Week+Two+5333

=Texas Accountability System=

Since I am not employed by a school district I conducted some research on my local school district's procedures for the distribution of campus performance reports. According to the Bridge City ISD Improvement Plan, the district provides state assessment results to parents in a language they can understand within 10 days of the receipt of the reports from the testing company. The plan states that the school district provides and advertises a “Parent Center” on the BCISD web page where educational and parenting information can be accessed. I located the AEIS report posted under the “Parents Resources” and “Notices & Alerts” tabs on the BCISD website. I did not find the AYP report, but there were Campus Accountability Rating reports for each school in the district located under the same tab on the BCISD website. I am not aware if BCISD shares this information in a public meeting, but if I were in a leadership position, I would also try to share this information at a meeting where parents are already gathered for another event such as an Open House, or a PTA or a school board meeting, in order to ensure that a cross section of the community is well-represented and is able to ask questions and be fully informed about the assessment results. **http://bridgecityisd.net/parent-resources/notices-and-alerts.html**

According to the Grade Placement Committee Manual, parents should be notified by the school of the SSI general requirements during the first few weeks of the school year. Districts are instructed to use the results from diagnostic tools, previous TAKS tests, teacher observations and progress reports to identify students who are struggling in mathematics or reading. It further states that “All students who are determined to be at risk of failing an SSI assessment **must** be provided additional accelerated instruction.” (TEA, 2009)

The GPC manual listed some additional best practices which have proven effective in helping students achieve success. It recommends that schools identify target students and determine instructional priorities; provide at least 30 minutes a day of additional instruction; provide small-group instruction at a minimum of 60 sessions (12 weeks) of intervention help for students; and use highly trained professionals to deliver instruction and provide intervention. @http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/ssi/GPCManual.pdf

The approach that I would take in order to train staff in effective data use, would be to hold an initial training before school starts as a part of the professional development for staff. I would try to utilize instructional coaches to assist in training teachers to analyze the data and work with the findings. I would train the coaches to identify areas of weakness who could in turn be responsible for sharing and discussing the information with teachers. I would provide the relevant data for them in printed form and then encourage them to brainstorm together to identify ways to improve in order to effectively achieve the desired goals. Comment: While we are on the subject of SSI, let me share these thoughts with you. Tutorials are one of the primary services offered by the program that I work for at the University. Prior to each semester we contact students to complete a semester plan in order to identify any needs that they may have and assist them in removing barriers and setting goals for the semester. We try to be proactive and sign them up for tutorials early on, but the students are not always convinced that they need the help. Twice during the semester we send out progress reports to the instructors and evaluate each student's needs based on the reports we have received. We contact the students again and try to intervene on their behalf, again offering various types of assistance as needed. Students who do agree to enroll in tutoring are not always consistent in their attendance and may end up dropping out altogether. If they are failing the class they may opt to drop the class and repeat it again which results in greater costs in federal financial aid. If the student continues to fail, and his/ her GPA drops below 2.0 and the student loses their financial aid so eventually they begin to see a consequence for their actions. Once their GPA drops, they are put on academic probation and the university requires them to participate with another retention program to see if they can get back on the right track in order to stay enrolled in school. I often think, how can we change the mindset of students so that they begin to see education as a privilege and something to be valued rather than an entitlement? I might even be bold enough to say, I believe the system as it stands today, often rewards those students who fail.


 * Mining for Data**

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