By Jim Rice
FBISD Position 3 Trustee
The challenges facing public education in our own school district as well our state and nation have changed significantly from the time that most middle age adults attended public schools. As the cost for providing a quality education to ALL of our children has increased, a question that everyone wants answered is “How are our schools doing when it comes to educating our children?”
In order to objectively answer this question, we must have a “yardstick” with which to fairly measure student performance. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has introduced several rating systems over the past 20 years and for 2010-2011 is still utilizing the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test (TAKS). In addition to TEA requirements we must also comply with the federal government’s “No Child Left Behind” Act (NCLB) which utilizes a separate rating system entitled Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The Fort Bend Independent School District (FBISD) is legally bound to comply with both of these rating systems as is every other school district in our state.
FBISD has worked very hard to continuously improve the academic success of each student in our large and diverse district and has earned a Recognized rating from the TEA for the 2009-2010 school year (visit www.fortbend.k12.tx.us for results for each school). Additionally, each one of our elementary, middle and high schools, as well as our District has met the AYP requirements of NCLB. These are both commendable achievements for a district of our size.
At the February 14th FBISD Board hearing, Dr. Jan Moore, FBISD Director of Accountability and her staff presented the 2009-2010 Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) report, which is also posted on the district’s website. This report shares information regarding educational achievement at the elementary and secondary levels as compared to last year’s performance, FBISD’s achievement compared to our region and state, as well as information on our special needs students and Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students, and more. The AEIS report indicates that in 2010 our students have made and continue to make solid progress in all measured areas, including commended scores for all subjects aggregated across all tested grade levels. The increases in commended scores in all subjects are listed below and are equal to or greater than those of the state averages.
Commended TAKS Scores
Reading/ELA Math Writing Science Social Studies
+2 +1 +2 +3 +3
As previously noted the TAKS test and rating system were developed to serve as the “yardstick” the TEA uses to judge the performance of our individual schools as well as our entire district. Though we have been successful in achieving a “Recognized” District status, Fort Bend ISD continues to work hard towards achieving an “Exemplary” rating for each one of our schools and our district.
As parents and grandparents it is our fondest wish to see our children and grandchildren enter adulthood prepared to take their rightful place as productive, successful, and contributing members of our society. To achieve this, it is imperative that ALL of our children receive a quality education in Kindergarten through 12th grade and be prepared to attend and graduate from college and/or receive licensures and certifications to pursue other rewarding career options.
In spite of the budget challenges facing us, FBISD is committed to preparing our students for their future role as parents and community leaders by providing academic rigor in the classroom, and opportunities for learning life skills and enrichment through music, fine arts, sports and community service.
Jim, there is so much more to education than the TAKS test. If the board merely focuses on the TAKS, you are doing a disservice to our students.
The Houston area knows that FBISD is imploding – the board is led by the superintendent, testing is more important than student learning, students who are involved in UIL activities will be punished by paying hundreds of dollars to participate, and there are waaaaaaayyyy too many chiefs.
The focus should be the students…..period.
Jim Rice can lie very good.I hope that Alright can stranght Jim Rice
up a little.
p.s. I apologize for ending that last sentence in a preposition. :-(
I take away 2 things from Jim’s piece here:
1. That FBISD disagrees with the TEA over the effectiveness of the TAKS testing and the TAKS-based AEIS report as a yardstick. (This is implicit in Jim’s choice of wording.)
2. That, regardless of their disagreement, FBISD will continue to “teach to the TAKS” in order to attain an Exemplary TAXS rating, which Jim sees as an effective way to bolster funding to the District.
The big jump Jim makes between teaching to the TAKS and preparing students “to attend and graduate from college…” and to prepare them “for their future role as parents and community leaders”, however, is tenuous at best. Jim obviously doesn’t buy it, and he shouldn’t expect us to.