eNews
Archive
August 1, 2006
Dear Plano ISD eNews Subscriber:
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has scheduled the release of
school and
district ratings to the public at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August
1, on its Web
site: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/.
Under the TEA Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS), all
public
schools are evaluated by factors specific to their student populations.
TEA
issues ratings annually for each public school within the state
by
calculating the performance of the campus on many different indicators.
TEA
issues ratings based upon the lowest value of any one of the indicators.
Preliminary reports indicated that Plano ISD’s rating would
be “Recognized.”
However, due to a clerical error in reporting at one school, the
district’s
overall rating is reported by TEA as “Academically Acceptable,” rather
than
“
Recognized.”
TEA has notified Plano ISD that Carpenter Middle School has all
but one
indicator in the “Exemplary,” “Recognized” or “Academically
Acceptable”
categories. The one indicator in the “Academically Unacceptable” category
is
due to its student dropout rate. However, upon investigation of
the data
used to calculate Carpenter’s student *dropout rate, Plano
ISD officials
discovered a clerical error that resulted from incorrect reporting
of the
dropout rate. A missed reporting deadline in January, 2005, resulted
in a
higher number of dropouts than accurate. The TEA reports currently
show a
total of seven students as dropouts, which exceeds the number allowed
for an
accountability rating of “Recognized,” according to
TEA standards. The
campus is actually below the standard of five dropout students,
which is the
benchmark used to gauge accountability ratings.
Although this rating has been appealed to TEA, the results will
not be
available at the time of the general release on August 1. Therefore,
Carpenter’s rating as a campus is reported as “Academically
Unacceptable,”
rather than the anticipated “Recognized” rating, which
surpasses the
school’s prior-year rating of “Academically Acceptable.”
“
The ratings of Carpenter and Plano ISD do not reflect the significant
gains
made by our students during the past academic year,” said
Dr. Doug Otto,
superintendent of schools. “We will appeal this rating, according
to TEA
guidelines, and we will communicate the results accordingly to
our school
community.”
If TEA accepts the district’s appeal, the State Commissioner
of Education
will reissue the ratings for both Carpenter Middle School and Plano
ISD as
“
Recognized.”
Jeff Bailey, area assistant superintendent for the school district’s
east
cluster schools, said, “We will take appropriate steps to
address our
reporting procedures and will maintain focus and attention on student
achievement. This rating is not an accurate representation of our
students’
success.”
A letter has been mailed to the Carpenter community outlining
details of the
rating and the appeals process.
Plano ISD will continue to keep the community informed of the
status of the
appeal and the final ratings.
###
*Dropout rate: The annual dropout rate is used to evaluate campuses
and
districts with students in grades 7 and 8. This is a one-year measure,
calculated by summing the number of dropouts across the two grades.
The
dropout rate is based upon students enrolled as seventh and eighth
graders
in the 2004/05 school year.
Thank you for subscribing to eNews. Your colleagues, friends and
neighbors
may sign up for eNews at: http://elist.pisd.edu. Archived messages
may be
found online at: http://www.pisd.edu/news/enews.
Best regards,
Doug Otto, Superintendent of Schools
Karla Oliver, Executive Director for Government and Community Relations
Mary Gorden, Public Information Officer / eNews Editor
“Plano ISD will provide an excellent education for all students.”
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