Districts receive a Met Standard or Improvement Required rating each year from TEA, based on State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness test results and other criteria.
SISD’s Dekaney High School and Clark Intermediate School failed to meet TEA standards in 2016-17 and received Improvement Required ratings. However, Eickenroht Elementary School, which failed to meet TEA standards in 2015-16, received a Met Standard rating in 2016-17.
Lupita Hinojosa, SISD chief of school leadership and student support services, said the district will use the same strategies in Dekaney and Clark that helped Eickenroht Elementary meet TEA standards. Those strategies include hiring a consultant to work with the principal as well as dedicating time for small groups of students to work with tutors.
Hinojosa said part of the challenge with the schools is both Dekaney and Clark have a high population of students who are older than the traditional age for their grades as well as students who move frequently.
Although the district cannot control students moving in and out of the district throughout the school year, Hinojosa said the district uses a centralized curriculum to ensure all schools progress through lesson plans at the same pace.
KISD Superintendent Bret Champion said he is pleased all of KISD’s schools received the Met Standard rating, but he dislikes that the state’s assessment compares campuses to each other.
However, he said the indexes measuring student progress and postsecondary readiness are in line with KISD’s priorities.
“That should be our goal—that every student is walking out of the door towards whatever postsecondary path he or she chooses,” Champion said.
Financial accountability
The TEA also released its 2016-17 financial accountability ratings in December. Spring and Klein ISDs each scored 94 out of 100 in this report, earning a “superior” rating for efficiently managing their financial resources.
The areas in which SISD lost points include a measurement reflecting the number of days the district can operate using immediately available cash and the amount of money spent on administrative positions, SISD Chief Financial Officer Ann Westbrooks said.
Westbrooks said SISD missed points on the latter because of money spent in 2014-15 hiring staff for a professional development department. Now that the department’s initial goals are complete, the district has begun restricting its budget, she said.
KISD lost points on indicators comparing current assets and liabilities as well as a comparison of long-term liabilities and total assets. KISD Chief Financial Officer Dan Schaefer said the district missed points on the latter because of KISD’s growth and the number of facilities it continues to build.
