The Texas Education Agency (TEA) recently announced they are postponing the public release of the most recent A-F Accountability System, which is heavily weighted on the STAAR test results. It’s not clear that, if the in next month, they are going to manipulate the test scores to make schools look bad or worse. The original release that was scheduled for late September, was the “bad”. Bad, in that TEA was intending to take unprecedented measures to manipulate the data so that some districts wind up with a lower accountability rating even if their students scored the same or better on a particular campus. “Worse” could be that TEA has another month to manipulate the data to make even more campuses and districts look like they’re failing when they’re not.

The purpose of an Accountability System should be to give the public and taxpayers a clear picture of how their tax dollars are being spent in terms of student achievement. Their proposed methods are convoluted and will not accurately reflect the results of the state assessments. That’s why you have Districts suing TEA right now, and rightly so. I rate TEA’s A-F Accountability System an F. Also, why can’t the TEA propose an accountability system that isn’t based almost completely on one test? There’s a lot more that goes into student achievement than just a one-time, high stakes test.
So why would the TEA be a party to the crime of ignoring the successes of public school districts? Simple politics. The TEA Commissioner is appointed and allowed to stay in office at the whim of the Governor. The Governor wants to spend public dollars for private schools. The rhetoric, though wrong and harmful to the students of this state, has to be that schools are failing and need another option paid for with public dollars. 

Keep in mind that, for over 25 years, the State, with TEA as the approver of Charters, have used billions of dollars to fund Open Enrollment Charter Schools. For the most part, Charter Schools are private companies that receive public dollars to educate students, but don’t have to follow the same rules as public schools, and don’t typically even have local school boards like ISDs. The original premise was just like what you’re hearing about Private Schools now - “We need to give parents of children in failing campuses another option. “ How’d that work for you?

Public Education is a creature of the State. Therefore, legislators are tasked with creating a free system of education for all students. They, as a Legislative Body, totally dropped the ball in the 88 the Session. With the surplus they had going into this session, they had an opportunity to fund Public Education in Texas so that we could at least get out of the bottom 10 states in per-pupil education spending.
Another F.

There are Legislators and there are Politicians. Legislators make decisions and vote for the betterment of their constituents and the citizens of Texas. Politicians have 2 jobs – to get elected, and to get re-elected. Unfortunately for Texas and the 5 million students in this state, Politicians seem to have the
upper hand.

Bill Tarleton
Executive Director
Texas Rural Education Association