_Chapter 11 - Additional Features of AEA_ |
As shown in Chapter 10 – AEA Base Indicators, alternative education campuses (AECs) can achieve a rating by meeting the absolute standards for the different indicators. However, under certain conditions, AECs can achieve a rating by:
- meeting Required Improvement; and/or
- using the accountability data for at-risk students in the district.
All additional features are applied and calculated automatically by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) before ratings are released. AECs do not need to request the use of additional features.
Additional requirements for charters are explained later in this chapter.
AECs of Choice and Residential Facilities can achieve an AEA: Academically Acceptable rating by meeting the absolute standards for the alternative education accountability (AEA) indicators or by demonstrating Required Improvement. AECs initially rated AEA: Academically Unacceptable may achieve an AEA: Academically Acceptable rating using the Required Improvement feature. Required Improvement can be applied to three of the base indicators: Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Progress, State-Developed Alternative Assessment II (SDAA II), and Completion Rate II. Annual Dropout Rate Required Improvement will not be calculated in 2007 due to changes to the dropout definition which prevent comparisons of rates used in 2006 and 2007.
Required Improvement compares prior-year performance to current-year performance. In order to qualify for this comparison, the target group (All Students or any student group) must meet a minimum size requirement for the prior year. See Minimum Size Requirements in this chapter for each indicator.
Who is evaluated for Required Improvement:
- AECs of Choice whose performance is AEA: Academically Unacceptable for any TAKS Progress, SDAA II, or Completion Rate II measure.
- Residential Facilities whose performance is AEA: Academically Unacceptable for any TAKS Progress or SDAA II measure. (Residential Facilities are not evaluated on Completion Rate II.)
- Charters evaluated under AEA procedures whose performance is AEA: Academically Unacceptable for any TAKS Progress, SDAA II, or Completion Rate II measure.
Improvement Standard: In order for Required Improvement to move an AEC or charter to AEA: Academically Acceptable, the AEC or charter must demonstrate sufficient improvement on the deficient TAKS measures to meet a standard of 45% within two years.
Methodology:
The Actual Change must be equal to or greater than the Required Improvement.
Actual Change is the difference between performance in 2007 and 2006.
Required Improvement is the result of the 2007 standard minus performance in 2006 divided by 2.
Example:
In 2007, an AEC has performance above the AEA: Academically Acceptable standard in all student groups except for Economically Disadvantaged; only 38% meet the standard. Performance in 2006 for the same group is 20%.
First calculate the Actual Change: 38 – 20 = 18
Next calculate the Required Improvement: (45 – 20) / 2 = 13 (12.5 rounds to 13)
Then compare Actual Change to Required Improvement to determine if Actual Change is greater than or equal to the Required Improvement: 18 ≥ 13
The AEC meets Required Improvement, so its rating is AEA: Academically Acceptable.
Minimum Size Requirements: Required Improvement is not calculated if the AEC or charter has less than 10 test results (for the student group) in 2006.
Other Information:
- Performance in 2006. Prior-year performance includes Spring 2006 grades 3-11 TAKS results (primary administration); Texas Growth Index (TGI) for 2005 to 2006, growth of 0 (zero) or higher; April and February 2006, and December, October, July, and June 2005 grade 11 TAKS retests meeting the passing standard; and April and February 2006, and December, October, July, and June 2005 grade 12 results meeting the student passing standard.
- Rounding. All improvement calculations of performance rates and standards are rounded to whole numbers. For example, 4.5% is rounded to 5%.
Improvement Standard: In order for Required Improvement to move an AEC or charter to AEA: Academically Acceptable, the AEC or charter must demonstrate sufficient improvement on the SDAA II indicator to meet a standard of 45% within two years.
Methodology:
The Actual Change must be equal to or greater than the Required Improvement.
Actual Change is the difference between performance in 2007 and 2006.
Required Improvement is the result of the 2007 standard minus performance in 2006 divided by 2.
Example:
In 2007, an AEC has performance below the AEA: Academically Acceptable standard; only 28% of All Students meet the standard. Performance in 2006 is 11%.
