The Texas Education Agency recently released the official ratings of area school districts. Some of these rankings are as follows:
Paint Rock ISD “B” Rating 85
Paint Rock School “B” Rating 81
Eden CISD “B” Rating 81
Eden School “B” Rating 81
Menard ISD “B” Rating 85
Menard High School “B” Rating 83
Menard Elem/JrH “D” Rating 65
Ballinger ISD “B” Rating 85
Ballinger High School “B” Rating 83
Ballinger Jr. High “D” Rating 68
Ballinger Elem. “B” Rating 82
Olfen ISD “B” Rating 88
Olfen School “B” Rating 82
Winters ISD “B” Rating 84
Winters High School “B” Rating 82
Winters Jr. High “F” Rating 55
Winters Elem. “B” Rating 83
San Angelo ISD “B” Rating 85
Alta Loma Elem “C” Rating 70
Austin Elem “F” Rating 48
Belaire Elem “F” Rating 55
Bonham Elem “C” Rating 77
Bowie Elem “C” Rating 73
Bradford Elem “C” Rating 71
Central High School “B” Rating 81
Crockett Elem “C” Rating 72
Fannin Elem “B” Rating 80
Ft. Concho* “A” Rating 90
Glenmore Elem “B” Rating 82
Glenn Middle School “C” Rating 71
Goliad Elem “F” Rating 54
Holiman Elem “F” Rating 56
Lake View High School “B” Rating 82
Lamar Elem “D” Rating 60
Lee Middle School “D” Rating 61
Lincoln Middle School “F” Rating 59
McGill Elem “C” Rating 76
Reagan Elem “C” Rating 73
San Jacinto Elem “D” Rating 60
Santa Rita Elem * “A” Rating 91
- These two campuses house SAISD’s Gifted and Talented students
Earlier this summer, confusion and misinformation about a “report card” spread when an advocacy organization put out a “report card” on Texas Public Schools. Their “report card” was based on old data and manipulated to fit their advocacy agenda. Some area schools received low scores. The schools with high percentages of minority and low social-economic students generally scored lower than those with smaller portions of these students. Districts like Grape Creek and Paint Rock who have high numbers of minority and lower socio-economic students received low scores.
When the local headlines and news reports initially came out most area school districts took some black-eyes. Many individuals who read, or saw these news reports, did not realize that the data was not from the Texas Education Agency, but rather an advocacy group. They did not realize that much of the data was skewed and/or as much as three years old. Readers and viewers also thought that it was data compiled from this year’s STAAR and EOC testing. It was not. Anyone can put out a “report card” on schools and set down their own criteria for each letter grade, but most people inaccurately assumed that this groups “report card” was in fact TEA’s.
The public outcry forced some news media outlets to print “clarifications”, “corrections”, and/or additions to their initial stories clarifying that the data and ratings were not from the Texas Education Agency, were not the “official” ratings from the State of Texas, and did not include any data from this year’s STAAR or EOC exams.