December 17, 2010

TO THE ADMINISTRATOR ADDRESSED:

The Texas Education Agency (TEA or the agency) previously outlined key provisions of state legislation (House Bill 3459, 78th Regular Legislative Session) that significantly revised the scope of school district monitoring. This system is referenced as the Performance-Based Monitoring (PBM) system. The PBM system relies on the evaluation of performance and program effectiveness data at the state level. Therefore, one important aspect of the agency’s PBM system is data validation monitoring. Data validation analyses evaluate district leaver/dropout records, assessment data, Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) personal identification database (PID) errors, discipline data, attendance data, and state compensatory education data. Districts and charter schools are subject to additional data analyses, including random audits, as necessary to ensure the accuracy of data submitted to the agency. Data validation interventions are coordinated with performance interventions to the extent possible and tailored to data accuracy concerns.

Determinations regarding monitoring and interventions are the result of a discipline data validation analysis implemented by the agency’s Performance-Based Monitoring Division. Information related to the discipline data validation indicators calculated by the Performance-Based Monitoring Division is available in the 2010 Discipline Data Validation Manual available at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/pbm/. The results of the discipline data analysis are made available to districts and charter schools in the form of a district-level summary report and student-level reports posted on the Texas Education Agency Secure Environment (TEASE) accountability application’s PBM link and entitled 2010 Data Validation Analysis: Discipline Data. The TEASE site can be accessed from the following address: https://seguin.tea.state.tx.us/apps/logon.asp.

The purpose of this letter is to notify local education agencies (LEAs) that 2010-2011 intervention staging information for the Data Validation Monitoring (DVM) System-Discipline Data will be available on the Intervention Stage and Activity Manager (ISAM) application on the TEASE by the close of business on December 17, 2010. Additionally, a document to assist LEAs in accessing the ISAM system is available on the TEA website under the Resources section of the TEA Program Monitoring and Interventions homepage at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/pmi/.

Upon accessing the ISAM system, an LEA will be able to determine what, if any, stage of intervention has been assigned in the area of DVM-Discipline Data. If an LEA is selected for Stage 1 through Stage 4 interventions, the due dates for completion of all required activities are as follows: Stage 1 (documents to be retained at the LEA subject to a request for submission) and Stage 2, February 21, 2011; Stage 3 February 22, 2011; and Stage 4, February 23, 2011. Important monitoring documents and tools that are to be used by LEAs in completing these data validation interventions will be posted to ISAM and the TEA website by the close of business on December 17, 2010 at http://tea.state.tx.us/pmi/datamon.

Additionally, Report Only indicators have been developed by the agency that provide the LEA with information about students placed in In-School Suspension (ISS) for 30 or more actual days in a given school year (report only indicator #2), and provide information about discretionary Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP) placements for Hispanic students (report only indicator #8). All LEAs should review the related reports posted to the TEASE accountability application’s PBM link and determine whether any proactive steps should be taken to address inaccurate data reporting, potentially disproportionate DAEP placements for Hispanic students, and/or any extended ISS placements as indicated by the data in the reports.

Texas Education Code (TEC), Chapter 37, Discipline; Law, and Order, establishes the state statutory requirements for school district discipline programs. TEC §7.028(b) states, “The board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of an open-enrollment charter school has primary responsibility for ensuring that the district or school complies with all applicable requirements of state educational programs.” The board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of an open-enrollment charter school must be notified of any findings related to noncompliance with the provisions of TEC Chapter 37 and take actions as appropriate to ensure compliance with these requirements.

LEAs should make every effort to ensure that discipline data reported in June 2011, and subject to resubmission in July 2011, are accurate and reflect the requirements contained in the 2010-2011 Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) Data Standards. The education service center (ESC) and agency contacts listed in the Summary of Interventions document available in the ISAM application will be available as resources as an LEA completes the data reporting and monitoring process.

Districts or charter schools identified as a result of any of the other monitoring activities the agency is required to conduct for the remainder of this school year will be notified in a timely manner by appropriate agency staff.

For questions about the 2010 Discipline Data Validation Manual or the indicators described in the manual, please contact the Performance-Based Monitoring Division at (512) 936-6426 or by e-mail at pbm@tea.state.tx.us. For questions about interventions, including ISAM inquiries or questions about templates, due dates, or requests for extensions; please contact the Program Monitoring and Interventions Division at (512) 463-5226 or by e-mail at pmidivision@tea.state.tx.us.

We appreciate your support of data validation monitoring and anticipate that a data-driven, performance-based approach to monitoring will continue to assist LEAs in their ongoing efforts to improve student achievement and data accuracy.

Sincerely,

Karen Batchelor
Deputy Associate Commissioner
Office of Program Monitoring and Interventions