Extra Credit

Ninth grade passing rates on STAAR tests rise after second attempt

UPDATE:

Ninth graders who failed the STAAR end-of-course standardized tests in their initial go around did better during retakes, the Texas Education Agency announced.

Here's a link to an Associated Press report.

An excerpt: "Students who retook those tests as 10th-graders this year saw their scores in all subject areas improve dramatically, according to Education Commissioner Michael Williams.

The English I writing passing rate jumped from 54.4 percent last spring to 72.6 percent after retesting. English I reading jumped from 67.7 percent to 81.2 percent; world geography climbed to 84.8 percent from 79.7 percent; and 91 percent of students passed biology exams, up from 86.4 percent."

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/01/29/4584930/twice-is-a-charm-ninth-graders.html#storylink=cpy

And here's Tuesday's news release from the Texas Education Agency.

ORIGINAL POST:

The majority of Texas students who took the state’s new standardized exams last year passed it, results show.

Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams released results Tuesday from elementary and middle schoolers who took the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests in spring 2012.

In a news release, Williams said the passing rates for most of the tests were 70 percent or higher. Third and fourth graders posted passing rates of 68 percent on the math test.

And eighth graders posted a 59 percent passing rate on the social studies test. Education officials attributed that to new curriculum content and use of more primary sources in test questions. Eighth graders posted the highest passing percentage on the tests, with 80 percent passing the reading exam.

The new tests are designed to be harder than the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exam. That program is being phased out. (r: 9th grader works in STAAR end of course remedial class in June 2012. ST/Ron Jenkins)

Students took STAAR tests in the same subjects that were tested on the TAKS. For grades 3 through 8, students must take tests in math and reading. Students are also tested in writing at grades 4 and 7, science at grades 5 and 8, and social studies at grade 8.

“I recognize there has been a lot of anxiety surrounding STAAR tests, but I believe these are encouraging passing rates for the first year of a new more rigorous test,” Williams said in a statement. “Clearly, we still have work to do, but I remain optimistic that passing rates will rise this spring in the second administration of the STAAR, just as they have traditionally done in the second year of a new testing program.”

Several greater Tarrant County school districts, including Fort Worth, Mansfield, Arlington and Grapevine-Colleyville, did not release scores for their students on Tuesday. Some officials said administrators want to share the scores with school trustees before releasing the data.

Fort Worth schools officials received the last of their scores from the state on Saturday, said Clint Bond, a spokesman.

“They haven’t been reviewed or analyzed. We just got some of them. The superintendent hasn’t seen them and the board hasn’t seen them,” Bond said.

This year, exam results will be used to create accountability performance ratings for school districts and campuses. No ratings were issued in 2012 as the state made the transition to the new test.

High school students must get a passing average on 15 end-of-course STAAR tests to graduate. There are three exams each in math, science, social studies, reading and writing. This year, ninth and 10th graders took the tests. Other students continue to take the TAKS. Williams has suspended a requirement that the scores count as 15 percent of the course grade.

Jessamy Brown

Texas school districts seek to overturn federal Adequate Yearly Progress ratings

A coalition of more than 80 Texas school districts is seeking to overturn all federal accountability ratings issued since the program started in 2003.

The school districts filed a legal case against the Texas Education Agency on Thursday, challenging the Adequate Yearly Progress ratings issued under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The 87 school districts say all AYP ratings issued under the program are invalid, said Ken McCraw, executive director of the Texas Association of Community Schools, an Austin group that organized the legal proceeding.

“It’s a pretty big deal because it could set aside the AYP ratings of school districts if it is upheld,” McCraw said in a Friday telephone interview. “What we're saying is that the feds only contribute a small amount of money but they’re trying to control 100 percent of the accountability. We don’t think the federal government ought to be devising the accountability system.”

DeEtta Culbertson, a TEA spokeswoman, said Friday: “We are reviewing the filing.”

The group is asking the State Office of Administrative Hearings to review the case.

“The challenge asserts that the ratings constitute an unlawful, costly and destructive federal intrusion into local school operations and that the Texas Education Agency, in its efforts to comply with federal mandates, acted without authority from the Legislature and denied school district leaders their right to due process,” the Community Schools group said in a Thursday news release.

If the challenge is successful, the TEA will be required to "withdraw its AYP regulations, wipe the federal ratings slate clean for the past nine years, and start AYP implementation over," the release said.

The school districts involved in the case include several from Greater Tarrant County, including: Alvarado, Castleberry, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Everman, Grapevine-Colleyville, Lake Worth and White Settlement.

Additional school districts are expected to join the case, McCraw said.

Jessamy Brown

#FirstBell Contest: Tell us about your first day of school

School is back in on Monday at most Tarrant County area districts and Star-Telegram reporters will be out and about at several campuses.

