Some win, some fail in new state education ratings

The Weslaco and Edcouch-Elsa school districts slipped down a rating level as four other Hidalgo County school systems increased their performance under Texas Education Agency accountability ratings released Friday.

The 2010 ratings designate Edcouch-Elsa as “academically unacceptable,” the lowest rating, which can result in state sanctions or closure if a campus remains in that status for four years or more.

Under the state rating system, schools and school districts are labeled as exemplary, recognized, academically acceptable or academically unacceptable. The ratings are based on dropout and graduation rates as well as on results of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, the state’s battery of standardized tests.

Weslaco schools Superintendent Richard Rivera said his district’s demotion from “recognized” to “academically acceptable” was the result of a technicality.

“We are going to appeal,” Rivera said. “Four of the students considered dropouts moved and graduated somewhere else.

“TEA has confirmed that and I’m 100 percent sure it will be ‘recognized’ again,” he added.

Two districts — IDEA Public Schools and Monte Alto — received a promotion from recognized to the highest, “exemplary” rating.

All ratings above academically unacceptable require a dropout rate of 1.8 percent or less; exemplary districts must also have a 90 percent TAKS pass rate with 95 percent of high school students graduating on time or enrolling in a fifth year.

South Texas Independent School District, the only exemplary district in Hidalgo County last year, received that designation again with Friday’s ratings.

This year, the state also bumped the Mercedes and Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school districts up to recognized after they sat at academically acceptable in 2009.

“The PSJA team has really, really made huge strides from going to a district with major problems in dropout and graduation rates to really being a leader in getting students to stay through school,” said PSJA Superintendent Daniel King.

He said the district’s completion rates and test scores, particularly in science, had both risen about 15 percent in the past several years.

Since 2001, the PSJA district has not received a recognized rating, which requires an 80 percent TAKS pass rate and an 85 percent completion rate.

The academically acceptable rating requires 75 percent completion and pass rates of 55 to 70 percent in various TAKS subjects.

In releasing the new ratings, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott acknowledged some districts could achieve artificially higher levels despite not meeting the minimum, or absolute, standards of each rating.

“(A) number of schools and districts did use progress measures or exceptions to move up one rating category, which is allowable under the state accountability system,” Scott said. “We understand that some people have concerns with these measures.”

Many Hidalgo County districts did meet absolute standards, but state exceptions and adjusted statistics benefited the Hidalgo, Mercedes, Mission, Monte Alto, PSJA and Progreso school systems.

On the other hand, the state slapped a lowest-performing, academically unacceptable rating on only two Hidalgo County schools: Edcouch-Elsa High School and Evangelina Garza Elementary in La Joya.

Representatives from the two schools’ respective districts could not be reached for comment Friday; many district offices continue to operate only four days week under a summer schedule.

Last year, the only campuses to receive the academically unacceptable rating were La Villa High School and Weslaco Junior High, both of which upgraded to academically acceptable in the new ratings.

Most of Hidalgo County’s other districts remained at their 2009 levels, but consistency at the academically acceptable level satisfied Progreso schools Superintendent Fernando Castillo.

“We were hoping to get recognized,” Castillo said, “but we are proud of our students and teachers. They have responded to the challenge.”

He said his district will try harder for next year but will continue in his main focus of preparing students for college.

The McAllen school system also maintained its standing as academically acceptable.

“All indicators tell us we are moving in a very positive direction,” said James Ponce, the district’s superintendent. “Our students and staff have produced incredibly strong results on TAKS, with almost every single one of our campuses being recognized in one way or another.”

Ponce noted that 14 schools rated exemplary, an increase from five last year. And the combined total number of campuses in exemplary or recognized status is 33 percent greater than last year.

“We provide high-level instruction and relationship building and the end result is high achievement,” Ponce said. “I'm very proud of our staff, students and families for all their hard work.”

State ratings do not include charter or alternative schools, but Premier schools — which has at least five campuses from Palmview to Brownsville — announced its charter students all passed TAKS at levels of 94 percent or higher.

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Neal Morton covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956)314-0896.