Several Waco schools are celebrating improved accountability ratings for 2010, but the Waco Independent School District remains on the “unacceptable” list.

Three schools moved into the “exemplary” category and three other schools pulled themselves out of the “unacceptable” range in the state’s accountability system.

The state rates schools and districts annually based largely on how many students passed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests the previous school year.

Schools and districts mostly fall into one of four ratings.

“Exemplary” is the top rating, followed by “recognized,” “acceptable” and “unacceptable.”

Midway Independent School District moved into a “recognized” rating for 2010, while many Midway campuses held to their previous ratings of “exemplary” and “recognized.”

Though Waco ISD sits for another year at the bottom of the ratings ladder, officials are filing an appeal with the state department of education and hope to overturn that rating within a few months.

Jennifer Womack, WISD’s new assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said the district’s “unacceptable” rating is based on the dropout rate of seventh- and eighth-graders in the white sub-population.

Womack said this most likely is a clerical error. The district already has tracked down several of the seven students who were reported as dropouts, she said.

Officials are waiting for the paperwork that shows those students are enrolled, she said.

Womack said the district also is appealing Waco High School’s “unacceptable” rating.

University High School earned an “acceptable” rating for 2010.

University principal Nolan Correa said the improvement came from hiring a clerk last year who kept up with students when they withdrew from the school and enrolled in another school.

Incomplete paperwork in that area can affect a high school’s completion rate, as it did University’s in 2009.

Correa said University High has a highly mobile student population, with students moving between schools in the district, as well as those who leave the state and the country.

“It’s just making sure that we knew where they were going and that they showed up,” Correa said.

Brazos and University middle schools rose from “unacceptable” into “acceptable” ratings this year.

And Lake Air Intermediate, in its first year serving only fifth- and sixth-graders, earned an “acceptable” rating. As a middle school in 2008-09, Lake Air was “unacceptable.”

Mountainview, Kendrick and Parkdale elementary schools all moved into “exemplary” ratings.

Doris Miller Elementary School slid back into an “unacceptable” rating this year after pulling itself into “acceptable” territory in 2009.

Womack said the “unacceptable” rating for 2010 is based on black students’ reading scores being one percentage point too low.

Midway ISD moved up into a rating of “recognized” this year, helped by a measure that gives the district credit for showing improvement in the number of black students passing TAKS.

All of Midway’s elementary schools earned “exemplary” ratings, including Castleman Creek, which opened last fall.

“It shows we had a really good team in place and teachers who took the ball and ran with it and wouldn’t accept anything but ‘exemplary,’ ” said Tami Wiethorn, Midway ISD coordinator for assessment.

The Rapoport Academy charter school system earned an “exemplary” rating this year, as did its elementary, middle and high schools.

Several Waco schools, a few Midway campuses and all the Rapoport campuses owe their ratings, in some part, to the Texas Projection Measure.

The measure looks at the improvement individual students who did not pass TAKS made and then predicts whether that student will pass the test within the next few years.

If the student is expected to eventually pass, passing credit is given for the test this year.

Use of the measure improved schools’ ratings across the state last year and again this year. But the Texas Projection Measure has come under fire by those who say it gives credit to failing scores.

“TPM is a complex regression analysis, but I believe it be reliable,” state Commissioner of Education Robert Scott said. “Nonetheless, I am willing to re-examine its use because we want the public to have complete faith in the school ratings.”

Scott said will officials consider revamping the measure and an announcement will be made next school year regarding any changes.

Wiethorn said she appreciates that Texas Projection Measure recognizes when significant improvement is made, but she does not agree with the projection component of the measure.

Waco ISD’s Womack said TPM “honors the fact that students are growing and we are advancing the academics.”

She said she also likes the projection piece of the measure and considers it another tool for educators to see that students stay on the right trajectory.

wgragg@wacotrib.com

757-6901

 

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State ratings for area schools

NOTE: Schools and districts mostly fall into one of four ratings. “Exemplary” is the top rating, followed by “recognized,” “acceptable” and “unacceptable.”

Charter schools
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
Waco Charter School
Harmony Science
Rapoport Academy	Exemplary
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
Elementary School
Middle School
High School
Independent school districts
Axtell ISD	Recognized
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Methodist Ranch
Learning Center
Middle School
Elementary School
Waco Center for Youth
Bosqueville ISD	Recognized
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
Secondary School
Elementary
Bruceville-Eddy ISD
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Middle School
Intermediate School
Elementary
Achievement Center
China Spring ISD	Exemplary
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Connect
Middle School
Intermediate School
Elementary School
Connally ISD	Acceptable
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Lakeview Academy
Junior high
Intermediate center
Primary School
Elementary School
Crawford ISD	Exemplary
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Middle School
Elementary
Gholson ISD	Exemplary
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
Gholson School
Hallsburg ISD	Exemplary
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
Elementary School
La Vega ISD	Acceptable
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Junior high
Intermediate School
Elementary School
Lorena ISD	Recognized
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Connect center
Middle School
Elementary School
Primary School
Mart ISD	Recognized
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Middle School
Elementary School
McGregor ISD	Recognized
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Junior high
Elementary School
Midway ISD	Recognized
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Middle School
Intermediate
Woodway Elementary
Castleman Creek Elementary
Hewitt Elementary
Speegleville Elementary
Spring Valley Elementary
South Bosque Elementary
Moody ISD	Acceptable
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Middle School
Elementary School
Riesel ISD	Recognized
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
Riesel School
Foster Elementary
Robinson ISD	Recognized
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Opportunity Center
Junior High School
Intermediate School
Primary School
Elementary School
Waco ISD	Unacceptable
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
Waco High School
University High School
A.J. Moore Academy
STARS High School
Lake Air Middle School
Cesar Chavez Middle School
Tennyson Middle School
University Middle School
G.W. Carver Academy
Brazos Middle School
Alta Vista Montessori School
Bell's Hill Elementary School
Brook Avenue Elementary School
Cedar Ridge Elementary School
Crestview Elementary School
Dean-Highland Elementary School
Doris Miller Elementary School
Hillcrest Professional Development School
J.H. Hines Elementary School
Kendrick Elementary School
Meadowbrook Elementary School
Mountainview Elementary School
North Waco Elementary School
Parkdale Elementary School
Provident Heights Elementary School
Sul Ross Elementary School
Viking Hills Elementary School
Lake Waco Montessori School
West Avenue Elementary School
South Waco Elementary School
West ISD	Recognized
	Unacc.	Acc.	Rec.	Exe.
High School
Middle School
Intermediate School
Elementary School
Brookhaven Ranch
Connect

NOTE: Schools and districts mostly fall into one of four ratings. “Exemplary” is the top rating, followed by “recognized,” “acceptable” and “unacceptable.”