AZLE — Azle Independent School District can now be counted among the many Texas school districts unhappy with its unofficial accountability ratings from the Texas Education Agency.
Texas Academic Performance Reports are an important tool for school districts to determine how their students fare academically. The metric measures STAAR-based student achievement, school progress from year to year and equity between different demographics enrolled at each campus. It is used by the Texas Education Agency and the federal government to help identify which schools need guided improvement and which can be trusted to self-assess.
In years past, TAPR has been used to generate an accountability rating for each district. Prior to launch, TEA unveiled a new formula for the 2023 accountability ratings that many districts worried would negatively impact their scores. Some of those districts then filed a lawsuit against TEA in protest of the new formula. While under litigation, the TEA has halted the official publication of 2023 and 2024 scores.
Azle ISD has calculated its own unofficial score based on recently released TAPRs and confirmed its accuracy with the TEA. AISD Director of Secondary Curriculum and Federal Programs Jordan Thiem presented the scores at a Jan. 21 board of trustees meeting.
Using the accountability formula, the district would have scored a 78 or a C for its 2024 accountability ratings. The unofficial accountability rating for 2023 was projected to be 85 or a B. Azle ISD also scored an 85 in 2022. Districts were not rated in 2021 or 2020 because of the COVID-19 lockdowns and Azle ISD received an 88 for 2019.
In the categories of student achievement, school progress and closing the gap, Azle ISD scored 79, 78 and 76, while the prior year’s scores were 83, 82 and 77 respectively.
Scores were also broken down to the school level. Most Azle schools scored Bs and Cs, with the outliers being Hornet Academy with a 99 and Liberty Elementary with a 66. Thiem explained that while secondary schools had a number of different factors analyzed in its scores, elementary schools were graded entirely on third and fourth grade STAAR test results.
“That entire number is really based off of two ELA tests and two math tests that all happen within two days,” Thiem said. “You'll notice that Liberty there is marked as a D, as a 66. I will tell you, that's already in the process of being turned around. (Principal) Miles is doing fantastic things at Liberty, and we have seen gains there already. So, that number is changing as we speak.”
In a general trend from schools across the district, Azle outperformed other districts in the state and region in meeting and approaching STAAR performance expectations, while Azle schools often had a smaller percentage of students achieve master level scores and students who did not meet expectations.
Thiem described English language arts as a “shining star” for the district, citing above average scores in both its elementary and secondary schools. Thiem attributed the higher English scores to a successful implementation of reading and ELA initiatives in elementary, junior and high school that build off each other and reinforce critical skills and knowledge for the subject. Conversely, the district’s third grade math STAAR scores tended to lag slightly behind the region and state.
“(Math) is where we need to focus on,” Thiem said. “This is also the place that the rest of the state and the rest of the country need to focus on. Math scores have consistently gone down since COVID, and it's been a struggle … One of the things I am proud of is the lack of how much we've dropped, because our drop has been significantly less than some of the districts that are around us, and it's actually been less than what the region and the state have seen all together. Though we have gone down, it has not been as significant as what we've seen across the state.”
To address this problem, Thiem said the district is trying to move away from online math games and steer students to learning through group discussion, using hands-on tools and resources.
"The overall district accountability score is composed of a weighting system where each campus adds to an accumulated score for the entire district," Thiem said in a Feb. 3 email to the Tri-County Reporter. "Each campus has a certain amount of tested students. This amount on the campus is made into a percentage of tested students in the entire district. This percentage becomes the weight of that campus to the total of the district in all three domains of achievement, growth, and closing the gaps. From Azle ISD's perspective, this is biased as students do not begin STAAR testing until 3rd grade. This means no amount of instruction, achievement, or growth from Pre-K to 2nd grade contributes to a district's score. These grades are paramount in building the base of instruction moving forward.
Back to the topic of the overall district accountability score. Three domains account for the overall score. Domain I - Achievement is measured solely off the STAAR/EOC scores of students who test in the spring. Domain II - Growth measures the difference in achievement scores on STAAR/EOC compared to the achievement score in the same subject from the previous year. Domain III - Closing the Gaps measures achievement and growth data when compared to interim and long-term goals among racial/ethnic groups, socioeconomic backgrounds, and other factors. The indicators included in this domain, as well as the domain’s construction, align the state accountability system with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
As a district, we saw our Domain I and Domain II scores drop while the Domain III score went up. This drop in the achievement domain would not contribute solely to the drop in master levels within the district. I would say there was a correlation in drops in achievement levels in math across the board with the overall achievement level of the district. This continued struggle with math achievement is aligned with the same struggles of districts within our region, the state, and the entire country. Since these same math achievement numbers contribute to the domain II scores they contributed to the lowering of the growth scores when compared to last year. "
More data presented by Thiem showed that while AISD’s college-level course enrollment fell behind the state and region, the district outperformed in the number of graduates ready for trades and careers. Azle ISD scored 51% and 50%, respectively, in college and career readiness compared to the state’s 62% and 36%. College readiness is largely based on if students earned college credit through Advanced Placement, OnRamps, Dual Credit classes or met Texas Success Initiative criteria for the SAT and ACT, among other academic achievements. Thiem said the district hopes to boost this number by implementing Texas College Bridge in more classes. Career readiness is based on the number of students enrolled in work programs or that have earned industry certifications. Thiem noted that some AISD programs may not be counted toward career readiness, despite preparing students for jobs in fields like crane operation or industrial refrigeration, because of TEA standards.
For a total college, career and military readiness score, AISD achieved 70%. This increase achieved a goal set by the board two years ago but still had Azle lagging behind the state’s 76% CCMR score. The district, region and state all showed improvements in all three readiness categories over the last three years.
Azle ISD’s graduation rate, 97.2, exceeded the state and region, 90.3% and 89.9%. Thiem noted that this number does not necessarily reflect the number of students who graduated, but instead the percentage who graduated with their grade cohort. Counting students who graduated early or late, Thiem said the district’s true graduation rate is close to 99%.