We'll be tweeting our observations on Back to School and we want you to join in.

Parents, grandparents, students and teachers: post your experiences and photos from the first day of school using the hashtag #FirstBell. And don't forget to include the name of the school and/or location in your tweet.

Tweets with the #FirstBell hashtag may be used by the Star-Telegram online or in print.

The Star-Telegram is running a contest, giving folks to participate the chance win a backpack filled with school supplies, Mom2Mom gear and 4 tickets to the Movie Tavern.

Jessamy Brown

 

Grapevine-Colleyville schools issue statement on counselor

The Grapevine-Colleyville school district issued a statement today regarding a Trophy Club police investigation into alleged misconduct of a high school counselor.

The freshmen counselor at Colleyville Heritage High School is on administrative leave while police investigate an allegation that he had an inappropriate relationship with a student. The student no longer attends Grapevine-Colleyville schools. Kerry D. Jones, 50, of Trophy Club, also a member of the Northwest school board. Read more in the Star-Telegram.

Grapevine-Colleyville school district spokeswoman Megan Overman today issued this statement, noting that the alleged misconduct did not occur on school property:

"On August 10, GCISD was notified by the Trophy Club Police Department that they were investigating allegations of misconduct with a former student by a Colleyville Heritage High School counselor. The district placed the counselor on administrative leave the same day we were notified.

"The Trophy Club police have confirmed that the alleged misconduct did not occur on school property and that no other students related to CHHS are involved. This is an ongoing police investigation.

"State and federal privacy laws prevent us from publicly discussing matters involving students or personnel; however, GCISD is cooperating fully with the Trophy Club police on this matter."

Jessamy Brown

Grapevine-Colleyville CFO moves on - to Mansfield

Grapevine-Colleyville school district is searching for a new chief financial officer - again.

Elaine Cogburn is already settled in at Mansfield ISD as their associate superintendent of business and finance. She came to Grapevine-Colleyville in the summer of 2010 from the Dallas school district, and before that she was CFO of the Frenship district near Lubbock.

DaiAnn Mooney, Grapevine-Colleyville's financial services director, will serve as interim CFO, a role she performed in transition between former CFO Hank Johnson and Cogburn. Johnson left the district for the CFO post in Fort Worth district in January of 2010.

Grapevine-Colleyville's preliminary budget for the 2012-13 school year is almost complete, district officials report.

_Shirley Jinkins

Colleyville changes direction on cheerleading squads

Update:

Bowing to pressure from angry parents who saw their daughters' high school cheerleading dreams tossed aside, Grapevine-Colleyville district administrators reversed an earlier decision based on tryout results at Colleyville Heritage High School that some parents claimed were aimed at creating a smaller squad that would do better in cheerleading competitions.

Read more about the controversy here.

Cheerleaders took their complaints about the tryout process to trustees last month.

Rewas
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/05/08/3945328/administrators-reverse-ruling.html#storylink=cp

Read more from at here.The students had taken concerns over the tryout procedures to the Grapevine Colleyville school board in April.

--Shirley Jinkins

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/05/08/3945328/administrators-reverse-ruling.html#storylink=cpy

Perfect: Texas Geographic Bee winner prevails in 26 rounds

UPDATE
Rahul Nagvekar, 13, says he will ramp up his studies of maps and other sources before the National Geographic Bee in May.

"I've done this for a long time. I've worked a lot. I really felt like this was what I've been working for," said Rahul, of Sugar Land. He attends Quail Valley Middle School in Missouri City.

After 10 rounds of finals competition, Rahul faced Jacob Brown, of Doerre Intermediate School in Klein school district in the three-question championship round.

Third place went to Ben Benjadol, of Wilshire Elementary School in Euless.

Left: Rahul Nagvekar, 2012 winner, talks to Tine Valencic, 2011 winner, (right) as Rahul's father Manoj Nagvekar takes a photo.

UPDATE 12:12

Rahul Nagvekar, who took second place last year, is the winner of the Texas Geographic Bee. He did not miss one question during this morning's event.

 

UPDATE 11:40 a.m.

Some facts about the competitors: Of the 10 finalists only one is a girl: Anna C. Bowers, of Diane Gorzycki Middle School in Austin. There were only 6 females among the top 100.

And Ben Benjadol, a fifth grader at Wilshire Elementary School at Hurst-Euless-Bedford schools, was the runner up at the Fort Worth regional spelling bee earlier this month. Unlike the spelling bee, though, students can miss two questions, not just one, before being eliminated.

 

UPDATE 11:10 a.m.

Students are being eliminated from the tie breaker round. Seven students are still on the stage. For this round, they are being asked the same question, writing their answers with a marker on a white board and holding the board up for judges to see. They're wearing blue tags around their necks shaped like the state of Texas, each bearing their number.

