Dear accountabilityconnect2015 members

Happy New Year! I hope each of you enjoyed a wonderful and rejuvenating holiday break!

I am writing to provide you with a couple of quick updates relating to accountability and assessment:

  1. 2014-15 School Report Cards (SRCs)

On December 17, 2015, TEA notified Superintendents that School Report Cards for the 2014-15 school year had been posted on TEA’s webpage at:

As we discussed during Webinar #8 on December 4th, each campus is required to send a copy of its SRC to a parent or guardian of each of its students within 6 weeks after the date SRCs are published by TEA. This means that the deadline for disseminating SRCs is January 28, 2016. A campus may provide the SRC in the same way that it sends other official communications to parents and guardians, such as:

  • including it in a weekly folder sent home with each student,
  • mailing it to the student's residence,
  • providing it at a teacher-parent conference, or
  • enclosing it with the student report card.

Districts may distribute the SRC electronically if they can ensure that parents and guardians are notified that the SRC is available and that they are able to access it. A school or district must provide a printed copy (in color or black and white) to anyone who cannot access the electronic version.

All schools that reported student enrollment in the fall 2014 PEIMS submission will have a 2014-15 SRC, including Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program (JJAEP) campuses, Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP) campuses, and schools paired for accountability rating purposes. Because the SRCs for JJAAPs, DAEPs, and paired campuses do not have STAAR performance results, districts are not required to distribute the SRC for these campuses, but may do so, if desired. Otherwise, all schools with a TEA-generated SRC are required by law to distribute the SRC to parents and guardians.

Along with the posting of the SRCs, TEA has posted 2 documents that are designed to assist districts in the distribution of SRCs:

  • Sample cover letter to parents (in English and in Spanish)
  • A brief document containing definitions of items included in the SRC (in English and in Spanish)

Neither the cover letter nor the definitions document are required to be included as part of the distribution of the SRC; however, many districts find that they are helpful to parents in understanding the SRC.

All of the materials released by TEA relating to SRCs have been posted as Reference Materials at the bottom of the Webinar #8 tab on the accountabilityconnect2015website.These materials include:

  • TEA’s December 17th letter,
  • the URL link to access SRCs,
  • the sample cover letter to parents, in both English and Spanish, and
  • the definitions document, in both English and Spanish)
  1. STAAR Performance Standards – Adoption of Standard Progression Model

Effective January 6, 2016, TEA has adopted the new standard progression model for moving from Level II-Phase 1 to Level II-Final (Recommended) by the 2021-22 school year.The new standard progression model was originally proposed by TEA on October 16, 2015. The model is being adopted in final form with minimal changes (which relate to technical adjustments to the cut score standards originally proposed for STAAR Alternate 2 assessments).

Under the standard progression model, the Level II performance standards for STAAR assessments will increase each year from the 2015-16 school year through the 2021-22 school year. The model is intended to minimize any abrupt single-year increase in the required Level II performance standard, while at the same time allowing annual, consistent, incremental improvements toward the final recommended Level II performance standard in the 2021-22 school year.

In an attempt to help districts understand the impact of the standard progression model for the 2015-16 school year, lead4ward has prepared a revised version of its 2015 Raw Score Conversion Chart, reflecting the following changes:

  • The scale scores and corresponding raw scores applicable to the old Level II-Phase 3 standards have been removed
  • The raw score percentages applicable to Level II-Phase 2 standards have been shaded in a sepia hue in an attempt to indicate that they are now “old” news
  • The new Level II scale score cutpoints for 2015-16 under the standard progression model have been added
  • The approximate raw score equivalents applicable to the standard progression cutpoints for 2015-16 have been added (Note: Since the new standard progression scale score cutpoints for 2015-16 were not in effect in the Spring 2015, in most cases there is no raw score that equates exactly to the applicable scale score. As a result, the 2015 Raw Score Conversion table shows the minimum raw score that WOULD have met each new standard progression scale score cutpoint.)

The revised lead4ward 2015 Raw Score Conversion Chart is posted on the lead4ward resources page at:

Information provided by John Fessenden, Lead4Ward to R3 Leadership Services