Good morning!  I hope you had a good weekend, but I know we need to be mindful of the difficult time people are having in the Galveston, Houston, and Beaumont areas.  Last week was certainly a busy week in terms of making decisions about how to deal with Hurricane Ike.  At the beginning of the week we were thinking it would make landfall in the Corpus Christi area so we rearranged ballgames and decided to cancel Saturday activities.  But as the week progressed and they predicted landfall in the Galveston area, we knew that we would not be affected as greatly.  I think we made a good decision to move our Saturday night football games to Thursday night, start the Friday night games thirty minutes early, and cancel activities on the weekend.  Even though we were not affected as greatly as first anticipated, earlier in the week we thought we might have a lot of wind and rain beginning late Friday into Saturday.  As it turns out we were not affected here in San Antonio with the weather, but I do know that many friends and relatives came to San Antonio to be with many of you to escape the storm.  Also, some of our buses and drivers were sent to Houston to assist with the evacuation.  However, we do know that many people in the upper Texas Gulf Coast area were affected severely.  We certainly need to keep these people in our thoughts and prayers, and also remember the many schools and their staffs that are affected.

No doubt it will be several weeks before some of the schools can re-open because of flooding or loss of electricity.  We may have some families who evacuated here to San Antonio stay for a while and some may enroll their children in school.  We have been told by TEA to track these students just as we did those who came here because of Katrina or Rita.  We will welcome these students and assist in any way we can to help those families who have been affected by Hurricane Ike.

As you heard me say at our convocations our primary focus this year will be on improving our mathematics pass rate on the TAKS test.  Last year we focused on improving the scores of our economically disadvantaged students in all subject areas and we made great progress.  When you take the subgroups of All Students, African American, Hispanic, White, Limited English Proficient, Special Education, and At-Risk and compare the economically disadvantaged performance at each grade level for each subject tested in each of the subgroups, there are 189 possible comparisons of performance from 2007 to 2008.  In looking at those comparisons we improved in 125 of the comparisons, stayed the same in 40 of them, and dropped in 24 of the comparisons.  This shows we did very well in focusing on improving the performance of our economically disadvantaged students.  Many people do not realize this, but about 48% of our student population qualifies for free or reduced lunch which is the standard used to determine whether a student is economically disadvantaged or not.  We will continue to focus on the improvement in achievement of these students, but put a special emphasis on improving the math achievement of all of our students.

Even though our math passing rates are above the state at every grade level, it is still the area in which we must improve, especially at middle school and high school.  Certainly we also need to improve our science scores and no doubt we will, but math is tested at every grade level.  Yet when we look at our math scores and we look at what is expected of our students at the high school level in mathematics to meet the 4x4 requirement we know we must do everything we can to help our students be successful in Algebra I.  Entry into Algebra I and success in Algebra I are essential, and everything we do in elementary and middle school should be geared toward success in Algebra I.  According to the National Research Council mathematical proficiency has five strands: 

1. Understanding:  Comprehending mathematical concepts, operations, and relations - knowing what mathematical symbols, diagrams, and procedures mean.
2. Computing:  Carrying out mathematical procedures, such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers flexibly, accurately, efficiently, and appropriately.
3. Applying:  Being able to formulate problems mathematically and to devise strategies for solving them using concepts and procedures appropriately.
4. Reasoning:  Using logic to explain and justify a solution to a problem or to extend from something known to something not yet known.
5. Engaging:  Seeing mathematics as sensible, useful, and doable - if you work at it - and being able to do the work.

Being a mathematics teacher and reading the literature such as the National Mathematics Advisory Panel Report issued this year, I know and I emphasize that in order for students to be successful in mathematics they must know their math facts and have a strong understanding of fractions and decimals.  This is nothing new to us, and we have known this, but we must place a special focus and emphasis on this.  Early age math knowledge is important, memory of math facts is essential, and improvement in understanding the concepts of decimals and fractions is imperative.

In visiting with teachers and principals these first few weeks of school I know that everyone is emphasizing this focus on improving mathematics achievement.  In future Monday Messages I will probably revisit this issue several times.  But it is not for just improving TAKS scores; it is for improving the mathematics ability of our students so they can be better prepared to compete in this technological world and global society.  Our students will be competing with students throughout the world in our colleges and universities and in the future job markets.  Our world is a globally competitive world and our students must be able to compete and be successful.

Last week we kicked off a two-year project that will replace our existing Business and HR Systems currently with Region 20 to a new system.  This project will have a great impact on how the District runs its operations by integrating all financial and human resource services into a single system to enhance overall performance for everyone and improve productivity for District departments and campuses such as allowing employees to see their paychecks online to making it possible to submit purchase orders electronically.  A project name was selected from more than almost 800 entries submitted.  I'd like to congratulate Yvonne May from Hobby Middle School and Stacy Bergman from Passmore Elementary School who were co-winners of the project naming contest.  The name selected is BEHRT (pronounced Bert) which stands for Business Enterprise Human Resources Technology system.  Appreciation is expressed to all employees who contributed suggestions.  In the upcoming weeks a dedicated project website is to be launched of which you will be notified that will address more about the status of the project.

In closing, I want to congratulate Passmore Elementary School on being chosen by TEA for inclusion in the TEA's Best Practices Clearinghouse.  The practice identified as a best practice by TEA is "Enhanced Elementary Mathematics Instruction."  No doubt they were already focusing on improving mathematics achievement especially with the LEP students who improved their passing percentages from 82% to 90%.  Congratulations Passmore on this selection as a "best practice" in the state.

I hope you have a great week!  We Believe!