TEXAS AFT LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE--THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2009 (copyright 2009 Texas AFT)   * School Ratings, Round Two: Federal "Adequate Yearly Progress" * State-Approved "Repurposing" of Austin Middle School   School Ratings, Round Two–Federal "Adequate Yearly Progress": The ongoing absurdities of the fetish for test-driven accountability in Texas were on full display today, as the Texas Education Agency announced the percentage of Texas schools and districts meeting federal "Adequate Yearly Progress" standards. The federal ratings were unveiled barely a week after the announcement of the state's own separate accountability ratings, based on the same standardized Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.   The AYP results released today showed 80 percent of schools and 80 percent of school districts met federal standards for improved student test scores in reading/English language arts and math this year, up from 75 percent of schools and 67 percent of districts last year. Accolades are in order for the hard work of students, teachers, and the whole educational team that contributed to these gains.   But it's hard to celebrate these results in light of a couple of other pertinent facts. First, some of the same schools that passed muster this week under the federal standards were just informed last week that they are rated "academically unacceptable" under state standards (see next item below). In most cases, the schools fell short on just one state indicator out of 30-plus--frequently either the relatively new science passing standard or a new and more stringent standard for dropout rates. These schools can be rated favorably on every other state indicator, plus the federal AYP criterion, yet still are labeled "academically unacceptable."   Second, the state legislature just finished writing a budget that explicitly assumes declining academic performance by our schools--specifically, a decline in the percentage of campuses meeting the federal AYP standard to just 50 percent by 2011.  So this year's AYP improvement, according to the state legislature's own official performance expectation built into the budget, is not sustainable at current levels of spending on public education.   Austin Middle School "Repurposed": Pearce Middle School in Austin ISD faced a state-ordered shutdown this year because of insufficiently rapid improvement in its science passing rate. This sanction was set to be imposed by the Texas Education Agency despite the fact that Pearce met standards in all other respects, showing marked gains in many subjects and significant gains even in science. The shutdown also was ordered despite the fact that Pearce's performance in math and reading/English language arts was good enough to meet the federal "Adequate Yearly Progress" requirement. A strong school-community alliance has helped turn around Pearce around academically in the past couple of years, but not fast enough for TEA.   Now, however, Pearce will continue in operation after all, under an agreement reached between the Austin school district and TEA on the "repurposing" of the campus. The principal and all science faculty at the school are to be replaced. Other faculty members may remain if deemed to have contributed to student improvement. Students assigned to Pearce are entitled to transfer to other campuses if they so desire.   It's not at all clear how the threatened shutdown and "repurposing" of Pearce, with wholesale departures of staff and students, will enhance the trajectory of improvement already under way on the campus. The Austin district faces a challenging timeline for restaffing the campus before school resumes on August 24. It's difficult to avoid the conclusion that the sanctions scheme Pearce ran afoul of provides more of the semblance than the substance of educational reform. Could it be the sanctions themselves that stand in need of reform and "repurposing"?