Clarendon, Hedley ISDs meet state standards

The “report cards” are out and Clarendon and Hedley public schools both met the state’s goals during standardized testing this spring, according to information released by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) last week.

Hedley received an overall score of 92 out of 100, but was not given the privilege of claiming an A grade by the state. Clarendon schools received a B rating with an overall score of 84 out of 100.

Hedley officials say their school is only reported as having “met standard” without a letter grade because they operate as one campus, where the state recognizes Clarendon has being three campuses – elementary, junior high, and high school. The state will change that next year and small schools will get a letter grade.

“We did very well, but we can’t say we’re an A-rated school this year,” Hedley Principal Garrett Bains said. “We just have to keep it up so next year we can claim it.”

Three components make up the state’s grading system: Student Achievement, which is mostly scores on the spring STAAR tests; School Progress, which involves how students are performing over time; and Closing the Gaps, which concerns how different ethnic and economic populations are performing.

Hedley scored 89 out of 100 for Student Achievement, an 87 out of 100 for School Progress, and 100 out of 100 for Closing the Gaps. The school also earned three distinctions for Mathematics, Comparative Closing the Gaps (where it was ranked first when compared with 41 other schools), and Post Secondary Readiness.

“I give every bit of credit for this to the teachers,” Hedley Interim Superintendent Terry Stevens said. “They are the ones who did this. We have a great staff, and the individualized attention we can give is an advantage of being a small school.”

Stevens also said that the accountability system is still a snapshot of how kids do on one test on one day of the year.

Clarendon CISD received an 84 overall as a district, with Clarendon High School getting an 85, Clarendon Junior High getting a 75, and Clarendon Elementary getting a 90.

“I think everyone wants an A, because it’s the highest you can get, but the accountability system as it currently exists is not an accurate measure of all the hard work our students and teachers put into everything they did this last school year,” Superintendent Mike Norrell said. “It is essentially an analysis on a once-a-year standardized test and only once slice of the very large pie we call public education.”

Norrell also addressed the complexity of the state’s accountability system.

“For something that was supposed to be as simple as A,B,C it is very complex… and based on the three domains of Student Achievement, Student Progress & Growth, and Closing the Gaps (that is scored with the variables of socioeconomic differences, race, language barriers, and special education) with 70% of the score from the higher of Domains I or II, then 30% from Domain III,” he said.

Clarendon High School’s score was broken down as 84 for Student Performance, 83 for School Progress, and 87 for Closing the Gaps. CHS received three distinctions for Academic Achievement in Social Studies, Comparative Growth where it tied for ninth when compared to 40 other schools, and Comparative Closing the Gaps where it tied for third with 40 other similar schools.

Clarendon Junior High’s scores were made up of 78 for Student Performance, 79 for School Progress, and 66 for Closing the Gaps.
Clarendon Elementary received an 83 for Student Achievement, 89 for School Progress, and 92 for Closing the Gap. The elementary school also received six distinctions, which the most it could have possibly received. Those included Academic Achievements in Mathematics, Science, and English Language Arts / Reading; Comparative Academic Growth, in which it tied for first out of 40 similar schools; Comparative Closing the Gaps, in which it tied for second; and Post Secondary Readiness.

“We are proud of our students and teachers who took their preparations seriously and we want to set up all of our students for success,” Norrell said, “however, there were many accomplishments and learning experiences last year that don’t figure into the A-F rating that the state calculates at the direction of our state legislature.”

Clarendon and Hedley officials both said the accountability system allows schools to see where they are and identify areas that need improvement.

“We will celebrate the successes, evaluate and analyze where we can improve to give all of our students opportunities to be their very best and perform at a high level, but not only on the STAAR and End of Course but everything in which they participate,” Norrell said. “Clarendon CISD is a school that our students, staff, parents, and community can be very proud of. It represents what can happen when all are working to do what is best for kids.”