Posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 4:50 pmBy Melanie FeukNew Caney Independent School District received encouraging news Friday, Aug. 7, when the Texas Education Agency (TEA) 2015 Accountability Report confirmed that the district “Met Standard.”NCISD surpassed the TEA’s target scores by an average of 11.25 points in each of the four performance index categories: student achievement, student progress, closing performance gaps and postsecondary readiness.“There was a tremendous amount of great work done by faculty, staff and students across the district,” Scott Powers, director of communications and community relations for NCISD, said. “This work is reflected in a lot of ways, including local and state accountability measures.”According to Powers, the areas of digital learning and fine arts rose from “Recognized” to “Exemplary” by local accountability measures in 2015. Other high-scoring areas include wellness and physical education, second language acquisition, gifted and talented, dropout prevention, parent and community involvement and workforce development.Like districts, campuses are also rated based on performance indices to determine whether they have “Met Standard(s)” or “Improvement (is) Required.”In the 2014 TEA Accountability Report, all rated NCISD campuses earned the “Met Standard” rating.The 2015 report gave “Met Standard” ratings all but two of the rated NCISD campuses: Aikin Elementary School and New Caney Middle School, which received “Improvement Required” ratings.According to Powers, the two campuses fell only a few points short of the target scores. He also explained there are extenuating circumstances for why the two campuses did not meet standards in 2015.“Both schools saw some significant changes in 2015,” Powers said. “Aikin had one of the largest percentage increases in student population in the district and New Caney Middle School was transitioning from a sixth grade campus to a full middle school serving students in grades sixth through eighth.”The district has addressed these changes and put measures into place to ensure the future success of the campuses’ students.“Aikin Elementary has closed its doors and will be subsumed by a new elementary school beginning this year,” Powers said. “That school will begin with a rigorous plan for academic excellence that addresses the needs of the students transferring from Aikin.“New Caney Middle school will work, in conjunction with the Texas Accountability Intervention System, to produce a focused improvement plan to address its needs which includes some targeted student interventions and writing across the curriculum.”These two campuses prove to be outliers when compared with the rest of the 16 rated NCISD campuses that did meet the TEA’s standards. NCISD campuses received a combined total of 19 distinctions. Two campuses – Infinity College High School and Bens Branch Elementary – received the maximum number of distinctions possible.“New Caney ISD schools received more than double the distinctions in 2015 than in 2014,” Powers said. “There are many factors that contribute to the success of an academic program including strong instructional leadership, highly qualified teachers, strong connections between curriculum and instructional design, and relevant, appropriate learning resources. New Caney ISD strives to improve annually in these areas.”The TEA continues to heighten its standards over time; making a 100 percent growth in merited distinctions –like the growth seen in NCISD – an increasingly harder feat to accomplish.“The challenge for schools is to continue to work toward increased rigor in their instruction to meet increasing standards,” Powers said. “The district and each campus annually produce campus improvement plans, and these plans are responsive to the data produced by the accountability system. The district met the state’s standards and will continue, along with each of its schools, to set challenging goals moving forward.”This story is from 2015
@PLBurr: This is from last year. Aikin is no longer a school there. It was demolested in April. NCMS has already had the TEA there all year...
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