A Report on Safe Schools Programs Page: 15 of 45
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1996-1997 school year. Therefore, only now can TEA and the Commission begin to
collect longitudinal data to determine long-term effects of the programs.
Section 2-A:
Current Indicators Are Insufficient to Measure Progress and to Gauge
Long-Term Effects
Oversight agencies do not measure the academic progress of all students in alternative
education programs. Because TEA and the Commission do not have data on many
students in alternative education programs, it is difficult to assess if programs are
accomplishing their mission of enabling students to perform at grade level.
TEA does not have data to show if most students in DAEPs are learning. Students
assigned to DAEPs and in certain grades take the Texas Assessment of Academic
Skills (TAAS) in reading, math, and writing. However, TAAS tests are only required
for students during the third through eighth grades and the tenth grade. Notably, the
largest percentage of students in DAEPs is in the ninth grade (27 percent) and,
therefore, is not tested.
Even with new testing requirements, some students are not required to take the TAAS
tests. Not later than the 2002-2003 school year, ninth graders will be required to take
the TAAS reading and math tests. However, new testing requirements still exclude
some eleventh and all twelfth graders. Furthermore, some students who are eligible
for special education services and those with limited English ability are not required to
take the TAAS test. Thus, other indicators in addition to TAAS tests must be relied
upon in assessing the progress of DAEP students.
Students in DAEPs, regardless of length of stay, are not required to take any type of
entrance and exit tests. However, DAEPs that serve students on a long-term basis
could measure student progress while in the program through entrance and exit tests.
In these cases, it would be beneficial if all DAEPs used the same tests so that TEA
could compare student progress at different programs. Unlike the TAAS tests,
entrance and exit tests could isolate the effect the students' stays in DAEPs have on
academic performance. These tests may also be helpful for diagnostic and self-
evaluation purposes. However, the large number of students in DAEPs and their
relative short length of stay make a blanket requirement for entrance and exit tests
cost-prohibitive and impractical.
The Commission has limited data that shows that JJAEP students are improving
their reading and math skills, but not all students that should be tested are
being tested. (An Overview of the Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Programs,
SAO Report No. 99-024, February 1999, contains the academic progress of JJAEP
students for the 1997-1998 school year.) Specifically, JJAEP students who tested
below their current grade levels on an entry assessment test improved their scores an
average of one grade level in reading and three-fourths of a grade level in math.
Despite gains and because so many youths start out so far behind, most students
remain below the grade level appropriate for their age upon release from JJAEPs. At
entry, 79 percent of students scored below their actual grade levels in reading and 81
A REPORT ON
SAFE SCHOOLS PROGRAMS AUGUST 1999PAGE 12
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Texas. Office of the State Auditor. A Report on Safe Schools Programs, report, August 1999; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth517651/m1/15/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.