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TISD plans to ‘turn around’ TAKS scores By Jason Schaefer Schools address low math, science performance Taylor ISD is initiating a plan to improve the low math and science scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test for which Taylor High School received a Texas Education Agency accountability rating of academically unacceptable this year. Superintendent Bruce Scott presented phase one of the “Math-Science Turnaround” at the Board of Trustees meeting Monday night. The eight-point plan will attempt to help last year’s eighth-graders maintain the 81 percent passing rate they earned last year and raise the passing rate for last year’s ninth- and 10th-graders ten points, to 58 percent and above. Under the plan, the school board has appointed a math and science curriculum subcommittee, which includes board President James “Bo” Stiles, Vice President Johnny Sanford and Assistant Secretary Kathy Cotner. The trio will meet monthly to discuss progress issues at the high school, and will present their findings to the entire board each month. Assistant Super?intendent Barbara Dale and Ernest Seitz of Seitz Consulting, an education consulting firm out of Horseshoe Bay, Texas, have been appointed to a two-member campus intervention team (CIT) to recommend adjustments in procedure and personnel to the board. Under the plan, the Region XIII Education Service Center will conduct a survey of 30 parents, students and staff to determine the effectiveness of the campus overall as well as identify areas that need work. Region XIII will also provide an “external” coach that will use the surveyed information to develop a custom improvement plan for the district, and will provide Scott with a progress report each month. The external coach will appear on campus at least twice a week. Two Region XIII math instructional coaches, Carol Lindell and Amin Lalani, will work with Algebra I teachers at the high school four days a week. A third math coach will work with teachers at Taylor Middle School in the same subject areas and will appear at T.H. Johnson Elementary once a week to work with fifth grade math teachers, preparing children in lower grades for more complicated math subjects in the future. Students that do poorly in Algebra I do poorly in other areas as well, in turn delivering a low score in the math portion of the TAKS test at the high school level, Scott said. In addition to these changes, High School Principal Kimberley Mason will attend workshops through the Texas Principal Excellence Program (TxPEP). “TxPEP was designed to specifically produce improvements in student achievement, graduation rates and teacher retention through the expansion of principal leadership and management skills,” Scott said in a written statement Wednesday. Scott, along with Dale and Personnel Director Linda Chavarria, will conduct campus walk-throughs to evaluate the progress of the new plan throughout the year. In Phase II of the improvement plan, TISD will train teachers through CSCOPE, a comprehensive curriculum developed by the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Cooperative (TESCCC), which falls in line with TEA requirements. “The Board of Trustees is determined to put the necessary resources into the efforts to put academics on the front burner, and to move forward in advancing achievement for all students,” Scott wrote.
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