What’s in a name? That which we (Texans) call an accountability system would smell just as foul. My apologies to Shakespeare, but the dilemma of our public schools certainly feels tragic.  You might wonder how this issue climbed to the top of the “story of the day” under the Texas education section. After all, it would be easy to delve into public education’s lack of funding or the battle over educational savings accounts, aka vouchers. While those issues are certainly on the minds of anyone connected to public schools and being written about and discussed quite frequently, the issue up for review is the A-F accountability system- our state’s not-so-sneaky plan to punish or, even worse, attempt to extinguish Texas public school districts.

I spent 30 years in public schools as a teacher and campus administrator. In that time, I watched our state move from TAAS to TAKS to STAAR tests. Throughout that time, I remember hearing how each assessment was so much “better” and more rigorous than the previous one.  I remember hearing how each assessment would hold schools accountable for student learning, which I always found interesting.  In my mind, I always felt accountable to my students for their success or lack thereof.  I never felt like I needed the state of Texas to make me feel that.  The many people I worked alongside throughout my career seemed to hold the same belief.  We all felt accountable. 

I want to go on record and say I am not against some form of formal accountability.  We are all vested in ensuring children learn and can be successful adults.  My contention lies within the system and its ultimate intent.  I don’t think most people would believe one multiple-choice test a year would be a valid and reliable indicator of a student’s success beyond their formative years into adulthood.  None of those assessments tests for empathy, perseverance, or being able to work cooperatively with others.  Traits I hear many employers talk about needing in today’s world. 

I could go on and on about my issues with the tests themselves, but that’s not my intent.  My concern lies with the accountability system itself.  I recently read an article about school districts suing TEA over accountability ratings for the second year in a row, and I began to reflect on how ridiculous the system has become. 

In my last year as a high school principal, we had the “pleasure” of implementing the state’s remediation plan for students who did not pass the STAAR.  The plan, which was basically untenable for 99.9% of all school districts, had a prescribed directive requiring more time and staff than schools had.  Ironically, schools have had plans in place for years for students who did not pass these tests, and while I won’t pretend all plans were successful for all students, campuses and districts working in tandem were able to show significant gains from year to year. Again, the people working each day with kids feel accountable.

This lawsuit from five districts across Texas against TEA stems from yet another example of punitive measures against public school districts.  The initial lawsuit from a year ago included over 100 school districts across the state.  Superintendent Brent Jaco from Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD said, “We wholeheartedly believe that accountability is a good process to measure a district’s success.  However, we also believe the proposed adjustments to the A-F Accountability Ratings system do not accurately reflect our students and staff’s hard work and progress.”  According to the current suit, the districts assert, “Commissioner Morath did not provide notice of the measures, methods, and procedures he would use to evaluate school districts and campuses.” The other issue involved College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) accountability scores- particularly that “students who already graduated were being measured against new standards that were not even in place when they were in school.”  Yes, that’s correct.  Students who have already finished their high school careers would have their scores recorded on their CCMR.  Except, not really.  Students were not going to be called back to high school because of the new scoring formula. 

What was going to happen and would have happened if not for the lawsuit and the TRO issued by a Travis County judge was districts and campuses would be penalized retroactively.  The worst part is schools are unable to even help the students who now no longer meet the standards because they’re off to… college or military or to perform a trade/start a career. What’s the saying? From the ridiculous to the sublime.  

I encourage you to read the article I mentioned earlier to get a full perspective of what is involved in this suit.  TEA says the A-F accountability system is “good for kids and gives parents a clear understanding of how well their schools are performing.  I agree that parents can understand that an A is a good score and an F is a bad one; what parents don’t understand is the convoluted, unfair way TEA arrives at those ratings.  As far as “good for kids,” the only people who would say and actually believe this are folks who have spent little to no time in a public school talking to public school children, their teachers, or their parents.  Trust me when I tell you, none of those people would ever say that current state testing is good for kids without their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks. 

In case you’re wondering if other options/solutions to the current accountability system have been presented.  They have.  Many and often.  And disappointingly, our state continues to not listen to the very folks who work with kids every day.  Until that day comes, I am not hopeful that it will happen anytime soon.  The system that’s supposed to be good for kids is the one that continues to punish them.  The system that’s supposed to give parents a clear understanding does no such thing. 

