Spring ISD has just a few more months to turn around a struggling high school or risk a state takeover of the entire district — but school leaders are optimistic that early test scores show improvements.
After four straight years of failing accountability scores at Dekaney High School, campus and district administrators are trying to turn around the school’s academic performance. If the campus fails again this school year, the Texas Education Agency could take over the entire school district of 32,000 students – just like it took over Houston, Beaumont and Fort Worth ISDs. It would replace the superintendent and elected board with state-appointed leadership.
Cecily Parker, the district’s executive director of school improvement and support, told the board at a March workshop that TEA officials had visited Dekaney — both recently in February and last fall — to observe how the campus was applying its improvement plans.
Parker said at both visits, the TEA officials measured the quality of instructional material and practices in classrooms, and they saw academic growth.
“Dekaney was specifically highlighted for the instructional growth between the fall and the spring visit, reflecting stronger alignment to curriculum expectations and more consistent implementation of campus instructional systems,” Parker said.
To turn around a failing school within one year is an urgent task, but not an impossible one, said Duncan Klussmann, a clinical associate professor at the University of Houston.
Klussmann, a former Spring Branch ISD superintendent, said he saw one school in the San Antonio area that was close to triggering a takeover, but it improved its state rating within a single school year. He also pointed to various HISD schools that have dramatically improved their scores within a year, particularly campuses under state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles’ New Education System.
However, Klussmann said it’s not easy. It takes a lot of focus and discipline.
He said leaders need to come up with an action plan that targets where the campus and its students are falling behind. Everyone at the campus — including administrators, teachers and students — has to follow those strategies exactly every day for the entire school year to reach their goal.
Principal Connie Smith detailed Dekaney’s updated game plan in January, covering changes in curriculum, instruction and testing. The school revamped how they track academic performance data and started professional learning groups for teachers every school day. They also rolled out more instructional support, weekly student assessments and intervention plans to help students who lag behind.
The bar is high: Dekaney has to go from an F to a C this school year.
“Remember, it’s a fourth-year (failing school) going into the fifth year,” Klussmann said. “They’re not in a situation where they can have really good growth, but barely miss it. They have to get over that line.”
See here for the background. The numbers they have now seem to look good, but as noted there’s no margin for error. Close will not be good enough. I wish you all the best, Spring ISD.