In response to the 4/29/16 post, “HS Accountability – Red Shirt Your Freshmen” a LYS Superintendent writes:

SC,

Something to consider and a possible warning. When restructuring the order of high school tested subjects, you must keep in mind that rearrangement will mean some tests will not be given for a year or two. 

That’s fine, but you also have to keep in mind that district wide the hardest tests are in Grades 3, 4, 6, and 7.  STAAR is a reversal from the days of TAAS and TAKS where the hardest tests were at the high school level. 

The point is, your Grade 3-8 scores have to be strong enough to carry the district.  If you have weak Grade 3-8 performance you may need the relatively easy to pass high school tests to bring up your district average so the district meets state standards. 

I am not being theoretical.  I know of a district that did the high school rearrangement and the district went Improvement Required that year simply because Grade 3-8 scores were too weak to carry the district.  

SC Response I don’t disagree with you. This can be an issue, but you are describing system failure(s). The question that you have to ask is, “Do you knowingly place High School students at greater risk to potentially protect adults and mask system failures?”

You know that I have and will do what is best for my students and deal with the adult repercussions.  As I have also seen you do, over and over again.

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