Information is currency for democracy.                   - Thomas Jefferson

A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.    - Steve Martin

Education is unique among consumer products; when it fails to work as advertised, it's the customer that gets labeled as defective.         - Kevin Killion

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Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtues consistently. You can't be consistently kind or fair or humane or generous, not without courage, because if you don't have it, sooner or later you will stop and say, "The threat is too much. The difficulty is ...too high. The challenge is too great. ~ Maya Angelou

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 2009 - Stay tuned ... as accountability laws are weakened and the rules of the game are manipulated, will the district's rating rise?  And the back story:  How many children have been cleansed from the district this year?  And why won't Eanes ISD document the reasons for their exodus?  Too much accountability?

Since Nola Wellman became superintendent in 2004,

our district's rating has dropped from

"Exemplary" to "Recognized" and now only ...

"Academically Acceptable"

The annual ratings (highest to lowest) are exemplary, recognized, academically acceptable and academically unacceptable.  There simply is no excuse in a district with such easy demographics and such resources ... to drop to a rating that is just above the worst possible rating.  The whole point of the accountability rating is to measure the success of education for all children. 

Eanes ISD has very easy demographics. When children struggle, parents hire tutors. If they continue to struggle, parents fund private schools. The district's enrollment is steadily declining. To replace those student who must leave, Eanes carefully screens and then transfers in out-of-district students who meet criteria to make the district's job even easier.  However, this is one game that Eanes ISD isn't winning.  The district's rating has steadily dropped from Exemplary to Recognized to Academically Acceptable since Nola Wellman began as superintendent in 2004.  And remember, the rating doesn't include all of the children who leave Eanes ISD because of a district leadership that isn't willing or able to meet the needs of at-risk children or subgroups.

So what happens when a district like Eanes ISD educates 54 economically disadvantaged students?  Eanes ISD knew the district's performance was less than acceptable.  Last year, only 70% of this "subgroup" met standards in science.  This year, however, that percentage dropped to 67%.  At campus level, if a subgroup includes less than 30 students, that subgroup is not rated.  There is no one campus in Eanes ISD that must rate the performance of "Economically Disadvantaged" students and therefore that subgroup is not rated at the campus level in Eanes ISD.  However, the total students in this subgroup does rise above 30 students and therefore, those results are factored in for the overall district rating.  

And that's why this year the Eanes ISD accountability rating dropped once again,

this time from "Recognized" to only "Academically Acceptable." 

A district's success should not be measured on how well it performs with the easy ones.  Rather, the true measure of success is how well a district prioritizes and educates children who present a challenge of some sort. 

TEA Press Release - More districts and campuses earn exemplary rating - "Accountability ratings provide parents and community members with a standardized way to examine academic performance at their local schools. The ratings help Texans highlight successes and pinpoint areas that need improvement," said Robert Scott, commissioner of education. Ratings and data tables for individual schools districts, charter holders and campuses can be found on the TEA website here:   www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2008/index.html

 

MORE ...

Eanes ISD superintendent touts Eanes ISD as a "model for educational excellence."  Apparently, this "model" includes private tutoring paid by parents, children shoved out who don't fit the mold, attempts to remove teacher certification, and substandard facilities for at-risk students. 

Modest education goal
 May 14, 2008 - Boston Globe

Federal Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is trying to pump life into the controversial No Child Left Behind law. Passed in 2002, the law needs to be reauthorized. But Congress is stalling on whether and how to retool the law until after the election. So to make some progress, Spellings is promoting new regulations.  The premise of her proposed rules is that education still needs more transparency.

One helpful proposal would require all states to use the same method to calculate high school graduation rates, and not hide dropouts behind statistical disguises.  Another rule would require schools to be more transparent about their "subgroups" — the limited-English, disabled, minority, and other students who don't always show up in states' calculations of their "adequate yearly progress," because states deem these students to be too few in number to be statistically significant. ...

The goal of No Child Left Behind is modest: to get children achieving at grade level by 2014. Spellings is nudging, but real progress will have to come from Congress and the current or next president.

 

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