The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released its accountability ratings for school districts this week. The Orangefield Independent School District had all three of its schools meet standards in all four of the indexes used in the accountability ratings. Despite that the Orangefield district as a whole was found to be slightly deficient for Index 4, Postsecondary Readiness.
Orangefield Superintendent Dr. Stephen Patterson believes the TEA’s accounting system is flawed. The school district received the report on Friday, August 12. Since then Dr. Patterson and his staff have found 32 students’ data files pulled by the state that were inaccurate. Patterson stated, “Had those 32 student data files reflected the accurate information of what those students achieved this rating would not have occurred.”
The Postsecondary Readiness findings by the state appear to be in conflict with other statistics. Patterson pointed out that Orangefield has been shown to be among the top public school districts in Region 5 for SAT scores and scholarships awarded. Orangefield was shown to have the third highest SAT scores this year in the region and one was of the highest rated with $2.5 million in scholarship money for its 2016 graduates.
The district’s rating of 81 in Postsecondary Readiness for 2015 dropped to 59 according to the most recent state ratings. Dr. Patterson reminded that the curriculum at Orangefield actually added more vocational courses during the last school year in order to be more Postsecondary Ready.
Orangefield has appealed the findings to the TEA, but Patterson thinks the ratings should not have been made public until the appeal had been heard by the state agency. He said the TEA’s ratings are patently false and deceptive in nature. Dr. Patterson concluded, “We will not rest until we feel like our students have been labeled correctly.”
The West Orange-Cove School District also plans an appeal of the accountability ratings for its schools.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
Social Media