In the annual accountability ratings released Wednesday, Temple has three recognized campuses and the rest were academically acceptable. Overall the district achieved an acceptable rating.
Superintendent Beto Gonzalez said despite the drop in writing performance at Meridith-Dunbar, the district faculty and staff deserve much praise.
“We are proud of what our teachers accomplished this past year,” Gonzalez said. “We are celebrating the success at Kennedy-Powell, Thornton and Western Hills as they were all recognized campuses.”
To remain academically acceptable, a school must have 65 percent of students pass the writing portion of the test, as well as meet the passing requirements on all the other portions of the TAKS. Lisa Diserens, director of student assessment, said poor performance on the essay included in the writing test was the main cause of the drop in scores at Meridith-Dunbar.
Meridith-Dunbar Principal Rhonda Etheridge could not be reached for comment, but district spokeswoman Regina Baird reported the problem was recognized near the end of the school year and during the summer Mrs. Etheridge began to address writing deficiencies. She said a literacy lab now has been added to address reading and writing for struggling students.
A summer program for kindergarten students is also in the works to begin early intervention. She said Mrs. Etheridge has also indicated there will be mandatory tutorials for struggling students as part of the daily schedule.
Thornton Elementary and Western Hills Elementary again earned recognized ratings, while Cater Elementary dropped from recognized to acceptable because of dipping math scores.
Kennedy-Powell achieved an exemplary rating last year, but a 5 percent drop in science scores and a 4 percent drop in mathematics put the school below the overall 90 percent passing rate required for an exemplary ranking.
Gonzalez said the transition of about 4 percent of the student body from special education courses into standard classes might have had something to do with the lower scores in the district in some subjects.
“As a district we are diligently working with TEA to place fewer students in the special ed program and therefore more students are taking regular TAKS assessment as opposed to alternative assessments,” Gonzalez said.
However, Gonzalez said the special education situation was not the cause of the drop in writing at Meridith-Dunbar.
“The release of special ed students does not appear to be a significant factor in this particular case,” Gonzalez said. “The vast majority of students passed the reading objective section with high percentages but scored a ‘1’ on the writing which is a mandatory failure. We have examined existing strategies and intervention methods to identify struggling students at the earliest stages of the academic school year.”
According to a TEA press release on Wednesday, the TAKS passing rate requirements were raised 5 percent in all subject areas this year, which led many schools to fall from recognized to acceptable or from acceptable to unacceptable.
kchandler@temple-telegram.com
