In 1993, the Texas Legislature enacted statutes that mandated the creation of the Texas public school accountability system to rate school districts and evaluate campuses. A viable and effective accountability system was able to be developed in Texas because the state already had the necessary supporting infrastructure in place: a pre-existing student-level data collection system; a state-mandated curriculum; and a statewide assessment tied to the curriculum.

The state accountability system assigns ratings to every campus and district in the Texas public education system each year. In most cases the system assigns one of four rating labels —ranging from lowest to highest—Academically Unacceptable, Academically Acceptable, Recognized, and Exemplary. To determine the rating label, the system evaluates indicators of performance, including assessment results on the state standardized assessment instruments as well as longitudinal completion rates and annual dropout rates.

Generally, campuses and districts earn ratings by having performance that meets absolute standards or by demonstrating sufficient improvement toward the standard. In addition to evaluating performance for all students, the performance of individual groups of students is held to the rating criteria. The student groups are defined to be the major ethnic groups and the group of students designated as economically disadvantaged. All of the evaluated groups must meet the criteria for a given rating category in order to earn that label.

To determine ratings under the standard accountability procedures, the 2009 accountability rating system for Texas public schools and districts uses three base indicators:
? spring 2009 performance on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS),
? the Completion Rate I for the class of 2008, and
? the 2007-08 Annual Dropout Rate for grades 7 and 8.

Notification of campus and district accountability ratings will occur on July 31, 2009. This consists of release of the campus and district data tables and the district summary reports on TEA’s website.

Accountability ratings are finalized when the accountability appeals process is completed. Agency web products related to state accountability (both public and secure sites) will be updated to reflect the outcome of appeals and to add the Gold Performance Acknowledgments information in late October, 2009.

Comparison of 2008 and 2009 Standard Procedures
The ratings issued in 2009 mark the sixth year of the current system. Many components of the 2009 system are the same as those that were in effect in 2008. However, there are several significant differences between 2008 and 2009:
? The TAKS indicator standards for Academically Acceptable increase for writing, social studies, mathematics, and science by five points each.
? The minimum performance floor required to be able to apply the Exceptions Provision is decreased for mathematics and science from 10 points below the Academically Acceptable standard to five points below the standard.
? The Texas Projection Measure (TPM) is added to the system as an additional feature that can enable a campus or district to achieve the next higher rating.

Academically Acceptable Rating
Meets each standard: Reading/ELA=70% of students passing; Writing=70% of students passing; Social Studies=70% of students passing; Mathematics=55% of students passing; Science=50% of students passing; OR Meets Required Improvement OR Meets standard with Texas Projection Measure (TPM).

Recognized Rating
Meets 75% of students passing each subject OR Meets 70% floor and Required Improvement OR Meets standard with Texas Projection Measure (TPM).

Performance on the measure to which the Exceptions Provision will be applied must be no more than five percentage points below the standard for the subject.

Exemplary Rating
Meets 90% standard for each subject OR Meets standard with Texas Projection Measure (TPM).

Required Improvement to Academically Acceptable
Districts or campuses initially rated Academically Unacceptable may achieve an Academically Acceptable rating using the Required Improvement feature. Districts and campuses can achieve a rating by meeting the absolute standards for the different indicators. However, under certain conditions, a campus or district can raise their rating one level: by meeting Required Improvement; by including students who did not pass the TAKS test but met the Texas Projection Measure (TPM) improvement standard; and/or, by using the Exceptions Provision.

Required Improvement
In order for Required Improvement to move a campus or district to Academically Acceptable, the campus or district must have shown enough improvement on the deficient TAKS measures since 2008 to be able to meet the current year accountability standard in two years. There are different standards for the Academically Acceptable rating for TAKS:
? Reading/ELA, Writing, and Social Studies. Any measure below the standard must achieve enough gain to meet a standard of 70% in two years.
? Mathematics. Any measure below the standard must achieve enough gain to meet a standard of 55% in two years.
? Science. Any measure below the standard must achieve enough gain to meet a standard of 50% in two years.

Required Improvement to Recognized
Districts and campuses whose performance is at the high end of Academically Acceptable for any TAKS subject or Completion Rate I, and who also meet the minimum “floor” for current year performance.

In order for Required Improvement to move a campus or district from Academically Acceptable to Recognized, the campus or district must have:
? performance ranging from 70% to 74% on the measure, and
? shown enough improvement on TAKS since 2008 to be at 75% in two years.

Using Exceptions to Move to Exemplary
A campus or district may use one exception to gate up to a rating of Exemplary. To be eligible for this one exception, the campus or district must be evaluated on at least ten TAKS measures and meet the performance floor.

Performance Floor
Performance on the measure to which the Exceptions Provision will be applied must be no more than five percentage points below the Exemplary standard for all subjects, meaning performance must range from 85% to 89% on the measure. The floor must be met by the TAKS base indicator; the percent of students passing the test. The “Percent Meeting the TAKS Standard with TPM” is not used to determine if the floor requirement has been met.

Texas Projection Measure
The TPM is an estimate of whether a student is likely to pass a TAKS test in a future grade. After Required Improvement has been evaluated, the TPM is applied to determine if the campus or district can achieve a higher rating. For a more complete explanation of TPM, see Appendix E – Texas Growth Index and Texas Projection Measure.

Who is evaluated for TPM?
Districts or campuses rated Academically Unacceptable, Academically Acceptable, or Recognized may achieve a higher rating by comparing the “Percent Meeting the TAKS Standard with TPM” to the accountability standards. The “Percent Meeting the TAKS Standard with TPM” defines passers to be students who either met the passing standard or are projected to meet the passing standard in a future grade.

Review the Texas Education Agency 2009 Accountability Manual for more detailed information.