LTISD Info

Finally, Rocky get’s his “exemplary” rating. I bet he gets another undeserved pay raise for this. Just how long did it take Rocky to achieve this?

Does this mean that since the district is exemplary they don’t need to go out and shake down the tax payers for more money?

But then again, how will they be able to pay our overpaid superintendent Rocky Kirk, and his deputy, Susan Bohn, the LTISD’s “second in command” with only a teaching certificate in “Secondary Dance” and “Secondary Social Studies” as her qualifications.

According to Charles McClure of the Lake Travis View, this is the first time in the district’s history to be rated “exemplary.”

Wait a minute, there is more to this …

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Did you know that the LTISD used the controversial Texas Projection Measure (TPM) to obtain the district’s recent “exemplary” rating rather than  meeting the “absolute standards” to earn their “exemplary” rating?

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has a whole section of their web site dedicated to the TPM and how it relates to the recent ratings. Seems that the TPM has generated some controversy.

Bottom line, the TPM allows a school district to “boost” their ratings:

“When a student fails a test but shows enough gain to make it statistically likely that he or she is on track to pass during the next high-stakes testing period, TPM counts that student as having passed for school accountability purposes.”

- “TEA’s projection measures aren’t measuring up,” The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 12, 2010

Here is an excerpt of the TEA’s state ratings table showing that the district utilized the TPM to boost their rating:

LAKE TRAVIS ISD                          EXEMPLARY                             TPM ONLY
 LAKE TRAVIS H S                         EXEMPLARY                             TPM ONLY
 LAKE TRAVIS MIDDLE                      EXEMPLARY                             MET ABSOLUTE STDS
 HUDSON BEND MIDDLE                      RECOGNIZED                            TPM ONLY
 LAKE TRAVIS EL                          RECOGNIZED                            MET ABSOLUTE STDS
 LAKEWAY EL                              EXEMPLARY                             MET ABSOLUTE STDS
 BEE CAVE ELEMENTARY                     EXEMPLARY                             MET ABSOLUTE STDS
 LAKE POINTE ELEMENTARY                  EXEMPLARY                             MET ABSOLUTE STDS
 SERENE HILLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL          EXEMPLARY                             MET ABSOLUTE STDS

Funny how the district failed to mention this fact. A fact that significantly weakens Rocky’s claim: “The Exemplary rating is indicative of the superior instruction delivered in our classrooms each day.”

Let’s read more about just how  the districts used the TPM to artificially boost their lackluster performance:

Rep. Scott Hochberg and his Appropriations Subcommittee on Education got Criss Cloudt (the Texas Education Agency’s associate commissioner in charge of the “accountability system” that administers the TAKS test and ranks schools and school districts): “… to admit that 73 of the 74 additional ‘exemplary districts’ that took us from 43 in 2008 to 117 in 2009 received that distinction only because the new Texas Projection Measure miraculously allowed nearly half the 1 million TAKS tests that had been failed to count as passing for the purpose of rating schools and districts.”

- “Hochberg unmasks TEA’s controversial rule,” Rick Casey, Houston Chronicle, July 8, 2010

This year the TEA announced that:

“The Texas Education Agency (TEA) today announced that 239 school districts and 2,624 schools received Texas’ highest accountability rating of Exemplary.”

This is an increase of 122 districts since the 2009 ratings.

Rocky and the Board shouldn’t revel in their new artificial elevation, the TPM has been a lightning rod of criticism and might not be used next year:

“Education Commissioner Robert Scott issued a letter to school administrators last week saying he was considering changing the way TPM is used — or even suspending it entirely — next year. The 2010 TAKS scores and the accountability ratings based on them scheduled to be released on July 30 will include the boosts afforded under TPM.”

- “TEA’s school ratings next week will have a footnote,” Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle, July 19, 2010

Have you noticed how quickly the district moved to place this moniker on their documents:

Why doesn’t the district let us know that is was only through slight of hand that they obtained their “exemplary” rating.

You can get the facts from the TEA:

The TEA will continue to post the detailed data charts online this year, but it will add a simplified page showing whether a school benefited from the projection measure or the other two looser rules, according to the agency.

“We’ll have more information out this year as to how a campus came to meet their accountability rating,” TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said Monday.

But superintendents and principals still will be able to tout their schools’ ratings on marquees and in press releases without an asterisk.

“I don’t know of anything that requires them to do that,” Culbertson said. “(But) it’s something certainly they should be honest about.”

- “TEA’s school ratings next week will have a footnote,” Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle, July 19, 2010

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You can read more about the TPM and the 2010 TEA ratings from these additional sources, just to name a few:

“State may eliminate use of student testing projection measurement,” Austin American-Statesman

“Texas schools’ accountability ratings jump dramatically in TEA report,” The Dallas Morning News

“TEA to Dump TPM?,” Half Empty Blog Spot

“Loophole in law let some schools raise TEA accountability ratings,” The Sulphur Springs News-Telegram

“TEA School Accountability Ratings,” The Winkler Post

“Texas Education Agency releases statewide rankings,” The Austin American-Statesman (the comments are the best read here)