Karen Shah, executive director for accountability and compliance, said the Texas Education Code requires each district’s board of trustees to post a performance report each year.
Breaking it down
Texas statute requires school districts to report violent or criminal incidents annually. PfISD’s 2022-23 report shows from 2021-22:
- There were 415 incidents of possession of marijuana or a controlled substance, up from 325 incidents.
- There was an increase in terroristic threat incidents from 16 to 21; assault against an employee or volunteer from 14 to 21; and assault against a nonemployee or volunteer from 49 to 66.
- There were 239 fighting/mutual combat incidents, down from 245; 14 bullying incidents, down from 23; and one serious misbehavior while at an alternative school incident, down from seven.
The report also included information from the 2022-23 Texas Academic Performance Report, such as district STAAR scores.
According to Shah, “approaches” indicates students have passed, “meets” indicates students have met grade level expectations, and “masters” indicates students have mastered the grade level and are prepared to move on.
From 2022 to 2023, the district’s "approaches" and "meets" percentages increased across all four subjects. However, math STAAR "masters" percentages remained the same at 17%, while English language arts, science and social studies STAAR "masters" percentages all dropped by 2%, 1% and 3%, respectively.
“There was a STAAR redesign that was implemented in last year’s test, which greatly impacted ELA, so it’s also very difficult to compare from one year to the next because of so many changes in testing,” Shah said.
The TAPR also included attendance and chronic absenteeism rates for the 2021-22 school year. Chronically absent students attend less than 90% of the days they’re enrolled; students must be in attendance for 90% of their classes to earn course credit.
Shah said while PfISD’s chronic absenteeism rate was “in line” with the state’s rate of 25.3%, PfISD’s rate was the highest it’s been in four years.
“... Attendance-taking was very different in COVID[-19] years,” Shah said. “We had students who were both virtual and in person. ... Coming back to the 2021 school year, [there were] just very different ways that attendance was tracked there and the expectation for student’s attendance.”
One more thing
The Texas Education Agency measures each district’s special education program annually. PfISD received the “meets requirements” status for its program in the 2022-23 school year, the highest level that can be earned. Shah said the district had previously been at “needs improvement” for many years.
What else?
The performance report also included information on the district’s graduation rates, progress toward meeting its House Bill 3 goals and other financial data, which can be found here.
