Gold Performance Acknowledgements
by Jesse Vela
December 14, 2007
The State of Texas put out the AIES report in late November. The document is the official report card for schools and school districts. We are happy to have made it back up to Academically Acceptable. However, our goal is to be a recognized campus in the near future and a self-perpetuating exemplary campus in the education of the whole child. Thus, Lytle Junior High is very proud of our Gold Performance Acknowledgements.
Our school received a Gold Performance Acknowledgment (GPA) for Attendance, Reading/ELA, and Comparable Improvement in Mathematics. To receive a GPA in attendance we have to average above 96% present in all sub-groups: economically disadvantaged, white, Hispanic, and all students. In Reading/ELA the Texas Education Agency (TEA) combined our scores for writing and reading. In Reading 90% of our students passed and in Writing 97% of our students passed. These scores reflect a ‘one time shot’ at the test; there were no retakes at the Junior High level. To receive a GPA in Reading/ELA, the school needed 20% of our students in all sub-groups to obtain a 90 or above on the TAKS. We had 39% of our population receive a 90. That translates to 131 out of 335 students scored a 90 or above.
The last GPA is in math. Comparable Improvement (CI) is a measure that shows how student performance on the TAKS reading and mathematics tests at a given school has changed (or grown) from one year to the next, and then compares that growth to that of the 40 schools that are demographically most similar to the given, or "target" school (Chapter 5, TEA Acct. Manual). To qualify for this honor our school needed to score in the top 25% of the forty schools evaluated, in other words we are one of the top ten schools in improvement in all sub-groups. We had 69% of our students pass the test, a ten point improvement from the previous year. The proudest moment was when we found that 80% of last year’s seventh graders passed the math. Ms. Linda Mask was our 7th grade math teacher.
A hearty congratulations to all the teachers and staff at Lytle Junior High for their efforts and work in obtaining these recognitions from the state. A special thanks to our Reading and Math teachers: Ms, Koehler, Ms. Vela, Ms. Darby, Ms. Mask, Ms. Miller and Ms. Breit.
Although the focus on TAKS scores can be at times overbearing, this is how we are graded by the State of Texas. Even though we do not have the resources of a Lake Travis or an Alamo Heights, our students compare favorably and positively with other students in the state. I had a comment made to me by a community member, “We have always been able to do OK with the little we have.” We were conversing about resources. Well, the faculty and staff feel we are doing better than just OK. We attribute Lytle Jr. High’s success to our students, who are our pride and joy. They have come through every year to show the State of Texas, that at Lytle Jr. High we have the “Best Students in the State.”
