New School Ratings Erase Failure, Inflate Success

[sonias]

Also titled "The New Math" on their home page.

Texas Tribune 8/2/10
New School Ratings Erase Failure, Inflate Success

Friday’s news conference on the release of school performance ratings featured a bizarre dynamic in the annals of education PR: the higher the ratings, the more Education Commissioner Robert Scott and a half-dozen assembled district officials worried about taking a beating in the media.

That’s because the Texas Projection Measure, which credits schools for students who fail state tests but are projected to pass in the future, has sent the ratings soaring in the past two years — to the point where many distrust them. Playing defense, Scott and the district officials rattled off a shotgun blast of related and unrelated school data, some relevant and some not. More than one speaker admonished that the measure was "about the children." (Find audio clips of Scott’s presentation and his Q&A with reporters here.)

The state now calls three-fourths of Texas schools "exemplary" or "recognized," up from fewer than half of campuses two years ago. But a Texas Tribune analysis of data that the Texas Education Agency did not highlight on Friday shows that Texas public schools — when decoupled from the controversial projection measure — have not served children much better since 2008, the year before the new accountability formula took effect. In fact, schools may have regressed overall or, at best, stagnated, even as thousands of educators have basked in new and distinguished-sounding performance labels.

For the children - TEA and Perry's lackey Robert Scott should stop lying and embellishing their record. What kind of message is this sending to the children of Texas? Go ahead and distort the facts to make everything look better. Gloss problems over so you can get ahead. So much for the alleged "family values" crew! :grr:

Great investigative piece by the Tribune though!

:applause::applause::applause:

Sonia

[sonias]

1. The story in pictures

Here is the important graph from the article.



Look at the acceptable and unacceptable columns. The last two on the graph at the end. The green color is where our schools are compared to 2008, using the same standards from 2008. Apples to apples.

FAIL!

Scott and TEA is simply doing an "Enron" on the statistics to make himself, Texas schools and Perry look good. :puke:

[sonias]

2. Texas Education Agency releases statewide school ratings

How the MSM reports it:

AAS 7/30/10
Texas Education Agency releases statewide school ratings
For second year, more schools got highest ratings; education commissioner defends use of system of special measures and exemptions.

For the second consecutive year, more than two of three schools statewide earned top academic honors exemplary and recognized ratings Texas Education Agency officials announced Friday.

But even as he lauded the numbers, state Education Commissioner Robert Scott defended the special formulas used to help most campuses boost their ratings a level and claim those titles.

The Texas Projection Measure allows districts to count as passing certain students who fail but are projected to pass within three years. Critics say the system gives a false boost to districts.

"If you look at the data of what we projected in 2009 and what happened in 2010, it proved out, almost to every campus," Scott said Friday. "Many of the districts and campuses that are rated exemplary or recognized this year would have been recognized or exemplary anyway, even without TPM."

But figures released Friday by the Texas Education Agency show that statewide this year, only 33 percent of the 5,777 exemplary and recognized campuses earned those ratings without using exemptions or special measures.

Read between the lines, folks. That's what they're saying. :kick:

[hobbit709]

3. "There's lies, damned lies and statistics"

[sonias]

4. And there's a new one - manipulated statistics

Robert Scott and Ricky Perry invented this new methodology pseudoscience just for their evil purpose. To distort the real truth about the state of Texas schools.

Just saying, it was their boy bush jr that got the whole ball rolling with "Leave No Child Behind", which we also know it as "Leave No Child a Dime" since they never fully funded it and have only used the stick part of the law.

So under that piece of crap legislation that the bushies and Texas Rs all supported, the Texas schools under Rick Perry and the R controlled Legislature still show no marked improvement. So of course they have to change the way improvement is "measured". :eyes:

[sonias]

5. Why some school administrators love the new Texas Projection Measure

Rick Casey Houston Chronicle 8/3/10
HISD cash for fancy projections

(snip)
Bonuses to grow

This year, the TPM-related bonuses will be higher, as about three-fourths of its schools are now rated either "exemplary" or "recognized" with considerable help from the TPM.

I checked with several other districts that pay performance bonuses, including Austin, Fort Worth and Richardson. All said the TPM plays no role in their awards.

Ironically, HISD Superintendent Terry Grier is critical of the TPM.

"The TPM was never designed to be used in the way the state is using it," he said. "That's why I'm not a big fan of it. I think you should award people on how the kids do, not on how they're projected to do."

He said he would discuss the matter with his staff, but I think it is unlikely the system will be changed this year.

I'm not begrudging the HISD folks bonuses. God knows that educators deserve a real pay raise! I'm just concerned that TPM is a false measure and using this "fake" measure for anything certainly complicates why school districts support it.