Conroe ISD presents district-calculated accountability scores; CCMR measures rise

Conroe Independent School District officials on Thursday presented a district-calculated overview of the state’s new accountability system and preliminary campus ratings the district compiled after the Texas Education Agency delayed public release amid litigation.

District administrators said they submitted verified scores to the state and used those files to compute campus and district ratings locally so trustees and principals could begin planning. “This is going to be complicated,” said Lauren Helfer, Conroe ISD’s coordinator of accountability, as she walked trustees through how the system aggregates multiple measures.

The ‘‘best of’’ model described by Helfer gives 70% of a campus’s rating from the district’s best-performing domain (student achievement, academic growth, or relative performance) and the remaining 30% from a domain that measures “closing the gaps” among student groups. For high schools, Helfer said, student achievement is split into 40% STAR (state test) performance, 40% college-, career- and military-readiness (CCMR) and 20% graduation rate. “College, career and military readiness is broken into college-ready indicators — such as TSI, AP, dual credit and associate’s degrees — and career/military indicators such as industry-based certifications and enlistment,” she said.

Trustees and staff highlighted district-level results and context. The district’s CCMR rate for the class of 2023 was reported at 81%, up from about 70% in the year-before baseline that staff displayed — an 11 percentage-point increase the presenters called “a big win.” Jeff Fuller, the district’s executive director for school improvement and leadership development, and others credited targeted supports, data dashboards, and school-improvement coaching for those gains.

Administrators also flagged rules that affect district ratings. Helfer noted a “cap” rule: if any campus in the district receives a D or lower in a domain, the district score for that domain can be capped — historically producing situations where a single campus’s low result limited the district-wide grade. Trustees discussed how campus size affects district weighting; Fuller said Conroe High School and Woodlands College Park together account for roughly 20% of the district accountability weight because of their enrollments.

Trustees asked about comparisons with peer districts and measurement changes. Fuller and Helfer said the district can compute comparisons from statewide files but that official letter grades and peer domain scores had not been publicly released by TEA because of court orders. They also warned trustees that components such as CCMR (particularly industry-based certification rules) are being revised frequently by the state.

Trustees praised the transparency of the district’s internal calculations and asked district staff to share more detail about how individual campuses are weighted and how growth targets will be tracked. Trustee Chelsea Dawson, who had worked with staff on the verification, noted that the district had 76% of campuses at As and Bs in the district calculation and urged continued focus on targeted plans for C and D campuses.

District staff described ongoing supports: assessment coaches, a small school-improvement team that performs data dives, and plans to meeting individually with campus teams to translate district measures into classroom action. Fuller said the district’s school-improvement coaches and assessment team are working with principals and teachers on observation-and-feedback cycles to accelerate student growth.

Officials emphasized that the district’s calculations were produced locally from files TEA provided and that final, official ratings will come only when and if the state releases them.

For now, trustees asked that the district post the presentation materials and data dashboards on the district website and continue to brief campuses and the public as official state releases become available.