Texas Education Agency officials are investigating 12 school districts that reported far-above-average rates of graduates enlisting or planning to enlist in the military in 2018, a data point that dramatically boosted some of their academic accountability grades and prompted criticism of the rating system earlier this year.
None of them reported a higher percentage of military-bound graduates than the George Gervin Academy, a 24-year-old charter network for at-risk kids in San Antonio, which told TEA that 100 percent of its class of 2018 — 36 students — had enlisted or planned to enlist.
That’s considerably higher than the state average of about 4 percent.
But state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, D-San Antonio, who obtained a state charter for the school in 1995 with her brother, San Antonio Spurs legend George Gervin, and was superintendent of the network until 2016, said she wasn’t surprised by the high number reported by the East Side academy.
“We normally, because of the student population we serve, we promote the military because a lot of them don’t have the financial resources or family support to go directly into college,” Gervin-Hawkins said Friday. “So we believe the military is an avenue — it provides the discipline, the support and the financial resources.”
State investigators have opened special accreditation investigations of any district that claimed 30 percent or more of its Class of 2018 graduates were expected to join the military after high school, including the Gervin Academy.
Without the high enlistment rates, some districts might have received lower grades under the state’s academic accountability system.
The Gervin network received an overall A grade both this year and last year, partly on the strength of a high ranking in college and career readiness driven mainly by the military metric. Before the state adopted letter grades for school districts, the Gervin network had met state standards for several years in a row.
A TEA spokesman could not say if the investigation would delve into previous years’ reporting on the military plans of graduates.
The agency’s website has kept the Gervin Academy’s top grade for 2018 but has removed this year’s A, replacing it and the academic accountability grades of the other 11 districts now under investigation with the notation, “Data Integrity Issues.”
“Self-reported information should always be accurate,” a TEA spokesman said in an email. “Any data that is an anomaly outside state averages is something at which the agency will always take a closer look.”
Gervin-Hawkins said she didn’t think the district had inflated its number of military-bound graduates. Students have to express an interest in the military in their letter of intent, which they write as part of an individualized academic plan, she said.
She said they also have to show further interest by taking other steps; for example, taking the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test, which is required for enlisting in the armed forces, or interacting with a recruiter.
The former educator indicated it was entirely possible that all 36 of the charter’s 2018 graduates had expressed an intent to join the military.
“You’re talking about a small population, so you’ll probably see a lot of them doing the same thing,” she said. “We’re not talking about 600 graduates.”
Frances Boynes, the network’s current superintendent and CEO, did not respond to requests for comment Thursday and Friday.
TEA officials said all 12 of the districts under investigation are relatively small, with enrollments ranging from about 100 to 4,500.
Their high military enlistment rates led to complaints that some might have bent accountability rules to boost their ratings, giving them an unfair advantage under the high-stakes system.
State law allows the TEA to investigate districts for failing to provide accurate data used for calculating academic accountability ratings. If the agency substantiates allegations of wrongdoing, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath could lower a district’s accreditation rating, resulting in possible sanctions ranging from a public notice of misconduct to replacement of the district’s school board.
The anomalous enlistment rates illustrated a potential shortcoming of Texas’ high-profile academic accountability system.
Each year, virtually all of the state’s public school districts and campuses are issued an A-through-F letter grade meant to reflect student performance and growth. The results are based on numerous metrics tied to standardized test scores, graduation rates and high school seniors’ readiness for life after high school.
Each metric is tied to a test score or completion of a course, with one exception: the percentage of seniors who enlisted or intend to enlist in the Armed Forces. Some districts do require students to pass the armed services aptitude test, but not all.
The U.S. Department of Defense does not provide data to the TEA on each student who enlists. State education officials gave school district leaders some discretion in determining how to classify students planning to join.
On HoustonChronicle.com: Loose rules let Texas districts boost academic ratings
A few districts, however, employed far looser definitions.
In Kingsville ISD, which enrolls about 3,300 children near Corpus Christi, the former superintendent said students who put their names on a sign-in sheet when a military recruiter visited H.M. King High School were classified as intending to enlist.
Another district under investigation, the 800-student Hearne ISD near College Station, counted students as intending to enlist if they indicated interest in the Armed Forces on documents distributed by military recruiters visiting Hearne High School, its superintendent, Adrian Johnson, said.
Hearne had its accreditation revoked earlier this year after receiving multiple failing grades under the academic accountability system. The district agreed to temporarily surrender control of its elementary and middle schools to a nonprofit last year.
Kingsville and Hearne ISDs scored poorly on state standardized tests this year, but earned B grades largely attributable to their enlistment rates. Department of Defense data documenting the number of people enlisting in the military from each Texas county in 2018 showed far fewer people joining the Armed Forces than reported by both districts.
Brian Coufal, president of the Kingsville ISD school board, said the district is cooperating with state officials. He noted that all seven of Kingsville’s principals and the district’s superintendent in 2018 have left the district. Administrators also now classify graduates as intending to enlist in the military if they have taken the ASVAB and met one-on-one with a recruiter.
“No one is disputing at this point that there was probably some incorrect info reported on this one,” Coufal said. “I’d like to believe it wasn’t a means of trying to boost the rating unfairly.”
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD, which enrolls about 2,800 students in the Permian Basin, and Center Point ISD, a 600-student district northwest of San Antonio, also likely would have scored worse than their B grades if not for their military figures.
TEA officials declined to answer why they opened investigations into only districts with claimed military enlistment rates of 30 percent of higher. Twenty-five districts reported rates ranging from 20 percent to 30 percent.
Express-News Staff Writer Krista Torralva contributed to this report. jacob.carpenter@chron.com
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