TEA releases Community and Student Engagement Ratings

Texas Education Agency (TEA) released Community and Student Engagement ratings for the state’s school districts, charters and campuses.

Under House Bill 5 passed last year by the 83rd Texas Legislature, all districts and charters are required to evaluate their performance, as well as the performance of each campus, in regard to community and student engagement. Districts must assign one of four performance ratings – Exemplary, Recognized, Acceptable or Unacceptable.

To see a summary of all state accountability ratings, financial accountability ratings and locally-assigned ratings, visit the 2014 Texas Consolidated School Rating Report page on the TEA website.

Texas statute requires school districts to evaluate the district's performance and the performance of each campus in the district in community and student engagement and assign a rating. Districts must assign a performance rating of exemplary, recognized, acceptable, or unacceptable to each campus, based on locally-determined criteria developed by a local committee.

Districts must also assign a Yes/No status for compliance with statutory reporting and policy requirements. More information regarding the Community and Student Engagement ratings is available on the Frequently Asked Questions site.  The 2014 Texas Consolidated School Rating Reports are now available.  The reports will be updated with final 2014 state accountability ratings in November.  Read more at the TEA website.

Principals and teachers report that they value relationships with families, yet they are always looking for new ideas to engage families. They also say that they feel under prepared to develop these partnerships. Partners in Education: A Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family–School Partnerships, a collaboration between SEDL and the U.S. Department of Education, addresses these challenges. The publication, written by Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Karen L. Mapp, senior lecturer and faculty director of the Education Policy and Management Master’s Program, and Paul J. Kuttner, researcher and educator, presents a framework that focuses on helping both educators and family members develop the necessary skills, knowledge, confidence, and belief systems to develop and sustain home–school relationships. Download resource.

Strategies for Family Engagement 

Three Ways to Jump Start a System of Response to Intervention

Click the image to
hear the entire interview (5 min.)


SAVE THE DATE
October 27th
Response to Intervenion Session
@Region 7 ESC
More info? 
Beverly Beran
(903)988-6891

Question: If you want to implement an effective Response to Intervention, campus-wide, or district-wide, what would be the top three things to focus on first?

1. Gather key people around the table
Invite people around the table to gain a common understanding about why you want to pursue these activities around Response to Intervention.   Be sure to include classroom teachers, campus leaders, probably some parents, school board members, older students, and generally a diverse set of perspectives.  These folks can help you identify what it is you want to accomplish and how you will know if you were successful. 

2.  Agree on short term and long term outcomes
In the short-term, consider: what are those markers that show we’re on the right track? 
Decide if the work you are doing around Response to Intervention and those components are making a difference for your students, and for your staff, and for the quality of services. 

In the long-term, discuss how to look further at the performance of those students on other measures; their retention rate in school, their grades, their performance on state assessments. You might get a better sense about student participation in the variety of academic activities as well as their performance on academic and behavioral screening.

3.  Start with something that will give immediate, noticeable impact
Get started with the area that would give an immediate impact, something that would get some momentum going, so you can demonstrate success, because it’s going to take some effort. Consider what your team can agree on and get folks engaged.  One thing is to get them to agree, yeah that’s a good idea, the next thing is to get them engaged.

Watch the entire interview with Daryl Mellard, featured on the website of the Center on Response to Intervention, at American Institutes for Research.