This Week in Performance Reporting: October 1, 2021

Texas Education Agency

October 1, 2021

Performance Reporting Division

This Week in Performance Reporting

Good morning, Performance Reporting bulletin members.

Have a coworker who needs to sign up? Bulletin subscriptions can be managed on TEA’s website at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/TXTEA/subscriber/new.

What’s New in Performance Reporting

A–F Accountability

Snapshot 2020: School District Profiles is now available on the TEA website at http://tea.texas.gov/perfreport/snapshot/index.html.

Snapshot profiles public education in Texas, at both the state and district levels, and includes almost 100 separate data elements to either browse or download. Snapshot also combines the data into summary tables based on specific characteristics, and its peer-search function allows a user to group districts according to shared characteristics.

Local Accountability System

The 2021 Notice of Interest for districts wishing to participate in the local accountability system is now available. The completed form is due on Friday, October 15, 2021. Participating districts may wish to develop a plan during the 2021–22 school year that is then applied to the 2022–23 school year. The Local Accountability System team remains committed to supporting districts in creating a plan that meets all requirements and supports a model of local accountability.

The Local Accountability Guide and Frequently Asked Questions provide information about plan requirements and example components. Both documents can be found on the local accountability webpage.

Districts wishing to learn more about the local accountability system and how to develop a district local accountability plan can participate in a 45-minute overview webinar with time for Q & A.

Registration links are available for upcoming webinar dates in October. The timeline for districts wishing to develop a local accountability plan is posted on our webpage along with the Notice of Interest.

Tuesday, October 5 at 2 pm

Wednesday, October 13 at 11 am

Thursday, October 21 at 9 am

Friday, October 29 at 11 am

Assessment Scoring and Reporting

The student registration window for the December 2021 STAAR EOC administration closed on September 29, 2021. The number of students registered in the Test Information Distribution Engine (TIDE) with test format set to paper and specific test attribute values selected before the last day of the initial order window will be used to determine the quantity of paper test materials delivered in a district's shipment. The number of test administrator manuals delivered will be based on the total number of December STAAR registrations (online and paper). Refer to the TIDE User Guide for information on how to register students and submit test attribute information in TIDE.

  • All Testers—all students eligible to participate in the December 2021 STAAR administration must be registered in TIDE regardless of whether they are first-time testers or re-testers.
  • First-Time Testers—districts or campuses must mark STAAR EOC eligibility fields as yes, “Y”, for applicable courses.
  • Re-testers—districts or campuses must mark STAAR EOC eligibility fields as yes, “Y”, for applicable courses to contribute to the calculation of test administrator manuals needed. If eligibility information is not included for these students, beginning October 4, 2021, until November 1, 2021, Cambium will populate the STAAR EOC eligibility field and re-tester flag based on the information received from the previous vendor. Cambium will modify student information included only in the re-tester file. After November 1, 2021, districts and campuses may review re-tester student information to verify updates as appropriate.

Districts can now request historical scoring reports for students using the file upload process in TIDE. Superintendents, district testing coordinators, or district testing assistants can make these requests. Currently, historical records are available for students who took STAAR in grades 3–8. For STAAR EOC assessments, historical data are available for 2016‒2021. Historical records for STAAR Alternate 2, Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS), and TELPAS Alternate will be available in October 2021. For instructions on how to request historical scoring reports for students, refer to the Student Data Request User Guide.

Districts must update all relevant student demographic information, including program information, that is not initially included in the student registration file in TIDE BEFORE the last day of the test administration window. Only information available in TIDE can be included in the raw data files that districts receive after each test administration and is included in the consolidated accountability file. 

For questions about assessment registration, please contact Student Assessment at StudentAssessment@tea.texas.gov or (512) 463-9536. For questions or help with accessing and interpreting STAAR results, districts and parents can email assessment.reporting@tea.texas.gov or call (512) 463-9704.

Extra and Co-Curricular Project

The Extra and Co-Curricular (ECC) project was enacted by the 85th Texas Legislature to study the feasibility of incorporating student participation in ECC activities as part of the campus and district performance evaluation process. The ECC Advisory Committee, comprised of more than 30 district, community, and organizational representatives from across the state, was established to review existing research and explore options. Since fall 2019, the committee has developed an initial list of possible indicators and gathered limited data from the 2019–20 and 2020–21 school years. Studying ECC participation is a first step to better understanding current levels of access, expanding definitions of student performance, and increasing awareness of the impact of ECC activities on student development.

As schools are returning to more typical levels of operation this year, the ECC committee is seeking additional districts to participate in a voluntary collection of student extra and co-curricular data during the 2021–22 school. Resources are available to assist districts with the data collection process, or districts may use their own systems. Gathering data from an increased number of districts representing a range of district types helps ensure the data collected provide an accurate picture of student participation across the state.

For more information, the ECC Invitation to Districts and ECC Data Collection Overview provide brief summaries of the project scope and timeline, including district time requirements. For additional questions, including available resources and how to get started, please contact Linda Johnson, ECC Project Coordinator. Districts interested in participating in the 2021-22 ECC Project are encouraged to notify Linda Johnson by October 15, 2021.

This Week’s FAQ

How is a campus’ economically disadvantaged rate determined for accountability? Now that all students can eat free, do free and reduced lunch forms still need to be collected? Does economically disadvantaged status need to be reported?

Economically disadvantaged PEIMS codes 01, 02, and 99 are used for accountability. (See Appendix H page 111). Districts are still required to collect household socioeconomic information and annually report in PEIMS the economically disadvantaged status for each child. This requirement is wholly independent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture requirements for providing meals. This TAA reemphasizes the importance of reporting this data. Economically disadvantaged data are used widely throughout the agency as well as for reporting to the U.S. Department of Education.

Performance Reporting Calendar

October: Additional remote vs. in-person STAAR data released in TEAL ACCT and on public sites

Fall: TAPR HTML updated on a rolling basis as data are processed

Mid-November: Preliminary TAPR PDF released

By December 15: Districts submit the 2021 alternative evaluation request for eligible campuses in TEAL ACCT

By December 15: Districts upload an appeal of the 2021 count of consecutive school years of unacceptable performance in TEAL ACCT (if applicable)

January 14, 2022: TEA publishes Acceptable ratings for campuses that met the SB 1365 eligibility criteria as well as the evaluation criteria adopted in TAC, §97.1006 and opted into the alternative evaluation. Appeals of the count of consecutive school years of unacceptable performance finalized.

Mid-January: Final TAPR PDF released (with updated rating for Acceptable campuses)