Eight of the nine campuses in San Marcos CISD met state accountability standards for the 2012–13 school year.
De Zavala Elementary School fell short of the Texas Education Agency's requirements for student progress in math and reading, said Greg Rodriguez, the district's director of secondary curriculum and accountability.
"Because [De Zavala] did not meet one of the targets, they are now designated as an Improvement Required campus," Rodriguez said during a presentation to board members Aug. 19.
On Aug. 8, the TEA released results of a new rating system that measures all campuses in three areas:
- Student achievement—represents performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test at an established standard.
- Student progress—provides diverse campuses an opportunity to show improvements made independent of overall achievement levels.
- Closing performance gaps—focuses on achievement for economically disadvantaged students and the lowest-performing race or ethnicity group at each campus.
In addition, the TEA rates high schools based on postsecondary readiness.
The TEA assigns each campus one of three ratings—Met Standard, Met Alternative Standard and Improvement Required.
In the first year of the accountability system, based on spring 2013 results in the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, De Zavala met the TEA's standards for student achievement and closing performance gaps. Because it did not meet standards for student progress, it was one of 9.1 percent of campuses throughout the state that were assigned a rating of Improvement Required, the TEA reported.
However, San Marcos CISD's Crockett Elementary School earned a distinction from the TEA for being in the top 25 percent of campuses statewide rated for student progress.
In addition, four San Marcos CISD campuses—Goodnight and Miller middle schools, and Crockett and Hernandez elementary schools—earned distinctions for student achievement in reading.
During the Aug. 19 meeting, trustee Lupe Costilla urged district leaders to continue to focus on closing achievement gaps between student ethnicity groups in San Marcos CISD.
"I just don't want us to lose sight of the fact that somewhere along the line we need to pay attention to where we're at," Costilla said.
"We're working on that daily," Superintendent Mark Eads said.
In an effort to improve student performance on standardized tests, Eads and Rodriguez said the district has realigned its curriculum, made personnel changes and is implementing software that gives teachers nearly instant access to data about a student's achievement.
"They'll be able to see in their own classes whether they're closing their own gaps," Rodriguez said.
Student progress rates for reading and math:
- Crockett Elementary School: 87 percent for reading, 95 percent for math
- De Zavala Elementary School: 61 percent for reading, 56 percent for math
- All San Marcos CISD campuses: 70 percent for reading, 64 percent for math
- All Texas campuses: 77 percent for reading, 75 percent for math
