01-17-2023 Public Comments, Accountability Rating, Damon Barone
Greetings, Damon Barone, Alief ISD parent, taxpayer and alumnus
This is the first year which the district has shown multiple years of Alief ISD data when publicly presenting the Annual Performance Report, so let me first congratulate you on that. Year after year you all have simply presented one year of Alief’s data, compared to data from the state of Texas, and data from neighboring school districts.
At the bottom of slide number 8, 9, 10, and 11 it stated that the Approaches, Meets, and Masters are approximate numbers, and internally calculated by Alief ISD.
My first concern is to question why the district is using its own percentages as opposed to data from TEA, which will be used to hold the district accountable by our state and federal government?
My second concern is the manner in which the narrative is presented to the public to infer that Alief ISD’s data results are relatively close to that of the results of the state of Texas; thus, if the information is not pleasing to the audience, then the district is merely relatively close to what is happening around the state, or relatively close to what is happening in neighboring school districts.
My third concern is that the manner in which the data is presented always implies that the Annual Performance Report is derived solely from the results of our students STAAR Test results, when that is not the case. The STAAR results are only a small percentage of what is calculated in domains 1, 2, and 3 to tabulate the districts accountability rating.
Once scores are determined for each domain. The best score from domain 1 or domain 2 is used to make up 70% of the districts or campuses score.
In domain 2 for STAAR results and College and Career Readiness, there is a bell curve in the accountability rating for students that are on free and reduced lunch, which 87% of Alief ISD students are on free and reduced lunch; so, comparing Alief data to other districts data, or data from the state of Texas without acknowledging that our district data was graded on a curve is intentionally misleading.
My last concern with this misappropriation of the districts data results is for the message that it sends to our hard-working teachers. For 11 months out of each year the district totes on doing things the Alief way, and all of the extra work that our educators are required to implement to meet the needs of our unique demographics, yet during the 12th month of the Annual Performance Reporting cycle you all always compare all of that extra hard work to scores of neighboring districts and the state of Texas who produce similar or better results without all of the extra that comes with doing things the Alief way and still coming up short.
What this presentation says to me is that Alief teachers can go to other school districts, do less, and be required to do less and still produce better results, and get a pay increase for being a newly hired educator to that district.
Slide number 3 stated that Annual Report included a violent and criminal incidents report, and violence prevention and violence intervention policies and procedures; however, that information was not presented, nor was the data included in your presentation. I would like to know why that information was not presented within your presentation?
If the district is going to continue comparing Alief ISD’s data to other school districts data, can you all at least select school districts that have a similarly situated populous of students, as opposed to simply selecting those whom are close in proximity to Alief’s final data results?
Can you all please post the Annual Performance Report on the districts website for multiple years as opposed to only posting the most current report, so that parents and community members can compare the data; my request would be to post and maintain at least 3-5 years of total reports.
In your response I am looking for something more than the usual, Alief ISD is only required by law to this legal limit of report posting.
Damon Barone, Alief ISD parent, taxpayer and alumnus