First calculate the Actual Change: 28 – 11 = 17
Next calculate the Required Improvement: (45 – 11) / 2 = 17
Then compare Actual Change to Required Improvement to determine if Actual Change is greater than or equal to the Required Improvement: 17 ≥ 17
The AEC meets Required Improvement, so its rating is AEA: Academically Acceptable.
Minimum Size Requirements: Required Improvement is not calculated if the AEC or charter has less than 10 test results in 2006.
Other Information: All improvement calculations of performance rates and standards are rounded to whole numbers. For example, 4.5% is rounded to 5%.
Improvement Standard: In order for Required Improvement to move an AEC of Choice or charter to AEA: Academically Acceptable, the AEC of Choice or charter must demonstrate sufficient improvement on the deficient Completion Rate II measures for the Class of 2005 to meet a standard of 75.0% within two years.
Methodology:
The Actual Change must be equal to or greater than the Required Improvement.
Actual Change is the difference between the Completion Rate II for the Class of 2006 and the Class of 2005.
Required Improvement is the result of the 2007 standard minus the Completion Rate II for the Class of 2005 divided by 2.
Example:
An AEC of Choice has a Class of 2006 Completion Rate II of 72.3% for the White student group. The Class of 2005 Completion Rate II for this same group is 63.8%.
First calculate the Actual Change: 72.3 – 63.8 = 8.5
Next calculate the Required Improvement: (75.0 – 63.8) / 2 = 5.6
Then compare Actual Change to Required Improvement to determine if Actual Change is greater than or equal to the Required Improvement: 8.5 ≥ 5.6
The AEC of Choice meets Required Improvement, so its rating is AEA: Academically Acceptable.
Minimum Size Requirements: Required Improvement is not calculated if the AEC of Choice or charter has less than 10 students (in the same student group) in the Completion Rate II Class of 2005.
Other Information:
- Completion Rate II Definition. Completion Rate II for the prior year is computed using the same definition as the current year so that gain from the prior year to the current year uses comparable data for both years. Specifically, the Completion Rate II definition includes graduates, General Educational Development (GED) recipients, and continuing students as completers.
- NCES Definition. Beginning with 2007 accountability, the definition of a dropout changes to comply with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) definition. This transition to the NCES dropout definition impacts the Completion Rate II indicator. Beginning with 2007 accountability, the dropout component of the Completion Rate denominator changes. In 2007, only one of the four years in the cohort is affected. In 2008, two years of the cohort are affected, and so on, until 2010 when the Completion Rate denominator uses the NCES dropout definition for all four years of the cohort. See Appendix I – NCES Dropout Definition for detailed information on the NCES dropout definition.
- School Leaver Provision for 2007. For 2007 AEA ratings, if the Completion Rate II and/or Annual Dropout Rate indicator(s) are the only cause for an AEA: Academically Unacceptable rating, then the AEC or charter is assigned the AEA: Academically Acceptable label. As a safeguard to this provision, districts are subject to identification and intervention by Performance-Based Monitoring (PBM) for dropout rates and leaver reporting. Additionally, campuses that avoid being rated
- AEA: Academically Unacceptable due to this provision will be subject to technical assistance team (TAT) intervention requirements in the 2007-08 school year. See Chapter 6 – Special Issues and Circumstances for more information on the School Leaver Provision.
- Rounding. All calculations are expressed as a percent, rounded to one decimal point. For example, 4.85% is rounded to 4.9%.
Changes to the dropout definition prevent comparisons of rates used in 2006 and 2007; therefore, Annual Dropout Rate Required Improvement will not be calculated in 2007.
Other Information:
- School Leaver Provision for 2007. For 2007 AEA ratings, if the Completion Rate II and/or Annual Dropout Rate indicator(s) are the only cause for an AEA: Academically Unacceptable rating, then the AEC or charter is assigned the AEA: Academically Acceptable label. As a safeguard to this provision, districts are subject to identification and intervention by PBM for dropout rates and leaver reporting. Additionally, campuses that avoid being rated AEA: Academically Unacceptable due to this provision will be subject to TAT intervention requirements in the 2007-08 school year. See Chapter 6 – Special Issues and Circumstances for more information on the School Leaver Provision.