 

UPDATE 10:45 a.m.

Prelims are over and 17 of 100 students who made perfect scores in that round are taking the stage. But before the finals can start, the students have to go through a tie breaker round to narrow the field to the top 10 spots.

"This will be the first time we've had to do a tie breaker with all perfect scores," said Texas coordinator Marci Smith Deal. "Pretty awesome."

UPDATE 10:30 a.m.

Tine Valencic, an 8th grade student at Colleyville Middle School who won the National Geographic Bee last year, is here at the state contest.

He gave a pep talk to the students before the preliminary round, telling them to relax and focus on the questions. It was the same advice he heard from a contest coordinator in a previous year, he said.

Tine, 14, is not eligible to compete this year because he took the national title last year, officials said.

"It feels a lot less stressful than last year," he said.

Tine, who took second place in the Texas contest in 2009 and won it in 2010 and 2011. As the national winner he took a trip to the Galapagos Islands, he said. He's currently preparing for the state science competition.

Initial post:

Students from across Texas are getting ready to show how much they know about the Earth at the state Geographic Bee.

To start this morning's Texas Geographic Bee competition, the 100 students are going through a preliminary round in small rooms in the Pay May Center at the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district. After scoring the top 10 finishers will emerge to a large room where parents and teachers are waiting for the finals.

The winner will get a trophy and an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the national finals May 22 and 24.

The field is particularly tough in the Lone Star State because of the number of children who participate in the contest, open to students in grades four through eight who are in public, private or homeschool, said Texas coordinator Marci Smith Deal.

"It's such a tough competition in Texas," said Deal, HEB schools social studies coordinator. "You've got more than 1,000 public schools. That's literally millions of kids and these are the top."

Judges have been brought in from across the state, including geographers from San Marcos and New Braunfels.

Please check back this morning for updates on the competition.

Jessamy Brown

 

Tarrant school districts cancelling Thursday sports activities due to weather

As possible severe thunderstorms and cooler temperatures move into the Metroplex, some Tarrant County area school districts are cancelling Thursday afternoon and evening athletics matches.

Hurst-Euless-Bedford: high school level track meet, baseball and tennis are cancelled Thursday. Awards of Excellence banquet going forward.

Grapevine-Colleyville schools: all outdoor athletic events for Thursday are cancelled. Elementary open houses tonight are going forward.

Arlington schools: Thursday's freshmen soccer games and a baseball tournament at Arlington High scheduled for Thursday through Saturday are cancelled. For Friday: all junior varsity soccer games cancelled. Varsity games will go forward but some have been moved to different locations.

Northwest schools: all track and tennis activities cancelled for Thursday.

Southlake-based Carroll schools has cancelled baseball and track activities for Thursday.

Haltom City-based Birdville schools cancelled an outdoor track meet on Thursday.

Fort Worth schools cancelled middle school track meets and baseball tournament at Western Hills High on Thursday.

Keller schools has cancelled a Special Olympics track meet and rescheduled the event for March 20. 

Check back here for more updates.

--Star-Telegram Education Team

Texas Highway 26 shuts off Grapevine-Colleyville school offices, stadium

A word of advice to those venturing to Grapevine-Colleyville school district's administration building, Mustang-Panther Stadium or its fieldhouse: Think "Mustang Drive" instead of Texas 26

Ongoing road construction on Texas 26 has closed the main entrance to those facilities, so anyone with business in the district offices, the school boardroom or the stadium will have to proceed along Texas 26 to the entrance nearest the fieldhouse.

This left a lot of folks dodging traffic cones and traversing the stadium parking lot to get to this week's school board meeting.

School officials have advised students, parents and the public that the best policy might be to forget about Texas 26 entirely for awhile and choose the Mustang Drive entrances, which are all open and unobstructed.

__Shirley Jinkins 

Grapevine-Colleyville and Mansfield cheerleading squads win firsts at contest

Cheerleaders from Grapevine High, Colleyville Middle and Mansfield High jumped and flipped their way into first place wins at the national cheerleading competition in Dallas over the weekend.

Results from the Garland-based National Cheerleaders Association here.

Grapevine High School took first place in the intermediate/medium high school category, besting 22 other teams from as far as New Jersey, Arkansas and Idaho.

From the same school district, Colleyville Middle School won first place in the large advanced junior high/middle school category, with an award for innovative choreography.

Mansfield High School won the intermediate junior varsity/freshmen category, with specialty awards for innovative choreography and best use of jumps and best use of partner stunts.

Keller High School took second place in medium advanced high school, with an award for best use of tumbling. A team from the school also took third place in the novice junior varsity/freshmen, with awards for superior showmanship and best use of tumbling.

 

Jessamy Brown