Four of New Braunfels Independent School District’s 11 campuses received the highest possible rating by the Texas Education Agency.
TEA rated five other NBISD campuses as recognized and two as academically acceptable.
Overall, the district rated academically acceptable.
“Overall, we’re really, really thrilled with the ratings,” said Victoria Pursch, NBISD’s assistant superintendent for accountability and instruction. “Out of the 176 indicators, 80 percent were at exemplary, 17 percent were recognized, which leaves only 3 percent at the acceptable level ... You can get a little aggravated in the ratings game sometimes, but overall, we’re really pleased with how our faculty and our students did.”
Receiving the top ratings were Klein Road, Lamar, Seele and Walnut Springs elementaries.
NBISD officials will lobby to raise at least two ratings, though — New Braunfels High School’s academically acceptable rating and County Line Elementary’s recognized rating.
“We’ll be appealing the New Braunfels High School rating,” Pursch said. “It got an acceptable rating, but for all academic criteria they received an exemplary or recognized rating.”
The rating was held back by the number of students who graduated.
The completion rate was 84.6 percent. That number had to be 85 percent to bump it up to a recognized campus, Pursch explained.
“We had two students on the list with those that dropped out who actually shouldn’t have been on that list,” Pursch said. “One is actually a graduate, and another moved out of state during the school year. If we got their status changed, it would move that indicator to 85 percent, which would make the school recognized.”
The district also will appeal the recognized rating for County Line Elementary, she said.
“They scored exemplary on all of their rating indicators except one, so their rating is at 96 or 97 percent right now,” she said.
The final indicator was ranked as recognized, Pursch said, because two students were left out of the economically disadvantaged subgroup.
“There were 38 (economically disadvantaged students) accounted for by the TEA, when indeed there were 40 in the school,” she said. “If that is corrected to show they belong in that subgroup, it will bump it up to 90 percent, which should change the campus status to exemplary.”
Any appeals to TEA must be submitted by Aug. 14, spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said.
“This is not a data correction opportunity,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to correct any potential errors made by the agency. Data submissions will all be handled on a case-by-case basis.”
Pursch said she was confident the status of the two campuses would be changed. The district also could push for an appeal to change the overall accountability rating of academically acceptable to recognized.
