The purpose of this statement is to publicly announce and congratulate our campuses for their outstanding performance on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). As you know, accountability ratings were received from the Texas Education Agency late last week. Also, the District received accountability data tables that will allow a comparison of 2007 and 2008 student performance.
In order to receive an exemplary rating, a campus must demonstrate a minimum of 90% of students meeting the standard in the all student category and all subgroups. ECISD has one exemplary campus. I would like to acknowledge Reagan Elementary and ask Principal Andrea Martin to stand. Congratulations to Reagan Elementary. This is Reagan’s 13th consecutive exemplary rating.
Campuses receiving a Recognized rating must demonstrate a minimum of 75% of students meeting the standard in the all student category as well as all subgroups. We are proud to announce that ECISD now has 13 Recognized campuses. They are:
Gale Pond Alamo Principal Amanda Warber
Austin Principal Sylvia Sanchez
Blanton Principal Evelyn Garcia
Burleson Principal Lisa Anaya and Martha Mitchell, former principal
Cavazos Principal Wayne Squiers
Gonzales Principal Tracy Taylor
LBJ Principal Marilee Holmes
Jordan Principal Jan Brown
Milam Principal Staci Ashley
Pease Principal Annette Macias
Ross Principal Yolanda Hernandez
Sam Houston Principal Marcos Lopez
Travis Principal William Garcia and Luis Salcido, former principal
Congratulations to these campuses. These outstanding ratings may be attributed to the efforts of everyone on the team including teachers, campus and support personnel, administrators, parents, and students. Community support has also been vital to improving student performance in ECISD.
The remainder of the campuses in ECISD received an acceptable rating. As you will recall, we recently stood before the public and discussed the sincere possibility of all of our secondary campuses and two of our elementary campuses receiving an unacceptable rating for 2008 if performance did not drastically improve. Our campuses were given the challenge to immediately improve student performance as state standards for acceptable ratings increased. All ECISD campuses accepted this challenge and demonstrated significant improvements. In fact, ECISD TAKS scores have risen in every subject and every subgroup when comparing 2007 and 2008 scores. Reading increased 4% from 85% in 2007 to 89% in 2008. The writing score in 2007 was 90% and is 91% in 2008. Social Studies performance escalated 7% from 80% in 2007 to 87% in 2008. Math and science performance were the areas primarily responsible for concern on the 2008 preview report that indicated the possibility of unacceptable ratings. However, performance in both of these areas showed significant improvement. Math scores increased 5% from 70% to 75% and science scores demonstrated the greatest improvement from 57% to 66%. Although there is still work to be done in these areas, the 5% and 9% gains respectively indicate we are moving in the right direction.
We are very pleased with the accomplishments of our District this year and look forward to continued improvement and success for all students.
