Category: ISD/State Reports

By George Scott

Project Director, Academic Equity Advocates

You will need to access the first link immediately below the opening paragraphs to access the pdf of Part 5 of this series. In Part 5, the

Nearing the end of 1998, the ultimate federal court decision regarding the Texas Education Agency’s student testing and accountability system was drawing ever closer. By the time that decision was actually made and in the year leading up to it, virtually every systemic, academically deceptive flaw in the system was becoming well-discovered by critics.

Be damned! The TEA’s top leadership offered strong defense of the integrity of the system. One defense came in a formal response to a brutal report on the TAAS testing program performed by the Dallas I.S.D. in late 1998The other defense came at a conference hosted by the National Academy of Science in Irvine, California in 1999.

The TAAS was meticulously credible as a result of rigorous standards. The TAAS was grade-level rigorous. Reality be damned. The defense could not step backwards with a federal court decision looming in January 2000.

PART 5: Empirical Reality & Trail of Deception Be Damned: Academic Integrity Defended

Here are some links to support documents from our External Reports page that are meaningful to this Part 4 presentation.

TEA Commissioner Assures Dallas I.S.D. of Academic Integrity and Grade-Level Rigor of TAAS

TEA Associate/Assistant Commissioner Tells National Conference That TAAS Was Rigorously and Scrupulously Grade Level

Transcript of TEA Representations of TAAS Rigorous Academic Integrity to NAS Conference

By George Scott

Project Director, Academic Equity Advocates

You will need to access the link immediately below the opening paragraphs to access the pdf of Part 3 of this series. In Part 3, we use the most recent results of the 2023 STAAR READING tests in the 8th grade on a campus-by-campus basis equity gaps and differences in below grade-level performances of the major ethnic and economic profiles of students.

We note that Katy I.S.D. is legitimately recognized as one of the higher performing, larger school districts in Texas. But, following up on Parts 1 & 2, we begin the process of dramatically demonstrating the consequences of the State’s decisions on passing and grade level standards for all students.

Please be advised there will soon follow an extraordinarily comprehensive report on an expanded range of Katy I.S.D. performance from 5th grade through end-of-course testing at campuses throughout the district. We candidly present today’s ‘peek’ as just that – a peek to help put the results previously shown for the State of Texas into context.

You will need to access the link immediately below this sentence to access the pdf of Part 4 of this series.

PART 3: TAAS to STAAR and Texas’ Systemic Academic Deception