This year’s data book includes an essay, “Closing the Educational Gaps,” revealing factors that can play a pivotal role in a child’s academic achievement.
“This is about the broader social and community problems that hold kids back, such as access to quality prenatal care, exposure to more environmental hazards, hunger and lack of affordable housing. In combination, these factors can have a powerful affect on a student’s ability to learn,” Texas Kids Count director Frances Deviney said.
Temple Independent School District administrators are well aware of the impact, said Regina Baird, TISD spokeswoman. Sixty-four percent of students in the TISD are eligible for free or reduced lunches, she said.
“That’s 5,000 kids in our district that, except for when they’re eating at school, might not know where their next meal is coming from,” Ms. Baird said. “We educate all children, regardless of what they had for breakfast, regardless of what their home life is like.”
If a student is struggling academically, “we try to peel back all the layers to get to the root cause of why a student may not be doing well.
“It may be beyond our control, but at least we know what it is … our teachers work every single minute of the day to take care of the whole child.”
The Kids Count data shows a correlation between struggles at home and school achievement.
Only 80 percent of Texas’ economically disadvantaged students pass the TAKS Reading, and 68 percent pass the TAKS Math tests compared to 93 percent and 84 percent of their non-disadvantaged peers, respectively. In Bell County, disadvantaged children’s passing rates are 78.9 percent for reading and 63.3 percent for math, compared to their non-disadvantaged peers’ passing rates of 89.9 percent and 77.5 percent, respectively.