I can tell you Texas public schools are not afraid of accountability.  They thrive in it.  They feel it every day they step into a classroom, on campus, or in a district administration building.  All working together to hold themselves accountable to the children and to the parents of the very community they serve.  That accountability by any other name would smell…well, you know the rest.

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Upgrades to the system Texas uses to collect student, staff and financial data from school districts are causing serious concerns among school administrators and data specialists across the state who say the changes have led to thousands of unresolved errors that could potentially cause them to lose out on state funding.

Each of Texas’ more than 1,200 school districts is required to regularly submit data to the state, including information on attendance, enrollment, students who receive special education, children experiencing homelessness and the number of kids who have completed a college preparatory course. State officials use the information to determine whether schools are meeting performance standards and how much funding they receive each year.

Three years ago, the Texas Education Agency announced major changes to the reporting system. The goal was to make it easier for school districts and the state to share data and reduce the amount of manual labor required from school officials. Districts were supportive of the proposed changes.

Almost a dozen other states are using the same standard on which Texas based its system upgrade, said Eric Jansson, vice president of technology for Ed-Fi Alliance, the organization that created the standard. Texas is the largest state to implement the changes.

More than 300 districts participated in the pilot program during the last school year, according to the TEA. All school districts began using the new system this school year.

Before the upgrade, school districts would submit data directly to the TEA after working with a software vendor that would ensure the education agency didn’t have any problems interpreting the information.

Under the new arrangement, the software vendors are now responsible for transmitting the data to the state, a change that school officials say leaves them without a chance to fact-check the information before it goes out.

They also say a litany of errors and inaccuracies surfaced during the pilot program. In some instances, hundreds of student records — from enrollment figures to the number of students in certain programs — did not show up correctly.

A TEA spokesperson said the agency is confident districts will have ample time to resolve any errors between now and the first reporting deadline on Dec. 12. The agency also noted that districts have until Jan. 16 to resubmit any data needing corrections.

But districts say they have no idea how to solve some errors. Their concerns, shared in interviews with The Texas Tribune, have not been previously reported.

In an August letter to TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, Lewisville Independent School District Superintendent Lori Rapp requested that the agency delay the full transition to the new reporting system until all districts are able to submit “100% of all data elements” successfully.

Rapp said thousands of errors surfaced after the district’s software vendor submitted data to the new system during the pilot. Her staff spent “tons of hours” trying to figure out why the miscalculations had occurred, she said in an interview.

While Rapp’s staff had made some progress working with the new system since the pilot started, “[w]e have not been able to fully send, promote, and validate our data to the point where a successful submission could have been made,” Rapp’s letter said.

After receiving the note, the TEA organized a virtual meeting with Lewisville ISD officials to discuss their concerns. Rapp said the state did not seem concerned about whether school districts were prepared to make the transition.

“Maybe because there’s no ramifications to them and the stakes aren’t as high, they don’t have a concern,” Rapp said. “But for districts, the stakes are extremely high, and it’s a gross oversight on their part if they are failing to recognize that.”

While the TEA says it has resolved more than a thousand tickets submitted by school officials reporting problems with the new system, officials from nearly a half-dozen districts told the Tribune the state has not explained what’s causing some of the errors or told them if they have been resolved.

School administrators and data specialists who participated in the pilot say the implications of adopting a system that still doesn’t have a clear process to correct mistakes are massive. An inaccurate assessment of the students enrolled in Texas public schools could mean school districts receive less funding from the state. Schools are funded based on students’ average daily attendance, and they receive additional dollars if they have children with specific needs, like students with disabilities or kids learning English as a second language.

Funding has been a major point of contention between Texas schools and state officials in recent years. Many districts entered the school year having to spend more money than they have, largely because of the state’s rising costs of living and a half-decade of no increases to the base-level funding they receive from the state. Public school leaders remain upset that last year’s legislative sessions ended with no significant raises despite the state having a record $32 billion surplus.

Texas’ school accountability system also relies on the data school districts submit to the state. Some parents rely on those performance metrics to make decisions on where to enroll their children. Poor performance can also lead to state intervention — like it happened when the state ousted Houston ISD’s locally elected school board and superintendent last year.

Full accountability ratings have not been released in five years due to litigation over changes to how districts are evaluated. Many have publicly released their unofficial ratings to share their progress with their communities.

School districts say they can’t afford to have mistakes in their student data.

“I think everybody understands the situation that public education is in right now,” said Frisco ISD Superintendent Mike Waldrip. “And there is no confidence by anyone that I’ve spoken with that that data is accurate or will be accurate when it comes time to submit it to the state.”

