Dive Summary:
- In his first appearance before the Texas State Board of Education Thursday, the state's new education commissioner, Michael Williams, said that he's thinking about a new system for measuring school success and that it should take districts' progress with closing achievement gaps into account.
- Williams plans to change the way schools are rated by 2013, and his system would establish a rating based on four factors: student progress, student achievement, student post-graduation preparedness and progress in closing the gap for minority and economically disadvantaged students.
- Success in Texas schools and districts is currently measured by student performance on the state's standardized tests, but school officials often complain the program is uncompromising and based on 30 different tests, with schools being labeled "academically unacceptable" for failure in a single area.
From the article:
Texas' new education commissioner said Thursday that he is considering a new system for rating school success and he thinks it should take into account how well districts are closing the achievement gap between Anglo and minority students. Michael Williams made his first appearance before the State Board of Education since Gov. Rick Perry appointed him to the job in August. He said he plans to change how schools are rated by March 2013. ...
