“In McKinney ISD, we’ve already established an extremely high standard,” said MISD Supt. Dr. Rick McDaniel. “And, while I am extremely proud of our state accountability rating, I would say that our teachers, administrators, support staff and Central Office staff were an A in my book before this rating ever came out."

McKinney, Texas – According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), more than five million Texas public school students took more than eight and one-half million STAAR assessments during the 2017–2018 school year.

On Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2018, TEA released its new and much-discussed A-F school district accountability ratings that reveal the results of those efforts.

McKinney ISD has received an A—the highest grade possible—for its overall performance on the 2017–2018 STAAR tests, a rating that was earned by only 13 percent of Texas school districts and public charter operators. At the campus level, all MISD schools received the “Met Standard” rating for overall performance, which was also the highest possible designation. In addition to these ratings, MISD campuses increased the number of earned distinction designations by 56 percent compared to 2016–2017.

“These distinctions are significant,” said MISD Chief Program Evaluation Officer Geoff Sanderson, “because they identify higher performance relative to similar peer groupings. While we recognize that any uniform ranking system for campuses and districts is subject to legitimate debate, the current results are consistent with other key metrics which suggest McKinney ISD continues to perform at the highest levels and compete with the best public schools in Texas.”

The TEA accountability report covers all 1,200 Texas school districts and charter schools and assigns a letter grade to each district, as well as a designation of Met Standard or Improvement Required for each campus (unless exempt) and recognition for any areas in which distinction was earned by a school.

According to information from TEA, the agency looked at three areas to arrive at an overall grade for each district: Student Achievement, School Progress and Closing the Gaps.

• Student Achievement evaluates STAAR performance across all subjects for all students; college, career and military readiness indicators; and graduation rates.
• School Progress is a measure of district and campus outcomes in two areas: the number of students that grew at least one year academically (or are on track) as measured by STAAR results and the achievement of all students relative to districts or campuses with similar economically disadvantaged percentages.
• Closing the Gaps uses data to demonstrate differentials among racial/ethnic groups, socioeconomic backgrounds and other factors.

By weighting the results in these three areas, TEA established a score and corresponding grade assignment for each district.

The new A-F structure was introduced this year in response to House Bill 22, which was passed by the Texas Legislature in 2017. Next year, individual campuses will also receive A-F ratings.

“In McKinney ISD, we’ve already established an extremely high standard,” said MISD Supt. Dr. Rick McDaniel. “And, while I am extremely proud of our state accountability rating, I would say that our teachers, administrators, support staff and Central Office staff were an A in my book before this rating ever came out.

“We will evaluate the work that lies ahead of us as we strive to become even better over the next year. Having said that, we are very pleased that the state identified the hard work of all the individuals that I just mentioned,” McDaniel added. “I could not be more proud to live in a community in which parents and all stakeholders involved value and appreciate the hard work of our teachers and our support staff. This A only verifies what I’ve known for some time.”

Need Help?

If you need additional assistance with the content on this page, please contact MISD Communications Department team member Shane Mauldin by phone at 469-302-4007 or by email here .