Grape Creek ISD Superintendent Addresses D Rating

GRAPE CREEK, TX -- Grape Creek Independent School District Superintendent Angie Smetana wrote a letter to parents and the Grape Creek community Thursday after the Texas Education Agency released accountability ratings for Texas schools.  Grape Creek got a D. Here is the letter:

Dear Grape Creek Parents/Guardians, and Community,

The Texas Education Agency has released the 2018 A-F Accountability ratings for the school districts and campuses from across the state of Texas. The Grape Creek Independent School District campuses, under this rating, have received either a "Met Standard" or an "Improvement Required" rating instead of a letter grade. School districts received a letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F. The purpose of this letter is to inform you that Grape Creek ISD received a letter grade of D with a score of 69. In addition, the Primary/Intermediate scored a 71 and received an official Met Standard rating, the Middle School campus received a score of 51 and received an official Improvement Required rating, and the High School campus scored an 81, and received an official Met Standard rating.

The A-F Accountability Rating System gives school districts and campuses a rating based on how students perform on a test that is administered on a specified day during the school year and is a standardized test. While most of us understand that individuals learn and grow at various rates, the concept of standardized testing groups students within a certain area of expectation. This has proven to be very difficult for low socioeconomic students, students that are served within our ESL programs, and students of various minority groups. The 2017-2018 Accountability worked toward addressing this issue by taking economically-disadvantaged students into consideration and looking at growth of students and closing educational gaps; however, the overall concept of one standardized measure for all students remains in place.

August 2018 concludes my second year as the Superintendent at Grape Creek ISD. During this time our outstanding board of trustees, administrative staff, directors, district staff, parents, and community have been able to come together, and support one another, in making the necessary changes toward reaching our goals set by our leadership teams and campus committees. This plan is constantly being monitored, looked at, revised, updated, and dissected to ensure that it remains valid and meets the needs of our students. While Grape Creek ISD has been able to make substantial improvements including the huge gains in student achievement at the Elementary and High School campuses made over last year, we are not anywhere near where we want to be.

The Grape Creek ISD family works incredibly hard to look beyond the academics. All staff members, understand that there are numerous factors that affect a child's academic success. It is Grape Creek ISDs mission to serve the whole child caring for each student socially, emotionally, physically, and mentally while maintaining a priority of continual progress. We are absolutely not satisfied with our rating and performance, and will continue to tirelessly work toward improving and adjusting our instructional strategies and programs to best fit the needs of our students. We view Accountability scores as an opportunity to gain additional data about our students and our instructional programming, and utilize the information as a tool to assist us in our quest toward continual improvement in the education of our amazing students. If you have any questions concerning this report, please feel free to contact my office at 325-658-7823, ext. 1000. Thank you for your support.