#and thursday is the last staar test

[banannabethchase]

I am very sunburnt, very burnt out, and eyes are burning from allergies.

One could say, perhaps, I'm on fire.

[dankusner]

Judge Crump School grades blocked again

Texas judge halts accountability scores that were to be published

A Texas judge once again blocked the release of A-F accountability grades for public schools that were to be published Thursday.

The order comes in response to a lawsuit from a handful of districts, alleging the grades would be invalid because they’re based on results from flawed STAAR tests. The school officials questioned the use of computers to score students’ essays on the assessment.

The temporary restraining order, granted Monday by Travis County District Judge Karin Crump, stops the Texas Education Agency from releasing new grades for campuses and districts — at least for now. A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 26.

Last year’s grades also were blocked by a lawsuit from several districts, including Dallas Independent School District, that alleged changes to scoring methods would unfairly give campuses lower marks.

Education Commissioner Mike Morath has lamented the legal battle and defended the state’s methodology for grading schools.

Texas’ A-F accountability system evaluates every public school and district across the state, giving families a feel for how their local campuses are performing.

The ratings are a major factor in how the community perceives local schools.

Texas Education Agency officials said they are reviewing the filing.

“It is disappointing that a small group of school boards and superintendents opposed to fair accountability and transparency have once again filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing A-F ratings from being issued and keeping families in the dark about how their schools are doing,” agency officials said in a statement.

Last year’s lawsuit took aim at the state’s revised formula for grading campuses and alleged that Morath didn’t give districts enough notice about what measures, methods and procedures would be applied to their new scores.

The second lawsuit goes further: It takes issue with the validity of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, test. The A-F grades are largely based on these standardized test scores. It argues that the commissioner can’t assign A-F ratings because the test isn’t “valid and reliable.”

“It is our goal to invalidate the STAAR test that all students took across the state of Texas, and all resulting metrics built on that score as well,” said attorney Nick Maddox, who is working with the school districts.

The state quietly rolled out the use of computer scoring for student’s STAAR essay questions in December, along with other changes. “During the 2023–24 school year, the Commissioner radically changed the way the new STAAR test is being administered by replacing human graders with AI grading,” the lawsuit states. “This change was made without ensuring that this radical change would not impact the new STAAR test’s validity and reliability.”

Many districts noticed a large number of high schoolers scored zeroes on their written responses.

Scores generated this way “threaten to unfairly — and unlawfully — lower the A–F ratings of many school districts and campuses,” the lawsuit states.

Agency officials have stood by the automated grading system, saying it is not the same as the generative AI that powers programs such as ChatGPT. They described it as a tool with narrow abilities that improves efficiency and is as accurate as human scorers. If state officials released A-F scores as planned, districts could face harmful consequences, according to the lawsuit. Failing grades can trigger intervention from the state — such as the takeover of Houston ISD.

Morath championed the accountability system Monday morning during a hearing in front of the Legislature’s House Public Education Committee. He called the STAAR test reliable, adding that the release of A-F scores benefits kids and families by letting them know how well the schools are doing at educating students.

“It does work,” he said.

[itismetheperson]

life update including why i've been gone and end of middle school stuffs

Well hello there. My name is Nabila and I am a blogger. Or at least I've been calling myself one for.... the past five years I think? You probably didn't notice but I missed a post last week. This is probably normal for most people but for me, it's just not. I've been posting consistently for about two years now. That's pretty cool. For a while I was posting on both Mondays and Thursdays but with school it was downgraded to just Monday. Lately though I haven't had much motivation. I think this has been a thing for a while but I just ignored it. I was like oh, I guess I'm just tired today or I just haven't had that much time. But I missed a post last week and.... I wasn't sad about it? And I mean... I had time to write one. But I was majorly procrastinating. It has been kind of nice though. I've been hanging with my family more. But yeah basically I've been in a total blog slump and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. I thought I would hop on though and give y'all a little life update.

1. It's been raining a lot Pretty much this whole week there has been a flood watch. Friday (Yesterday as I'm writing this) we got off of school because it was flooding and raining really hard. I've had experience with flooding but it's always stressful. This time thankfully my neighborhood hasn't been hit and no one I know has actually gotten there stuff flooded. Mostly just some street flooding.

2. STAAR Testing STAAR is the big test that we take every year. The subjects that we have to take vary by year. In 8th grade we have to take math (or for me algebra), reading, science, and US history. The reading one was easy and I took that one like a month ago. Algebra though was seriously stressing me out. I'm not the best at algebra and since it's a high school credit you have to pass the test to get the credit. I actually studied which is not something I can say about most tests. I have science and history next week. I'm actually so annoyed about next week. Basically the whole week we are going to be in testing sites. Monday and Tuesday, 6th and 7th graders are testing so we have to be in the same class the whole day. My teacher said we'll have study material we can look at. On Wednesday and Thursday are the actual science and history tests. History is supposed to be hard cause there is just so much material. I have been studying some for that so I would say I'm pretty prepared.

3. It's the end of the year and everyone's done I'm in 8th grade now so I'm going to high school next year. There is only like 3 more weeks left of school until break and pretty much everyone in my grade is done with learning. We all know where we are going to high school. We still have to take all of our finals though so it's a bit of a struggle 4. End of year activities  There are some fun end of year activities for 8th graders though!! Next week is the 8th grade dance which I'm very excited for!! It's a formal so everyone is dressing up and it's just 8th graders. All of the other dances are mixed grade levels. The other grades can be, well... annoying sometimes haha. Splashdown, graduation, the improv show, broadcast video showcase, and my belt ceremony are also all coming up!!

5. Instagram deleted all of my drafts I have a bunch of photos and posts saved on Instagram so I think three days ago when I was about to go post they just weren't there. I just kind of freaked out. It takes me a lot of time to write posts and that's also how I knew what photos I had already used. At this point I just haven't really posted. It's not like I was growing anyway. My follower count has literally been decreasing??? So yeah that's definitely not helping my spirits. I'm thinking about totally changing my feed and not using long captions or hashtags anymore. I know that's how you are supposed to grow but my thought process is, what's the point in putting in all of that effort if it's not working?  Which I know is terrible but just ahhh. ALSO since I have to go through my photos again I'm thinking about starting another theme. Maybe more warm tones? I've been doing cool blue vibes for a while and I think it's time for a change. 6. Video content I've been getting more and more into making videos whether it be on IGTV or youtube. I've been becoming more comfortable with it and also just getting more ideas. I think over the summer I'm going to work a lot on editing. As of this point I'm not sure but I think I'm going to make YouTube my main channel. I'll still write blog posts because I think some stuff is better written, but a whole lot less often. That's currently what I'm thinking but I'm not sure. I just think YouTube has made me happier and it's a more accessible and popular platform especially for people my age.

7. High school I've been going to a bunch of events lately for my high school. I'm doing theater there so I had to audition (I got in!!!), we had to go to pick classes, and next week we're going for a little orientation because I'm planning on taking health during the summer. Because of this I've also been around a bunch of high schoolers and it's low key making me freak out. They are so much cooler than me???? And have cooler clothes than me?? And there was this couple like making out in the hallway one time and I was just like ahhhhh. I do have a lot of friends going there though I think is going to help so so much. :)

This post has taken me like all day to write because I guess I'm just crazy?? I don't know?? Anyway though yeah. I don't really have my life together right now. But that's A ok. I'm going to figure it out, but first I'm going to enjoy my last weeks of middle school (and possibly vlog it because why the heck not, memories right?). 

via Blogger http://bit.ly/2Q3QFqt