In an environment with dwindling resources and increasingly tough accountability requirements, Austin ISD is working to find a balance between the district's needs and its $25 million budget shortfall, Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said during her annual State of the District address Dec. 3.

She pointed out that the Texas Legislature had restored some funding for public education, but not enough to make up for AISD's permanent $60 million reduction in state funding two years ago.

"With so little new money from the state, we will need to work together to find a balanced solution to fund our most important priorities, like keeping salaries for teachers competitive so that we can attract and retain the best staff," she said.

One of AISD's goals is moving away from a culture of high-stakes testing and instead increasing its focus on arts-rich education, literacy, dual-language programming and social and emotional learning, she said.

She said the district has made many achievements in the past few years. For example, compared with the 20 other large urban Trial Urban District Assessment districts in the National Assessment of Educational Progress Trial Urban Assessment, AISD students ranked first for eighth grade on the 2011 NAEP in mathematics and second for fourth grade. AISD students ranked third in reading in eighth grade and second in reading in fourth grade.

"We have continued to improve in the face of tougher accountability requirements, dwindling resources and changing demographics," Carstarphen said.

Districtwide graduation rates reached an all-time high of 82.5 percent for the 2011–12 class.

AISD achieved its goal of improving attendance by one percentage point, generating $5.3 million in additional state funding for the district.

In the class of 2012, economically disadvantaged, Hispanic and African-American students all saw double-digit graduation rate gains.

There was a 65 percent reduction in the overall number of discretionary removals—an instance in which a student is placed in a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program for persistent or serious misbehavior—throughout AISD in 2013.

In the first year under the new state standardized testing system, 110 of AISD's 123 schools met the state standard, and 55 schools earned academic distinctions. However, not all schools met the standards, and AISD is implementing improvement plans at those campuses.

Carstarphen said AISD is also planning to improve its buildings with the nearly $490 million in voter-approved funds from the May bond election. She noted that although the bond passed, the Travis County Taxpayers Union has challenged the bond election in court, and unless the judge rules in favor of the district, it cannot use those dollars.

"We're at the mercy of the courts, so what we hope is that there will be a decision sometime during this school year so that we can then use the dollars ... an entire year later, for the 2014–15 school year," she told Community Impact Newspaper. "Until the judge decides, we don't have any influence other than to present our case."

As the district continues to develop its facility master plan, it will look to address areas not supported by the bond program, including career and technical education and athletics.

"As part of good stewardship, it will mean possibly changing transfer policies and practices. School boundary changes are likely to be considered as well [so that we can] better utilize our existing school infrastructure," Carstarphen said in her address. "We will be looking at future facilities' needs in the context of changing enrollment patterns. While some schools are overcrowded, the district's overall enrollment has dropped this year."

District faces additional challenges

AISD must work to find a funding solution to support its priorities, including maintaining competitive salaries for teachers, she said. AISD will be looking for permanent funding streams, including considering a tax ratification election.

A school district must seek voter approval to raise its property tax rate to any amount above $1.04 per $100 of valuation to the $1.17 tax cap through a tax ratification election. AISD's board of trustees has recently discussed the possibility of calling for a TRE sometime in 2014 or 2015.

This year, Carstarphen's annual insights came in the form of a 30-minute video highlighting data, students' academic performance and featuring appearances by AISD staff and others.

During the video, Michael Marder, executive director of the University of Texas at Austin science program, UTeach, said Austin's graduation rates are above those of Houston and Dallas.

Marder noted the state Legislature recently changed high school graduation plans, removing chemistry, physics and algebra II from the list of courses every student is required to take.

Passed by the 83rd legislature, House Bill 5 revises the graduation program for students entering ninth grade in the 2014–15 school year and all subsequent years. As part of the revisions, students will have to choose areas of concentration, or "endorsements," which they will take specific courses to complete.

The State Board of Education approved algebra II as a requirement for some endorsements—such as science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM—but not all of them.

"If we in Austin pull together and support our public schools, there is no reason they cannot keep pushing forward and set an even better example for the state and for the nation," he said.

State of the District: Student performance at a glance

Each year, Austin ISD's superintendent delivers a State of the District address, noting current opportunities, challenges and goals for students and school communities. This year, Superintendent Meria Carstarphen shared the district's achievements and some student performance data as part of the 30-minute State of the District video, which is posted online at www.austinisd.org/sod. Some of the student performance highlights include:

• Districtwide graduation rates reached an all-time high of 82.5 percent for the class of 2012.
• The percentage of students taking advanced and dual-credit courses has risen from 27.1 percent to 31.2 percent in 2012.
• The number of students taking the SAT and ACT college entrance exams rose in 2012 from 71.7 percent to 77.7 percent.
• After a six percentage point increase in 2011, the number of seniors applying to two- and four-year colleges dropped four percentage points in 2012.
• The district's dropout rate has declined by nearly three percentage points during the past four years to 9.5 percent.
• In 2013, there was a 65 percent reduction in the overall number of discretionary removals—in which a student is removed and placed in a disciplinary program—throughout the district.

Source: Austin ISD