The third try at the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test worked out for 5 percent, or about seven of the 140 eighth-graders, in the Temple Independent School District who retook the exam in early July, school officials said.

TISD finished the school year with 584 total students in eighth grade, with about 24 percent (140) of the students taking the test for a third time.

In all, 80 percent of the eighth-graders in the district passed the math component of the test, and 90 percent passed the reading component during the school year and on retake attempts, officials said.

“I am pleased with the results,” said Lisa Diserens, TISD director of accountability, assessment and teams. “The scores from the first round of testing remained on par with our past scores. They have remained consistent.”

For the first time, eighth-graders are being held accountable for scores in math and reading in order to be promoted to high school. The 2007-08 school year also marked the first time eighth-graders were given the opportunity to retake the test a third time.

Ms. Diserens said students who failed to meet state standards could still be promoted to high school if their parents partake in grade placement committee meetings, made up of a parent, principals and student teachers.

“If a child is not successful, a parent can appeal their retention,” Ms. Diserens said. “A committee will meet, and look at grades, attendance and test scores throughout the year to determine if the child can be promoted.”

The district is currently setting up committee meetings.

“We believe that after the grade placement committee meetings, we will have that many students who will be promoted,” she said. “The belief is that if a student has passed everything during the year, and they struggled to pass the test, the committee might pass them in the hopes that they could pass the ninth-grade version of the test.”

Ms. Diserens said the district still has some work to do with TAKS results.

“We need to make sure that everything in our curriculum is lined up with the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills),” she said.

TEKS is the state-mandated curriculum used to determine student objects and assess on each grade-level.

“Obviously, we want to continue to grow and improve our scores,” Ms. Diserens said. “Especially with the new leadership that has come into our administration.”

Original test scores came back for eighth-graders during the 2007-08 year with 71 percent of TISD students passing math, and 86 percent of students passing reading, during the first round of testing.

“I think a 9 percent increase (in math scores) after retakes is pretty telling,” Ms. Diserens said. “The bottom line is that we do have a large number of students who took that test and passed it.”

TAKS data, pulled through the Texas Education Web site, indicates that in 2007-08, 76 percent of TISD eighth-graders passed the math portion of the test on their first attempt, while 91 percent passed the reading portion.

In 2006-07, 69 percent of eighth-graders passed math on their first attempt, while 84 percent passed reading.

Statewide estimates had at least 55,000 eighth-graders retaking the test for the third time this summer, according to several articles.

TAKS critics often question the value of strategic preparation, wondering if valuable classroom time is wasted because teachers are forced into teaching for the test. TISD officials say that is not the case in their system.