School District Info + Evaulation (Dallas, Spring: school districts, stats, budget)

[preppyglam]

What exactly should I be looking at when I research school districts and specific schools within a district? For example, I am researching Rockwall (RISD) and I went to their page...didn't really find anything about their rating, class size ratio, etc. I then clicked on a few schools in that district, and same thing...just basic school info for parents and kids (location, enrollment, etc.).

Someone posted a link in a different thread about TX school accountability...went to that site and a large data report popped up with I entered RISD...but I can't really really tell where I should be looking on that report. I glazed through it, and it has a lot of stats, etc.

Where/how do I find out about class sizes? And the schools/districts rating?

Thanks, all!

[FarNorthDallas]

I posted a link on your other thread about Rockwall you can check - it's called Just 4 Kids.

Currently the state of Texas has a max class size for Kindergarten through 4th grade of 22 students and one teacher. After that the classes are 25-35 or higher in high school. With the current budget problem the 22 max thing may be going up to 25 or so.

The mandated high stakes state testing is called TAKS and starts in 3rd grade. The Just 4 Kids website mentioned above is looking at TAKS scores - passing and commended rates. Schools used to be happy with just passing, but now they are more concernd about their commended numbers.

Texas has this thing called the Texas Projection Measure where a child can be considered passing TAKS even though the child failed because students in the child's same sub-population (ie White, Hispanic) typically pass and therefore the failing child will be considered passing because they are predicted to pass in the future. Schools can opt in or opt out of using the Texas Projection Measure when determining their rating.

In Rockwall where you are looking these schools are rating Exemplary and this list will tell you if it's due to using the Texas Projection Measure or not:

Rockwall ISD Exemplary Schools
Due to TPM:
Williams Middle
Rochelle Elem
Hays Elem
Lake Pointe Elem
Dobbs Elem
Springer Elem
Shannon Elem

Exemplary without having to use the TPM boost:
Parks-Heath Elem
Pullen Elem
Hartman Elem
Williams Elem
Reinhardt Elem

From: Dallas, Texas Area School Information: 2010 Dallas area Exemplary Schools with and without the Texas Projection Measure

[preppyglam]

Thank you for the link, and thank you for the info on the testing. Very good to know!

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Another school ranking souirce is www.GreatSchools.net (http://www.GreatSchools.net - broken link), which ranks schools within a state to each other, but not within a district.

[mcmom10]

You can also find information on individual schools on Greatschools.net: test scores by grade, class sizes, parent reviews etc.

[preppyglam]

what a great resource! thank you!

[Jan70]

Rockwall High School? How is that?

Originally Posted by FarNorthDallas

I posted a link on your other thread about Rockwall you can check - it's called Just 4 Kids.

Currently the state of Texas has a max class size for Kindergarten through 4th grade of 22 students and one teacher. After that the classes are 25-35 or higher in high school. With the current budget problem the 22 max thing may be going up to 25 or so.

The mandated high stakes state testing is called TAKS and starts in 3rd grade. The Just 4 Kids website mentioned above is looking at TAKS scores - passing and commended rates. Schools used to be happy with just passing, but now they are more concernd about their commended numbers.

Texas has this thing called the Texas Projection Measure where a child can be considered passing TAKS even though the child failed because students in the child's same sub-population (ie White, Hispanic) typically pass and therefore the failing child will be considered passing because they are predicted to pass in the future. Schools can opt in or opt out of using the Texas Projection Measure when determining their rating.

In Rockwall where you are looking these schools are rating Exemplary and this list will tell you if it's due to using the Texas Projection Measure or not:

Rockwall ISD Exemplary Schools
Due to TPM:
Williams Middle
Rochelle Elem
Hays Elem
Lake Pointe Elem
Dobbs Elem
Springer Elem
Shannon Elem

Exemplary without having to use the TPM boost:
Parks-Heath Elem
Pullen Elem
Hartman Elem
Williams Elem
Reinhardt Elem

From: Dallas, Texas Area School Information: 2010 Dallas area Exemplary Schools with and without the Texas Projection Measure