Walnut Bend ISD grades jump in state assessment; Gainesville touts progress
Aug. 26—Cooke County's school districts fared relatively well in the latest round of state accountability ratings, and the superintendents sound happy with the result, for the most part.
"Four years ago we were a 'C' district that was one point away from a 'D' rating. We have raised our overall rating by 14 points and are now a 'B' district," said Gainesville ISD Superintendent DesMontes Stewart. "... We will continue our work to achieve an "A" rating," Dr. Stewart said. "Our team has been nothing short of amazing!"
New Muenster ISD Superintendent Scott Bicknell credited staff, students and parents alike for his district's A rating.
"Students and parents have a huge hand in this. We have a community of hard working kiddos and parents and they hold their kids accountable," said Bicknell, who took over this summer for the retired Steve Self. "We have a veteran staff that understands the test and the importance of pushing our kids — it's about loving kids and working them hard every day."
Biggest jump
"Walnut Bend made great strides over the last calendar year due to staffing changes. We brought in experienced master teachers with a passion for students and learning. That has made all of the difference," said Walnut Bend ISD Superintendent Ken Kemp. "Our team can relate to kids and they have a passion for what they do.
"As an administrator you also need to know when to get out of their way and let them teach. The state pours so much paperwork and red tape on teachers now. The more of that you can take off your instructional team, the better off everyone will be in the long run. This was a team effort and every individual at this school made this happen. That means the Board of Trustees, instructors, and support staff all made it possible," Kemp said.
Even with those adjustments, Kemp told the Register he was surprised just how much improvement Walnut Bend has shown in the three years.
"We were expecting to improve, but were very pleased to see the level of improvement. Frankly, none of us here care much for standardized testing," Kemp said. "We teach the classic core of Math, Reading, Science, Writing and U.S. and Texas History. We know the test scores will follow the instruction. It is much more important to us that a child grows and learns, than what he or she scores on one test given once a year."
Rebuilding good habits
Callisburg ISD lost just one point from its 2019 rating. Superintendent Don Metzler was pleased with the showing, especially considering the classroom time lost to COVID-19 over the last two-plus years.
"The district has worked very hard and will continue to work to overcome the 'lost learning' due to COVID-19," Metzler told the Register. "The fact that the district is only one point below our previous score indicates our students, parents and staff have overcome much of the lost learning from COVID-19 ... the campuses will continue to work with parents and students in an effort to reestablish good work habits and good attendance."
Kemp said COVID-19 hit his district hard, too.
"Navigating the pandemic was difficult. The district lost the previous superintendent due to COVID (53-year-old Troy Humphrey died in December 2020). I was invited here a year ago. The learning loss was evident," Kemp noted.
"That isn't just a Walnut Bend issue. We double blocked math and reading for all grades. Then we built in an extra hour of reading and math daily for intervention or acceleration on top of that. We ditched some of the screen time and put real books back in the hands of students because sometimes old school works as good or better than new and flashy. We have updated technology over the last year. We are just picky on how often and when we use it," Kemp continued.
District-by-District
The Texas Education Agency announced the 2022 accountability ratings for districts earlier this month — the first new ratings since 2019, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cooke County districts fared as follows:
Walnut Bend — 92/A, up from 75/C;
Gainesville — 84/B, up from 78/C in 2019;
Callisburg — 88/B, down from 89/B;
Sivells Bend — 76/C, down from 77/C;
Era — 89/B, up from 88/C
Valley View — 84/B, down from 85/B
Lindsay — 97/A, down from 98/B;
Muenster — 97/A, down from 98/A;
Whitesboro — 80/B, down from 88/A.
Statewide
The TEA ratings showed improvement across Texas. In evaluating 1,195 districts and 8,451 campuses, the agency said it saw "promising signs of progress in Texas' efforts to catch students up academically" when comparing 2019 and 2022 data.
Specifically, the state saw significant gains in student academic growth, with 25% of districts and 33% of campuses improving their overall letter grade from 2019 to 2022. In addition, 18% of high-poverty campuses in Texas were rated an A.
Of the 1,195 districts rated this year, 33.1% received a letter grade of A, 54% received a B and 9.4% received a C. The remaining 3.5% received a D or lower.
For the 8,451 campuses, 27.9% received an A, 46.1% received a B and 19.4% received a C. About 6.7% received ratings lower than a C, it said.
This is an improvement from 2019 ratings, where 25.3% of districts received an A, 56.9% received a B and 13% received a C. About 4.8% received lower than a C at that time. In 2019 campus ratings, 21.1% received an A, 39.5% received a B, 26.1% received a C and about 13.1% received a rating lower than a C, data shows.
Next year?
Kemp said Walnut Bend will be hard pressed to match this level of improvement year-to-year going forward, obviously.
"Our plan is to continue to remediate and accelerate kids by focusing on the core classes, retaining and recruiting the highest quality teachers, and continuing to be an alternative for parents seeking a high quality, tuition-free, public school education in Cooke County," Kemp said.
CNHI's Ali Linan contributed to this report.
