Fort Bend ISD staff reported on the district’s Texas Academic Performance Report for the 2016-17 school year and updates on the facilities master planning process during Monday's board meeting. The board of trustees also approved the academic calendar for 2018-19 and future agenda items for upcoming meetings in February.

1) Texas Academic Performance Report

Based on testing performance from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exams from third through eighth grades and end-of-course exams, TAPR breaks down the testing data by subject in comparison of FBISD to the state and region for all grade levels tested, said Lisa Coston, director of accountability and assessment.

FBISD consistently outperformed the region and the state in subjects, including reading, mathematics, writing, science and social studies, according to the report.

Approximately 83 percent of tested FBISD students met or exceeded standards in the Approaches Grade Level category, indicating they are at least sufficiently prepared for the next grade level or course. In comparison, 76 percent of tested students in the region and 75 percent of tested students from the state met this standard, according to the district’s TAPR.

The data is further broken down by student groups, examining performance across different demographics. Special education students and English Language Learners had the lowest number of students approaching, meeting or mastering grade level standards, according to the report.

Examining student progress in reading and math, approximately 67 percent of tested students showed a year’s worth of growth on STAAR performance in the two subjects, according to the district’s TAPR.

“Here we see the district outperforming the state and region across all tested students in grades three through eight and high school English I and algebra I [end-of-course exams],” Coston said.

Staff also reported the district's annual dropout rate for the 2015-16 school year was 1 percent. Regionally, the dropout rate was 2.2 percent, and statewide, the dropout rate was 2 percent. Additionally, FBISD's graduation rate for 2016-17 was 94.4 percent.

2) 2018-19 FBISD calendar

The board approved staff’s recommended calendar for the 2018-19 school year with the first day of school beginning Aug. 15 and ending May 24.

The calendar features a week for Thanksgiving break, Nov. 19-23, two weeks for winter vacation, Dec. 24-Jan. 4, and a week for spring break, March 11-15.

The full calendar is available, here.

3) Facilities Master Plan update

The district launched its facilities master planning process Thursday, FBISD superintendent Charles Dupre said. Staff recommended 30 community members for the steering committee to guide and oversee the facilities master plan development.

District officials plan to use the facilities master plan to help identify needs and potential projects for the 2018 bond program, FBISD spokesperson Amanda Bubela said.

The facilities steering committee will advise and discuss visionary and strategic programming, review data and serve as a point of communication for the community and school administrators, said Beth Martinez, chief of staff and strategic planning.

“Each board member recommended three members to the committee,” Martinez said. “Dr. Dupre worked with staff to analyze that membership and make sure we had every feeder pattern represented and that we also were able to bring on staff or other members of the community that might have specific knowledge of data or performance in a certain area that could bring value to the process as decisions are made.”

4) Future agenda items 

FBISD board and staff will meet in February to discuss student college and career readiness, receive its annual demographic report update, discuss 2018-19 student enrollment, and review facilities master planning progress.