Category: Uncategorized

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

 

 

By George Scott * 281-818-7872

Project Director, Academic Equity Advocates * ghscott2050@aol.com

Let’s take the YES part of the answer because the State’s and the Texas Education Agency’s three decades of compromising the integrity of its student testing and accountability systems means this:

• The State’s failure to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about its ethically deprived and historical academic deception and grade-level-corruption in performance standards affects most parents whose children are not high performing or elite students whom the State’s deception has not touched.

The comprehensive summary factual evidence – even the most recent from 2022-23 STAAR accountability testing – should send your red flags waving. The underlying data is even worse. From your standpoint, the most important two questions should be:

• How does this affect my children?
• Is there anything I can still do about it?

Here are two harsh realities:

• If your child is in the 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th grades, you have a profound need to understand – truly understand – the academic strengths and weaknesses your child has, especially in English Language & Reading skills and math before hitting high school. It’s not too late to intervene with effective advocacy.
• If your child is in the 9th grade and suffers from significant skill gaps in English Language, Math, or BOTH, immediate intervention is more urgent.

This column focuses upon the question: Does your child need help achieving a credible standard of actual grade level performance in whatever the subject of concern may be? The next column will deal with strategies if your answer is yes.

We are going to use one subject – (8th Grade STAAR reading from 2022-23) to raise your red flags. We could use any subject in any tested grade. There is nothing out of systemic context for what you are about to review.

The 8th grade STAAR reading test in 2022-23 had 48 maximum raw score points (think of questions) on this criterion test: A student:

• PASSED the test if the student earned 17 raw points or 37% of the right answers OR 37% content mastery.
• ACHIEVED GRADE LEVEL on the test if the student earned 26 raw points or 54% of the right answers OR 54% content mastery.

In the 2022-23 testing cycle for the primary spring administration:

• 410,472 students took the 8th grade reading test.
  • 82% Passed the test BUT 44% PERFORMED BELOW GRADE LEVEL
• 245,972 economically disadvantaged students took the 8th grade reading test.
  • 76% passed the test BUT 56% PERFORMED BELOW GRADE LEVEL
• 221,421 at-risk students took the 8th grade reading test.
  • 71% passed the test BUT 65% PERFORMED BELOW GRADE LEVEL
• 104,025 white students took the 8th grade reading test.
  • 90% passed the test but 29% PERFORMED BELOW GRADE LEVEL

So, here’s your bottom-line EVEN IF your child ‘passes’ any test or achieves ‘grade level’ on any test in the system:

• When passing a criterion accountability test in 8th grade reading demands 37% content mastery and achieving grade level demands 54% content mastery: WHAT DOES IT MEAN relative to the genuine and credible grade level standards of your child?

There is an answer to that crucial question that will guide and affect your child’s life going forward. The State of Texas and the TEA don’t give you the answer in plain language.

If you want the answer, you need to take proactive steps to get the answers independently from a Texas public education system the TEA manipulated for three decades.

Here’s a tip. Being an advocate for your child is not child’s play. AEA will help you level the playing field.

PS: Those that want to believe Katy I.S.D.’s reputation protects all of its students from this harsher reality are simply wrong.