Conroe ISD Education FocusConroe ISD has been ranked eighth among large school districts in Texas for high overall school performance after earning an A score in a recent study conducted by Children at Risk, a Texas based children’s research and advocacy group.


Children at Risk conducts an annual ranking of Texas schools and districts and assigns each school and district a letter grade. The grades range from A to F.


LaPorcha Carter, assistant director of the Center for Social Measurement and Evaluation at Children at Risk, said the organization looks for certain indicators when grading a school.


Factors for rating schools include advanced State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test scores, high SAT, ACT and Advanced Placement test participation and scoring, Carter said. Additional rating considerations include the number of economically disadvantaged students.


“Conroe ISD overall has high performance schools, so that’s why the district received an A,” Carter said. “They had a couple elementary schools that received an F rating, but a lot of factors play into that. Both those schools did do worse than expected, but CISD schools as a whole performed better than expected.”


Carter said Austin and Sam Houston elementary schools both received F scores. The reasons they scored poorly could include the larger number of economically disadvantaged students at the campuses and limited growth in test scores from year to year.


John Husbands, president of the CISD board of trustees, said dedicated teachers and administrators are responsible for many of the district’s highly rated schools. Husbands said struggling students are offered specific training to address learning issues, and schools with a higher economically disadvantaged rate receive additional funding.


“The standing rule is to add to each child each day—it’s constant improvement,” Husbands said. “Value added every day to a child’s life is the reason why we are successful.”