NCEA identifies higher performing schools that meet one or both of the following criteria over the most recent three years: 1) students experience above-predicted growth based on a value-added analysis, or 2) an above-predicted percentage of continuously enrolled students score at the Commended level on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). Both measures identify schools that perform unusually well given the student populations they serve. For a complete description of the analysis, visit our Higher Performing Methodology.

NCEA's research has frequently shown that state passing/proficiency standards are not high enough to indicate whether students are on track to College and Career Readiness by high school graduation. We have found this to be true for the TAKS Passing standard. The Commended standard provides a more appropriate measure of whether students are well prepared for postsecondary opportunities. See They Can Pass, but Are They College Ready?

The following categories of schools were not included in the analysis:

• New schools that opened after Fall 2008. The NCEA Higher Performing Schools List is based on schools that are consistently higher performing over three school years: 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011.
• Schools with no state-tested grades. The NCEA Higher Performing Schools List uses TAKS data to determine school achievement. For this reason, we cannot conduct analysis for those grades which are not state tested. For example, a PreK-2 school would have no tested grades.
• Schools with too few students enrolled for a specified period of time. For details, please see Question 4 and the Higher Performing Methodology.
• Schools with an excessive amount of missing test scores. Schools with grades having more than 20 percent of test results deleted (usually due to the rules for providing data set by the state agency) are not included.

We define continuously enrolled students as those students who have been enrolled in a school for at least three years. If the school's grade span does not allow for three years of continuous enrollment (e.g., a 7th grader at a Grade 6 to 8 campus), continuously enrolled students are those who have been enrolled in the district at least three years and at the school as long as the grade span allows. For charter schools, this last requirement changes to drop the continuous enrollment in the district requirement. Typical factors that affect the number of continuously enrolled students in each grade are school size and student mobility.

There are two main reasons why a school does not appear on the NCEA Higher Performing Schools List:

1. Ineligible Schools
   We use data provided by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to compile our Higher Performing Schools List. At times, data issues arise such as the following:
   • Too much "masking" (e.g., records with empty fields). Please see Question 3 for details.
   • Too few students.
   • School was not open for each of the three years included in the analysis.
   • The school's grade span includes only grades with no test data.


2. Student Performance Levels Did Not Qualify
   If a school is eligible but did not make the 2011 List, then its student performance levels did not meet our requirements as listed below:
   • The school's percentile rank in NCEA's performance criteria was not high enough to be included.
   • The school's performance was not consistent across the three years included in the analysis.
   • The school did not meet state standards as follows:
     • The school did not receive at least "acceptable" on the state rating in the latest year.
     • The school did not make AYP in the latest year.
     • The school did not test at least 90 percent of students for subjects that are not counted for Adequate Yearly Progress (Science, Social Studies, and Writing) in the latest year.

The NCEA Higher Performing Schools List is a more select group of schools than the TEA list and is identified by one of two measures (see Question 1). In 2011, TEA identified over 47 percent of Texas schools as Exemplary or Recognized. In comparison, the 2011 NCEA Higher Performing Schools List identifies approximately 11 percent of the state's public schools.

The specific metrics used by NCEA for analysis are different than those used by TEA in the Texas Accountability System.

• Passing vs. Growth
  The Texas School Accountability Ratings are based on the percentage of students meeting the Passing standard on the spring 2011 TAKS. By contrast, the first NCEA measure looks at student growth.:
• Higher Standard of Achievement
  The percentage of students reaching Commended on the TAKS is used for the second NCEA measure rather than the state's Passing standard.
• More Years of Data
  The NCEA Higher Performing Schools List is based on performance in three school years: 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011. State ratings are based on performance in single year of data.