Published: August 01, 2009 09:21 pm      

Accountability ratings released for schools

By Tommy Mann Jr.

The Orange Leader



The 2008-2009 Accountability Ratings by the Texas Education Agency have been released, and area school districts appear to be doing well in educating their respective students.

Four of the six area school districts, Bridge City, Orange, Vidor and Deweyville, earned “Recognized” status from the TEA this year, which is the second highest rating available.

The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Consolidated Independent School District earned an “Academically Acceptable” rating, while West Orange-Cove CISD received an “Academically Unacceptable” rating which was based on the number of Hurricane Katrina students who enrolled and then left and could not be traced, and were considered dropouts.

“Accountability ratings provide parents and community members with a standardized way to examine academic performance at their local schools. The ratings help Texans highlight successes and pinpoint areas that need improvement,” said Robert Scott, commissioner of education.

Bridge City ISD was affected like few other districts across Texas, but still managed to maintain a level of succes that has become almost second nature for the students in this community.

Bridge City Intermediate School received an “Exemplary” rating, the highest rating bestowed upon a campus or district. Both Bridge City Middle School and Bridge City High School earned “Recognized” ratings.

“These ratings speak volumes about our students and our teachers and the work they did this year considering the circumstances we dealt with,” said Dr. Jamey Harrison, Bridge City ISD superintendent. “And we actually did better this year than last year. We never let the hurricane be a deterrent. We just looked at it like, ‘Bring it on!’”

Orangefield ISD once again earned a “Recognized” rating, as did the high school and middle campuses. Orangefield Elementary earned an exemplary rating.

“This is the first time we have ever had an ‘Exemplary’ rating at the elementary school,” said Philip Welch, Orangefield ISD superintendent. “The staff and students did a great job preparing for the TAKS test all year. It’s also the first time the high school has ever been ‘Recognized’ under the TAKS test, so we’re very happy about that as well.”

Deweyville ISD made considerable improvements over the course of the year, and it showed with a “Recognized” rating from the TEA for this completed school year.

The elementary, middle school and high school campuses all earned “Recognized” ratings as well.

“We set a goal at the beginning of the (2008-2009) school year, and that was to become a ‘Recognized’ district again,” said Rick Summers, Deweyville ISD superintendent. “And we did it. Our teachers, faculty, administrators and, most especially, the students are to be commended for their hard work and dedication this year.”

Vidor ISD improved its status with a “Recognized” rating as well. The district’s three elementary campuses — Oak Forest, Pine Forest and Vidor Elementary — all earned “Exemplary” ratings, while the middle school, junior high and high school all received “Recognized” ratings.

According to Debbie Gier, Vidor ISD testing coordinator, this is the rating district administrators had hoped to receive after seeing the early figures.

“We are very pleased to be a ‘Recognized’ school district,” Gier said. “But we still have a lot of work to do. As our new superintendent, Dr. (Joe ) Burns has said before, we still have children who need help to pass the TAKS test, so our job isn’t done.”

The Little Cypress-Maurice Consolidated Independent School District received an “Academically Acceptable” rating from the TEA this year, despite receive better ratings at five of its six campuses.

Little Cypress Elementary earned an “Exemplary” rating, while Mauriceville Elementary, Little Cypress Intermediate, Mauriceville Middle School and Little Cypress Junior High all received “Recognized” ratings.

Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School was the sole campus to earn an “Academically Acceptable” rating.

“One of the positive aspects of the TAKS assessment is that the results the district receives from the state identify the concept or concepts that each child failed to master,” said Sherry Combs, LC-M CISD community relations coordinator. “This allows school staff to individualize instruction to re-teach and reinforce the information that a student did not understand. This also helps identify areas of the curriculum that need to be reinforced with the staff, as well.

“LC-M Administrators were in-serviced this week on how the ratings are formulated and how they can use the results to improve the educational opportunities offered the children we serve.”

West Orange-Cove CISD received an “Academically Unacceptable” rating from the TEA after several years of being an “Academically Acceptable” district, although this year’s rating has more to do with the dropout rate than it does with academics and TAKS scores.

A story detailing West-Orange Cove CISD rating can be found in the Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009 edition.

The TEA administers ratings such as “Exemplary,” “Recognized,” “Academically Acceptable” and “Academically Unacceptable” to districts as a whole and the campuses within each respective district.

An Exemplary rating means all student groups on the campus or in the district had a 90 percent or higher passing rate on all subject areas of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS).

For a “Recognized” rating, A passing rate of 75 percent for all student groups evaluated on all TAKS exams is required to earn this rating. A district or campus can also meet the “Recognized” level by achieving passing rates on the TAKS of 70 to 74 percent and by showing enough improvement on the TAKS since 2007 to reach a 75 percent passing rate in two years.

They must also obtain a high school completion rate of 85 percent, or have a completion rate of 75 to 84 percent and meet the Required Improvement standard. An annual dropout rate that is no greater than 2.0 percent, or meets Required Improvement which shows that the rate is declining enough each year to be at 2.0 percent within two years must also be obtained. The school leaver provision was used by 13 districts and eight campuses.

To earn the “Academically Acceptable” rating, a school or district must meet the following testing standards: 70 percent or higher passing rate on the English language arts or reading TAKS; a 65 percent or higher passing rate on the writing and social studies TAKS; a 50 percent or higher passing rate on the mathematics TAKS; a 45 percent or higher passing rate on the science TAKS; or meets Required Improvement provisions.

Districts or schools that earn an Academically Unacceptable rating face state-imposed sanctions that range from assignment of a Campus Intervention Team to closure. Two schools, Johnston High School in the Austin Independent School District and Sam Houston High School in Houston ISD were closed by the commissioner this year because of multiple years of low ratings.

Statewide, the graduation rate for the 290,662 member Class of 2007 was 78.0 percent. Between ninth grade and the end of 12th grade, 11.4 percent of the members of this class dropped out of school.

Additionally, 8.7 percent of the class remained in school beyond the traditional four years of high school and 2.0 percent received a General Educational Development (GED) certificate.

For the 283,698 member Class of 2006, the graduation rate was 80.4 percent, while 8.6 percent of the class continued in school, 2.3 percent received a GED and 8.8 percent dropped out of school.

Completion rates for classes in which the national dropout definition is being phased in (i.e., Classes of 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009) are not directly comparable to completion rates for the Class of 2005 and prior classes, nor are they comparable to each other. The number of dropouts in grades 7-12 rose from 51,841 in the 2005-2006 school year to 55,306 in 2006-2007. The 12th grade is the only grade that saw a rise in the dropout rate in 2006-2007.

The statewide increase in the overall dropout rate is believed to be caused by a change in the way the state calculates dropout rates and a growing number of students who do not pass TAKS by the end of their senior year.

The TAKS is given to students in grades 3-11 and covers English language arts and reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies. The subjects tested vary at each grade level. The state evaluates test results for the following student groups: African American, Hispanic, white, economically disadvantaged and total student body.