State denies Bloomington ratings appeal
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The dropout rate will be addressed at the next BISD school board meeting on Nov. 16, said John Cranfill, school board president.
"I'm sure counter-measures will be put in place," Cranfill said.
The Bloomington school district's appeal of its academically unacceptable rating was denied by the Texas Education Agency late last week.
Bloomington's school district and high school tallied a 72.5 percent completion rate of the economically disadvantaged in 2007-08, said Superintendent Brad Williams.
The state's required standard completion rate is 75 percent.
Had Bloomington been permitted to disclaim at least one of the two students recently incarcerated outside the district's attendance zone, the district and high school would have met the TEA standard, Williams said.
"When you're a smaller school, one student counts a lot," he said. "If they had said either one or both of those kids did not count against us, we would've jumped up several percentage points."
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, students from within a school district who are incarcerated, even outside the district's attendance zone, are still counted as dropouts in the school district.
But starting in 2011, incarcerated students will not be counted as dropouts, based on the House Bill 3 passed by Texas Legislation in May.
Economically disadvantaged students can have an effect on any school, Williams said.
"Regardless of where you go, the economically disadvantaged factor has the biggest impact on educational success for any kid," he said. "Kids can do well academically in spite of economics, but when it gets to a certain point of feeding the family, or being able to live, it gets tough. Your resources are limited. Your experiences are limited."
Perhaps the academically unacceptable rating should not include completion rates, said John Cranfill, BISD school board president.
"I wish the state would reconsider to look at their language and see if it's the appropriate terminology they could use for that rating," Cranfill said.
Besides the un-met completion rate of Bloomington's economically disadvantaged, the superintendent said the district met all other academic requirements, such as with TAKS testing.
Other Bloomington schools performed well, Williams said.
Bloomington Junior High was rated acceptable, Bloomington Elementary was rated exemplary and Placedo Elementary was recognized.
"We were excited about our academic performance, Williams said, "but this is very disheartening because it doesn't demonstrate the academic performance of our kids."
Comments
Of COURSE the Texas Education Agency denied the Bloomington School District's appeal. To do otherwise, the TEA would have had to admit that their politically correct, nanny-state rules were nonsensical. How else to explain holding a school district responsible for ex-students who are incarcerated outside of the school district's boundaries? How else to justify finding an entire district to be ACADEMICALLY unacceptable because of the performance of a select group of "economically disadvantaged" students?
When the Legislature has to pass a law prohibiting this sort of inane requirement, the time is long since past for more drastic measures. A good start would be a law abolishing the TEA and mandating the firing of every employee of the agency.
November 1, 2009 at 2:16 p.m."I'm sure counter-measures will be put in place," Cranfill said.
November 1, 2009 at 10:13 a.m.CONSIDER BEGINNING WITH THIRD GRADERS!! I'M SERIOUS AS AN INMATE WHO HITS SEVENTH GRADE WITHOUT KNOWING BASIC FACTS. THAT'S WHEN THEY LEAVE.