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Board shares district performance report from state

SMCISD
Friday, March 10, 2023

The Board of Trustees of San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District heard from its own expert during its Monday board meeting regarding the recently available Texas Academic Performance Report for 2021-2022, The SMCISD board watched a series of slides outlining the eight sections of the TAPR, as presented by Elizabeth Nash, SMCISD coordinator of data and assessment.

Nash qualified the report findings by clarifying why it was now 2023 and the board was receiving data and information tied to the 2021-2022 school cycle.

The TAPR includes a PEIMS Financial Standard Report, the district’s accreditation status, and campus performance objectives, among its findings, Nash told the board and Superintendent Michael A. Cardona.

One of the areas of key interest to the board was the report on violent or criminal incidents on district school campuses. This report includes the number, rate and type of violent criminal incidents occurring on campus, limited only by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) policy. The description of school violence prevention and violence intervention policies and procedures in place to protect students is found in this section. Additionally, there are findings based on evaluations that may have been conducted under the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act.

Nash said there were six reported criminal incidents at San Marcos High School during the 2021-22 school year, with an enrollment during that period of 2,455 students, generating an incident rate of .2%. These six incidents all came in the category of felony controlled substance violations. There were no criminal incidents reported at Goodnight Middle School, Miller Middle School, Bonham Pre-Kindergarten, or at Bowie, Crockett, DeZavala, Hernandez, Mendez, Travis or Rodriquez elementary schools, as stated in the report.

In light of this portion of the TAPR, the district took action at the start of the 2022-23 school year, as required by the TEA, and conducted a summer targeted partial safety audit, conducted an external door safety audit, and convened the district’s Safety and Security Committee for the review of the multi-hazard emergency operations plan (EOP) and the district’s active threat plan. Training for staff and substitutes was held incorporating each school’s specific safety procedures and mandatory drills were scheduled for each campus. Threat assessment team members received additional training.

Student performance in postsecondary institutions for each high school campus in the district and progress toward board-adopted HB 3 goals were in the report, she said. This included a “wide range of information on the performance of student groups, including a breakdown of socioeconomic status.” There were 116 post-graduate students at 4-year public universities, 53 students at 2-year public colleges, 17 students at independent colleges and universities, 19 students who were not trackable, 290 graduates not found with respect to further education, for a total of 495 students during the reporting period. Progress in meeting HB3 goals for all K through 3rd grade teachers with the expectation of completing the Science of Reading Academies, a new requirement, showed 62% of teachers were finished, 19% were in the progress of completing the requirement and 19% had yet to begin the process. For elementary principals, the completion rate was 57% complete, 43% in progress with no principals showing a lack of beginning the requirement.

In addition, the 2022 Accountability Rating as determined by Senate Bill 1365, provides that schools in the state receive ratings of either A, B, C or not rated for the district and each campus was discussed. She explained that due to the impact of COVID “and the unique challenges faced by schools in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, the TEA decided not to assign accreditation statuses until the 2022-23 school year.” For this reason, just as was the case for other school districts, SMCISD did not receive an accreditation status for 2021-22.

Moving on, she addressed the portion of the report that highlights STAAR performance for 2022 and 2021, years that districts in the state were impacted by COVID-19.

The state provides for three performance rates in this area: Approaches grade level or above, meets grade level or above, or masters grade level—each of which is considered a passing grade by the state. The STAAR academic growth numbers were reported for 2019 and 2022 and these are only calculated in Reading for grades 4-8 and English II and for Math, grades 4-8 and Algebra I. “Because Academic Growth requires consecutive years of STAAR performance, it could not be calculated for 2020 or 2021—the result of the cancellation of STAAR testing in the state in 2020 due to the pandemic,” the report stated.

Performance goals previously adopted by SMCISD call for 3rd graders to meet grade level or above on STAAR Reading, moving from 37% to 44% by June 2024. Similarly, the percent of 3rd grade students that score meets grade level or above on STAAR Math should increase from 38% to 46% by June 2024.

The report also addressed attendance, graduation and dropout rates as reported for 2020-21 and 2019-20, which represents the most recent years that data was reported to the Texas Education Agency.

For example, districts must be concerned with attendance rate, the annual dropout rate for grades 7-8 and 9-12, the 4-year, 5-year and 6-year extended longitudinal graduation rates as defined by the state, and have graduation rate plans that are both annual and far-sighted in scope.

She said that, generally, TEA assigns one of four accreditation statuses to each district. These are: accredited, accredited-warned, accredited- probation and not accredited-revoked. TEA considers academic accountability ratings, financial accountability ratings, data integrity and program-area deficiencies identified through what is called Results Driven Accountability or RDA in determining what to rate a district. Here, too, COVID impacted what the state required and issued in terms of assessment.

Every campus in the district has developed and is implementing a Campus Improvement Plan or CIP. This is required by the state. As part of the CIP, campuses must have performance objectives that are board-approved and that are based on data analysis and needs assessments. Every campus in the district is also expected to regularly measure its progress, she explained. The updated CIPs for the 2021-22 school year are posted on the districts website and are available for review at both the district’s central office or any campus.

This full report for the 2021-22 school year should be available for review at the district’s central office and at each school in the district in the next two weeks, she said.

San Marcos Record

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