Published: June 18, 2009 10:52 am      

JISD’s prelim TAKS scores mark academic progress

By Marc McCloud

Special to the Progress

Jacksonville Independent School District trustees got some good news during their regular meeting Monday.

Judy Terry, JISD assistant superintendent of curriculum, presented the district’s preliminary results of the 2008-09 state TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test.

West Side Elementary will be the only JISD campus to ever twice consecutively earn the distinction of “exemplary” in the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) school ranking system. Two other JISD elementary schools will progress in status from “recognized” to “exemplary,” and the remaining campuses in the district barely missed moving up in the ranking system.

“We are extremely proud of the hard work represented by these preliminary results,” Terry said. “The students, teachers and campus administrators should all be congratulated for their achievements.”

Three JISD campuses — West Side Elementary, Fred Douglass Elementary and Joe Wright Elementary — will all receive the highest TEA rating of “exemplary.” East Side Elementary and Nichols Intermediate will again earn the second highest mark of “recognized,” while both Jacksonville Middle School and Jacksonville High School will once again accomplish a rating of “acceptable.”

The district as a whole is expected to be judged “acceptable” by the state. Even though this last bit of news meant that JISD will fall short of the goal of becoming a “recognized” district this year, the improved scores and overall advancement of the individual campuses softened the blow of the district not reaching its target.

“Our district will remain acceptable for the 2008-2009 school year,” Terry reported to the board. “However, we have moved all subjects to ‘recognized’ or ‘exemplary’ except science, and science will be our major focus next year.” She went on to say, “Seventy-three percent of our student subgroups meet or beat last year’s percentages in all areas, and 79 percent of student subgroups meet or beat the state average.”

In remarks given after the presentation, the board commended all staff, students and parents for their achievements for the year.