An Evaluation of State Compensatory Education, 2014-2015. Research Educational Program Report

The State Compensatory Education (SCE) program is designed to reduce dropout rates and increase academic performance of students identified as being at-risk of dropping out of school. SCE operates as a funding source to supplement instructional services and offer academic support to students who meet the SCE at-risk criteria established by the state. For this year's evaluation of SCE, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) and Logramos Third Edition (formerly Stanford Tenth Edition and Aprenda Third Edition) served as the assessment measures for grades 1 and 2, the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) served as the state assessment measures for grades 3 through 8, STAAR End-of-Course (EOC) served as the state assessment measures for grades 9 through 11 for the 2014-2015 school year. The purpose of this report is to describe and evaluate the SCE-funded programs in HISD as required by law. The district must evaluate and document the effectiveness of instructional programs in reducing any disparities in performance on the ITBS, Logramos, STAAR, and STAAR EOC and disparities in the rates of high school completion between students at-risk of dropping out of school and all other district students. This evaluation compares at-risk students' performance on the ITBS, Logramos, STAAR, and STAAR EOC with the performance of their not-at-risk counterparts. As required by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) (2004), differences in passing rates between at-risk and not-at-risk students are reported for the past three years when data are available so that movement in reducing the disparity in passing rates can be ascertained. In compliance with guidelines specified by the TEA (2010), high school completion rates are reported for at-risk and not-at-risk students attending HISD.