Secondary campuses putting in the work toward academic success
(Seguin) — Three months into the school year and already the Seguin ISD is witnessing progress at each of is secondary schools including both middle schools that have struggled to report student success over the last several years.
Calling it “amazing progress” is Seguin ISD Superintendent Dr. Matthew Gutierrez. Gutierrez says assessment scores comparing same student success from last year to this year and scores from October to November illustrate a favorable trend for all students.
“What I’m really proud about today is that they have shared their middle of the year data and specifically in reading, language arts and math and we are already seeing our data look like it did at the end of the year with STAAR in the middle of the year and in some instances for example at Barnes, in the Meets Category of eighth grade math, we already have 40 percent of our students meeting grade level where on STAAR at the end of the year, we were at 19 percent so that’s some of the academic progress that we are seeing and what I’ve shared with the community is that last year was the planning year with System of Great Schools and we knew that we needed to do something different and really disrupt the way that we teach and learn at the middle schools because we continue to do things different in a traditional way and so what the partnership with TEA, the System of Great Schools has allowed us to do is to have additional dollars to do innovative and creative things for our middle school learners and we are already reaping the benefit,” said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says much of the success thus far with all grade levels at the middle schools — he believes — comes with the redesign of its curriculum.
Dr. Gutierrez says to share these numbers at this time of the school year is promise for the Seguin ISD which has been working steadily to improve the academic success of these campuses.
Although steppingstones, Gutierrez believes it’s a sincere attempt to point the campuses in the right direction. He says this trend shows the hard work that is being put in daily by teachers, and administrators and by those students who are also being challenged to excel.
“So I celebrated the work of our teachers and our administrators at the middle schools and at the high school because even at some instances at the high school, they are already surpassing where they were at the end of the year and it’s this laser focus, pouring in these resources. We’ve added resources what we call High Quality Instructional Materials that just aligns with a rigorous curriculum and really raising the bar in student expectations and it’s all coming together and I’m encouraged with what I see and I’m looking forward to getting that data late in the summer of 2023,” said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says even the state has taken notice of what’s happening in local classrooms.
“And that’s why TEA chose us to be a site visit for 14 school districts last week. They get the opportunity to see thousands of schools right in our state and for them to recognize and put value in what they are seeing really means a lot to me and I know that our community, they were obviously very concerned when we saw our academic status at the end of the school year this summer and our community wants to know and see that progress,” said Gutierrez.
Administrators from Barnes and Briesemeister Middle Schools plus Seguin High School were all on hand Tuesday night to give the positive progress to members of the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees. As part of the district’s goals to ensure academic success and to keep schools accountable, monthly updates on academics, attendance and discipline are being provided to trustees as part of their regular school board agenda. Those updates are also being made available so that the community can keep up with the district’s efforts. A recording of those meetings is also being made available the next day to the public on YouTube. A link for those meetings can be found on the district’s website or via the Seguin ISD Facebook page.