Overall, the district picked up one point on the TEA agency’s rating, scoring 89 out of a possible 100 points.
PfISD scored a B across the board in the three domains the TEA uses to measure a district, which are student achievement, school progress and "Closing the Gaps."
"We are pleased [with the state grades]. Many of our campuses made some gains," said Tamra Spence, communications officer for PfISD. "This really is just one measure of our student achievement and doesn’t capture the success of our students as a whole."
Five of the 31 school campuses that were individually graded by the TEA received an A grade, the highest attainable score from the district. Among those, Hendrickson High School was the only PfISD high school to receive an A grade. Hendrickson High School was noted by the state to have exceptional academic achievement in social studies, and was in the top 25% in the state for comparative academic growth.
Four elementary schools—Parmer Lane Elementary, Murchison Elementary, Rowe Lane Elementary and Highland Park Elementary—received an A grade from the TEA.
None of the district’s middle schools received the top grade, though Kelly Lane Middle School was only one point off, according to TEA numbers.
Northwest Elementary was the district’s only campus to receive a failing grade, with an overall score of 59.
"We are implementing a new model of instruction at Northwest Elementary. ... We are already taking steps to move that campus forward, as well as all campuses," Spence said.
Two of the three worst-scoring campuses—Northwest Elementary and Dessau Middle School—are located in the school district’s southwestern boundaries with Austin addresses.
The district’s three worst-graded schools—Northwest Elementary, Timmerman Elementary and Dessau Middle School—all received failing grades in the "Closing the Gaps" domain from the TEA.
Northwest Elementary failed to meet all of the grade-level performance target goals set for the campus, according to TEA figures. The school hit just two out of 16 academic growth targets.
STUDENT PERFORMANCE
Digging into the new TEA numbers, PfISD scored above the state average on a few particular measureables.
The school district scored 92 out of a possible 100 points for its college, career and military readiness score, which is based on the percentage of graduates who met at least one criterion to be ready for those paths, according to the TEA.
According to TEA numbers, 69% of PfISD graduates are ready for college, career and military service—four percentage points higher than the state average.
The district’s graduation rate tops the state average as well. The new TEA data shows PfISD graduated 99.2% of its students over the past six years. The state average for students graduated by schools over six years is 92.1%, according to the TEA.
PfISD as a whole scored at or just above the state average for STAAR testing—the state’s standardized tests.
Overall, 25% of the district’s students scored at a Master Grade level on the STAAR tests, with 51% reaching the Meet Grade level. Both of those numbers are 1% above the respective statewide averages. 78% of PfISD STAAR results were Approach Grade level—the same as the state average.
The school district earned a score of 90 out of 100 from the state for its relative performance indicators. According to the TEA, relative performance is scored by looking at PfISD’s performance in the Student Achievement domain relative to the percentage of economically disadvantaged students at the school.
If you would like to find out more about how PfISD scored in the statewide accountability ratings, please visit the TEA website.
