HOUSTON CHRONICLE February 17, 2008

HEADLINE: Keep accountability, but show our schools’ progress

By Bill Ratliff

Texas' current accountability system has been in place for over a decade as a method of evaluating our public schools. The system has contributed to a culture of holding schools accountable and has provided the framework for doing so.

Texas has been a leading state in creating high and rising standards, and we must continue to uphold that place. With accountability, taxpayers have been given a vehicle to know what they are receiving from the dollars spent on education.

Our students and schools have benefited greatly from having an accountability system, and accountability must remain central in our mission of educating all students. But over time the system that has become increasingly complex and cumbersome.

It is now time for the state's leadership to discuss how we can create a better system that will more effectively serve schools and stakeholders. We need a new system that is both rigorous and easier for the public to understand; one that is fair, and one that recognizes growth and gains.

We have learned over the past decade that the current system is too complex to be easily understood by stakeholders. If someone wants to see a district's performance, the information is overwhelming. Using five demographic subpopulations in multiple grades and subjects creates 36 different categories. We must continue to evaluate the performance of the various subgroups of students, but a new accountability system must be easier to understand and should provide the public with a clearer understanding of a school's performance. There must be a simpler way to show how our schools are doing, with additional detailed data available for those who want it.

We must make sure the new system is a tool for improving student performance and ensuring student achievement at the highest levels. To do that, the system must clearly reflect the overall performance of a school, while identifying those students who are not succeeding and who need additional help.

Currently, the performance of just a few students can cause an entire school to be rated low-performing even when the majority of students are achieving high results.

No business would identify its overall success based on the performance of its weakest division. Such a system is punitive and unfairly punishes schools, particularly larger schools and districts with diverse student populations. Texans deserve an honest and fair assessment of how their schools are doing.

A new system must recognize schools for making progress. Many schools are making significant gains, including those with substantial challenges. If schools show gains from year to year, those students and teachers should be recognized. Limited English proficiency (LEP) students must come into the system after an initial exemption and be evaluated as they learn English, and the progress they make must be recognized by the system.

If we continue to ask our educators to work in challenging environments then do not recognize their work, we will lose teachers from the profession. A truly effective accountability system will clearly show how schools are doing and if they are making progress, without demoralizing our students, teachers and communities.

With the advent of federal law (No Child Left Behind, or NCLB), we have two systems of accountability that are not aligned. NCLB brings a different set of performance standards and measurements, which is very confusing to the public. There are examples of schools improving their rating in the state accountability system and at the same time being downgraded in the NCLB system. The Texas system should seek to reduce conflicts between NCLB and a high quality state system.

The accountability system in Texas has improved public education. Over the past decade, Texas schools have made significant progress in raising student scores and achievement, but the current accountability system does not clearly reflect that progress and does not show the public what it needs to know.

Statewide, community and business leaders want a system that reflects more fairness and simplicity, one that aligns with federal laws, one that recognizes the progress and growth that schools are making, and one that will improve student performance.

The Texas Legislature has mandated that the current system must be replaced by 2011. Business and community leaders across our state have organized as Raise Your Hand Texas to strongly encourage the Select Committee On Public School Accountability and the Legislature to develop and implement a strong and effective public school accountability system. The future of our students, teachers, communities and state depend on it.