The Texas Education Agency (TEA) accountability ratings released Wednesday, August 15, show that HCISD earned Recognized Academic Performance, and for the first time since the inception of the STAAR program, it received the Postsecondary Readiness Distinction. Overall the district earned 101 distinction designations under the new A–F rating system.
“Our goal at HCISD is to prepare our students to be College, Career, and Community Ready,” said Superintendent Dr. Art Cavazos. “The Postsecondary Readiness Distinction and 101 distinctions earned by our HCISD schools attest to the commitment and determination of our students and staff each and every day in the classroom. We remain focused on student achievement, and through our collective efforts we will continue to champion the work for our students to ensure that they have nothing but the best choices and opportunities at their disposal.”
Districts receive a grade or rating based on performance in three areas:
- Student Achievement measures what students know and can do by the end of the year. It includes results from state assessments across all subjects for all students, on both general and alternate assessments, College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) indicators, like AP and ACT results, and graduation rates.
- School Progress measures how much better students are doing on the STAAR test this year versus last year, and how much better students are doing academically relative to schools with similar percentages of economically disadvantaged students.
- Closing the Gaps looks at performance among student groups, including various racial/ethnic groups, socioeconomic backgrounds, and other factors.
Seventy percent of the accountability rating is based on the better of Student Achievement or Student Progress (whichever is better is the only performance measure counted in the calculations). The remaining 30 percent is based on performance in the Closing the Gaps area. To learn more about the A–F accountability system, visit https://tea.texas.gov/A-F/.
While district ratings are based on an A–F scale, the 2018 rating labels for individual campuses continued under the Met Standard, Met Alternative Standard or Improvement Required labels. The A–F rating labels will be applied to campuses at the end of the upcoming school year.
Campuses that receive an accountability rating of Met Standard are eligible to earn distinction designations. The number of potential distinctions varies by campus.
Harlingen School of Health Professions earned all seven possible distinctions at the secondary level, while Bowie, Dishman, Lee Means, and Travis Elementary earned all six possible distinctions at the elementary level.
Out of the 27 eligible HCISD schools, 25 received one or more distinctions in the following areas: English Language Arts/Reading, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies; Student Progress and Closing Performance Gaps in the top 25 percentiles; and Postsecondary Readiness.
