The 2016 Accountability Reports and Downloads employ masking in order to comply with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Generally, the term "masking" refers to the use of special symbols to conceal the performance results.

The tables below show each of the masking situations that are possible on the reports. Different rules apply for the STAAR indicators compared to other performance indicators.

Symbols Used for Masking STAAR Performance: Note that Indices 1, 2, and 3 are based on total tests, whereas Index 4 is based on total students (total test takers).

Scenarios	Numerator	Denominator	Percent	Meaning
Case 1	*	*	*	For Indices 1 and 4, the numerator is less than 5 and the denominator is greater than 0. For Index 2 the Met or Exceeds Progress or the Exceeds Progress numerator is less than 5 and the denominator is greater than 0. For Index 3 the Level II Satisfactory Standard or Advanced Standard numerator is less than 5 and the denominator is greater than 0.
Examples	4	4	100%
	3	30	10%
	0	45	0%
Case 2	**	**	Percent Shown	When only one racial/ethnic group is masked, then the second smallest racial/ethnic group's numerator and denominator are masked (regardless of size) with double asterisk. The rate remains unmasked.
Smallest Group:	3	4	75%
Next Smallest Group:	190	200	95%
Case 3	-	-	-	Denominator is 0.
Example	0	0	-

Symbols Used for Masking the Graduation and Dropout Rates:

Scenarios	Numerator	Denominator	Percent	Meaning
Case 1	*	*	*	Denominator is 1, 2, 3, or 4.
Examples	4	4	100.0%
	3	4	75.0%
	0	4	0.0%
Case 2	-	-	-	Denominator is 0.
Example	0	0	•
Case 3	**	**	Percent Shown	When only one racial/ethnic group is masked, then the second smallest racial/ethnic group's numerator and denominator are masked (regardless of size) with double asterisk. The rate remains unmasked.
Smallest Group:	3	4	75.0%
Next Smallest Group	150	200	75.0%
Case 4	n/a	n/a	n/a	Data are not available.

Symbols Used for Masking Downloads

Data available for download (/perfreport/account/2016/download.html) are also masked:

Masking Symbol in Download	Masking Symbol on Data Table	What is Masked
-1	*	Small numbers.
-3	**	Next smallest racial/ethnic group.
•	-	Data are not available.

Distinction Designations:

		Numerator	Denominator	Percent	Meaning
Attendance Rate Indicator	Download	•	•	•	Denominator (days membership) is less than 1800.
	Example	800	1700	47%
Other Distinction Indicators	Download	•	•	•	Denominator is less than 10.
	Example	3	9	33%

Blank values for a Quartile occur if there are fewer than 20 campuses in the campus comparison group for each qualifying indicator.

2016 Accountability | Performance Reporting