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Meritorious Budget Award won by Arlington ISD News
Posted in on June 8, 2020

Arlington Independent School District Resolution of the Board of Trustees Regarding State Accountability
WHEREAS, on March 13, 2020, the President declared a national emergency and the State of Texas has
declared a statewide disaster regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic;

WHEREAS, on March 18, 2020, the Texas Commissioner of Education announced that
administration of STAAR exams would be canceled for spring 2020, and school districts and campuses
would be assigned ratings of “Not Rated: Declared State of Disaster” for 2020;

WHEREAS, on March 19, 2020, the Texas Governor issued Executive Order No. GA-08 relating to
COVID-19 preparedness and mitigation through this action and in accordance with Guidelines from the
President ordered the temporary closure of all Texas school districts;

WHEREAS, assessment standards for the spring of 2021 can be adjusted; however, data from those
assessments will not be interpretable with respect to previous years’ assessment data;

WHEREAS, academic growth will not be possible to accurately calculate for spring 2021, as students
will not have previous year STAAR scores from spring 2020;

WHEREAS, academic growth accounts for 50% of an elementary or junior high campus’s Domain 3 score,
which will have an adverse effect on overall accountability ratings for those campuses;

WHEREAS, graduates from the class of 2020 will have missed opportunities to earn TSI points under
CCMR due to the cancellation of the spring and summer SAT test and the spring ACT test;

WHEREAS, graduates from the class of 2020 enrolled in IB classes will not have had an opportunity
to earn a CCMR point due to canceled IB tests;

WHEREAS, external research shows that, historically, extended school closures negatively affect
student achievement in math and reading, with the greater impact being in math;

WHEREAS, internal research shows that there are significant academic gains made at the end of each
school year, which may not be present now with the extended school closure;

WHEREAS, exceptions have been made to accountability in the past when schools were closed for an
extended period of time (e.g., Katrina, Rita, and Harvey);

WHEREAS, it is still unknown what additional adjustments to the educational process will be
necessary to start the 2020-2021 school year to address the social, emotional, and physical health
impact upon students when they return to school in whatever format that may be;

WHEREAS, developing new accountability systems is a multi-year process that requires public
comment, and they are typically phased in over multiple years, so major adjustments for one year
would be very difficult;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Trustees of Arlington Independent School District,
that State accountability should be suspended for the 2020-2021 school year to allow districts to
focus on interventions necessary to recover instructional gaps resulting from school closures
caused by COVID-19.

Adopted this 4th day of June, 2020, by the Board of Trustees.