(Seguin) — As the Seguin ISD celebrates the preliminary state accountability data for a majority of its schools, it’s also acknowledging that there’s more work to be done.
That’s particularly true at the secondary level where district officials say they have adopted a “very aggressive approach” to learning, and that they are excited to roll out the changes, especially at the district’s two middle school campuses.
Seguin ISD Superintendent Dr. Matthew Gutierrez says there’s no hiding the F rating for A.J. Briesemeister Middle School, the D rating expected over at Jim Barnes Middle School, or the C rating that the Seguin High School looks to maintain.
He says although the middle schools will likely not be rated, both schools still managed to grow by six points each.
“Our middle schools still are not where we want them to be. Our high school maintained their C. So, we are placing heavy emphasis at our middle school campuses specifically and of course our high school this upcoming school year. We also have to keep in mind that we partnered with the Texas Education Agency to be part of the System of Great Schools that allocates additional dollars and resources to our middle schools and last year, was a planning year and even still during a planning year, our middle schools made some progress but this is truly the year that is going to have the biggest impact as this is year one of the Systems of Great Schools work,” said Gutierrez.
The Systems of Great Schools initiative announced to the community in the spring is basically a complete overhaul of middle school learning in the Seguin ISD. Not only is additional classroom time being allotted each school day but more innovative concepts in learning and behavior management are expected across all three middle school grade levels.
Both middle schools will not officially be rated, and Dr. Gutierrez says unfortunately the district will also likely not be rated — even though most schools reported gains. He says other factors, including lagging indicators used by the state in determining an overall rating will not only impact the Seguin ISD but others across the state.
“It’s likely that we are not alone. When you look at the overall district rating which we are not rated, it really doesn’t match up to the progress that we have made at our schools across the district. Unfortunately, there are certain measures within the accountability system that we are rated on that are from the year of 2021. Well, what happened in the year 2021? We had half of our students learning remotely. We had half of our students learning face to face. When you look at the CCMR data where students are rated as far as CTE course credentials that they complete, as far as dual credit enrollment, SAT, ACT testing, well many of our students were at home and if you look at those juniors that we are being evaluated on in 2021, they were also impacted in the spring of 2020. So, basically, I feel like 2021 and 2020 have come back to haunt us but we feel very confident that when it comes this time next school year, that we are going to recover just because of the significant progress we made in all of those areas this past school year,” said Gutierrez.
Chronic absences were also a significant player in preventing growth opportunities for students in the secondary level. Dr. Gutierrez says while he would have hoped for more growth at these secondary schools, he can’t help but acknowledge the progress made across all Seguin ISD campuses.
This upcoming year, the district says it plans on hyper monitoring middle and high school classes. They say regular classroom visits and ensuring that everyone is teaching at the same quality level will be crucial. A collective effort to support teachers and to walk them through content is being made a priority.
Overall, particularly at the elementary level, there were big gains in the Seguin ISD.
District officials note that Patlan and Rodriguez elementary schools jumped two letter grades, improving from a D to a B. Jefferson Avenue Elementary School and the Mercer-Blumberg Learning Center (MBLC), formerly C schools, also improved to the B rating. The district was also proud to announce that Koennecke and McQueeney elementary schools maintained their B ratings.
They note 2022 campus accountability data is preliminary. The Texas Education Agency is expected to officially release its ratings on Friday.