(Geronimo) — The Navarro ISD has lots to celebrate following its latest report card from the Texas Agency. The district earned an A as its letter grade for the 2019 accountability ratings. This was the first time that A-F accountability ratings were revealed for not only districts but also for each of its campuses.
Navarro ISD Superintendent Dee Carter says the district is extremely happy to have earned such a high mark from the state of Texas.
“We are celebrating today. When we looked at the preliminary numbers awhile back, it looked as though we were possibly going to earn a 91 which is an A rating but we were kind of holding our breath until the commissioner made the official announcements yesterday. So now, we are very, very excited,” said Carter.
Carter says the A defines plenty of hard work and planning — planning that has been an ongoing effort for the district.
“In terms of our district as a whole, we earned the 91 scaled score which is an A rating and we did well in terms of STAAR performance and college career and military readiness. Our graduation rate is one of the highest. The 99.3 component score in that area. Our academic growth is not as high as we would like to see it so we know we still have work to do in that area and we still have some work to do in terms of closing the gaps among the different demographics groups in our school district. But overall, our kids are doing well,” said Carter.
Now although, the district was a bit weary of the rating system, Carter says it provides a clear path to not only their success but the challenges that still need to be tackled within the district.
“The ratings were something we were not very excited about initially because what the state has done is to take indicators that are really a compilation of hundreds of factors in terms of student achievement relative largely to the STAAR and end of course test. There are other factors included but then that’s all boiled down into one letter grade and we had a lot of reservations about that but the way it’s being reported to us now, it really shows us very specifically what are the areas that we are doing pretty well and what areas we still need to work on,” said Carter.
When broken down by campuses, the Navarro Elementary School also received an A with Distinction Designations in Math and Closing the Gaps. The Navarro Intermediate School earned a B. Navarro Junior High School earned an A with Distinction Designations in Academic Growth, Post Secondary Readiness and Closing the Gaps. Navarro ISD also earned an A with Distinction Designations in ELA/Reading, Mathematics and Closing the Gaps.
According to the TEA, the Distinction Designations are “awarded for achievement in several areas and are based on performance relative to a group of campuses of similar type, size, grade span, and student demographics. The distinction designation indicators are typically separate from those used to assign accountability ratings.”