In limited circumstances, data for at-risk students in the district are used to evaluate registered AECs. Use of data for at-risk students in the district acknowledges that AECs are part of the overall district strategy for education of students at risk of dropping out of school.
AECs of Choice and Residential Facilities may be evaluated on the TAKS Progress indicator using data for at-risk students in the district. AECs of Choice may be evaluated on Completion Rate II of at-risk students in the district.
Who is evaluated for the TAKS Progress Indicator using performance data of at-risk students in the district:
- AECs of Choice and Residential Facilities that do not meet the 45% standard, do not demonstrate Required Improvement, and have results for fewer than 10 tests in the current year.
- AECs of Choice and Residential Facilities with no TAKS results.
| Number of TAKS tests at the AEC | Does the AEC meet the performance standardon its own data? |
Does the AEC demonstrate Required Improvement (RI) on its own data? |
Does the AEC meet the performance standard using district performance data of at-risk students? |
10 or more |
Yes – assign rating |
N/A |
N/A |
No |
Yes – assign rating |
N/A |
|
No – assign rating |
|||
Less than 10 |
Yes – assign rating |
N/A |
N/A |
No |
Yes – assign rating |
N/A |
|
No |
Yes – assign rating |
||
No – calculate district RI |
|||
None |
N/A |
N/A |
Yes – assign rating |
No – calculate district RI |
Required Improvement: If the AEC does not meet the performance standard based on district performance data of at-risk students, then Required Improvement is calculated using district performance data of at-risk students.
Minimum Size Requirements: If there are less than 10 at-risk TAKS test results in the district, then Special Analysis is conducted.
Special Analysis: Special Analysis consists of analyzing current and past performance data to determine if the initial rating assigned under the automated evaluation process is an aberration or an indication of consistent performance. Methods of Special Analysis are discussed in Chapter 6 – Special Issues and Circumstances.
Who is evaluated for Completion Rate II using data of at-risk students in the district:
- AECs of Choice that do not meet the 75.0% accountability standard or demonstrate Required Improvement.
- AECs of Choice that have completion data, but do not meet minimum size requirements for All Students.
- AECs of Choice that serve students in any of grades 9-12, but do not have a Completion Rate II.
- If the AEC of Choice does not serve students in any of grades 9-12 in the 2006-07 school year, then the AEC of Choice is not evaluated on Completion Rate II.
| Does the AEC of Choice serve students in grades 9, 10, 11, and/or 12 in 2006-07? | Does the AEC of Choice have a Completion Rate II and meet minimum size requirements in 2005-06? |
Does the AEC of Choice meet the accountability standard on its own data? |
Does the AEC of Choice demonstrate Required Improvement (RI) on its own data? |
Do at-risk students in the district meet minimum size requirements? |
Does the AEC of Choice meet the accountability standard using Completion Rate II of at-risk students in the district? |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes – assign rating |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
No |
Yes – assign rating |
N/A |
N/A |
||
No |
Yes |
Yes – assign rating |
|||
No – calculate district RI |
|||||
No |
N/A |
||||
No |
N/A |
N/A |
Yes |
Yes – assign rating |
|
No – calculate district RI |
|||||
No |
N/A |
||||
No |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Required Improvement: If the AEC of Choice does not meet the accountability standard based on at-risk students in the district then Required Improvement is calculated using Completion Rate II of at-risk students in the district.
Minimum Size Requirements:
- Completion Rate II of at-risk students in the district is evaluated if there are:
- at least 5 at-risk dropouts (non-completers), and
- at least 10 students in the district at-risk Completion Rate II class.
- If at-risk students in the district do not meet minimum size requirements, then the AEC of Choice is not evaluated on Completion Rate II.
Underreported Students: Charters evaluated under AEA procedures are subject to underreported student standards as described in Chapter 3 – The Basics: Additional Features. Although the charter AEA rating is not affected, PBM will continue to evaluate this indicator at the 2007 standards in its Data Validation system.
Additional Students in Charter Ratings: Charters evaluated under AEA procedures are responsible for the performance of all students, including those who attend campuses that receive a rating of AEA: Not Rated – Other.
Registered AECs rated AEA: Academically Unacceptable do not prevent a district rating of Exemplary or Recognized.
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