District performance continues to concern officials

By JACOB LOPEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com

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San Benito CISD’s performance in the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests remains a source of concern as officials recently shared their thoughts on the matter.

In August, it was announced that 16 of the 17 SBCISD campuses met academic standard set by the state while Frank Roberts Elementary received a rating of ‘Improvement Required.’

San Benito schools earned a total of 28 distinctions out of a possible 103, or 27 percent.

Meanwhile, Los Fresnos earned 71 distinctions out of 85 (84 percent). Harlingen, another nearby school district, earned 70 out of 161, which is 43 percent.

Distinctions are part of the Texas Education Agency Accountability Rating System designed to measure public schools in the state of Texas’ levels of academic readiness based on seven possible distinctions: Academic Achievement in Reading/English Language Arts; Academic Achievement in Mathematics; Academic Achievement in Science; Academic Achievement in Social Studies; Top 25 Percent: Student Progress; Top 25 Percent: Closing Performance Gaps and Post Secondary Readiness.

Yliana González, SBCISD board member, stressed the need to make immediate improvements.

“My concern is not only the distinctions, but also each campus individually — their performance when it comes to the different content areas,” said González.

Pointing out Frank Roberts, González begged the question, “What is it that we’re needing to do to improve the success of that campus?”

González said that neighboring districts have campuses with “very, very similar demographics.”

She specifically questioned why nearby campuses can obtain success and Frank Roberts couldn’t meet standard.

“Are we not holding them [the principals] accountable? Are we not providing the resources that are necessary …? You know, what is it that’s lacking? That’s my concern.”

González said that the campuses do have master teachers, clarifying that this doesn’t necessarily mean teachers with a Master’s Degree, rather “teachers that are masters of their profession.”

She suggested that these teachers, and those who are seeing success with their students, can start developing ideas and strategies to other campuses.

“I’m not on the campuses on a daily basis, so it’s not something that I can attest to. I would venture to say that we’re not maximizing our staff and our resources to be able to obtain the desired results,” said González.

“It’s not about our district being better than anyone else’s, or vise-versa. It’s about making sure that all kids across every district are successful.”

SBCISD Superintendent of Schools Antonio G. Limón acknowledged that there is room for improvement.

“Our open end-of-the year comment that I addressed to our teachers this year was that improving instruction is our theme,” said Limón.

“We had 28 distinctions, but we could to so much better,” Limón said. “So I completely agree with Ms. González. We can do better, and we will do better.”

However, Limón shared some positives, saying that San Benito schools did meet state average in some subjects, and managed to exceed state average in others. Most notable was Rangerville Elementary, which scored 15 points above state average.

Ed Downs Elementary scored 14 points above state average in Writing.

Meanwhile, San Benito High School managed 23 points above state average in Reading, 15 in Math and 17 in Science (though these scores do include re-testers).

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2014/09/05/district-performance-continues-to-concern-officials/

11 comments

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    • Night and day on September 10, 2014 at 8:20 am
    • Reply

    Let’s compare the SBCISD and the city of San Benito headlines to the HCISD and city of Harlingen headlines:

    http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/local_news/article_e693974c-389c-11e4-8bf2-001a4bcf6878.html

    Night and Day.

      • The Negotiator on September 10, 2014 at 1:48 pm
      • Reply

      This has been my gripe when I write on the blog. When will our local officials going to get their priorities straight? They see Harlingen’s and surrounding cities growth and still don’t do anything about bringing new business to San Benito. I don’t get it, they would rather see the citizens of San Benito travel to surrounding cities to get what they need instead of here.The city makes it so difficult for any new business to open here with all their red tape. Wake up leaders of our great city. Like I’ve always said get rid of all these dead weight negative people bringing our great city down. Just think, new business means more tax revenue. I don’t know about any of you people, but I’m tired of all this politics. Stop recycling and electing the same individuals to run our city.

    • xxx Days til Next City Election! on September 9, 2014 at 12:02 pm
    • Reply

    I am in total agreement with your comment that we have idiots in city government who are only looking out for themselves and their friends. If only people would wake up.

    • Como es Juan on September 9, 2014 at 11:17 am
    • Reply

    ^^^ Were you trying to spell, “genius?’

      • Mr. & Mrs. Silly Idiots who enjoy reading the SB News on September 9, 2014 at 12:08 pm
      • Reply

      It was intended as a “Play on words”

      Come on Juan, “Get Hip”

        • John on September 10, 2014 at 8:13 am
        • Reply

        como? en espanol por favor…

    • Mr. & Mrs. Silly Idiots who enjoy reading the SB News on September 9, 2014 at 10:35 am
    • Reply

    Thank you “Mr. Phineas Phillius J. Whoopee III, you’re a Genious!”

    You have solved the CISD problem!!

    You may not return to your regular programming!!

  1. Thanks for reading.

      • Jacob Lopez on September 9, 2014 at 9:07 am
      • Reply

      Well, if Woopie says so, then it must be true.

    • Side Note on September 8, 2014 at 8:18 am
    • Reply

    Don’t forget the fact that test scores (passing percentage) was lowered for this past year’s tests (some say because it was an election year).

    And don’t forget that Math scores won’t technically count this year either because of numerous changes made to the TEKS. ………

    • Teacher on September 6, 2014 at 11:15 pm
    • Reply

    What are they going to do about it? It really is not that difficult to see what the problem is. We all have concerns, but we need a plan of action.

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