Area school districts meet standards, with distinctions
By SARAH M. VASQUEZ
FAR WEST TEXAS – School districts in Far West Texas met the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) accountability rating standards this year with the exception of Marfa ISD.
Marfa Superintendent Andrew Peters contests these ratings don’t paint a complete picture of the district, but administration and staff are tweaking the curriculum.
What is not measured, according to Peters, is the Montessori program that provides early childhood education to three- and four-year-olds, or the 70 percent of last year’s seniors who graduated with 18 college hours or more through the Early College High School program. One graduate left Marfa High School with 30 hours.
Changes implemented this school year include a closed campus for all students during lunch, removing cell phones from the classroom and implementing designated reading time in the morning to increase academic productivity. The district named this school year “The Year of the Book,” and every student is required to read for 45 minutes every morning. High school students receive breakfast during this time.
To address the past high turnover rate of teachers, Marfa ISD invested in some housing for district employees.
“Housing prices are so high, I can’t get people to come live here,” said Peters. “We had six professional employees leave during the middle of (last) year. Six out of 26. That’s insane. I know it hurts.”
Montessori, once a private, stand-alone program that was included in the public school curriculum two years ago, expanded this year. Parents were given the option this year to keep their children in the Montessori instruction in first-, second- and third-grades. There are 50 students in the pre-kindergarten program, including 15 three-year-olds.
Marfa Junior High School was revamped into The Learning Academy that includes all seventh and eighth graders and four teachers. There will be less movement to allow students to stay with their teachers longer. Therefore the class periods are gone.
“They’re focused on reading, the writing process and all their courses,” said Peters. “They’re focusing on how to study and character building.”
TEA standards are used to measure a district’s academic performance each year and are based on four indexes that each focus on one area: student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps and postsecondary readiness. Criteria such as graduation rates and the students’ performance on State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), which is the standardized test for third grade to high school, are determining factors. Ratings were previously assigned with a scale that included “recognized,” “academically acceptable” and “academically unacceptable.” The new rating system simply states whether a district met standards, met an alternative standard, or requires improvement.
Marfa ISD
Marfa received an “improvement required” rating for not meeting Index 3 that looks at the academic achievements with economically disadvantaged students and the two lowest performing racial and ethnic student groups, according to TEA’s handbook.
Peters said TEA is looking to “close the gap” to ensure the district is teaching every student equally, no matter the race or income. With the majority of MISD’s student being predominately Hispanic, the only group TEA looked at was the economically disadvantaged students.
According to TEA’s data, there were 84.3 percent Hispanic students, 13.8 percent White students and less than one percent African American students at MISD in 2014. TEA also reports that 68.7 percent of MISD students are economically disadvantaged.
Peters said the district needed the students to pass 16 additional tests to reach the target score of 31. Meaning, if four students passed four individual tests, which includes reading, writing science, social studies and math, or if eight students passed two tests, MISD would have Met Standard this year, according to Peters. Instead, MISD’s score was 25, six points shy of meeting the Index 3 standard.
Presidio ISD’s economically disadvantaged students were solely measured for Index 3 as well, but the district received a score of 41, which is 13 points more than their target score of 28.
However, MISD shined in Index 2 that measures the progress a student makes from one school year to the next. The target score was 15 and MISD received a 32.
Other districts excel
Alpine ISD and Fort Davis ISD exceeded the target scores for all the indexes. Several districts also received distinction designations, which are awarded for outstanding academic performance.
Fort Davis received two distinctions: academic achievement in reading/English Language Arts (ELA) and top 25 percent student progress.
Superintendent Graydon Hicks said there are several factors his district does to ensure student success such as teacher stability, extended school days and parent involvement.
“It’s a community effort,” said Hicks. “It’s difficult to get there and sometimes you can get it and sometimes you can’t. A district may be very successful for two or three years, but you may struggle one year. Generally, if you can put together a string of years, it starts to build.”
FDISD did receive an academically unacceptable rating two years ago, but won their appeal. Hicks said writing is a weak point in his district, so they will implement more writing exercises across all subject levels from the core subjects to the electives.
Valentine ISD Superintendent Doug Cook believes the small enrollment of 46 students contributes to the academic success. He said the teachers are trained to analyze the students to set an education plan for each one.
“We’re able to adapt to the learning styles of each individual student,” said Cook.
The district received distinctions in academic achievement in reading/ELA, post secondary readiness, top 25 percent student progress and closing performance gaps.
The larger school districts in Far West Texas, Alpine ISD and Presidio ISD, received various distinctions within their schools. Both districts average over 1,000 students.
Lucy Rede Franco Middle School in Presidio received academic achievement in social studies and postsecondary readiness. Presidio Elementary received academic achievement in science, top 25 percent closing performance gaps and postsecondary readiness.
Presidio ISD Superintendent Dennis McEntire is quick to divert the credit from the administrative staff.
“The credit for performance of the district is too often given to administrators and programming,” said McEntire. “If things are going well in a school, it is a result of the time and effort put in by teachers, students and parents.”
He added that these dedicated teachers, engaged students and supportive parents make things go well if they focus on the positives. He said the district has to adjust options, programs and opportunities to fit the community needs. In Presidio, that’s continuing education beyond high school. PISD has done with this through the T-STEM Academy and early college high school. The three schools in PISD average 90 percent economically disadvantaged students. 93.5 percent of the 321 Presidio HS students are economically disadvantaged.
“First generation, at-risk college-going students have to have support systems in place and a financial incentive that works with a low income population,” said McEntire.
He adds, “Students taking college level courses as freshman build on initial success until by their senior year, they are no longer performing as high school students, but as highly successful college students before they ever walk across the high school graduation stage. Again, at no cost to the family.”
What McEntire feels the district could work on is communicating its mission and successes within the community as well as counseling parents and students with the students’ planning for the future. He said PISD has built a reputation across the state and country as a district that brings excellence to its border community, but that message is not communicated within their own community.
“Language and fluency will always be a barrier that we as a district must address,” said McEntire. “This has to begin as very young students and continue as a focus throughout the high school career of each child. The goal is to have each graduating senior leaving the stage be in possession of all the tools they need to be successful in any career choice they have made.”
Alpine ISD’s three schools average 47 percent of their students as economically disadvantaged. Alpine High School received distinctions in academic achievement in reading/ELA and mathematics, top 25 percent in student progress and closing performance gaps and post secondary readiness. Alpine Middle School received a distinction in academic achievement in mathematics.
While there are currently 1,064 students, Superintendent Becky Watley said the district takes care of each individual student’s needs.
“I’m really pleased with how everyone is working,” said Watley. “It take a great effort with everyone in the district our level of excellence and we all work together.”
These distinctions are awarded based on the schools in TEA-determined comparison groups, which is a point of contention. Even Hicks, whose district received distinctions, said they can be misleading, because some of the school in the groups are drastically different in location and size.
FDISD with its 217 students were compared to districts with over 700 to 900 student from large urban areas. The largest school in the comparison group with MISD was in El Paso with over 1,000 students. At the time of the rating, MISD had 351 students.
Both Hicks and Peters believe the districts should be compared with similar school districts living in similar conditions.
MISD did not qualify for a distinction because of its rating, but they will not need a monitor like they did when they received an academically unacceptable rating two years ago.
The “improvement required” ratings means just that though, the district needs to get better, according to the state.
