The Texas Education Agency reported that 56 percent of Texas campuses failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards this year, compared with 34 percent of campuses that missed the federal benchmark in 2011.
Arlington, Birdville, Crowley, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Everman, Fort Worth, Grapevine-Colleyville, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Keller, Kennedale, Mansfield and Northwest are among the Tarrant County area districts that failed to meet the AYP standards.Aledo and Carroll school districts are among those that met the federal requirements.Results for campuses and school districts were released online on Wednesday afternoon. State officials said 3,773 schools and 339 school districts across Texas met the requirements.Adequate Yearly Progress, known as AYP, is a federal school accountability system designed to measure how districts, campuses and charter schools are doing in preparing students to be proficient in math and reading, and the passing rate needed to meet the AYP standard increases each year.Schools that receive Title I federal funding and fail to make adequate progress for two years or more in the same subject face a number of sanctions and risk losing federal dollars if improvement is not made.Debbie Ratcliffe, a Texas Education Agency spokeswoman, noted that some schools may be making academic gains but at the same time, the standards are also getting harder, too.“They could have made huge strides but the standards are rising at such a fast rate they can’t catch up,” Ratcliffe said. “It doesn’t mean they’re standing still. They may be making strong gains, just not giant leaps forward.”This year’s AYP evaluations are based on results from the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) standardized tests.But because passing standards on those tests are not yet complete, Texas officials used a bridge study to convert raw scores on the STAAR to comparable scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam, which is being phased out, Ratcliffe said.Federal education officials rejected the Texas Education Agency’s request to hold off on AYP this year because of the new testing system, Ratcliffe said.Fort Worth schools failed to meet AYP because of poor performance on the reading and math tests and graduation rates. On the reading test, 82 percent of students failed to meet the standard and 76 percent failed to meet the requirement for reading.School district superintendent Walter Dansby issued a statement shortly after the results were released to the public, noting that the district is showing “important gains” in AYP.“But as in previous years, the AYP standards remain a moving target. As a District, Fort Worth ISD has remained stable or posted gains in all measured academic categories. There were no District wide declines across the board, with many schools making numerous strong gains,” Dansby’s statement said.The 2012 AYP evaluations are based on STAAR results for students who were in third- through eighth-grade last year and on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test for tenth graders.This year, the passing rate needed for reading is 87 percent, up from 80 percent in 2011 and 83 percent of students must pass the math test, up from 75 percent. Student attendance or graduation rates and percentage of students who take the tests are also factors.The AYP progress benchmarks are part of the federal No Child Left Behind law, with the goal of having 100 percent of students proficient in math and reading by 2014.Because of the new STAAR system, the state is not issuing 2012 campus and district ratings under its four-tier accountability system.School districts have until Sept. 7 to submit appeals if they disagree with the AYP designation. A final status is to be released in December.One weary school administrator opted for a preliminary strike.Crowley superintendent Dan Powell issued his response to Wednesday afternoon’s results hours before they were posted. When the results were finally released, Crowley missed AYP as a district for reading and math performance, and drew a Stage 1 requirement.Both its high schools, all three of its middle schools, all four of its intermediate campuses, and eight of its 10 elementary schools missed the mark. Only Jackie Carden and Sidney H. Poynter elementaries survived the cut.“With passing standards rising closer to 100 percent every year, every public school across the country is facing unrealistic standards,” he said. “We strive for success for every student, but we realize many children will not meet these federally mandated standards in the required timeline. Crowley ISD will continue to use every resource to help all children progress and achieve at the highest levels.”Arlington areaIn Arlington, all six high schools, two alternative high school campuses, nine of 12 junior highs, and 31 of 50 elementaries missed AYP, as did the district as a whole.Arlington, Sam Houston, Bowie and Lamar all missed the AYP standard graduation rate. All six high schools missed in math performance, while Sam Houston, Lamar, Bowie and Seguin missed the reading AYP standard as well.The district missed the mark due to reading and math performance, and graduation rate.Fort Worth areaIn Fort Worth, several campuses face sanctions after missing the mark for multiple years.Several Fort Worth schools are already in Stage 5 sanctions after missing the federal standards for six year or more. There is no Stage 6. The schools will remain at Stage 5 until they meet the AYP standards for two consecutive years.Administrators at these campuses must meet with the Texas Education Agency and with the professional services provider, or education specialist who was assigned to the school when they reached Stage 2, said Ratcliffe said.“We’d get with that group of people and try to determine what kind of revisions could be made to the existing plan so that it could be made better,” Ratcliffe said.A school district must meet AYP for two years to get off the sanctions list. So some campuses may have met the standard this year, but must do so a second year to be free of sanctions. For example, Diamond Hills-Jarvis High School met AYP but remains at Stage 3 and North Side High School met AYP and stays at Stage 4.Fort Worth school board president T. A. Sims said Wednesday that he plans to analyze the AYP results before commenting. The Castleberry school district missed AYP for reading performance, with Castleberry High School missing AYP in math performance. That resulted in a Stage 1 status for the campus, according to data released Wednesday.Northeast Tarrant areaHurst-Euless-Bedford school district missed AYP due to reading performance. Both of the district’s high schools missed AYP due to performances in mathematics. Two elementary schools -- Stonegate and Midway Park -- missed the federal benchmark. All junior highs met the standards.Keller school district missed AYP, with 10 campuses failing to reach the standards, including three of the districts four high schools. Of the 10 Keller district schools that missed AYP, five were rated recognized and five were rated academically acceptable by the state in 2011.Grapevine-Colleyville district also missed AYP due to reading and math performance.Both high schools missed on math performance, Grapevine Middle School was flagged for reading and math performance, and six of 11 elementaries also missed AYP.In Eagle Mountain-Saginaw schools, 14 campuses missed AYP, including Saginaw and Boswell High Schools.In Birdville, 17 campuses, including all three high schools, missed the mark.Birdville superintendent Darrell G. Brown said in a statement that the district is assessing, development and revising curriculum to meet the difficult state and national standards.“Changes are being made in the district’s curriculum to better align what is taught in the classroom to what the students need to be successful academically,” Brown said. “Today’s ratings are not a true reflection of the quality of education and academic gains being made across Birdville ISD.”Staff writers Shirley Jinkins, Diane Smith, Sarah Bahari, Robert Cadwallader, Sandra Engelland and Lee Williams contributed to this report, which includes information from Star-Telegram archives.Jessamy Brown, 817-390-7326Twitter: @jessamybrown
Sanction stages
Campuses that receive federal Title I funds, aimed at helping poor students improve, face increasing sanctions based on how many years they failed to make adequate progress. The sanctions are:
Stage 1 (missed for two years)
Allow students to transfer to other selected schools and provide transportation; develop a two-year improvement plan; notify parents of school status and sanctions; establish a peer-review process
Stage 2 (missed for three years)
Continue Stage 1 sanctions and offer free tutoring
Stage 3 (missed for four years)
Continue Stage 2 sanctions and implement at least one corrective action: Replace staff, implement new curriculum, decrease campus-level authority, appoint an outside adviser, extend the school year or day, restructure internal organization of campus
Stage 4 (missed for five years)
Continue Stage 3 sanctions and implement one of these actions: Reopen as a charter school, replace principal and staff, contract with private management company, have the state take over, restructure administration
Stage 5 (missed for six years or more)
Continue to offer transfers and tutoring and implement one of these options: Replace principal and staff, contract with private management company, have the state take over, restructure administration
Source: Texas Education Agency, Star-Telegram archive
Fort Worth seeking teachers as first day of school approaches
2012 AYP list of districts and campuses
TEA - 2012 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) preliminary report
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