Monday - September 14, 2009
Good morning! It is hard to believe we are beginning our fourth week of school. I have heard from principals that it has been a very good start for this school year and I know that all of you are working diligently to help our students be successful. Last year was certainly a very successful year for Northside in terms of student achievement as measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Northside remained a Recognized School District for the second year in a row and that is a first for Northside. There is no doubt that we are the largest and most diverse school district in Texas to be Recognized. Our students scored above the Texas average at every grade level and in every subject area tested. At the grade levels and subject areas in which students are tested for promotion to the next grade level our passing rates were exceptional. They were:
In Reading, Writing, and Social Studies the pass rates were 90% or above at each grade level tested. As I stated at the convocations, our challenge still remains in the math and science areas. Last year we continued our focus on improving the scores of our economically disadvantaged students, but in addition to that we really put a focus on improving our math scores. At nearly all grade levels in mathematics we made improvement in our passing percentages, but I especially want to note the improvement in our passing percentage at ninth grade. We actually improved our passing percentage at ninth grade by eight percentage points. This is quite an improvement, but as I look at all of our math scores we still must make improvement at the 6th and 7th grade levels and the 9th and 10th grade levels. In science we also made improvements, and some fairly significant improvements at 5th, 8th, and 11th grades. We dropped our percentage pass rate at 10th grade in science and I know that this concern is being addressed. When we look at the passing percentages of our economically disadvantaged students, we improved our passing percentage in every subject area tested. I want to note that in Reading, Writing, and Social Studies our passing percentages were above 90% for the economically disadvantaged subgroup. In math the passing rate for this subgroup was 81% and in science it was 75%. In the interest of looking closer at the data for our economically disadvantaged students I had the data broken out comparing economically disadvantaged students to non-economically disadvantaged students for all the subgroups: All Students, White, Hispanic and African American. What the data revealed is that there is an achievement gap between economically disadvantaged and non-economically disadvantaged in each one of the subgroups. However, in Reading, Writing, and Social Studies the achievement gap is much less than it is in mathematics and science. This was not surprising, but what was especially noteworthy was how much greater the achievement gap is in math and science for economically disadvantaged students versus non-economically disadvantaged students for each subgroup. It is also noteworthy to look at each campus and see the gap that exists. I have shared this data with our principals and I hope that they in turn will share the data with their staff. It is very interesting data that really shows the work that must be done in closing the achievement gap for all our economically disadvantaged students which in turn would close the achievement gap for the subgroups. I know to some of you this may be boring, but at the "heart" of our mission is to help all students be successful. As I stated earlier, this district is doing a great job. Our district had more exemplary campuses than it has ever had. District-wide we had 42 Exemplary campuses, 36 Recognized campuses, and 10 Academically Acceptable campuses. Certainly the Texas Projection Measure, a growth measure that was used for the first time in the accountability ratings, helped all districts in achieving higher campus ratings. But even without the TPM Northside did very well! However, one of the challenges we have is improving the passing rates of our Limited English Proficient students. I have discussed this with Dr. Mora, Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, and R.C. Rodriguez, Director of Bilingual and ESL Education, and they are working on a plan and some strategies that may help us. We actually do very well at the elementary level, but our passing rates drop dramatically at the middle school and high school level. We must work on our campuses to systematically monitor the academic achievement of English language learners, and then put in place interventions focused and targeted for the academic and linguistic needs of these students. I look forward to seeing more focus on the needs of these students at the middle school and high school, because we must do our best to see that all students are successful. In closing I want to say congratulations to Health Careers High School on making the Texas Business and Education Coalition Honor Roll for 2009. The TBEC Honor Roll recognizes schools that have demonstrated three years of consistent, high performance in all subjects compared to other schools serving similar student populations. The schools recognized also have the highest percentage of students meeting the "Commended" standard on TAKS in every subject. Congratulations to Principal Jackie Horras, the faculty, and staff for this great honor. We are very proud of you! I hope you have a great week! Thanks for all you do to make Northside the great district it is! |
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