Although he wouldn’t go into specifics, Ector County ISD Superintendent Scott Muri said predictions are that this will be a good year for state accountability ratings.
He didn’t want to give details because the data is still being adjusted at the state level. The Texas Education Agency will release ratings publicly Aug. 15.
“In fact yesterday the state updated data once again and it changed our numbers again and until the process is finished on the 15th I’m not going to release anything because it continues to change and we saw that once again yesterday,” Muri said in a phone interview Thursday.
But, he added that Aug. 15 will be “great news for this community and for our district and it will truly be the best that we’ve ever been. It’s going to be pretty remarkable. We’re excited about it.”
In 2021-22, state accountability was modified.
“So there will not be any D or F schools in the state of Texas because the only schools that are being rated are schools that received an A, B or a C. Once again, the commissioner modified, made some adjustments with the accountability system because of the pandemic,” Muri said.
“Over the last two years, we’ve had an accountability system that has been deeply impacted by the pandemic and therefore they’ve made adjustments, so there won’t be any D or F schools in Texas,” Muri added. “There’ll be some schools that are not rated, but the A’s, B’s and C’s are the only ratings that will be given this year.”
Schools that earned an A, B or C grade will be recorded and published, but Muri said those that did not will be considered unrated.
“If they were rated, they would have been either a D or an F,” he said.
Districts will be rated this year based upon the success of individual schools. Overall, in the last ratings in 2019, ECISD was a C district.
“There may be some that are not rated because of performance; the pandemic situation could affect some districts. I know that our district will receive a rating. I do know that. That will be public on the 15th. We’re even watching as new data continues to be entered into the system. Those ratings continue to change and will change up until the final pieces of data are submitted …,” Muri said.
Next year, there are going to be some revisions. TEA is looking at making some adjustments.
“There will be some new tests and a new way of thinking about accountability for next year, so that body of work is happening. It will still be A through F, but some new formulas, if you will, that will be used to calculate A through F. That will be for 22-23,” Muri said.
He said you can’t tell what it’s going to look like yet, but there will be adjustments.
At convocation Aug. 2, staff members got a big-picture projection.
“… We don’t want to talk about specific schools because today as new data arrived at the state level, or was submitted yesterday, we even saw some more changes from yesterday to today based upon new data that the state provided. So we want to be very thoughtful in not giving people wrong information and so we shared kind of a big overview. We know we’ve had three incredible years of hard work on the part of teachers and principals and 4,200 staff members. We know that our results are going to be much better than they’ve ever been before. But when it comes down to minute details, we want to be very cautious until every I is dotted and T is crossed before we release specifics,” Muri said.
Convocation, he said, was really a shout out to staff members.
“We wanted convocation this year to be a pep rally event and really celebrate our folks. That’s why we did it at Ratliff (Stadium) really creating that atmosphere in which people can see and hear about the good work that they’ve done. The highest graduation rate in 20 years; the kindergarten readiness; all of these indicators that are evidence of the hard work that people have done. So we wanted to celebrate that with them and let them know that their work is paying off for the kids that we serve,” Muri said.
He said they shared some specific data with those at convocation, but they were things they already know and can validate like an 85.5 percent graduation rate — the highest in over 20 years; kindergarten preparedness rising 13 percentage points in one year; and College, Career and Military Readiness tying the state at 63 percent, the highest it’s ever been.
“Those are specific data points which are valid, reliable and we’ve accomplished them and so those are the specific numbers we shared with folks. Then (we) gave them a big-picture overview from a state accountability perspective just kind of the colors. We’re going to have a lot of really nice colors. Blue is the color we’re using for the letter grade A, so there will be a lot more blues than greens and healthy colors than we’ve ever had before. So that’s the picture we painted for folks on Tuesday night,” Muri said.
TEA Commissioner Mike Morath was invited to speak at Leadership University a couple of weeks ago.
“He spoke live with all of the leaders in the district a couple of weeks ago and so we showed our staff a clip of his comment and really he commended the work of the teachers. He talked about (how) he’d never seen this before. He’s been the commissioner for … almost seven years in Texas and this kind of progress just hasn’t been made in West Texas, but it’s happening now and that’s really good news for this community and for the kids that go to school here. It’s a remarkable change,” Muri said.
“It’s a different kind of story. It’s the right kind of story. Kids in our community deserve to have high-quality educational experience(s). They have to have that to be successful in life. We’re giving that to them and our data indicate that,” Muri added.
But he noted that they aren’t resting on their laurels.
“We have a lot of work left to do. We are by no means where we want to be, but we are heading in the right direction and our data, all of our indicators are giving us that message and so our community should be very proud of the 4,200 people that are a part of this team that makes learning happen every day for kids,” Muri said.
