By John M. Folks
Guest Commentary

Texas school children deserve an accountability system that is fair, flexible and understandable. That’s the message I’m sending to the Select Committee on Public School Accountability, which is expected later this year to give lawmakers recommendations on how to improve the state accountability system.

First and foremost, the accountability system needs to acknowledge large, diverse districts. The state’s rating system is based on 36 different indicators that look at the student performance of a campus or district as a whole and also by subgroups, such as Hispanic, African American and economically disadvantaged. Last year, Northside was judged on 34 out of 36 total indicators, which is not surprising considering our large enrollment (82,587 at the time) and student diversity: 63 percent Hispanic, 8 percent African American and 46 percent economically disadvantaged. Northside missed the Recognized rating by one indicator - the economically disadvantaged subgroup in science.

Juxtapose that with the fact that the state’s 27 Exemplary campuses enroll an average of 800 students and are judged on an average of just nine indicators because of their small size and homogenous demographics. Plain and simple, the current accountability system is discriminatory and unfair toward large, diverse districts.

Consider that last year Northside was one of five finalists in the nation for the prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education, which in part honors districts for improvements in test scores.

So in reality, Northside’s Academically Acceptable rating doesn’t paint a representative picture of what is going on in the district. Though Northside didn’t meet the Recognized standard, the district did make improvements at every grade level and every subject area that is subject to accountability.

That leads me to my second point: Recognize test score growth. To make a rating system more representative of the level of success - or failure - that is occurring in districts and campuses, the accountability system should give credit for growth and improvement in student test scores. There are numerous campuses and districts across the state that haven’t reached Recognized or Exemplary status but are making real and significant progress toward that mark.

Instead, the majority of Texas school districts are lumped in the Academically Acceptable category, which doesn’t differentiate between a borderline failure campus and a campus that just missed Recognized status based on the performance of one student.

Lastly, campuses and districts should be compared with campuses and districts with similar demographics. It is impossible to make an apples-to-apples comparison between Northside, with 85,500 students, and Sweet Home ISD with 104 students, none of whom are enrolled in grades nine through 12.

Yet, the current accountability system makes it legitimate to draw comparisons - and ultimately false conclusions - between districts that have very little in common. The only way to truly gauge the success of a campus is to compare it with another campus that has a similar population and therefore faces similar challenges.

In general, we need a more transparent, less complex system that is easily understood by educators, parents and taxpayers. Though I am sometimes critical of the current accountability system, I take its consequences very seriously, and there is not a district more committed than Northside to attaining success under its requirements. I want, expect and demand accountability.

However, just as the bar of success continually is raised for school districts, the same should be done for the accountability system. I hope that state legislators set that bar high and make a sincere effort to create an accountability system that truly is committed to student achievement.

John M. Folks is superintendent of the Northside Independent School District.