Status of Education in GISD

School district administration personnel across the state are criticizing the Texas STAAR tests. Here are some facts about the tests.

Texas STARR Tests

1. The tests were developed with and by Texas teachers. The test questions have been reviewed and approved by Texas teachers.

2. The tests are administered once per year in compliance with Federal law.

3. The test questions and answers are available on the TEA website for review.

4. Everyone can check school report cards at Txschools.gov

5. Critics of STAAR seems to want no test that measures student achievement on which to hold teachers, administrators and school boards accountable!

Critics seem to be unhappy when children score below acceptable levels or below levels the critics believe children are actually achieving. The scores on the National test, NAEP, are consistently below the STAAR scores. These scores reinforce the fact that Texas children are performing below their capability.

National tests are developed without significant Texas input and are largely based on Common Core. This means national tests are not particularly useful for Texas since Common Core was rejected. The reading and math questions from Common Core would likely be foreign or confusing to Texas students and would partially explain why the national scores are lower than STAAR.

Georgetown’s Forbes middle school was rated "Improvement Required" by the State of Texas based primarily on STAAR scores. These are excerpts from their campus improvement plan.

Goal 1: Student - Centered: Develop a future-ready learning experience that reflects student voice, choice, and ownership.

Goal 2: Communication: Engage the community to become champions and advocate for student success and the future of the district.

Goal 3: Leadership: Cultivate an adaptive system of empowered leadership where collaboration and problem-solving are our natural behaviors.

Goal 4: Establish an innovative culture that encourages risk-taking, diverse thinking and meaningful exploration.

Problem Statements Identifying Student Academic Achievement Needs  

Problem Statement 1: 67% of students did not "meet" grade level in math. Root Cause: As a campus, we put greater emphasis on autonomy rather than making instructional decisions based on the needs of individual growth of students.

Problem Statement 2: 60% of students did not "meet" grade level in reading. Root Cause: As a campus, we put greater emphasis on autonomy rather than making instructional decisions based on the needs of individual growth of students.

School Processes & Programs Summary

Forbes Middle School is a Capturing Kids Hearts and Natural Lifesmanship trained campus. This means that our teachers have been trained to understand how strong, appropriate, caring relationships and an acknowledgment of various traumas can affect the learner. Forbes also trains its teachers in the Schletchy Center method of design. Design is focused lesson creation with the learner in mind and is a process that pin points hard to teach and hard to learn concepts.

Does autonomy mean they are left alone to learn on their own at their own pace??

There is apparently no goal to improve test scores!