How Pro-Vision Academy Rates & What's on the Horizon for STAAR
Just before the start of the 2014-2015 school year Pro-Vision Academy’s superintendent Carrie Tate had good news for teachers, parents and students at the Houston charter school. She announced that Pro-Vision had met the scholastic standards set by the Texas Education Agency. The revised accountability system has only been in place for two years, so exactly how the ratings work isn’t well known.
We’ve done our homework to create this quick guide that provides information on the Texas Education Agency, STAAR tests and how Pro-Vision compares to the rest of the state.
teacher and student
Overview of the Texas Education Agency and STAAR
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is tasked with helping schools provide quality educational services for all students across the state. They also help the State Board of Education monitor the programs that are being administered in the public school system. The agency is made up of 52 divisions, and it’s the Student Assessment division that is responsible for the STAAR tests.
STAAR stands for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. It replaced the TAKS test in 2012, and it will remain in place for the foreseeable future. The main function of the STAAR program is to measure how well schools are meeting the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) curriculum standards.
STAAR tests are given to students in 3-9th grade across a variety of subjects, including:
- Reading – 3-8th grade
- Mathematics – 3-8th grade
- Writing – 4-7th grade
- Science – 5-8th grade
- Social Studies – 8th grade
End-of-course assessments – 9th grade
- U.S. History
- Biology
- English I
- English II
- Algebra I
What’s on the Horizon for the STAAR
The STAAR test is constantly being analyzed and adjusted as the TEA sees fits. One change that will occur in 2016 is the addition of English III and Algebra II on the end-of-course assessments.
The TEA also recently announced that due to changing requirements for mathematics the STAAR mathematics portion for 5th and 8th graders the retest will not be given next May and June. Because of this special circumstance the Student Success Initiative (SSI) requirement that students must pass before moving on to the next grade has been suspended for the 2014-2015 school year.
How Pro-Vision Compared on the 2014 STAAR
Pro-Vision Academy was found to meet all the standards for the STAAR across the board. Statewide across all subjects 77% of students were found to meet the phase-in satisfactory standard. When segmented further the TEA found that 69% of economically disadvantaged students tested at the satisfactory standard. Given that 96% of Pro-Vision students fall into that category their test results all the more impressive.
The STAAR Postsecondary Readiness Standard 5-year graduation rate sat at 90.4% for all students and 86.5% for African American students. The 4-year Longitudinal Cohort Graduation Rate was 88% and 84.1% respectively. Pro-Vision is slightly higher with 90% of students in the middle school ultimately graduating, and that number is getting better and better.
Like Pro-Vision many schools passed all of the standards, however, there were some that struggled. The end-of-course numbers showed that the vast majority of students passed Algebra I, Biology and U.S. History, but more struggled on English I and English II. Results showed 38% of students didn’t pass English I and 34% didn’t pass English II.
At Pro-Vision Academy we put emphasis on providing students with a well-rounded curriculum and many extracurricular programs that encourage kids to keep learning. Our teachers and students work hard throughout the year, and we couldn’t be more proud of how much progress is being made year after year!
Original Source: http://www.provision-inc.org/high-school/pro-vision-academy-rates-whats-horizon-staar/