2009 School District Rankings - the district as a whole (Southlake: rental, unemployed)

[CravenClan]

go to great schools . net an find Ouida springer, the hispanic ratio is 42%, the white is 45%. In a supposed wealthy area of Rockwall, i find it hard to believe the Wealthy are ok with those numbers for that school...

[momof2dfw]

I wasn't sure where that school campus was located so I pulled it up. The location is close to a lot of the lower end development of newer tract homes in the Rockwall area. This is why the demographics of this one campus are a little different than the other schools in Rockwall. It is split on a economically disadvanated section of the student population as well w/ about half being in that catagory. While there are a few smattering areas of the higher wealth in that area the heavy concentration of the lower end tract homes outweighs it.

If your concerned w/ the demographics look in areas that feed into Williams, Pullen or Hartman Elem. Those are just 3 that I can think of that have a higher concentration of "wealth".

[southern living]

Originally Posted by Big G

Well, Plano got dinged because of one reason - 20 of 33 black kids at one middle school flunked the science TAKS.

Hmm,the black kids at the other 11 Plano middle schools had no problem meeting the state standard. Neither did the white or Hispanic kids at Armstrong.

So, yeah, 20 bad apples managed to trash the entire district's reputation. I'm sure their parents are proud.

By comparison, Dallas ISD had 22 SCHOOLS that were Academically Unacceptable. 22 schools versus 20 students. But you go ahead and conclude that the districts are the same.

yes, but dallas also had 46 exemplary and 82 recognized schools. It appears that both districts have pockets of low performance

[southern living]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Yah now you know how it works! Two extra hispanic students at Lake Highlands High dropped out and it sank their ranking. My alma mater went AU one year because of 12 students in one of the seven subgroups (while two subgroups were exemplary). How long has it taken us to live down that AU?
We were back on the Newsweek list the next year. So how do you try to explain that to folks? The principals get into trouble if they even mention the group which brought down the school. I believe McKinney High is AU this year. Coppell High got even got an AU one year.

The more diverse the school, the more chances are that its ranking will tank because just a few kids didn't pass. This seems counterintuitive when diversity is considered an asset by most.

its easy to blame a particular school or districts poor performance on minority kids. however, there are plenty of districts out there with plenty of minority kids doing just fine such as garland and richardson, and (gasp) even dallas, which has 128 schools that are either exemplary or recognized....These schools just need to improve. period. no excuses

[IMATXNATIVE]

Originally Posted by TXNGL

Daughter's school missed exemplary by 2 students in a sub-group last year.

Can someone explain this? Do these 'sub-groups' have a statistically increased value compared to the primary population?

It sounds like a small number of students in a 'sub-group' have the power to alter a rating while the same number of students in the primary or majority group just get washed out in the average?

Or is it something like a percentage of every 'sub-group' has to pass to be exemplary? ... meaning 99 failures in a 1000 member sub-group is exemplary while 2 failures in a 10 member subgroup isn't?

I don't get it.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by IMATXNATIVE

Can someone explain this? Do these 'sub-groups' have a statistically increased value compared to the primary population?

It sounds like a small number of students in a 'sub-group' have the power to alter a rating while the same number of students in the primary or majority group just get washed out in the average?

Or is it something like a percentage of every 'sub-group' has to pass to be exemplary? ... meaning 99 failures in a 1000 member sub-group is exemplary while 2 failures in a 10 member subgroup isn't?

I don't get it.

Yes, I think your getting it. A small sub-group of kids can dictate how a school is rated per the TAKS tests. If they flunk it doesn't matter if 95 of the student population got "commended" on their TAKS tests. That lower 5% sunk the ship.

And if the sub-group does not show any improvements from one year to the next it lowers the schools ratings. Even if the majority of the sub-group passed if the next year they did not pass at a higher rate percentage wise and did not pass w/ a higher score the school gets a lower mark/rating.

[Big G]

For a school to be "Recognized" or "Exemplary", there are certain thresholds for TAKS passing percentages. These thresholds must be met, not just by the student population as a whole, but by ALL of the following subgroups:

White
Hispanic
Black
Low-Income


Let's look at this in the context of the Armstrong Middle School numbers in PISD.

For the Science TAKS:

Sub-Group # passing # in group % passing % of school pop.

All Students 176 239 74 100
African Amer 13 33 39 14
Hispanic 70 101 69 42
White 78 89 88 37
Econ Disadv 72 116 62 49


(The columns don't add up because 1) Economically Disadvantaged kids are also counted in their ethnic group, and 2) Asians are not part of this procedure.)

This school is academically unacceptable because not all sub-groups achieved 50% passing grades on the Science TAKS, even though the school as a whole had a 74% passing rate, just below the threshold for Recognized.

[Big G]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

And if the sub-group does not show any improvements from one year to the next it lowers the schools ratings. Even if the majority of the sub-group passed if the next year they did not pass at a higher rate percentage wise and did not pass w/ a higher score the school gets a lower mark/rating.

The goofy thing with this is - IT'S NOT THE SAME KIDS!

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by Big G

The goofy thing with this is - IT'S NOT THE SAME KIDS!

I know............
And the ones coming up with this "rational" way to "rank" schools are in the TEA
It is this kind of thing that makes one literally just want to bang their head against a brick wall. One would actually get some results for doing such. More results than they would in trying to rationally explain how the TAKS ratings are of any kind of benefit to ANY school or teacher.

[Lakewooder]

I believe there are subgroups for special ed, ESL and then the drop-out rate is the overriding kicker. There are similarities and contrasts for the No Child Left Behind numbers for AYP.

Originally Posted by southern living

its easy to blame a particular school or districts poor performance on minority kids. however, there are plenty of districts out there with plenty of minority kids doing just fine such as garland and richardson, and (gasp) even dallas, which has 128 schools that are either exemplary or recognized....These schools just need to improve. period. no excuses

True but then again minority groups may be of different economic levels and parental educational backgrounds, primary language and mobility rates from school-to-school or even within a school. Which can also be true of whites!