RSS
|
Mobile
|
Daily Emails
|
We Twitter
| Make us your home page
Brenham school officials said they were shocked when the Texas Education Agency released accountability scores this year.
Despite having three recognized campuses, the district received an academically unacceptable rating from the state.
"We're hoping at this point that it's incorrect," Coordinator of Instructional Services Donna Kelling said.
Brenham was one of two districts rated unacceptable in the Brazos Valley this year. Only one school was rated unacceptable.
Overall, most schools' ratings improved.
The Texas Education Agency assigns one of four ratings -- unacceptable, acceptable, recognized or exemplary -- to districts annually.
Caldwell Independent School District, which was acceptable last year, fell to unacceptable in 2009.
Somerville ISD raised its rating from unacceptable to acceptable this year.
Caldwell
Caldwell ISD was rated unacceptable and three of its four schools' ratings declined from last year.
Caldwell Middle School was the only school in the district that maintained its status as a recognized campus.
Caldwell High received an unacceptable rating because of the number of economically disadvantaged students who dropped out of school.
"It was based on the high school completion rate," Superintendent Randy Berryhill said.
In 2007-08, 73 percent of economically disadvantaged kids finished high school. The state requires schools to have had 75 percent of students graduate or go into a fifth year to be acceptable.
The overall completion rate at the high school is 85.8 percent, he said.
Berryhill said the ratings don't show how the district is actually doing -- especially in this case.
"I don't agree with it. I think the whole system is flawed when they rank a school on things we don't always have control over," he said.
The district will appeal its rating with TEA because the rating was based on a very small number of students.
However, Berryhill said, he recognizes that the district needs to focus on "how can we keep our kids in school and keep them engaged."
"If this is the criteria for how we're going to be judged, we have to do a much better job there," he said.
Brenham
Although all of its schools received good ratings, the Brenham school district was rated unacceptable this year.
Kelling said the rating came as a surprise because Brenham has one recognized and four exemplary campuses.
"We discovered that in spite of all the outstanding scores that Brenham ISD students scored on the academic tests and the significant gains that were made, there is a new indicator that is being applied to the accountability rating for the first time this year," she said.
Kelling said the district did not meet the required improvement of 1.8 percent in its completion rate, meaning the number of high school students who graduate within four years or continue into a fifth year of high school.
She said the district's improvement was at 1.7 percent in 2008 over the year before -- an issue she said is most likely a "coding error."
Brenham has filed an appeal with TEA to correct the error, she said.
"We are obviously concerned about this because this is not what we are. We are not an unacceptable district," she said.
Somerville
Somerville, which was rated unacceptable last year, improved its score to an acceptable rating this year and brought up both of its schools' ratings from acceptable to recognized.
Superintendent Charles Camarillo said the district changed its school-day schedule to provide extra help to struggling students.
"That's what made a difference in terms of scores at the high school," he said. Somerville High was ranked unacceptable two years in a row several years ago.
Students who were not doing well in their classes or struggled to pass state tests stayed an hour later every day for the four weeks before the tests were administered this spring.
Camarillo said the district will stick with the "flex day" program next year.
The district has also brought grant-funded technology into every classroom. Camarillo said almost every classroom has a SMART Board and wireless projector.
"I think success builds on success. When you focus on preparing them in elementary school, you start getting prepared kids," he said.
