 1875 if taken in the first two years and then 2000 after that.

Additional details on the phase in can be found here.

Meanwhile, elementary and middle schoolers were taking their STAAR tests today. At Fort Worth's South Hi Mount Elementary, students had a STAAR pep rally that included a helicopter landing, donated by CareFlite to the school for collecting the highest per capita giving by an elementary school in the 2011 United Way campaign. Below is the district's video of the event.

Photos: Fort Worth school district

-Eva-Marie Ayala