Last Thursday night the Kennedale Board of Trustees joined school boards across the state by passing a resolution that stated the Board?s opposition to the new state?s rating system for public school. {{more:Read more …}}
The new system awards school districts a letter grade A through F in several categories. The intention by the state legislature when it was passed into law was to have a simple and more traditional way of rating individual schools that parents and the general public could understand.
instant criticism and opposition
The preliminary roll-out has met with instant criticism and opposition. Education leaders have been vocal about their opposition to the new grade system, arguing it is too dependent on state test performance and does not provide a comprehensive view of student achievement.
Early this month all districts and schools received preliminary grades for each of four categories: student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps and college or career readiness. These grades show what they would have scored had the rating already been in place, but are not yet official.The overall letter grades will not come out until August 2018 ? but by then, the models for calculating them might be completely different.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath said in a public release, ?The ratings in this report are for informational purposes to meet a legislative requirement and represent work-in-progress models that are likely to change before A?F ratings become effective in August 2018. ?No inferences about official district or campus performance in the 2015?16 school year should be drawn from these ratings, and these ratings should not be considered predictors of future district or campus performance ratings.?
Ratings hit the well to do as well as the rest, surprising and confounding everyone.
Grades are all over the map and not easily explained. Kennedale ISD received two B?s and two C?s. Other districts in this area received similar mixed results. Mansfield ISD had three B?s and one C. Highland Park in Dallas had one A to go along with a C, D and F. Argyle ISD had two A?s but recorded an F and a C grade. Arlington ISD had two B?s but was awarded a C and a D. Aledo supposedly earned A,B, C and D in that order. HEB earned an A and two B?s but then got a D.
In the next year, districts will also choose a fifth category related to community and student engagement to include in the overall calculation of the grade.
According to the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), Kennedale, as of January 23, has joined 363 other schools districts in Texas that have passed similar resolutions.
Kennedale ISD Board Resolution:
RESOLVED, that the Kennedale Board of Trustees calls on the Texas Legislature to repeal the rating system utilizing A through F grades for schools and districts and develop a community-based accountability system that empowers school districts to design their own internal systems of assessment and accountability that, while meeting general state standards, allows districts to innovate and customize curriculum and instruction to meet the needs and interests of each student and their communities; and, be it further
RESOLVED, that this new system should reduce the use of high-stakes, standardized tests, encompass multiple assessments, reflect greater validity, and, more accurately reflect what students know and can do in terms of the rigorous standards.Gradings System Website
