(Marion) – As it plans its future buildings with a newly announced $50 million bond election, the Marion ISD is also looking to build upon its academic success as defined by the Texas Education Agency. The school district is celebrating its official accountability ratings that were released last week for public school districts and its campuses.
Marion ISD Superintendent Dr. Don Beck says the district is proud of its accomplishments. He says the district did very well earning a B rating. He says they had a score of 89. He says overall, they had A’s and B’s in all categories at the district level.
One of those A’s earned in the Marion ISD was over at the high school. Dr. Beck says the district could not be prouder of this accomplishment that also came with several distinctions.
“Our high school was an A. They were a 92 so for 70 percent of the score, they had a 92 for student achievement. Part of that was the college, career and military readiness portion by which they scored a 96. So that was phenomenal. They scored there along with the graduation rate being 100 so adding all of that together along with the closing of the gaps at 92, it gave them an overall average of 92 for an A. When you think about things that give you pride here and that was the distinctions. We actually had four distinctions at the high school with mathematics being one of them and then we had comparative academic growth, post-secondary readiness and comparative closing the gaps. Those are little feathers in our cap when you are looking at that because they look at 25 schools just like you and you have to place in the top quartile in a certain number to even get a distinction so being an A with four distinctions is a great achievement for our high school,” said Dr. Beck.
Dr. Beck says the junior high and elementary school campuses also came out on top and should be applauded for their individual success.
“The big feather in their cap was also the fact that they had two distinctions. We had a distinction in science and social studies. Our eighth-grade kids did phenomenal there and a big portion of that had to do with whether or not the kids performed masters or not on the exam. So, that with a B and two distinctions is a great achievement for our junior high and then our elementaries – we have two elementaries – one of them gets their rating because of the other elementary but Karrer Elementary — our 3 to 5 campus, they also received an A. They showed some great progress from the year prior on the state assessment. In fact, school progress is where they got their 92 that counted for 70 percent of their score and the closing of the gaps number was a 90 giving them an overall average of 91. They also received two distinctions one in mathematics and the other in comparative growth,” said Dr. Beck.
Dr. Beck says despite the success, mastery for all students remains the district’s priority.
“A is always the goal here. The biggest difference for next year is there is going to be a change in accountability. There is no progress because of the new state assessment. The commissioner promised five years of consistent numbers to be able to look at when you are trying to go for the ratings – the accountability there. This kicks starts the new five years and whatever numbers they generate that we have to look at between what is an A, B, C or D and so it’s going to be a challenge for us to make sure we know that we do with the best practices with our students so that regardless what they throw at us, we will be ready for that but A is always definitely the goal and we are going to keep working toward that,” said Dr. Beck.
District officials last week celebrated the news with Bundt cakes and other gestures of teacher appreciation.