For the second year in a row, Lampasas Independent School District and its five campuses are yet to receive an accountability rating from the Texas Education Agency, as other districts fight the state agency in the courtroom.
Last Monday, a Travis County judge blocked the TEA from releasing its annual ratings after complaints were registered from multiple school districts across the state.
“Maybe this wasn’t completely unexpected,” LISD Assistant Superintendent Dana Holcomb said. “To my knowledge, I wasn’t reading about the possibility of lawsuits or anything this time around. So, it was to me a little bit unexpected.”
Last year, a Travis County judge blocked the state agency from releasing 2022-2023 school year accountability scores after more than 100 school districts in Texas sued the TEA over its new more stringent A-to-F grading scale.
This year, Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD, Crandall ISD, Forney ISD, Fort Stockton ISD and Kingsville ISD are the districts involved in the lawsuit against the TEA.
A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 26 on the release of A-F accountability ratings for school districts across the state.
Despite the hold on accountability scores, Holcomb believes the Lampasas district is on the right track.
“I think for us as a district it is a little bit frustrating because I feel very confident, based on our own projections last year and this year, that our campus and overall district scores would have been very solid,” Holcomb said.
The 2022-2023 school year was the first time students attempted the more rigorous “STAAR 2.0” exams that included different types of questions on content and enhanced writing requirements.
In February, Holcomb presented preliminary State of Texas Academic Accountability Ratings results to the LISD Board of Trustees.
For the STAAR exams, students may land in three passing categories for how well they score on the curriculum expectations tested: “approaches” grade level, “meets” gradelevel expectations, and “masters” grade-level requirements.
For all grades and subjects, 82% of LISD students achieved at least the “approaches” grade level, a mark higher than state averages. For the “meets” grade level, 54% of students achieved that mark, while 19% reached a “masters” level score.
Although elementary and middle school accountability ratings depend solely on students’ STAAR scores, high school ratings take into consideration other factors, such as college, career and military readiness or CCMR.
Last year, preliminary accountability numbers showed Lampasas High School as an “A” campus based on its “B” rating for STAAR scores, continued academic growth and high CCMR rating.
Holcomb believes LHS was very close to achieving a 2024 mark similar to last year’s success.
“Very close to last year’s score,” the assistant superintendent said. “We feel like last year we were on the cusp of an A and would have probably achieved that, but then again it wasn’t official. I feel like we would be very close to that [this year].”
The 2023-2024 STAAR exams produced positive results for Lampasas ISD. Of the 60 performance categories across all STAAR exams from third grade to 12th grade, LISD was above the state average in 43 of the categories.
One subject of concern across the state has been mathematics. Test scores in math have floundered since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lampasas ISD students finished above the state averages in third grade and eighth grade in each performance category, however district officials have noted fourth-grade math and seventh-grade math as areas that need improvement.
Even without statereleased accountability ratings, Holcomb said he is assured the district has enough information available to continue preparing students for academic success.
“We have all the data; we are still looking back over last year’s as we move forward to this year, so we are not hurt in that regard,” Holcomb said. “We know how our students did; we just aren’t getting the benefit of bragging about a good letter grade [from the state].”
Holcomb expects to provide an update on the accountability results at the next school board meeting, set for Sept. 9 at the district’s administration office.
