Dallas ISD Will Play a Role in Developing Local Alternatives to the State's A-F Accountability System

Dallas ISD will play a part in setting up state-approved alternatives to the upcoming statewide accountability system that gives individual schools A-F grades.The district has been selected by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath as one of 20 public and charter schools taking part in a pilot program to develop local accountability systems to evaluate their campuses.Sunnyvale ISD and Richland Collegiate High School — an early college charter school opened by Dallas’ Richland College — are also included in the pilot program.The school systems will meet four times over the next five months, working with state officials to develop a variety of local grading systems that incorporate more elements than the state’s current A-F grading. The first meeting is Jan. 10.Local accountability systems that are approved by the Texas Education Agency can be used for the 2018-19 school year.The idea, said DISD's assistant superintendent for evaluation and assessment, Cecilia Oakeley, is “to look at the indicators, what we’ve presented, and provide — eventually by the summer — a menu for other districts to choose from for the following year.”When the Texas Legislature made a mass of revisions to the A-F system this year, pushing back individual grades for schools until 2019, lawmakers included a provision to — at least in part — allow school districts to develop more flexibility when it came to their schools’ scores.  Continue reading...