_Appendix F - Campus Comparison Group_

Each campus is in a unique comparison group of 40 other public schools (from anywhere in the state), that closely matches that school on six characteristics. Comparison groups are provided so that schools can compare their performance-shown on AEIS reports-to that of other schools with whom they are demographically similar. Comparison groups are also used for determining Comparable Improvement (See Chapter 5 - Gold Performance Acknowledgments and Appendix E - Texas Growth Index).

The demographic characteristics used to construct the campus comparison groups include those defined in statute as well as others found to be statistically related to performance. They are:

• the percent of African American students enrolled for 2004-05;
• the percent of Hispanic students enrolled for 2004-05;
• the percent of White students enrolled for 2004-05;
• the percent of economically disadvantaged students enrolled for 2004-05;
• the percent of limited English proficient (LEP) students enrolled for 2004-05; and
• the percent of mobile students as determined from 2003-04 cumulative attendance.

All schools are first grouped by type (elementary, middle, high school, or multi-level). Then the group is determined on the basis of the most predominant features at the target school. Let's say, for example, that Sample High School has the following percentages for the six groups:

• 7.6% African American,
• 36.8% Hispanic,
• 53.9% White,
• 28.2% economically disadvantaged,
• 10.7% limited English proficient, and
• 23.7% mobile students.

Of these features, the most predominant (i.e., the largest) is the percent of White students, followed by the percent of Hispanic students, the percent of economically disadvantaged students, the percent of mobile students, the percent of limited English proficient students, and finally, the percent of African American students. The following steps illustrate how the group is determined from the pool of all high schools:

Step 1: 100 high school campuses having percentages closest to 53.9% White students are identified;

Step 2: 10 schools from the initial group of 100 are eliminated on the basis of being most distant from the value of 36.8% Hispanic;

Step 3: 10 of the remaining 90 schools which are most distant from 28.2% economically disadvantaged students are eliminated;

Step 4: 10 of the remaining 80 schools which are most distant from 23.7% mobile students are eliminated;

Step 5: 10 of the remaining 70 schools which are most distant from 10.7% limited English proficient students are eliminated;

Step 6: 10 of the remaining 60 schools which are most distant from 7.6% African American students are eliminated; and

Step 7: 10 of the remaining 50 schools which are most distant from 7.6% African American and/or 28.2% economically disadvantaged students are eliminated. (This last reduction step is based on the least predominant characteristics among the four student groups evaluated in the accountability system: African American, Hispanic, White, and economically disadvantaged.)

The final group size is 40 schools. This methodology creates a unique comparison group for every campus.

Other Information:

• Comparison groups are recreated each year to account for changes in demographics that may occur.
• With this methodology, the number of times a school appears as a member of other groups will vary.
• In cases where the campus has a missing mobility value, the district's average mobility is used as a proxy. This will happen for schools in their first year of operation, since mobility is based on prior year data.
• Districts are not grouped.

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