Indicators of School Performance in Texas

Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest partnered with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to examine whether information regularly collected by districts could be used to monitor school performance when assessment data are not available, such as during the school year or when there are disruptions to schooling. Using school-level data from the two school years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (2017/18 and 2018/19), the study examined the association between several student behaviors and teacher factors and the likelihood of schools meeting accountability expectations. Focusing only on the student behaviors and teacher factors associated with the likelihood of meeting accountability expectations in 2018/19, the study team created indicators for predicting school performance. Finally, the study examined whether the percentages of schools identified by the indicators as likely to meet accountability expectations vary across school years, including the year in which accountability ratings were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic (2019/20). TEA staff and local support providers (such as regional service centers or other organizations providing technical assistance to schools) can use the indicators for ongoing monitoring that informs continuous improvement in schools. Key findings include the following: Student attendance rate, chronic absenteeism rate, and the prospective teacher turnover rate were associated with elementary, middle, and high schools’ likelihood of meeting accountability expectations. For elementary schools, the student attendance rate and chronic absenteeism rate were the only two indicators that performed adequately in predicting whether schools met accountability expectations across all school levels during the 2018/19 school year. For middle school and high school, several additional indicators performed adequately. For elementary and middle school indicators, such as the attendance rate and chronic absenteeism rate, the percentages of schools above the indicator cutpoints were consistent between 2017/18 and 2018/19 but differed in 2019/20, potentially due to changes in how attendance was reported during the pandemic.