SAN ANGELO, Texas — By now, you've seen that the Texas Education Agency announced a delay in the release of its annual A-F accountability ratings for 2023. The A-F statewide measure to evaluate academic performance of public schools assigns a letter grade to districts and campuses.
Multiple Texas public school districts have filed suit against the TEA regarding the delay. The San Angelo Independent School District has not joined the lawsuit as of Tuesday, Sept. 26.
The district has released its own accountability ratings, which include its mission, vision and goals, saying it recognizes student success and capabilities cannot not be solely measured by test scores.
During its 2017-2018 school year, the SAISD started a collaborative Community-Based Accountability System for what it says is true accountability. The processes bring together a district advisory council of more than 100 local community members, students, parents, educators and administrators who help the SAISD to identify and measure its accountability.
The council takes into account many factors which enrich a student’s whole educational experience at a much more comprehensive and meaningful level, while reflecting the values of the West Texas community.
Through the process, the Future-Ready Learner Profile was created to represent the goals for all students and the SAISD's 4 Cs: communicator, collaborator, critical thinker and creator. The council meets four times per year to help the district remain committed to aligning its focus and resources to its mission, the Future-Ready Learner Profile and a framework of seven pillars of accountability which capture the work of a public school system, which are student learning; student readiness; engaged, well-rounded students; community engagement and partnerships; professional learning/high-quality staff; systems and operations; and safety and well-being.
In the 2022-2023 CBAR, the district shares its successes and also the areas where it needs work.
According to the report, 80% of all district elementary school students show strong connections with teachers and students in and out of a classroom setting, ranking the SAISD in the 90% percentile on the specific topic, compared to other districts in the nation.
Student attendance over the last five years has declined in the district's average daily attendance percentage, with the COVID-19 pandemic lending to the decline. The district said it must continue to provide opportunities for students to be engaged in the classroom and encourage families and community to prioritize regular attendance in school. The goal is 95% attendance at the end of the current school year in San Angelo.
School safety is a major concern across the nation and the SAISD shows no exception in the concerns of students, parents and staff.
Locally, when asked, "how often do you worry about violence at your school?", 50% percent of secondary students (middle and high school) and 56% of primary students (kindergarten-12th) responded favorably, which the district said in an increase from fall 2022.
To help ease the concern and to better equip schools with needed safety measures, the district said it is in the process of implementing multiple additional safety measures, including:
- Controlled access to all buildings
- Smoke/vape detection devices in all secondary school restrooms
- Bus monitoring and attendance software
- Narcan at all secondary campuses
- Improves internet monitoring systems
In the report, the SAISD said while it feels successful about ongoing and upcoming policies and procedures regarding safety and well-being, it recognizes there is work to do regarding the early detection of threats to schools.
"We must continue to innovate and partner with our local law enforcement and community to find solutions for early threat detection to ensure our campuses continue to be safer environments for students and staff. San Angelo ISD wants to be a system with the capacity to detect, identify and respond to risks of threats and manage those individuals who are at risk to do so. While our threat assessment process has moved the needle forward in the last year, we can also improve upon the detection time in any situation a threat may arise. Through the fact-based, systemic threat assessment system we look to advance our system to identify someone who has the potential for violence through our responsive reporting systems and behavioral assessments of our students."
Additionally, the district shared glances of departments, athletics, career and technical education, clubs and organizations, as well as special programs for gifted and talented students and bilingual/bilingual emergent students.
To learn more about the SAISD and its accountability program, go to saisd.org. To apply to be a member of the Community-Based Accountability System Council, contact the SAISD. Currently, the QR Code available leads to a page which says, "The form SAISD CBAS Committee is no longer accepting responses."
To get involved, school board meetings are held at 5:45 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at the SAISD Administration Building, 1621 University Ave.
An exact release date for the TEA ratings has not yet been announced.