Organizers of next week’s Greater Waco Community Education Alliance summit couldn’t have asked for better publicity than Tribune-Herald staff writer Wendy Gragg’s Page One story on appeals by the Waco Independent School District regarding district and campus rankings. Reading this story, one is again astonished at how but a few students on each campus, or even in the entire district, can determine whether a district is deemed acceptable or unacceptable, recognized or exemplary.

Put simply, it gets back to the alliance’s message of the past two years: Teachers and students are not the only ones responsible for the educational success of the coming generations. Office staff is responsible. Administrators in the main office downtown are responsible. State education officials in Austin are responsible. Most importantly, parents are responsible.

Consider this evidence:

* Lake Waco Montessori Magnet School won its appeal to the Texas Education Agency to restore its ranking to “exemplary” after TEA officials failed to record a passing math test score for a single fifth-grade student. The failing grade, principal Robin McDurham says, pulled down the percentage of students passing in the economically disadvantaged category, which in turn drew the entire school’s rating down, which bumped the campus’s previous rating of “exemplary” down to “recognized.” Talk about margins of error!

* The entire Waco ISD was rated “acceptable” only after arguing against the original rating of “unacceptable” by TEA officials. State officials at first gave the district its lowest ranking because its tally showed seven white seventh- or eighth-graders as dropouts — enough by state standards to qualify the entire WISD as unacceptable. Turned out that five of the seven actually enrolled at other schools, and those schools had yet to file proper paperwork with WISD. TEA officials took this into account and upgraded WISD to “acceptable.” Bravo.

Other examples exist out there, but the point is clear. Teachers, parents, students, office staff, even administrators must be at the top of their game. To allow just one student’s educational well-being to go off the radar screen can indict a campus or an entire school district.

Our congratulations to diligent WISD officials for successful appeals regarding both the district and Lake Waco Montessori Magnet School, and best wishes to Waco High School as it makes its second appeal based (at least in our view) on equally viable evidence. Meanwhile, we hope to see many of you at the summit Nov. 17-19 at the Waco Convention Center.