Wimberley ISD passes STAAR testing
The annual State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) shows that Wimberley ISD is exceeding state averages nearly across the board.
Out of 23 areas of testing ranging from third grade all the way through the high school, WISD students exceeded the state average on 22 of the tests. In many cases, local students far exceeded the state average.
“The STAAR is just one way to measure how our kids are doing,” Wimberley ISD Assistant Superintendent Dee Howard said. “Our kids do so many things and are successful. We want to focus on the whole child not just the STAAR. We know we can do better, and we will continue to work towards staying on top of what the STAAR asks. But our community believes that our kids are better, our parents believe it and our teachers believe it, so we will continue with those higher goals.”
Exactly 80 percent of Wimberley High School students taking the English I End of Course exam passed, which is 20 percent more than the state average. Exceeding the state average by 20 percent was the highest among all 23 tests. Students also passed tests at an exceptionally higher rate than state averages for fifth and sixth grade reading and math, among many other tests.
The only test the school district didn’t exceed the state average passing rate on was High School Algebra I, which is taken by ninth and tenth grade students. In those grades, 81 percent passed the exam compared to 83 percent of students statewide. For eighth graders taking the same Algebra I End of Course exam, which in the eighth grade are the students taking math courses at least a year ahead of schedule, 100 percent of students passed the test.
WISD had similar results for Algebra during last year’s testing, and Howard said the school district has already made changes to try and improve the results.
“We have restructured, in lower grades, bringing more algebra concepts into junior high and even elementary school, and that will take a little bit of time to catch up to the high school level,” Howard said. “I think that, in and of itself, will help in the next few years. When the TEKS changed several years ago we had to roll up the skill level and I think we are almost to a point where everything should be on target now.”
The school district has also been trying out a new program called Reading Plus, which saw successful results in the first year while being selectively implemented throughout the district. The program tests students across multiple grade levels and creates individual learning programs to help focus on each student’s particular sets of needs.
“Students do assessments online and each student will do about a week’s worth of assessments and that program will tailor itself for the different skills the students need like vocabulary, fluency and reading for understanding,” Howard said. “There are all kinds of skills that are embedded. It will help with reading, but also with word problems for math, for socials studies and science. In general we think it will improve skills everywhere.”
After a successful test during the most recent school year, the plan is to roll out the new Reading Plus program across the district.
“There are so many reading opportunities involved and kids get to pick what they are interested in,” Howard said. “They get to read subjects and topics they are interested in and there is a writing component to it. We are hoping that allowing kids the opportunity for choice creates in them a desire to read and write more rather than just a single topic with everyone doing the same thing. It will individualize the learning.”