GISD highlights academic improvements

The Gatesville Independent School District is able to celebrate "considerable improvements" in mock End of Course (EOC) assessments at the high school level from 2021 to 2022, according to Shane Webb, assistant superintendent for academics.

Webb presented the good news at the April 18 meeting of the GISD Board of Trustees.

"In Algebra I, biology, and U.S. history, we made significant gains, and there has also been improvement in English I," Webb told the board. "We are making a lot of progress when it comes to intervention, meeting the kids where they are and narrowing the gaps." 

Results include:

• * 6.45% improvement, from 63.74% to 70.19% for approaching standard in English I; 2.34%, from 54.39% from 2021 to 56.73% for 2022 in meeting standard, and a dip from 16.96% to 13.94% in mastery. One big difference in the mastery level is that essays were included for 2022 but were not included in 2021.
• * 31.12% improvement, from 34.55% to 65.67% approaching standard in Algebra I; from 0% meeting standard in 2021 to 21.64% meeting standard in 2022 and from 0% mastery to 11.19%.
• * 9.68% improvement, from 84.97% to 93.75% approaching standard in biology; from 50% meeting standard in 2021 to 68% in 2022; and from 14% mastery to 27.78%.
• * 3.47% improvement, from 86.13% to 89.60% approaching standard in U.S. history; from 59% to 72.25% meeting standard; and from 30% to 46.82% achieving mastery.

"Especially in algebra there have been some huge improvements," said Superintendent Barrett Pollard.

School board president Charles Ament asked what changes had been made.

"Are there any things that are being done differently on campus?" he asked. "This is impressive.

Gatesville High School principal Marie Barrows credited the work of staff for helping the students make great strides forward.

"We have an amazing staff, and RTI (response to intervention) has changed quite a bit," she said. "We came in as a team, collaborating and deciding what are the big things – the common things where kids are struggling.

"The discussion focuses on the big things content-wise and the kids are exposed to multiple instruction on the same topics. It helps to reinforce the material and carries over to the classroom. RTI has been a huge help."

"It's very impressive – that's wonderful," Ament said.

Helping to reinforce the student's knowledge is a flipped classroom approach in which "kids are leading discussion and are engaged," Barrows said. "That's been a huge help for the campus."

For younger students, a literacy website for children in Kindergarten through sixth grade is also helping by allowing parents to see what their kids are learning at school and continuing to focus on those lessons at home, Webb said.

"It's pretty impressive what they're doing with this website," Pollard said. "If you're a parent, you can back up what the kids are doing at home."

One other area of focus was transfer students in the district.

"We have 77 transfer students from other districts and there's a $150 transfer fee (not paid if a parent works for the district)," Webb said. "Next year to ease the financial burden, we will waive that fee. If it helps us bring in one more kid, it's paid for itself.

Ament asked if GISD was making strides in recovering students who have left the district.

"We are trying," Webb said.

"It's been working," Pollard said. "We've had some people come back."