A plan to rebound student performance at Travis High School will be put in place starting in school year 2015-16 after a state agency found the school not meeting state performance requirements for the second year in a row.
At its June 22 meeting, the Austin ISD board of trustees voted unanimously during the consent agenda to approve the plan, which includes a 50 percent split between English and Spanish instruction for English Language Learner students, hiring a liaison between Travis and a higher education partner, and increasing awareness of the early college high school program, according to board documents. The board also approved a reconstitution plan for Martin Middle School at 1601 Haskell St. and an amendment to the reconstitution plan for Eastside Memorial High School, located at 1012 Arthur Stiles Road.
AISD Superintendent Paul Cruz said during the June 15 AISD board meeting that reconstitution plans address staffing, academic programming and the support for student learning. Branching out from those topics, he added, the plan also examines attendance, suspensions and academic performance.
Travis had to implement a reconstitution plan because it did not meet state performance requirements for the second consecutive year in 2014, according to board documents. The Texas Education Agency gave the school a 52—five points below the target score—for postsecondary readiness, which indicates whether students are prepared to move forward to college and careers.
The TEA found that 22 percent of Travis students met postsecondary readiness, according to board documents. Broken down into demographics, 33 percent of white students, 23 percent of Hispanic students and 12 percent of African American students at Travis met the requirement.
Trustee Edmund Gordon said during the June 15 AISD board meeting that high student mobility, or moving from one school to another, has been cited as one of the problems at Travis.
"The main reason we have such high mobility is because of the rental properties around Travis High School," Travis Principal Ty Davidson said. "It's one of the affordable areas left in Austin."
AISD has to submit the Travis reconstitution plan to the TEA by July 10.