2011 TEA School Rankings Released (Austin, Round Rock: home, zoning, moving)

[Mrs.JT]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Yes, Bo is right. They have changed the underlying statistical model (AGAIN!) which makes year-to-year comparisons nearly impossible. Last year the rankings were skewed high, this year the rankings are skewed to the low side.

MrsJT, it only takes one sub-group doing poorly on one sub-set of the test to get the dreaded "unacceptable" label. You have drill into the data to see if it meaningful.

AISD has too many special education students taking the tests with accommodations (per TEA) and that messes up the ranking of the whole district. Insane!

Understood. I've yet to thoroughly analyze the data. I'm quite certain the data is skewed considering the circumstances of the school. I established a good rapport with a lot of his teachers early on, and I was pleased with the involvement and feedback I received from most of his teachers. Overall, I'm not complaining. It was just the intial shock factor.

[calel]

I peeked just because I'm curious. Am glad to see that if I ever choose to spawn, my little hellions will be going to Recognized schools from elementary to HS.

Is Vandegrift the Steiner Ranch HS? Am surprised to see it at Academically Acceptable.

[rrjr]

Originally Posted by calel

I peeked just because I'm curious. Am glad to see that if I ever choose to spawn, my little hellions will be going to Recognized schools from elementary to HS.

Is Vandegrift the Steiner Ranch HS? Am surprised to see it at Academically Acceptable.

Yes, it's the HS Steiner would go to. Not sure what you saw, it's rated recognized - [SIZE=2]VANDEGRIFT H S[/SIZE]

[calel]

Weird. Maybe my browser didn't load the page properly before.

[tibbar]

Here are the schools our kids in Westcreek go through. Houses in this area usually sell quick based on the schools.

143 PATTON EL Exemplary
060 SMALL M S Academically Acceptable
002 AUSTIN H S Academically Acceptable

[HappyTexan]

If you want to see details here's the TEA site.

The easiest way to get to your specific school:

Select "county"
Fill in the county name and "continue"

Now find your school in the list and click on that and you'll get the detailed report for that school.

2011 Accountability: List by County

[riaelise]

Ratings fluctuate each year. Like others said, if you have good feelings about a school and a good relationship with the administrators/teachers, then that goes a long way vs. teachers just cramming for TAKs. What I fear is that the classroom will be more about pumping kids up to take a standardized test (and thereby getting the holy recognized/exemplary rating) rather than truly making sure that they learn.

For your dollar, I think PISD is pretty good and underrated. The Murchison - Kelly Lane - Hendrickson pairing has been consistently good for at least six years. The new school Riojas is exemplary, and then there's Rowe Lane. Timmerman is always good. All of these have homes in the 150-250k and up range, which proves that you don't have to sacrifice affordability for good schools.

FWIW, we are zoned to Murchison-Kelly Lane-Hendrickson and have opted to put our kindergartener in Gateway College Prep Charter School. If that doesn't turn out well, there's always a good public option.

[love roses]

I have some friends who send their kids to Gateway and LOVE it. I'm pondering putting my daughter there.

[Mrs.JT]

Yes, ratings do fluctuate every year. I realize that. But "academically unacceptable" is what caught me off guard. Cedar Ridge was a first year school with limited enrollment, so we have yet to see what its future holds. I'm fairly certain that ratings will improve. Afterall, two of the three elementary schools that feed into Cedar Ridge are rated exemplary.

Schools have been focusing on TAKS performance for years, and I've spoken with many teachers who complain about the pressure they undergo to drill TAKS test prep into their students while the fundamentals fall by the wayside.

Was the Greenridge area rezoned? Is it no longer zoned to Highland Park and Park Crest? Murchison and Kelly Lane are pretty decent schools, so that would be good thing. I have a coworker who lives in Greenridge, and she mentioned the possibility of sections of Greenridge rezoning to Cedar Ridge.

[XLadylawX]

A closer look at the ratings of the Cedar Ridge HS indicate a clear mistake in the overall rating. Since the limited number of students left a lot of blanks, I suspect it read those blanks as "Unacceptable.". Of the resiults listed most but 2 were either Exemplary, or Recognised with only two categories listed as unacceptable. There is no way that would accurately result in a truly "academically unacceptable" school. Someone should contact them for further information.