School districts that have piloted the new system say they understand errors are part of the process. They just wanted more time to troubleshoot them before it went live.

“We need more answers around not only supporting the system to be successful, but while we are making sure that it’s successful, how are we going to continue to assure that we’re not suffering consequences for a delay or inaccuracies in the data?” said Mark White, assistant superintendent of accountability for the Tomball Independent School District. “And none of those assurances have been received by districts.”

A TEA spokesperson said the agency did not see a need to expand the trial period because the pilot showed the channels through which it receives data from software vendors worked.

The TEA said it plans to continue working with districts to help resolve any errors well before the first reporting deadline. The agency said districts should reach out if they are still experiencing problems.

Tammy Eagans, who oversees the student data reporting process for Leon ISD, said the agency was helpful throughout the pilot year whenever the school district had problems submitting information. She added that the task of switching to the new system may not pose the same problems for her small district of fewer than 800 students as it might for larger districts with thousands of children.

Still, she said she is “not 100% confident” that the system as it’s being rolled out works as intended. Extending the pilot “would not have been a bad idea,” Eagans said. But she is also hopeful that the education agency will be understanding of districts’ concerns and not blame them for errors out of their control.

The upcoming reporting deadline “just kind of puts a little extra pressure on us,” said Eagans, adding that she’s “a little nervous, a little apprehensive, but hoping that it goes smoother than I think it will.”

Other school officials say the pilot was unsuccessful, and if adopting the new system requires more time, the state should be willing to cooperate. The looming fall reporting deadline is “the most important” submission of the school year, said Tomball ISD Superintendent Martha Salazar-Zamora.

“If the data is inaccurate, then we live with that inaccuracy throughout the entire year,” she said. “So it has a lot of relevance on many levels.”

Mary Mitchem, a former TEA employee, said she started worrying about the system’s readiness shortly after she was hired in June to make sure the system met the needs of its users. Mitchem said she left the agency last month after a dispute over a leave of absence request.

Within days of being hired, she said it appeared that no one had done the work to ensure the data coming from software vendors accurately translated into the education agency’s system. Having worked on other major data projects throughout her career, she said she was also surprised that, two months before the pilot was set to conclude, no one had audited or tested the system.

“You’re converting a state accounting system, and you have to make sure it balances — you have to,” said Mitchem.

Mitchem sounded the alarm up the chain of command, but a supervisor told her that anything beyond making sure the data was flowing into the new system was the responsibility of the software vendors and school districts.

“It just blew my mind,” Mitchem said.

In early August, she sent an email to Morath saying, “You will be in litigation if you don’t help fix it, and it will be with the largest districts in the state of Texas.”

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Texas A&M offensive lineman TJ Shanahan was arrested for failing to identify and being a minor in possession of alcohol late on Saturday night.

Speaking to the media on Monday, Aggies head coach Mike Elko has since commented on the matter.

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“We handled that internally,” Elko said. “He was suspended immediately, and now it’s under internal review. We’ll kind of go from there.”

Shanahan, 20, reportedly identified himself as “Michael Shanahan” with a birthdate of July 8, 1998, which would make him 26 years old. The redshirt freshman was reportedly in the Northgate bar district in College Station and was holding two Simply Spiked lemonade drinks when local police made contact with the Aggies lineman.

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The incident occured in the hours after Texas A&M’s first win of the season, a 52-10 routing of McNeese during Week 2. The Aggies rushed for 333 yards as the Texas A&M offensive line dominated its opposition. The offense didn’t turn the ball over once on its way to compiling 529 yards from scrimmage.

It’s unclear as of this report how long Shanahan’s suspension will last.

As a member of the Class of 2023, Shanahan was a four-star recruit out of Orlando (Fla.) and played at Westlake (Texas), according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 32 overall prospect in Texas, the No. 11 interior offensive lineman in the class and the No. 169 overall prospect in the class.

“I just love Texas A&M,” Shanahan told On3 at the time of his commitment. “Everything about College Station intrigues me. Coach Fisher and Coach Addazio are two of the best coaches in the nation and playing for guys like that is going to be real special.”

Mike Elko and company will move ahead with its schedule with Shanahan sidelined as Texas A&M prepares for its SEC opener on the road against Florida. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET live from The Swamp on ABC and ESPN+.