Monday's Internet Edition, September 06, 2010.
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| TOO CLOSE- The home of Randy and Nancy Yates east of Hamilton off of State Highway 2905 narrowly missed destruction Sunday afternoon when a rapidly burning grassfire swept across the pasture. Three other area homes were threatened, but all were saved. The fire burned approximately 400 acres. Fire departments from throughout the area fought the fire with the help of the Texas Forest Service, which provided two task forces. Staff Photo |
According to Hamilton I.S.D. Superintendent Sam Bell, Hamilton and Hico I.S.D. were the only schools in the area to receive the Recognized rating. Academically Accept-able ratings were earned by Bruceville-Eddy, Clifton, Co-manche, Dublin, Evant, Gates-ville, Glen Rose, Goldthwaite, Jarrell, McGregor, Meridian, Moody, Salado, Stephenville and Troy.
By campus, Hamilton I.S.D. ratings were: Hamilton High School, Academically Accept-able; Hamilton Junior High, Recognized and Ann Whitney Elementary, Recognized.
The TEA gives ratings of Exemplary, Recognized, Aca-demically Acceptable or Aca-demically Unacceptable to dis-tricts and regular education campuses.
Ratings are based on student performance on state tests, dropout rates and high school completion rates. Subjects tested include reading, Eng-lish/Language Arts, (ELA), writing, social studies, math and science.
Various subgroups of stu-dents, based on ethnicity and socio-economic status as well as the number of students en-rolled in each category are a part of campus and district ac-countability.
According to the TEA, a growing number of Texas school districts and campuses earned the state’s two highest ratings, Exemplary and Recog-nized, in 2008.
“Accountability ratings pro-vide parents and community members with a standardized way to examine academic per-formance at their local schools,” said Robert Scott, commissioner of education. “The ratings help Texans high-light successes and pinpoint areas that need improvement.”
This year, 996 schools (43 districts) in the state earned the prestigious Exemplary rating, compared to 643 schools in 2007.
An Exemplary rating means all student groups on the cam-pus or in the district had a 90 percent or higher passing rate on all subject areas of the TAKS test, which is given to students in grades 3-11. Junior high and middle schools also must obtain an annual dropout rate for all student groups that is no higher than two percent and high schools must earn a high school completion rate of 95 percent.
There were 2,815 schools (328 districts) rated Recog-nized, the state’s second high-est rating as compared to 2,354 schools in 2007.
To earn the Recognized rat-ing there must be a passing rate of 75 percent for all student groups evaluated on all TAKS exams. A district or campus can also meet the Recognized level by achieving passing rates on the TAKS of 70 to 74 percent and by showing enough im-provement on the TAKS since 2007 to reach a 75 percent passing rate in two years.
They must also obtain a high school completion rate of 85 percent or have a completion rate of 75 to 84 percent and meet the required improvement standard. An annual dropout rate that is no greater than 2.0 percent or meets required im-provement, which shows that the rate is declining enough each year to be at 2.0 percent within two years must also be obtained.
The rating category called Academically Acceptable cov-ers the widest range of aca-demic performance and conse-quently the largest group of schools and districts receive this rating.
About 66 percent of the state's campuses, or 3,509 schools (818 districts) earned a rating of Academically Accept-able. That compares to 4,108 schools that received this rating in 2007.
To earn this rating, a school or district must have a 70 per-cent or higher passing rate on English language arts or read-ing TAKS; a 65 percent or higher passing rate on the writ-ing and social studies TAKS; a 50 percent or higher passing rate on the mathematics TAKS; a 45 percent or higher passing rate on the science TAKS or meet required improvement provisions.
They must also obtain a completion rate of at least 75 percent or meet required im-provement or have an annual dropout rate of no more than two percent.
The numbers reflect a de-crease over 2007 levels because more schools and districts have moved into the higher rating categories.
The state’s lowest rating was given to 217 schools (37 dis-tricts). This represents a drop in the number of those earning Academically Unacceptable ratings. In 2007, 276 schools received this rating.
Districts or schools that earn an Academically Unacceptable rating face state-imposed sanc-tions that range from assign-ment of a Campus Intervention Team to closure. Two schools were closed by the commis-sioner this year because of mul-tiple years of low ratings.