Austin ISD has set goals for district performance in 2014–15 including boosting graduation rates and improving standardized test scores, Interim Superintendent Paul Cruz said at the Sept. 29 AISD board of trustees meeting.
"We know it's a large, complex school system with 85,000 students, 125 instructional sites [and] 12,200 employees. It's a big lift, it's a big charge, but it's one that has a lot of value and has a lot of merit, and that's why we continue to move forward. ... Every single student needs to graduate from high school and be ready for college, career and life," he said.
Austin ISD's graduation rates have increased, but Cruz said the district knows it needs to do more.
The AISD administration's 2014–15 performance targets include:
- Increasing the district's Class of 2015 graduation rate (the federal target is 88.3 percent; the state's is 90 percent)
- Achieving a 15 percent reduction in AISD's failure rate on State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness/end-of-course performance;
- Boosting the district's attendance rate by 0.2 percentage points to 95.5 percent;
- Decrease the amount of discretionary removals in the district by 15 percent.
The district developed steps to reach these targets with actions such as establishing a literacy action plan, implementing a plan to benefit special education students and providing support for underperforming schools. The goals also aim to maintain the Anti-Defamation League's No Place for Hate designation for the district, which fights hatred and encourages diversity.
Trustees did not vote on the plans but discussed possible additions and changes. Trustee Ann Teich said she would like to see a report on how AISD trains all its staff to work with families that do not comply with disciplinary requirements. She added all staff members including custodians and administrators need to be involved in professional development.
Additionally, one objective for AISD is to implement the district's fine arts creative learning initiative at 12 additional schools. On Sept. 26, the U.S. Department of Education awarded AISD a $349,000 professional development grant to provide specialized training of music teachers and enhanced fine arts coaching for general classroom teachers in Title I schools.
At the Sept. 29 board meeting, trustees also voted to approve the district's FY2015-16 budget approach and process, initial budget parameters and budget development calendar.
