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The Houston Independent School District also fared better than previous year, though it still had 40 schools, or 15 percent, that failed to meet the standards.
This year 467 schools were rated “improvement required” compared with more than 600 last year.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath has criticized the state’s new testing vendor, Educational Testing Services, but apparently felt confident enough that the issues were resolved to release the annual school ratings Monday.
The exams affected by those testing issues were not included in the ratings.
In 2016, to receive a met standard rating, districts and campuses must meet targets on three out of four indices.
The district still has the opportunity to appeal the decision but Superintendent Dr. Michael Seabolt said at this time, he doesn’t plan to appeal the ratings.
The ratings confirmed what Dallas ISD had already bragged about in recent weeks: its Accelerated Campus Excellence program, or ACE, seems to be working.
The accountability ratings – in which schools are generally labeled “met standard” or “improvement required” – are based mostly on how students perform on the controversial state-required STAAR exams, a rigorous testing regime implemented in 2012.
Several area schools received an “Improvement Required” or unsatisfactory rating.
But Dallas’ T.W. Browne Middle School is one of only 21 schools in the state to fail state accountability standards for at least five years straight. Earlier this summer, Fort Worth district officials reported that sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students struggled in 2016 STAAR testing, scoring well below the state average in numerous subject areas.
TEA officials said in a statement Monday that despite higher passing standards in place for the 2015-16 school year, the success rates for all Texas high school students taking STAAR end-of-course exams remained stable, according to preliminary statewide results.
“We are going to be placing some teaching coaches at a couple of campuses that are really going to be targeting students in need”, said Beth Trimble, DeSoto’s executive director of communications.
Crowley had three schools on the 2015 list, but the two on this year’s list are different: Race and Hargrave elementaries. That included a computer glitch that caused more than 14,000 students to lose their answers.
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This is the a year ago Texas will use this pass or fail system for accountability.
