(Geronimo) — The Navarro ISD is zeroing in on its focus when it comes to the success of its students. That’s according to Navarro ISD Superintendent Mandy Epley following the release of the Texas Education Agency’s 2025 A–F accountability ratings in which the district earned a letter grade of B.
The district maintained consistent performance, with three of its four campuses rated a B. All earning B’s were Navarro Elementary, Navarro Intermediate, and Navarro High School. Navarro Junior High, however, received a C.
Sharing more of its interpretation of this letter grade is Dr. Epley who says the district views accountability as a tool for growth, not fear.
“I always tell people that when you look at accountability, it’s not something to fear. I look at it as a visit to the doctor and when we go to the doctor and say I am not feeling well or I think there might be problems, but I don’t want you to take my temperature. I don’t want you to take a blood sample, but you better tell me what’s wrong and you better give me some things that I need to do to get well. That wouldn’t work and we know it won’t work so we do participate in the testing as a form of diagnosis, but it is not all that we look at. We do our own formative assessment throughout the year with math testing, nationally for us to compare our student progress with the nation not just with Texas but we know that STAAR in its current format is something we do here in Texas, and we participate in that. I’m a firm believer and communicate that with my leadership team that the score should take care of itself,” said Dr. Epley.
The A–F system evaluates schools in three categories: Student Achievement, School Progress, and Closing the Gaps.
Dr. Epley explains that Navarro’s focus is on meeting each student’s individual needs and ensuring teachers have the tools to respond effectively.
“If we know our kids by name and need and we are addressing those needs – we are getting the professional learning that our staff needs to target those needs and then we are assessing – how are we doing? What do we need to improve? What are those small group opportunities where we can pull kids that are struggling? What are those opportunities to accelerate kids who have shown mastery and they need to move to the next level? And that is a very difficult thing to do but we are committed to doing it and we are continuing to align the curriculum. We only used to have multiple choice questions, now the test is actually online for all students. Young children are having to type essays on a computer and so there are several skills sets that have to happen to be prepared for that test and so that’s a big part of what we have moved forward in,” said Dr. Epley.
While the district saw strong scores among its advanced students, Dr. Epley noted the challenges that the district faces at the junior high level.
“Where we have seen some struggles is in our 7th grade –on grade level math. We have some amazing results with our 7th grade mastery math – advanced students who took the 8th grade test. They did exceptional. But that on grade level struggled a bit so we have done some staffing changes. We’ve done some training and so we will be looking at those math scores. We are also looking at our 8th grade that struggled in science, math and social studies. And a big part of testing whether its math, science, social studies or reading is having a great foundation in reading so going back and looking at our early childhood and our intermediate and really working and focusing on those phonetic skills,” said Epley.
Epley says while the Navarro ISD is proud of its B, it will continue to strive for excellence.
“We feel like the B as a whole is certainly the assessed grade, but we are competitive here. We want the best for our kids. We’d love to see that A and that comes from us working together as a team and ultimately not just making sure that score on that test is great but really living our mission which is that our students are prepared for the world,” said Dr. Epley.
Among the most notable and standout achievements is Navarro High School’s Distinction Designation for Academic Growth. District officials say this prestigious recognition places Navarro High School in the top 25 percent of its comparison group, and proudly ranks it among the top 5 out of 40 schools in this group.
The Navarro ISD invites the community to “explore” the detailed ratings for all school systems and campuses by visiting Texas Schools Search, or TX Research Portal.