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State fetes FISD with Recognized
By Brad Witty
Frisco ISD scored an overall rating of Recognized and nine individual schools earned an "Exemplary" rating in the preliminary Texas Education Agency's 2006 accountability reports.
The scale of performance goes from Exemplary to Recognized to Academically Acceptable to Academically Unacceptable.
The nine schools that earned Exemplary ratings were Curtsinger, Smith, Fisher, Borchardt, Spears, Sparks, Riddle, Pink, and Bledsoe elementary schools.
Frisco High School and Centennial High School received Academically Acceptable ratings.
The accountability results are a reflection of the performance of students, which in turn mirrors the performance of the schools. The results come from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), 2006 State-Developed Alternative Assessment II (SDAA II) scores for special education students, high school completion rates, and dropout rates.
TAKS measures students' abilities in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. In reading, 96 percent of Frisco students met the standard. In writing, 98 percent of students met the standard. In math, 91 percent of students met the standard. In science, 87 percent of students met the standard. And in social studies, 96 percent of Frisco students met the standard.
Ninety percent or more of students taking the tests must pass for a school to earn an Exemplary rating. Seventy percent or more must pass for a school to earn a Recognized rating.
The statistics of completion and dropout rates for the previous year always determine the rating for the current year. Therefore, Frisco ISD received a Recognized rating for its completion and dropout rates from 2004-05.
There was a 97.6 percent high school completion rate for the class of 2005. Out of 641 students, 620 graduated. The 2004-2005 school year in Frisco saw no dropouts.
The completion and dropout rates for 2005-2006 will be available in 2007.
Accountability ratings are not finalized until October. These results are not official, but only preliminary.
Ratings are released in August to give districts time to appeal and for other ratings to be awarded to districts.
In May, the Texas Education Agency contracted with Caveon Test Security to conduct data analysis on the results of the TAKS. Caveon found many irregularities and anomalies in tests from the across the state and issued "red flags" to some schools that had an unusual number of irregularities in test results.
According to Caveon's report, test irregularities refer to situations where students, classrooms, or schools have obtained higher test scores than would have been achieved if the irregularity had not happened. Such irregularities might arise from unfair access to the test content and answer copying, improper collaborative efforts that compromise test security, sharing the test content or teaching the actual test items, or inappropriately changing answers to raise scores.
FISD received red flags for three secondary schools: Centennial High School, Frisco High School, and Clark Middle School.
Caveon reported abnormal reading gains for ninth- and 10th-grade classrooms at Centennial High School. The firm also reported unusual response patterns on tests at the ninth-grade level and social studies gains at the 11th-grade level at Centennial.
The report found 11th-grade reading gains to be suspicious at Frisco High School, and it flagged math gains at the sixth-grade level at Clark Middle School.
Dr. Rick Reedy, superintendent of schools, wrote a response to the Caveon report on the FISD Web site.
"We were encouraged to emphasize with our testing administrators that these types of analyses are being done, to continue to enforce rules of no cell phones in use during the tests and to again emphasize to students that test forms within a classroom are different and cheating would be fruitless and unwise," Reedy wrote.
He continued, "We are proud of our scores and we believe they are valid and are a true measure of our students' abilities."
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