Elgin ISD earns B grade; Phoenix sees improvement

Elgin ISD earned a “B” rating this year in the state’s second annual school “report card” system, jumping up a few points from last year’s grade.

Earlier this month, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) released its latest annual A-F accountability ratings for school districts and school campuses throughout Texas. Last year, which was the first year the report card system was used, only districts were given letter grades, with A being the highest grade possible and F being the lowest, while individual campuses were given scores out of 100. This year, the campuses were also given letter grades corresponding to their scores. The detailed reports for each school and school district in Texas is available at txschools.org.

This year’s report cards were released on August 15. A total of 1,022 school districts and 179 charter schools were graded; 25 percent received a grade of A, 57 percent received a B, 13 percent received a C, four percent received a D and one percent received an F. This year, more school districts are receiving A and B scores, while less are given a C, D or F compared to last year: in the 2017-18 report, 17 percent received a grade of A, 43 percent received a B, 29 percent received a C, eight percent received a D and three percent received an F.

The report is based on three measures: student achievement, school progress and “closing the gaps.” The student achievement score is based on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) results, the graduation rate and students’ preparedness for college, the military or a career. School progress looks at students’ performance on the STAAR test compared to the previous year and the relative academic performance of the district compared to similar districts; the highest of these two ratings are used to determine this grade. Closing the gaps measures the performance at certain objectives, such as graduation rate or STAAR scores, of different populations of students; if one population does not hit a determined percentage meeting the requirement of the objective, the school receives a zero for that objective.

Last year, Elgin ISD received an overall score of 78 out of 100, just shy of a B. This year, the school district crossed that threshold with an 82. The score breaks down to 79 for student achievement, 87 for school progress—based on relative performance compared to similar school districts—and 71 for closing the gaps.

Booker T. Washington Elementary School received a D, or 68, this year, close to last year’s score of 70. Elgin Elementary School received a C, or 73, close to last year’s score of 72. Neidig Elementary School received an F, or 56, close to last year’s score of 56. Elgin Middle School received a D, or 61, close to last year’s score of 60; the school’s “closing the gaps” domain dropped this year from 50 to 39 points as a result of missing all but one component in that domain.

Although Neidig Elementary School received an F rating for all three measurements, Booker T. Washington Elementary School and Elgin Elementary School received Ds and Cs, respectively, for two of their measurements, while the third measurement—student achievement—were graded as Fs.

Elgin ISD Superintendent Jodi Duron said it is important to note that elementary and middle schools are evaluated differently than high schools when it comes to the student achievement domain; the district as a whole and the high schools are able to use data from the graduation rate and post-secondary readiness in addition to STAAR test results, while elementary and middle schools rely solely on the results from the STAAR test for this domain. She added that Elgin ISD excels in the area of college readiness because of its Early College High School program, P-Tech welding program, dual credit and AP classes and funding for college-readiness exams, and Elgin High School has received a distinction for postsecondary readiness for the third year in a row.

Elgin High School was again awarded a grade of B, or 81, close to last year’s grade of 80.

Shannon Luis, assistant superintendent of academics and school improvement, said the district has implemented a data-tracking system to follow each student regarding college, career and military readiness and engaging with students who may need help.

“When there is intense focus on scholars at the individual level, connections are made, and students succeed,” Luis said.

A major victory for Elgin ISD reflected in this year’s ratings is improvements to Phoenix High School, an alternative education campus that focuses on students at risk of dropping out of school. This year, Phoenix High School’s overall grade jumped from 50 to 73, with significant increases in STAAR performance and post-high school readiness.

The campus was in its second year of designation as “improvement required,” and as a result, developed a turn-around plan through a process designed by TEA. The turn-around plan was an intensive process involving campus staff, district leaders, parents and the community and utilized practices and systems that were identified to help Phoenix, Luis said.

“We are extremely proud of the work done by the Phoenix High School principal, Cheryl Williams, and the staff who stayed focused last year on making significant changes,” she said. “With the support of all stakeholders and continued focus on these systems and best practices by the campus, we saw significant growth in the campus’ scores. At the heart of the change was building a true family at PHS and helping our scholars believe in themselves and their ability to graduate and pursue other opportunities beyond high school.”

Duron said while a meaningful accountability system is important, the current A-F accountability rating system is a limited measure that cannot assess everything that students are capable of, since a large portion of the grade is based on the results of the STAAR standardized test.

“When you consider that this one grade attempts to synthesize nearly 12,000 indicators into a single letter grade, you begin to understand the complexity of this system and why it is not an accurate or complete picture of the great work our schools and students are doing every single day,” she said. “When you consider that only a small subset of the numerous standards that are taught in a given year are actually tested, it does not give a full accounting of what a student actually knows or is able to do.”

Financial integrity also scored

The report card also includes the districts’ scores on the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST), a financial accountability rating system that takes into account various aspects of a school district’s financial status.

FIRST holds school districts accountable for the quality of their financial management practices, according to Elgin ISD chief finance officer Debra George. It consists of 15 indicators, four of which are critical. If any of these four indicators—timely filing of the audit with TEA, an audit free of material weaknesses, keeping up with payment of bonded debt by the end of the fiscal year and timely payments to state and federal agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service—the district automatically receives a rating of F, or “substandard.”

“It is designed to ensure that Texas public schools manage their financial resources better in order to provide the maximum allocation possible for direct instructional purposes,” George said. “The overall purpose of School FIRST is to ensure that districts are financially sound and providing as much as they can for the instruction of students.”

The FIRST status is also scored out of 100; Elgin ISD received a score of 94, a “superior” rating. The district received the same score last year. Details from this year’s FIRST ratings are available at tealprod.tea.state.tx.us/First/forms/Main.aspx.

Elgin ISD has received a superior rating for each of the 17 years the FIRST rating system has been in existence.

“Keeping a rating of superior requires constant monitoring of a myriad of items: budgets, staffing ratios, state and federal payments, cash flows, audit requirements and internal controls, debt ratios and debt service payments,” George said.