 |
|
|
Major Area Districts Fall Short Of No Child Left Behind Requirements
Four of the six major school districts in Central Texas failed to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act and two area high schools are running out of time to improve their performance, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday.
|
|
21 Comments 
(October 14, 2008)—The Waco, Killeen, Belton and Temple school districts failed to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act and Waco High School and Waco’s University High School are both running out of time to improve their performance, according to a preliminary report the Texas Education Agency released Tuesday.
The two Waco high schools are at what the TEA calls Stage 3 improvement status, which means parents must continue to be offered the option of sending their children to other schools.
Officials are also required to take additional corrective action, which could include replacing teachers, implementing a new curriculum, reducing campus-level management authority, appointing an outside expert to advise the campus, extending the school year or school day or restructuring the school’s organizational structure.
If the schools fail to meet performance standards during the current school year, the state could consider whether to reopen them as charter schools, replace the principals and staff, contract with a private management company to run the schools or to take over operation of the schools.
The Waco district is at Stage 1 of the five-stage process, which means parents must be notified of improvement status, how the district is addressing performance problems and to offer parents the options of sending students elsewhere.
The district fell short in student performance in reading and math and in its graduation rate.
In addition to the two high schools, eight other WISD schools failed to meet the standard.
The Killeen ISD missed the AYP because of student performance in reading and mathematics.
Fifteen Killeen schools failed to meet the AYP.
The Temple ISD missed the AYP because of student performance in reading and math.
Six of the district’s schools failed to meet the standard.
The Belton ISD missed the AYP because of student performance in mathematics.
Three schools in the district also fell short of the standards.
The Copperas Cove school district met the AYP.
Copperas Cove Junior High School was the only school in the district to miss the AYP.
The Midway ISD met the standard.
Only Midway Intermediate School missed the AYP because of student performance in math.
The Texas Education Agency said Tuesday the number of schools at the most advanced level of failing federal improvement standards has increased tenfold over last year.
A total of 21 campuses reached "Stage 5" status in the federal School Improvement Program in 2008, after just two were categorized that way one year ago.
Such schools must immediately begin implementing restructuring plans that can include replacing most of the staff and becoming a charter school.
The state also recorded a drop in the number of schools that met the standards required by the federal No Child Left Behind law, which aims for all students to be proficient in English and math by 2013-14.
This year, 75 percent of the state's 8,195 campuses met the progress standards, a drop from 80 percent last year.
State Education Commissioner Robert Scott attributed part of the drop to new tests that led to districts increasing the number of students with disabilities assessed on grade level.
Scott says it will take districts some time to address fully the increasing expectations of the new state assessments for students with disabilities.
He referred to a group that in large part has been exempted from testing in the past.
Six Dallas high schools were in "Stage 5" failure, along with two high schools each in Austin and El Paso.
The mix included six charter schools.
Overall, 357 campuses were somewhere in the five stages of the School Improvement Program, an increase from 278 a year ago.
[CentralTexasVotes.com: Candidates, Campaigns And More ]
[More Local And State News]
[More National News]
[More Business News]
[Latest Religion News]
[Latest Health News]
[Latest Entertainment News]
[OffBeat News]
[News From Our Town]
[Latest Soldier Stories]
[Sports]
[Weather]
[Blogs]
Save some money! Save a tree! Get your morning news delivered directly to your email
Latest Comments
To one more point: What do you mean if the schools would quit sending you children to DARE and such? Sweetie, when we were kids, you didn't even look at a teacher with a smirk or you were sent home to get worse from your parents. No one I knew ever would have been doing "their own thing" That is why we are so smart. We actually learned math, science and English
[ Report Abuse ]
Maybe instead of getting rid of the principals and the teachers, the schools should move around the studens. You cannot teach students that do not care. This is not the teacher's fault, the fault falls back on the parents that do not care. The only time a lot of the parents show up for any school function is when they find out a television camera will be there.
[ Report Abuse ]
LOL, Just sayin is all. I'm right there with you. But parents DO need to look at the individual school your child is attending. For example, only 6 schools in the whole TISD district failed. That's 6 too many but you need to find out if your child's school is one of them and then DO SOMETHING if your child is one who failed.
[ Report Abuse ]
 |
Double
Dollar Deals Half Price Deals at Central Texas restaurants and businesses. A new deal every Thursday at 7:00am. |
 |
Boss
of the Month Who is Central Texas’ best boss? Nominate your supervisor for Boss of the Month! |
 |
Golden
Apple Your chance to nominate an outstanding teacher. Find out how they are making a difference in classrooms. |
 |
Emily Wants to Know Emily Matthews' inquisitive look at life in Central Texas. |
 |
Army Way Learn all about the symbols, traditions, and customs of the US Army. |
Emergency Room Nurse - Join Metroplex Health System in Killeen as a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department. Metroplex offers a very competitive hourly wage, comprehensive health coverage and retirement plans. A new pay scale went in to effect in October 09! Join Metroplex in extending the healing ministry of Christ.
Also, take a look at the most recent jobs posted to Job Board TV at KWTX.com: View More Jobs.
