Trustees hear college, career, campus improvement plans
Sep. 14—College, career and military readiness, campus improvement plans and a presentation on the bilingual/ ESL program were the main items at the Ector County ISD Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday.
Assistant Superintendent of Student and School Support Alicia Syverson presented the goals for College, Career and Military Readiness.
ECISD reached 65 percent in 2022, which ties the state percentage, Syverson said.
In 2021, the state was at 63 percent and ECISD was at 63 percent.
In 2020, the state was at 73 percent and ECSID at 58 percent. For 2019, the state was at 66 percent and ECISD was at 56 percent.
The 2024 goal was to reach 65 percent.
Syverson said there was a lot of cross-departmental strategic test preparation going on and effective advising.
Campus Improvement Plans were presented by four principals, although nearly every principal was on hand.
Presentation and discussion of the 2022-2023 Campus Improvement Plans (CIP) led by
Regardless of rating, each campus is required to build a Campus Improvement Plan annually. The plans serve as the blueprint for how each school will uniquely address the campus-specific needs identified in their Comprehensive Needs Assessment.
Betsabe Salcido, executive director of Bilingual/ESL, updated trustees on her department. There is a change in terminology where students are now emergent bilingual. Salcido said there are 31 languages spoken in the district. English is the most prevalent, followed by Spanish and Vietnamese.
There are 7,101 emergent bilingual students and about 290 dual language teachers.
The dual language pillars are bilingualism and biliteracy; grade level academic achievement; and sociocultural competence.
"As we are developing students in two languages, it's important to understand that language goes hand in hand with culture," Salcido said.
She offered some statistics:
>> 26 percent of the top 10 students in ecisd high schools were former Bilingual/ESL students.
>> 13 students, including two valedictorians and one salutatorian were served through Bilingual/ESL. That number is 6% higher than last year.
The Emergent Bilingual graduation rate increased from
63.5 % to 70.8%.
>> The dropout rate for secondary Emergent Bilinguals was reduced from 3.6% to 3.3%.
Salcido said 90 percent of students from the program are from Odessa, but there are more newcomers in high school.
There are traveling English as a second language teachers who pull out students for 45 minutes. They also use Rosetta Stone and a translation service.
Rosetta Stone is a computer-assisted language learning software, according to its website.
Over 700 students signed up for bilingual summer learning.
"We're looking forward to this year. We're bigger, bolder and better. ... I'm blessed to work with my team," Salcido said.
