The Rusk Independent School Board heard a report from Tammy Hancock reviewing the 2022 accountability score and the district’s plan to better their score moving forward.
Rusk ISD earned a 79 out of 100 for the 2021-2022 assessment period, down six points from the 2018-2019 score. No ratings were given during the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 school years.
Hancock highlighted the positives from the report, including distinctions earned by three campuses:
• Rusk Elementary – Closing the Gaps
• Rusk Junior High – Academic Achievement in English/Language Arts/Reading, in Science and in Social Studies as well as Academic Growth
• High School – Academic Achievement in English/Language Arts/Reading
“We have identified a couple of areas that need to be addressed and I know we will see dramatic improvement in our results,” Superintendent Grey Burton stated, following the release of 2022 accountability ratings. “We will specifically address our CCMR at the high school and make certain our students course sequences lead to an endorsement or industry certification.”
The College, Career and Military Readiness score is calculated as a large percentage of the three domains that comprise the overall accountability score. The emphasis on CCMR was reiterated at Monday’s meeting.
“We know there are some areas there that we can improve on. We were at a 73, which is a decline of 16 points, so that’s an area [where] we’re really concerned,” Hancock said.
The district plans to ensure all Career and Technical Education courses are incorporated into sequences that lead to endorsement or industry certification, preparing students to directly enter the workforce upon graduation.
Additionally, the district is seeking to expand CTE courses and awareness into younger grades.
“CCMR, CTE courses, in the past, that wasn’t so heavy in accountability, so these are some ‘aha moments’ that we need to look at. Our CCMR hit us in Domain 1, 2 and 3,” Hancock said. “I think that’s an area that hit us across the board and lowered our score.”
For students planning to attend college, the district will offer more preparatory assistance for those taking the ACT and TSI tests, exams used for college admission and placement purposes.
“I want to applaud you for the concern about CTE courses and I really like the idea of taking it to lower levels,” Trustee Monte Sunday said. “For a long time, I’ve been concerned about how much we push college on kids who do not want to go to college, have no desire to go to college. They end up feeling like they’re not successful because they don’t want to go to college.
“These kids are just as successful and make just as much money, sometimes more, than those with a college education and they don’t have debt out their eyeballs when they get out of school and they know exactly what they’re wanting to do. I really like this that we’re really focusing more on CTE.”
It was noted that the CCMR is backdated and the CCMR portion of the 2023 accountability score will be based on the 2022 graduates.
Trustees also received an annual bilingual/ESL evaluation report from Krista McNew. The district is looking to improve parent resources and increase parent involvement. She reported principals were attending training to observe first-hand how certain assessments can be used to improve instruction. A new program, Summit K-12, has been purchased and will be used to help students improve their pronunciation, an area identified as needing improvement.
The district currently has 22 Spanish-speaking students, according to McNew.
“We have identified that we need seven bilingual teachers still,” McNew said. “For our bilingual allotment, I am planning on using some of that money to get more primary teachers ESL certified.”
A resolution regarding the Nacogdoches Regional Day School program for the deaf shared service arrangement agreement was unanimously approved. The consent agenda, consisting of previous meeting minutes and financial updates, was also approved.
The next school board meeting is set for Monday, Oct. 17.
