Longview ISD schools earned 40 total distinctions on accountability ratings, according to the Texas Education Agency. An increase from the 34 distinctions earned a year ago, and one of the highest number of distinctions for any school in East Texas.
Board members were given a presentation on the preliminary TEA report from Latitia Wilson, LISD Director of Research, Planning, and Accountability during the Aug. 12 regular meeting. Longview ISD received the final numbers Aug. 15th.
Foster Middle School earned a perfect 7-out-of-7 possible distinctions, with Bramlette Elementary and Hudson PEP Elementary both earning a perfect 6-out-of-6 elementary distinctions. While going 6-for-6 is an annual feat for Hudson PEP, this is a marked increase for Bramlette, who was just 1 of 6 two years ago.
Bramlette principal Nikita Mumphrey was thrilled with the results, but not surprised, praising her students and staff 'for making such great strides in such a short time.'
'I'm just so proud of our children, their families, and our wonderful teachers and staff,' she said. 'I'm grateful and humbled to be a part of their continued achievement.'
While not every campus managed a perfect score, Wilson highlighted a number of campuses that showed exponential growth and improvement across various measures.
'Several years ago Forest Park was struggling with an IR (Improvement Required) designation from the state,' she said. 'Over the last three years they've gone from one distinction (in 2017), to four distinctions (in 2018), and five distinctions this past year. So it's exciting to see that campus continue to close the gap.'
Another campus that has shown improvement is South Ward Elementary. After going 0-for-6 the previous two years, South Ward immediately improved to 2-for-6 in Joaquin Guerrero's first full year as campus principal.
Guerrero expressed appreciation to his campus parents and various local community organizations 'for their faith and support of our common vision of student excellence.'
'I am proud of all of our staff for the discipline and extra work that went in to helping our students to be successful,' he said. 'I also want to thank all of the district support in leadership, information sharing, and curriculum support as well as all of the elementary principals in their sharing to help each other learn. We are Eagles - we rise and soar!'
Wilson praised Mumphrey and Guerrero for the work they've done to improve their respective campuses, as well as Hudson PEP principal Sue Wilson and Foster Middle principal Ryan Carroll for continued and consistent success.
'Overall, our district is trending upward, we're seeing measurable growth,' Wilson told trustees. 'We are glad to see the gains we've made this past year, but we are not where we want to be. There is still a long way to go, and we believe we can get there.'
None of LISD's campuses scored lower than a C on their overall rating, Wilson said, adding that 'we know that we still have work to do.'
'We had two campuses that received an overall rating of A and one that just missed an A rating by .1 of a point,' she said. 'Our future goal is for all of our campuses to receive an overall rating of A.'
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