Just like students receive letter grades ranging from A through F on their report card, school districts in the state of Texas receive a rating from A through F on their overall performance annually and the most recent state ratings have Frisco ISD at the top with a rating of ‘A.’
Until last week, however, FISD and school districts across the state had not received any annual accountability ratings since 2019. For a few years, ratings were not released due to COVID-19 and its disruptions to learning, and additionally, lawsuits were filed against the release of the ratings for the past two school years. But on April 24, a court ruled that last school year’s ratings can be released.
“Accountability is important — we want to ensure our students are learning and growing, and we take that responsibility seriously. But our district and campuses are more than a letter grade,” Frisco ISD Superintendent Dr. Mike Waldrip said in a district news release. “The state ratings are just one snapshot. They don’t capture the full picture of student success in Frisco ISD.”
FISD also received a high accountability rating in the past, obtaining a rating of ‘A’ in 2019, the first and only other year accountability ratings were measured through a letter grade system. However, not all districts experienced this kind of success, causing them to file lawsuits.
“What qualifies as a district that gets an A or what qualifies as one that gets a D, those benchmarks keep moving,” AP Government teacher Amanda Peters said. “And so, when you have a moving target when it comes to what they’re evaluating, it might not be the best evaluation.”
Peters also believes that standardized testing making up a large part of the student achievement score is unfair to students.
“A kid could have a bad day,” Peters said. “It’s just like how we’ve gone to standard based grading. So, you have one test, and then if you show progress over time, that final assessment is what your grade is rather than just that one day.”
On the other hand, some people, such as junior Anagha Konuru, see STAAR testing as a valid way to measure school performance.
“It makes sense to use STAAR testing as an assessment of how a teacher did,” Konuru said. “So, if students don’t perform well on a test, that’s kind of a way for educators to realize that maybe the methods they’re using to teach or the skills they’re teaching aren’t the best they could be.”
STAAR shouldn’t be taken away from the evaluation according to Konuru, but other criteria of evaluation should be added to supplement it.
“Another thing that can be factored [into the accountability ratings] is the grade averages in a teacher’s class,” Konuru said. “You could see how the class improves over the course of time. It doesn’t have to be every single individual student’s grade, but like the class averages of each teacher’s class period can show you an insight of how they teach.”
