Lisa Coston—FBISD’s director of accountability, assessment and compliance—presented the report during a special meeting of the Fort Bend ISD board of trustees March 27. The Texas Education Agency-mandated TAPR report compiles State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness scores, attendance and graduation rates, College, Career and Military Readiness, and student and staff demographics gathered throughout the 2021-22 school year.
The district received a “B” accountability rating overall and a “Needs Assistance” rating, the second-highest of four categories, for its Special Education Determination Status. The district received this due to the rate of its African American students receiving special education services who were given in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension or the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program as compared to other students served with special education services, Coston said.
“I think that the message needs to be sent consistently that we want our teachers and administrators to do the right thing in each situation when it comes to discipline and not do discipline in either direction, for better or for worse, based on skin color,” Trustee David Hamilton said.
The district saw its high school dropout rate increase from 1% in 2019-20 to 1.6% in the 2020-21 school year. The number of violent and criminal incidents in the district also increased from six in 2020-21 to 27 in 2021-22.
The district outperformed state and regional averages for the approaching, meets and masters levels in grades 3-8 STAAR scores but did not meet its CCMR target of 70%, with only 63.4% of 2021 graduates meeting the criteria.
“We continue to see impacts of the pandemic on CCMR indicators, we predict for at least one more year, maybe longer than that, due to the wide variety of impacts caused by the pandemic,” Coston said.
