Getting around

CONTACT US: measuringup@star-telegram.com
Basic tips
> A Home button is available on all pages to get you back to square one.  > You may need to refresh you browser occasionally to make the dropdown lists work properly.  > This site is best viewed with Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Navigation tools
All of the Measuring Up pages can be reached from the navigation bar at the top of the page. Each tab expands to provide links to different pages on the Measuring Up site.

Find a school

Search for a school name
Use the text box in the far upper-right corner of the home page to type in the name of the school you are looking for. Keep in mind that this site tracks public schools. Very little information for private schools is available through government agencies.

Look for a school name on the list
Use the dropdown list, called "My school," to find a public school. This list is limited to the 19 independent school districts in the Tarrant County area.

Compare schools

Find a school

Choose the name of a comparison school
After finding information for one school, you can choose the name of another school for comparison. On the page that lists information for one school, look for the "Compare this school to ..." choice on the navigation bar at the top of the page. The pulldown list will show schools that are the same type as the first school you chose - elementary schools, middle schools or high schools.

Students/Teachers

Making lists
Each item from the pulldown menu makes a different list. Each list can be viewed two ways, by the top schools with the best statistics, or the lowest-ranked schools. On each page, look for the link at the bottom of the page that gives you the opposite ranking.

Glossary

It’s easy to be confused by the acronyms and labels used at schools.    What is AYP? LEP? How can a school be called exemplary and yet have mediocre scores on state exams? What do you mean by “economically disadvantaged”?    Here’s a guide to some of the “educationese” in Texas schools these days.    TAKS — The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, a series of standardized tests the state uses to measure academic achievement. Separate tests are given for reading, writing, language arts, math, science and social studies.    Accountability ratings — Four categories — exemplary, recognized, academically acceptable and academically unacceptable — are used to rank Texas public schools. One of the factors used to rate schools is the percentage of students who achieved at least the state’s minimum score on the TAKS.    Advanced Placement program — College-level work offered at many high schools through the nonprofit College Board.    Limited English proficiency — A student whose primary language is not English and who finds it difficult to perform ordinary schoolwork in English.    Economically disadvantaged — A designation often based on family income levels. Usually, this number shows the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches or for other public assistance.    No Child Left Behind — A federal law that sets standards of accountability for public schools. Among its provisions, it requires that student progress be measured on standardized tests and that teachers be qualified in the subject they teach.    Adequate yearly progress – The measures used to hold schools accountable under No Child Left Behind. Each state can define its own standards, but the federal law requires certain benchmarks, such as standardized testing.

Stats notes

Sources for these statistics

The statistics you see on the Measuring Up site came from state agencies. Many of the numbers may not look familiar, and that is by design. This site emphasizes statistics that are not often cited by school districts or state officials.    Most of the material on Measuring Up was downloaded from the Web site of the Texas Education Agency. Other material came from the TEA and other agencies after the Star-Telegram submitted written requests.

Average TAKS test scores

These rankings show how students in a specific grade at a school performed on a specific test. A ranking of 258/270 for third-grade reading, for example, means the school was the 258th out of 270 schools for reading test scores by third-graders - close to the bottom of the list.    These rankings use an average score based on three years of test scores to account for year-to-year fluctuations and provide a fairer comparison.    These rankings are for schools open two years or more. Only a small number of schools, however, were ranked on as few as two years of test scores.

Remedial study requirements

High school graduates enrolling in a Texas public college or university, including junior colleges, must take a test to see whether they need remedial work in math, reading or writing. (Students with high enough scores on the TAKS or college- entrance exams can bypass the tests).    The remedial-instruction statistics in this database show the percentage of students from each local high school who failed the math, reading, or writing parts of the test, or failed one or more parts of the test.    The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board reports this information, and the board and the Texas Education Agency compile it.    After failing a portion of the test, a student may receive tutoring, take a remedial class in that subject or do other work to catch up.

TEA campus ratings

The Texas Education Agency rates campuses every year based on the percentage of students who pass the different portions of the TAKS test.    A rating of exemplary generally means that 90 percent of students passed each part of the test.    A rating of recognized generally means 70 percent of students passed all portions of the test. There are exceptions and other criteria.    For more information, click here.

A note to our Crowley readers

This site does not have some statistics for schools in the Crowley school district. The district reported flawed statistics about its students to the Texas Education Agency for the 2005-06 school year.    Information about the characteristics of Crowley students on Measuring Up, such as the percentage of students with low-income families, are from the 2004-05 school year.    Also, lists that rank schools by their student-teacher ratios omit Crowley schools because of the data-reporting problem.