Dickinson ISD Meets State Standard, Two Campuses Fall Short in One Category

DICKINSON, TX — All of the campuses in Dickinsin ISD met the state's standards, according to accountability ratings recently released by the Texas Education Agency.

Although the overall district met state standards, two of the district's campuses missed one of the state's marks in one category.

The annual ratings are designed to provide a snapshot of a school's performance, but the system has come under fire for relying on scores from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, exams — the latest model of Texas' high-stakes standardized tests.

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Given the problems that plagued this year's tests — glitches in online tests, testing materials being sent to other schools and in one case to a church, scores being attributed to the wrong schools, flimsy answer sheets — it's a stretch to think that this year's fill-in-the-blank could be used to measure anything other than how much money the state saved by switching vendors.

Expect legislation to change the ratings game to be introduced when the filing period opens at the end of the year. Given how much time is guaranteed to be devoted to the three "G's" of Texas state politics — gays, guns and God — whether or not education bills will get a hearing when the Lege gets back next year is a bit of a crap shoot.

The campuses that missed the state mark are Kenneth E Little Elementary and Hughes Road Elementary.Both schools dropped the ball in student progress, each got 30 of the needed 32.

Both schools put three in the W column by making the grade in student achievement, closing performance gaps and postsecondary readiness.

However, given the shortcomings of this year's tests perhaps all the schools should get a round of applause for even getting in the end zone, what with the goal line constantly shifting.

Image credit: via Shutterstock