Preliminary Accountability Ratings for RISD & Schools Now Available

Richardson ISD is expected to receive a state accountability rating of B, with scale score of 88, when the Texas Education Agency releases statewide ratings on August 15. In addition, RISD schools are expected to receive individual state accountability ratings between A-D, marking the first time since 2015–16 that no RISD campus will be designated as Improvement Required.

The accountability ratings are based primarily on student academic performance on the state STAAR test, focusing on overall scores, performance growth of individual students, closing the achievement gaps, and college, career, and military readiness. While school districts received letter grade ratings in 2018 (RISD received a B), 2019 marks the first year that letter ratings have been assigned to schools.

“Overall, we’re pleased with the academic growth of students,” said RISD Superintendent Dr. Jeannie Stone. “While challenges certainly remain, we know that overall, our blend of curriculum, resources, and interventions are working, and we anticipate student growth to continue.”

See Preliminary 2019 RISD campus ratings

RISD as a district earned a rating of A (scale score 91) when performance is considered relative to other school districts with similar demographic makeups. In addition, RISD as a district closed the achievement gap between white students and minority students on 11 of 13 indicators in Reading/ELA and on 12 of 13 indicators in Mathematics. The district as a whole also met all 12 possible indicators in College, Career, and Military Readiness.

RISD’s four ACE (Accelerating Campus Excellence) schools each demonstrated overall academic growth under the accountability system. “Some of the academic gains made at our ACE campuses are extremely impressive,” said Stone. “I’m very proud of the hard work that those educators and students are doing, and the sky is the limit for our ACE scholars.”

“While much of the news is positive, the ratings have helped us focus in on academic areas where we need to be better,” continued Stone. “We remain firmly committed to our stated strategic goal of all students reading on grade level by the third grade. That goal and commitment is one reason that we implemented a new curriculum this past year, and we attribute a lower than expected rating at some schools to that implementation. We know statistically that performance can be negatively impacted the first year that a new curriculum is implemented because it can take time for teachers to develop expertise and mastery in the content. Through the work this year of our Early Literacy Action Team and robust professional learning for our K-8 Reading and English/Language Arts teachers, we are confident of student performance gains in early elementary literacy moving forward.”