TEA Report: ECISD Doing Better

By David J. Lee, Odessa American, Texas

Jan. 14–A Texas Education Agency report shows improvement for ECISD, though the district is still lagging behind the state. According to the Academic Excellence Indicator System report, posted on the Texas Education Agency’s Web site, ECISD improved the number of students it had passing all portions of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills in 2006. The report said 60 percent of ECISD students passed in 2006, better than the 54 percent who passed in 2005. “It’s a really positive report,” said Joe Gallegos, ECISD deputy superintendent of curriculum, instruction and development. “What I tell principals and teachers is, ‘If you do nothing, because of the maturity of the test, you’ll grow 1 or 2 percent,’ ” he said. “If it’s more, then there are great things happening with the teachers and principals. If it’s 3 percent or more growth, something was done to impact that instead of just letting the test mature.” Gallegos said that at the end of January, when campus report cards come, it’ll show a two-year growth on most every campus in ECISD. “The average out there is 4 percentage points at each campus in each area,” he said. Which is particularly good, he noted, because the state keeps increasing the difficulty of passing the tests. “When you have more students passing, it’s even a bigger accomplishment, because more students are meeting a tougher standard,” he said.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Odessa American, Texas

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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