This Week in Performance Reporting

Good afternoon, Performance Reporting bulletin members.

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What’s New in Performance Reporting

A–F Accountability

The Final 2023 Accountability Manual is Now Available!

On Tuesday, October 31^st the agency announced the publication of the final rule adopting the 2023 Accountability Manual in the To the Administrator Correspondence (TAA) [here]. The final manual entails all chapters and appendices and is now posted online. The issuance of the A-F ratings under this final rule is pending and subject to change based on judicial rulings or decisions from the 88^th Legislature during a special called session.

The following anticipated release dates are also subject to change based on judicial rulings or decisions from the 88^th Legislature during a special called session.

What If Ratings for the 2021-22 School Year are Now Available! (November 7, 2023)

On Tuesday, November 7^th the agency announced the release of the What If ratings for the 2021-22 school year based on the new final rule’s methodology from the 2023 Accountability Manual in the To the Administrator Correspondence (TAA) [here]. The What If ratings were posted for districts within TEAL to provide information to help school systems internally evaluate performance. The 2022 What If ratings use the new A-F Refresh methodology in order to view 2021-2022 results under the refreshed framework. An explanatory document providing an overall summary of key changes to the 2022 What If reports since the first release on May 31, 2023 is also provided within TEAL.  A set of slides to summarize the 2021-2022 What If ratings is now available on the Performance Reporting 2023 Accountability Development Materials webpage. The 2022 “What If” ratings do not replace 2022 Official ratings. They are another tool to support continuous improvement moving forward.

Upcoming: Underlying Data Reports (November 14, 2023)

On Tuesday, November 14^th informed systems of data will be available to assist leaders with internal evaluation of academic performance using underlying data from the 2022-23 school year. 2023 Accountability Reports and Data Tables and 2023 Accountability Data Downloads will be posted in TEAL without scale scores or A-F ratings. This includes campus Comprehensive, Targeted, and Additional Targeted Support designations under federal accountability. The 2023 STAAR, Growth, AEA Retest Growth, and EL Student Listings will also be available in TEAL. (CCMR Final Student Listings were posted August 23, 2023). The data relies on the methodology from the 2023 Accountability Manual, posted on October 31, 2023.

Upcoming: District Results Driven Accountability (RDA) Reports (November 16, 2023)

This year’s Accountability Manual also incorporates all information related to RDA, which was previously published in a separate rule. District RDA reports will be published in TEAL on November 16, 2023. For more details on RDA please see Chapter 12 of the 2023 Accountability Manual. More information will be provided about RDA in a forthcoming TAA from the Office of Special Populations and Monitoring.

Upcoming: Comprehensive, Targeted, and Additional Targeted Support designations under federal accountability (November 16, 2023)

The release of designations under federal accountability is not subject to change pending judicial rulings. Of note: the alignment between federal and state accountability systems that was established in 2017 under the A-F system may be impacted by judicial rulings or special session legislation related to accountability. More information will be provided about School Support designations in a forthcoming TAA from the School Improvement.

Fall 2023 PEIMS Submission Dates

December 7, 2023 – Fall Submission (initial submission) due.

January 18, 2024 – Fall Resubmission (corrected submission) due.

For further details on upcoming PEIMS submission dates please see TWEDS 2023-24 PEIMS Data Submission Timelines.

Upcoming 2023 Performance Based Monitoring (PBM) Data Validation Release Dates

District and student level data validation reports will be posted to TEAL Accountability on the following dates:

Leaver Data Validation: Mid-November 2023

Discipline Data Validation: Early-December 2023

Student Assessment Data Validation: Mid-January 2024

For more information on each indicator, please see the Texas Education Agency’s Data Validation Manuals webpage. If you have further questions, please email pbm@tea.texas.gov or call this team at (512) 463-9704.

Assessment Scoring and Reporting

December 2023 STAAR Administration

Test Materials

District testing personnel will receive State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) test administrator manuals and their district’s initial shipment of secure paper test materials for the December administration the week of November 13–17, 2023. District personnel must order any additional paper test materials needed during the window of November 27–December 11 and additional return labels by December 18.

Creating Test Sessions District personnel may begin creating test sessions for the December STAAR administration on November 20, 2023.

STAAR Alternate 2 Registration

As a reminder, district testing personnel must submit student registrations for the spring 2024 STAAR Alternate 2 administration in the Test Information Distribution Engine (TIDE) no later than December 14, 2023. To indicate student eligibility for STAAR Alternate 2 in TIDE, district personnel must select “Yes” under the Alternate Student Flag: STAAR Alternate 2 field. For grades 3–8, district personnel must ensure the student’s enrolled grade is populated to receive the grade-specific tests for mathematics, reading language arts, science, and social studies. For EOC assessments, district personnel must also select “Yes” under each specific STAAR Alternate 2 EOC Eligibility field.

As previously announced in May, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has updated the STAAR Alternate 2 participation requirements beginning with the 2023–2024 school year. Numerous resources are available on the STAAR Alternate 2 Resources webpage to assist district personnel with the updated participation requirements.

Test Delivery System Updates

Based on feedback from district personnel, Cambium Assessment, Inc. (CAI) has updated the Test Delivery System (TDS) student interface by moving the text-to-speech (TTS) and American Sign Language (ASL) video buttons. To use either of these tools, eligible students will no longer be required to navigate the item-level menu. Instead, the TTS and ASL video buttons will appear opposite the question number. Students can view this change in released and practice tests available on the Texas Assessment website.