New Report: Half or More Texas 3rd - 8th Graders Below Grade Level Standards
Bell County ISDs Reflect State Trend
The Texas Education Agency released two new reports, the 2023 Texas Performance Reporting System (TPRS) and 2023 Texas Academic Performance Reports (TAPR), and the results are disturbing as half or more of public school students routinely fall below grade level standards.
The TEA characterizes its TPRS as integrating state and federal reporting requirements into a single reporting system that can be viewed at the campus, district, region and state level. The TAPR meanwhile pulls together a wide range of information on the performance of students in each school and district in Texas every year.
As the data provided in these reports is voluminous, this article focuses on the 2022-2023 TPRS “STAAR Performance Rates by Enrolled Grade at Meets Grade Level or Above” numbers.
So if a state – or a district – told parents or other interested parties that most students in its system failed to meet or exceed grade level, how might that go over? Evidently we’ll soon see as that’s exactly the scenario with which we are dealing.
2022-2023 STAAR Performance Rates by Enrolled Grade at Meets Grade Level or Above (State)
Note: EOC refers to End of Course Performance
Per the agency’s website, “these reports will be published without scale scores, A–F ratings, Distinction Designations, or Special Education Determination Status at this time.”
This alteration is presumably due to ongoing litigation as numerous Texas school districts, including many central Texas districts, are suing the state over changes to its rating system.
Also notable is that taxpayers are funding both sides of this litigation as both self-described cash strapped school districts and the state use the public’s hard-earned dollars to finance this action.
A local angle
With parent empowerment and school choice being hot topics around the state and certainly in Bell County, it’s helpful to see how some of our county’s largest school districts made out in the new findings.
The tables below show the 2022-2023 “STAAR Performance Rates by Enrolled Grade at Meets Grade Level or Above” for seven Bell County school districts.
TEA describes the STAAR as follows:
The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) is a standardized academic achievement test designed to measure the extent to which a student has learned and is able to apply the defined knowledge and skills in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) at each tested grade, subject, and course. Every STAAR question is directly aligned to the TEKS currently in effect for the grade and subject or course being assessed.
STAAR helps to ensure that Texas students are competitive with other students both nationally and internationally. Another important function of STAAR is gauging how well schools and teachers prepare their students academically. In addition, STAAR fulfills the requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which requires that all students be assessed in specific grades and subjects throughout their academic careers.
STAAR is an online assessment in mathematics, reading language arts (RLA), science, and social studies for students in grades 3–8 and high school and online tests in Spanish for students in grades 3–5.
2022-2023 STAAR Performance Rates by Enrolled Grade at Meets Grade Level or Above
ACADEMY ISD
BELTON ISD
COPPERAS COVE ISD
KILLEEN ISD
SALADO ISD
TEMPLE ISD
TROY ISD
Click here to search other districts.
The coming response
Now of course, local media across the state will soon feature public education industry responses to these results. In Bell County, the media will undoubtedly highlight comments from our local activist superintendents extolling the challenges today’s school districts face.
The public education industry script, like its playbook, is predictable. It will likely lead with the bane of its existence: alleged insufficient funding.
Naturally, the reporting systems and accompanying tests will be criticized.
Problems posed by both students and parents will be detailed. The student-based challenges cited can include a variety of factors including race, economics, language, learning disabilities and more.
Parents – those who are unengaged as well as those who are attentive and seek accountability – can be seen as problematic. And those termed as “CAVE” people - citizens against virtually everything - a reference used by presenters at a 2023 convention hosted by the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) and the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), can be the worst.
Let’s also not forget teacher and administrative staff shortages can put further pressures on school operations and curriculum implementation.
It’s not that some of these aren’t legitimate issues and worthy of consideration, but an industry with a highly inflated ego and arguably short supply of evidence supporting such a view never seems to take a moment for self-reflection. And when allied with a loyal cartel comprising other local governments, “connected” business interests and the hometown media, the interests of students seem to - at best - get lost, but even worse - be plainly ignored.
Sadly for now
More could be said and it has. School Choice Debate Shows Texas Public Ed More “For the System” than “For the Children” and Public Ed Doubles Down with ‘All and Nothing’ School Funding are two such examples.
Meanwhile, these numbers once again make the case that it’s time for education models that include new choice opportunities. No new effort – especially at its inception – will be perfect, but with more than half of Texas’ 3rd through 8th graders failing to meet or much less exceed grade level, it becomes increasingly hard to argue that anything won’t yield improvement.
At this point it sadly appears the public education industry more fears the future success choice can bring rather than the current failure with which students are saddled.
Lou Ann Anderson worked in central Texas talk radio as both a host and producer and currently hosts Political Pursuits: The Podcast. Her tenure as Watchdog Wire–Texas editor involved covering state news and coordinating the site’s citizen journalist network. As a past Policy Analyst with Americans for Prosperity–Texas, Lou Ann wrote and spoke on a variety of issues including the growing issue of probate abuse in which wills, trusts, guardianships and powers of attorney are used to loot assets from intended heirs or beneficiaries.