Trustee Brooklyn Richardson had one question as she listened to projections about Arlington ISD’s academic growth.
“We know our students are smart, and we know our teachers are capable. Why is there such low growth expected?” Richardson asked.
The district is expecting a 2-percentage-point increase — from 46% to 48% — in the number of students who read at grade level on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test, officials told trustees at a Dec. 7 board meeting.
The estimates are conservative because of pandemic-induced learning loss, said Natalie Lopez, assistant superintendent of Research and Accountability. In some categories, such as numbers of eighth graders who can read at grade level, the district is projecting a 1-percentage-point increase.
“We didn’t want to be too aggressive when we created the goals to put pressure on teachers and students to accomplish at the end of the year’s test,” Lopez said. “Yes, we wanted to get back to pre-COVID values but also not to only focus solely on the results on the STAAR test.”
Projected growth model
Projections are based on how students performed mid semester on a district-developed test. The tests are condensed versions of the newly revamped STAAR test.
Board Secretary Sarah McMurrough questioned if the district-developed test offers extended essay questions rather than only ones with multiple choice answers.
The district-developed test has 20 to 25 questions compared to the state’s 33 — with a mixture of multiple choice and essay questions. However, the questions should cover all the needed knowledge, Lopez said.
“I’m happy, especially for third graders, that they can get the exposure to get on the platform and write,” McMurrough said.
Board member Aaron Reich questioned the accuracy of projections between the district’s tests and how students will perform in the actual STAAR assessments. He understands that there’s not an accurate number for this year because this was the first time the district developed the mock test after the revamped state exam.
The district doesn’t have a proven correlation, as this is the first year the mock tests reflect the newly revamped version, Lopez said. However, the midsemester mock tests have done well in projecting students’ growth in the previous version of STAAR.
Students will take another district-developed test in February, two months before the official STAAR assessment date.
Learning loss
Arlington ISD has a five-year growth model from 2021 to 2026 to bring the district’s performance numbers back to pre-COVID-19 values, assistant superintendent Richardson said.
Interim Superintendent Steven Wurtz said that the projected rates will vary from year to year, but the end goal is to get back to pre-COVID-19 numbers by the end of five years.
“While there’s only 1% in the adopted goal this year, you might find that next year the number may be different, and it’s based upon the pace at which we’re trying to go through,” Wurtz said.
While the district is catching up to pre-pandemic numbers for the percentage of students reading at the approaches or meets level, it’s still behind on the masters level compared to 2019.
Richardson finds it frustrating that the pandemic relief fund will expire at the end of the year, which is just enough time to bring that support back to where Arlington ISD was in 2019, she said.
“It really is taking five years to be able to get our students back,” she said, “and that is sad to me.”
Dang Le is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at dang.le@fortworthreport.org or via Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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