State Comptroller awards Fort Bend ISD Highest Five-Star Rating for Academic Progress and Cost-Effective Operations

Fort Bend ISD has been recognized as one of 45 school districts in Texas to receive the highest rating of Five Stars for the 2012 Financial Allocation Study for Texas (FAST).  Texas Comptroller Susan Combs recently announced the new FAST ratings, which measure academic progress and cost-effective operations in 1,136 school districts and charter schools across the state.

“I am so proud that our District is in the FAST top-tier of school districts across the state, and I applaud our teachers, staff and administrators for their efforts in making Fort Bend ISD a school system of choice,” said Michael McKie, Acting Superintendent.

Based on the FAST formula, school districts and campuses receive ratings from one to five stars, in half-star increments.  A district that achieves the highest rating of five stars ranks among the top 20 percent of all Texas school districts in academic progress, while keeping expenditures among the lowest 20 percent of fiscally comparable districts.

Categories include dropout rates and transportation spending, but some new indicators were added this year, including the following:
• Information on each district’s outstanding debt and annual debt service by total, amount per student and amount per district resident.
• Additional college readiness indicators by school district, including the percentage of students who pass each section of the state’s college readiness standards.

FAST ratings are updated annually using the most recent data from the Texas Education Agency.  The 2009 Texas Legislature mandated that the Comptroller create a method to fairly compare the state’s diverse school districts.  When comparing district and campus spending, the FAST methodology groups districts and campuses into sets of “fiscal peers” that operate in similar coast environments, including regional wages, district size and students characteristics.
For the complete report, please visit http://www.fastexas.org/results/.

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Posted by FortBendStar on Oct 2 2012. Filed under Fort Bend ISD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.