By George Scott * 281-818-7872
Project Director, Academic Equity Advocates * ghscott2050@aol.com
Below is a copy of a formal public information request submitted Monday morning to Katy I.S.D. Supt. Dr. Kenneth Gregorski and the district’s legal office which processes such requests.
Monday, April 29, 2024
Dr. Kenneth Gregorski
Superintendent, Katy I.S.D.
This communication constitutes a formal public information request. You and the appropriate office of Katy I.S.D. have been provided copies this morning.
The purpose of this request is to obtain documentation to determine if Katy I.S.D. has produced reports on explicit student academic performance measures for which professional and statistically reliable correlation analysis has been conducted relative to other explicit student academic performance measures. If the kinds of reports subsequently enumerated were produced, THERE WILL BE documentation of some kind verifying that.
This request DOES NOT seek YET any copy of such reports. Rather it seeks information within the records of Katy I.S.D. that would document WHETHER such specific reports exist or do NOT exist WITHIN reason. The EXISTENCE or NON-EXISTENCE of such reports will reflect upon your leadership; thus, it is in the vital interests of parents and taxpayers to know factually. It is my hope that such reports do exist because the opposite would mean that you have failed to use your authority to provide parents and taxpayers valuable information they need to understand the academic dishonesty of the TEA’s student testing and accountability system.
Direct Link to Reports Referenced in This Public Information Request
The timeline for such documentation begins with the 2018-19 academic year and includes 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23.
This is perhaps one of the simplest public information requests to which a response is in the vital public interests of the students, parents, and taxpayers of Katy I.S.D. A response is needed in order to facilitate future research projects that are vital to the public’s understanding of your leadership of Katy I.S.D. A response is needed in context of reasonable due diligence to parents and taxpayers in the context of overall student academic performance.
Let’s be candid. It would be staggering if not wholly unbelievable if you, Deputy Superintendent Leslie Haack, or Executive Director of Research Natalie Martinez would not have prompt or even instantaneous knowledge as to whether documentation exists within Katy I.S.D. to verify whether statistically reliable reports such as those referenced are in the public record files of the district. These would be UNIQUE reports not typically produced by school districts.
eports would cover a full range inclusive of the District’s own production of such documentation, the District’s contractual agreement with outside professionals to produce the statistically reliable research, or the District’s collaboration with the Texas Education Agency or the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to produce such reports. (The table at the end of the narrative provides details.)
We both understand that you and your district’s general counsel can play ‘delay games’ with any PIR using a variety of tactics. If there are reports such as those enumerated, there IS documentation that the reports were produced. I hope that you’ll process this simple request absent obfuscation from an attorney.
You don’t have to play games. This is probably a 30-minute exercise of time (at most) involving you, your deputy superintendent, and your executive director of research. If documentation exists, you three should absolutely KNOW it and be able to produce or otherwise verify such documentation exists as sought on formal submission noted on the next page.
Please understand: the reports which are referenced in this request would include statistical analysis of the full cohort of every tested student in every subject referenced and at every grade level referenced from which the enumerated statistical correlation analysis report(s) WERE or WERE NOT produced. It is my hope the administration used in such reports – if any – were from the primary Spring Administration of the designated academic year. As we each understand, such reports have a history of being produced with absolute fidelity to FERPA compliance.
George H. Scott