The Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) 2022-2023 Accountability Ratings were released Thursday morning after a lawsuit from over 120 Texas school districts attempted to stop it on the basis that districts had not received advanced notice of TEA’s changes to methodologies and rating calculations.
The Victoria Independent School District (VISD) received a D rating, a 68 out of 100, for the 2022-2023 school year. The rating measures how much students learn in each grade and if they are prepared to move to the subsequent grade, according to TEA.
It rates a district’s ability to prepare students for post-high school success in college, the workforce or the military (CCMR) as well.
“The A-F Accountability results provide a snapshot of that school year’s performance,” Sheila Collazo, VISD superintendent of schools, said in a statement to the Victoria Advocate. “Our focus has been on analyzing the current system to develop high-quality instructional programs and services at expected levels of rigor to change the trajectory of student performance next year and beyond.”
Three other Region 3 school districts earned a D rating: Bloomington ISD, Kenedy ISD and Wharton ISD. Two districts earned an A rating—Industrial ISD and Westhoff ISD—19 earned B ratings and 11 earned C ratings. One district, Runge ISD, earned an F rating.
VISD is the only Region 3 district serving more than 5,000 students. The district had a total student enrollment of 13,188 for the 2022-2023 school year; 70.7 percent were economically disadvantaged, 14.6 percent were special education students and 8.1 percent were emergent bilingual/english learners.
“This rating is not reflective of the standard we hold for our district and students,” Collazo said in a statement to district parents. “It also does not define the value of our VISD students, staff, educators or families. We are moving toward exemplary student outcomes with our new strategic planning process by focusing on literacy, numeracy, college readiness and citizenship readiness, among other areas.”
All of the following ratings pertain to scores and data from the 2022-2023 school year.
The TEA Accountability Rating is composed of three categories: student achievement, school progress and closing the gap. VISD received a D rating in all three categories.
The district’s D rating categorizes them as needing to improve performance. The district serves too few students well and not enough students are making sufficient progress for success in CCMR, according to TEA.
“There were three primary factors contributing to the decrease in results that year: The first year of the redesign of STAAR with embedded new item types, a statewide transition to online testing and the increase in the College, Career and Military Ready (CCMR) performance expectations even though CCMR was a lagging indicator (prior year data),” Collazo said in the statement to parents. “These factors significantly affected district and campus ratings statewide.”
VISD received a 69 out of 100 for student achievement, a metric that measures student STAAR test performance, graduation rates and post-high school preparedness. VISD had 63 percent of students across all subjects approach grade level or above on the STAAR test for the 2022-2023 year, 13 percent below the state average.
A total of 33 percent of the district’s students across all subjects met grade level or above—6 percent below the state average—and 11 percent of students across all subjects master their grade level, 9 percent below the state average.
VISD received 67 percent for total credit for CCMR criteria, 2 percent below the state average. The district is working to increase CCMR across its campuses.
For the 2022-2023 school year, 43 percent of district graduates had earned an industry-based certification, 16 percent above the state average.
Those who met the criterion score on one or more Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) exams made up 15 percent of graduates, six percent below the state average. Those who earned college credit for a dual-credit course made up 18 percent of the graduates, six percent below the state.
The district’s four-year, five-year and six-year graduation rates were all above 95 percent and all above the state averages. VISD’s dropout rate was 0.4 percent, 1.8 percent below the state average.
VISD received a 69 out of 100 for school progress, a metric that indicated how students perform over time and how the performance of a district compares to those with similar economically disadvantaged student populations, according to TEA. VISD scored a 61 out of 100 for academic growth and a 69 out of 100 for relative performance.
The district earned a 64 out of 100 for closing the gap. This metric shows how well a district ensures all student groups are successful. VISD’s graduation rate was 94.2 percent, student success was 36 percent and school quality was 65 percent.
“There is important work ahead, and we have already acted to improve outcomes, ensuring that every student continues to meet academic standards and thrive in our learning environments,” Collazo said in the statement to parents. “As part of our strategic academic redesign, we will continue to move forward. The priority is to refocus, rise together and recommit to the success of every VISD student.”
Michael can be reached at mmilliorn@vicad.com. Send education tips to this email.
