Districts and campuses that receive an accountability rating of A, B, C, or D are eligible to earn distinction designations. Distinction designations are awarded for achievement in several areas and are based on performance relative to a group of campuses of similar type, size, grade span, and student demographics.

Distinction Designations For 2019, distinction designations are awarded in the following areas:

• Academic Achievement in English Language Arts/Reading (campus only)
• Academic Achievement in Mathematics (campus only)
• Academic Achievement in Science (campus only)
• Academic Achievement in Social Studies (campus only)
• Top 25 Percent: Comparative Academic Growth (campus only)
• Top 25 Percent: Comparative ClosingtheGaps (campus only)
• Postsecondary Readiness (district and campus)

The Distinction Designation Reports show one of the following labels for each distinction designation:

Distinction Earned
The district or campus is ratedA, B,C,orDand meets the criteria for the distinction designation.

No Distinction Earned
The district or campus is rated F or does not meet the criteria for the distinction designation.

Not Eligible
The district or campus does not have results to evaluate for the distinction designation, is not rated, is evaluated by alternative education accountability (AEA) provisions, or is a campus paired with a feeder campus for accountability evaluation.

No, it is important to note that distinction designations cannot be used to compare Bay City ISD campuses to each other. Each campus has its own unique comparison group comprised of campuses from around the state. The group may or may not include other BCISD campuses, so an BCISD campus with six distinction designations or “gold stars” may be in an entirely different comparison group than a BCISD campus with no stars.

Each campus is assigned to a unique comparison group comprised of Texas schools that are most similar to it. To determine the campus comparison group, each campus is identified by school type then grouped with 40 other campuses from anywhere in Texas that are most similar in grade levels served, size, percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged, mobility rate, percentage of English learners, percentage of students receiving special education services, and percentage of students enrolled in an Early College High School program. Each campus has only one unique campus comparison group. There is no limit on the number of comparison groups to which a campus may be a member. It is possible for a campus to be a member of no comparison group other than its own or a member of several comparison groups.

A campus earns a distinction designation if it is in the top quartile (Q1) of its comparison group for at least 33 percent (for high schools and K–12 campuses) or 50 percent (for elementary and middle schools) of the indicators used to award the distinction.