Elementary receives ‘Exemplary’ rating

Clarendon Elementary received high marks in the state’s accountability system this year.

Clarendon Elementary received an Exemplary rating for the second year in a row. Clarendon Junior High went down from Recognized last year to Academically Acceptable this year, and Clarendon High was once again rated Academically Acceptable.

The ratings are partly based on Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills (TAKS) scores.

“As far as a district, we are very pleased with our scores,” CISD Superintendent Monty Hysinger said. “We just barely missed the Recognized rating, and we have made improvements across the district.”

On the TAKS across the district, Clarendon had 95 percent of students pass the reading/English language arts portion of the test, up from 94 percent last year; 96 percent in writing, up from 94 percent; 95 percent in social studies, up from 90 percent; 82 percent in math, up from 75 percent; and 92 percent in science, up from 85 percent.

“Overall, we made really good gains across the district,” Hysinger said. “We made some improvements in mathematics, but we still feel like we need work in that area. We know what our targets are for next year, and we’re ready to hit the ground running.”

Clarendon TAKS results for Clarendon Elementary are as follows – reading 98 percent, up from 97 percent last year; writing 100 percent, up from 97 percent; mathematics 92 percent, up from 86 percent; and science 100 percent, up from 94 percent.

“We’re very proud of our scores,” Elementary principal Mike Word said. “We continue to have great scores each year due to our teachers and staff. It’s not just our third, fourth and fifth grade teachers who are preparing our students. It begins with Preschool teachers, and having a strong academic start.”

Clarendon Jr. High results– reading/English language arts 88 percent, down from 90 percent last year; writing 91 percent, same as last year; social studies 92 percent, up from 88 percent; mathematics 71 percent, down from 75 percent; and science 82 percent, down from 93 percent.

Clarendon High School results– reading/English language arts 97 percent, up from 94 percent last year; social studies 96 percent, up from 90 percent; mathematics 82 percent, up from 65 percent; and science 93 percent, up from 77 percent.

“We’ve made drastic improvement over past years,” CHS Principal Larry Jeffers said. “Our teachers and students did a great job raising scores. Our math scores increased by 17 percent, and our science scored were up by 16 percent.”

The CISD district rating was affected by the High School’s completion rate, which should be at 80 percent instead of 75 percent.

“According to TAKS scores, the high school would be rated higher, but our completion rate suffers due to kids that drop out or move off once the year has started,” Jeffers said.

Hedley Independent School District maintained its rating of Academically Recognized for the third year in a row.

Across the district, Hedley had 98 percent of students pass the reading/English language arts portion, up from 95 last year; 100 percent in writing, same as last year; 91 percent in social studies, up from 83 percent; 76 percent in mathematics, down from 78 percent; and 74 percent in science, up from 67 percent last year.

“The scores are never as high as we want them to be, but we’re happy that we raised scores in every subject except for math,” HISD Superintendent Eric Hough said.