(Seguin) — In its decision to embrace a whole new culture of doing things, the Seguin ISD is bracing itself for what could be a potential dip in some of its numbers following next month’s official release of STAAR test results. Now while no district wants to report a decline in its scores, the district is leaning on the understanding that the district might just be experiencing what research has shown as being “an implementation dip.”
An implementation dip is defined as “literally a dip in performance and confidence as one encounters an innovation that requires new skills and new understandings.”
Seguin ISD Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez says preliminary data shows the district losing a few points in many subject areas across the board and although the district is a bit disappointed, he can’t say he is totally surprised.
“I am a little bit disappointed in the data and how we did overall as a school district when compared to last year. When I look at just overall performance in the content areas, if you would get all tests all together — reading, math, science, social studies, all grades, 3rd through 12th — we did go from overall 70 percent last year to about 65 percent this year so that was a drop of about five points,” said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says the implementation dip is not uncommon especially when district’s like the Seguin ISD not only welcome new leadership but adopt a whole new way of doing things — things like implementing a new strategic plan.
“I’d like to say that this is what I consider the implementation dip of bringing about change into an organization so I have asked our principals not to be discouraged. We are certainly not going to change direction. We are going to continue to do the right things because I believe that our new initiatives and new programs are the right things for students. I do have to say that the level of instruction that occurred this year compared to the year previous is night and day — just the level of instruction that is happening in the classroom and again, it’s the first year in the strategic plan that is putting in place systems of support that will be sustainable for years to come,” said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez notes that how the Seguin ISD operates today is totally different from what has been put into motion in the past.
“The drill and kill practice that we saw in the past really gave us immediate results. You can get immediate results from that practice but it widens the gap as students progress through school so I feel that it is important that we continue to focus on the rigor relevance framework on the campuses because that is really what is going to give us long term results and all of our principals saw dips in various areas and what I’ve encouraged them to do is really look closely at that data and work with their leadership teams to really look at our systems of support to better support our students because we are not going to go back to the practice of just drilling and killing or having STAAR factories in place. That doesn’t work. It wasn’t giving us outstanding results to begin with and I certainly feel confident that if we continue to focus on the work that is outlined in our strategic plan, we’ll begin to see better results,” said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says the drill and kill concept over the years has no doubt lived up to its definition — a definition that if you drill a student toward learning, you end up killing that same student’s motivation.
“What drill and kill refers to is that test prep that students undergo and the missing component in a classroom that has that practice is the higher level thinking, the problem solving skills that are so important as students get older and especially when students go into the workforce or into the military or to college. Those are the skills that we are trying to instill in our students. So, stepping away from that practice is going to have some negative results initially but what I’ve shared with principals is that we have to be very sensitive to this implementation dip and we have to really keep in mind our sense of moral purpose because what we are doing — the work that we’ve undergone this last school year is going to certainly have not only long term results but sustainable results in the organization,” said Gutierrez.
Now although the Seguin ISD does expect a few dips in some of the scores, the district can not refrain from celebrating what appears to be gains for Seguin High School. Gutierrez says the reported success at the high school is the shining light for the district and should remain as the anchor in the district’s overall decision to stay on course and continue with the plan that has been rolled out across the Seguin ISD.
“I think the high school is certainly an area that we are celebrating. They saw gains in various content areas. We are expecting the high school to go up. Their overall district grade, last year, I believe it was a 70 and we are expecting the high school to go up about five or six points in just one year and I think that is certainly an area of celebration. One of the things that I feel has certainly made an impact there is the stability and consistency that they’ve had with leadership. They have had the same principal for four years. That’s made a difference. They work very well hand in hand with the learning and leadership team here at Central Admin and because of that, I feel have seen the biggest gains compared to our other campuses,” said Gutierrez.
For a long time, Gutierrez says the Seguin ISD has changed the direction too many times for its teachers. He says there’s been some instabilities in particular with the curriculum and instruction department. He says one year, someone comes in and puts into place initiatives and programs then that next year, someone new comes in and tosses it all out.
“Right now, the district is having to calculate where our district is going to be as far as their ratings and what our plan is — what to do — once the state gives us the official rating. Then to go over that data with the board especially because as I said, we saw dips in many areas this year and it’s important to outline the work that has taken place and to also help people who are present understand that just because this data has come, we can’t change directions. We have to continue with the work that we started last year so that’s going to be critical here,” said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says while most of us want immediate results, it’s important to factor in all that needs to happen before things can be successful. He says that determination for success is no different for a school district.
“When you think about our football team and when I think two years ago, coming in, folks expressing concern about football and I said repeatedly give it time, give our athletic director and his team three to four years and I guarantee you will see results and if you think about it, in year three, our football team made it very far and not only our football team, but there are many other areas that we are celebrating as well in athletics. What has happened is you have three years with our athletic team to really build a program, establish some stability, consistency, establish some vertical alignment from the middle schools all the way to the high school, build leadership capacity, build character and I feel that that athletic comparison really simplifies it. That’s exactly what we are trying to do with the organization as a whole. It is going to take time. It is going to take two to three years to be able to see results and I can guarantee and assure the community that we will, if we continue to stay the course. That’s key. We have to continue to stay the course and follow that strategic plan with fidelity,” said Gutierrez.
Results for individual student STAAR tests were recently made available to parents and guardians. The official data and letter grades, however, aren’t expected to be released for Texas school districts until later this summer.