Carpenter Hill Elementary students practice a “get quiet” exercise at a dedication ceremony last year. Carpenter Hill is one of the schools that earned an exemplary rating this year. (Photo by Jim Cullen)
by WES FERGUSON
Thanks to tougher state standards, four of Hays CISD’s five middle schools saw their academic ratings fall from “recognized” to “acceptable” when the Texas Education Agency released new school accountability ratings last Friday.
Four of the district’s 12 elementary campuses also received lower ratings based on standardized test scores.
Kim Pool, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said student achievement in Hays CISD showed signs of progress as well as a few “statistically insignificant declines.”
“We feel we’re on the right track and doing the right things for students,” she said. “We knew where we needed improvement and where concerns were even without” the state’s new ratings.
Three Hays CISD elementary schools received “exemplary” designations. None of the district’s more than 20 campuses was rated academically unacceptable.
“In the big picture, parents can really be proud of Hays CISD and the performance here,” said Tim Savoy, district spokesman. “There’s always room for improvement and growth, certainly, but from a Central Texas perspective Hays CISD did very well.”
Other schools in Central Texas and around the state, including the Round Rock school district, saw much more precipitous declines in student achievement measures.
It wasn’t unexpected.
Educators statewide had been dreading the release of 2011 school accountability measures. That’s because the formula used to calculate the ratings, based primarily on students’ scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, no longer includes a mechanism called the Texas Projection Measure.
The TPM gauged students’ future test scores based on a campus-wide average instead of using their actual test scores and had the effect of giving schools credit for students passing when they hadn’t. In April, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott announced he would discontinue the measure after state lawmakers voted unanimously against it during debate on a testing bill.
Across the state, ratings plummeted from 2010 to 2011:
• “Exemplary” schools dropped from 19.5 percent of all districts to 5 percent;
• “Recognized” schools dropped from 49.1 percent of all districts to 34.4 percent;
• “Acceptable” schools rose from 27.6 percent of all districts to 53.3 percent;
• “Unacceptable” schools rose from 3 percent of all districts to 7.2 percent.
Pool pointed to several success stories in Hays CISD.
At Camino Real Elementary, 88 percent of the students taking standardized tests were economically disadvantaged and 59 percent were identified as English language learners. Despite those obstacles, the campus received a recognized distinction from the TEA in 2011 and 2010.
At Simon Middle School, which is also economically disadvantaged, the percent of students who met the state’s math standards increased from 70 percent in 2010 to 82 percent in 2011. In science they improved from 58 percent to 77 percent.
“That’s a really bright spot,” Pool said.
The curriculum at Simon is the same as other schools’, Pool said, but the campus provides additional support for students. Simon has extended hours, lower class sizes and more parent-involved activities, among other efforts, she added.
“We see our schools really working hard for students, and we see good results,” she said. “Are they where we want them? No. We want to continually improve and getter better.”
The Texas Tribune contributed to this story.
