Boerne Independent School District students are making academic progress as the 2021-22 school year nears the home stretch, and test scores back that up.
Larissa Flores, the district’s chief instructional officer, updated the board of trustees during its April meeting last week by reviewing STAAR interim test results conducted this spring compared to the results from the fall.
Beginning in third grade through high school graduation, students are tested through the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness in the core subject areas of reading, writing, math, science and social studies. Flores has noted that each test is different so the results are different.
“(The STAAR interim test) measures student understanding of a broader span of student expectations to monitor progress and identify intervention needs,” Flores said during her presentation to the board, adding test results predict a summative performance and not a formative assessment.
She also said the test is “fully aligned” to Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills through the Texas Education Agency, which are the state standards for what students know and are able to do, as well as to the district’s scorecard. However, it is not part of the district’s state accountability.
Before getting to the numbers, Flores said the interim test is adaptive and based on student answers to the first 12-15 questions. After that, the students are routed to one of three levels for the second set of questions.
In addition, Flores said the results show an average of the percentage of the predicted “meets” level, the level BISD sets as its goal. Other levels are “approaches” and “masters.”
With about six weeks left in the 2021-22 academic year at the time testing was done, elementary results for grades 3-5 showed improvement in both math and reading.
In the fall, 22 percent of third-graders were at the “meets” level in math. Now, 47 percent are there. In English, the third-grade “meets” percentage rose from 33 to 44 percent..
In fourth grade, math percentages went from 39 to 65 and from 60 to 67 in English.
Flores also said BISD’s results were 21 percent higher compared to all Region 20 districts, “which is great, really great.”
Boerne ISD is in Region 20.
In fifth grade, the “meets” math percentage increased from 49 percent in the fall to 60 percent in the spring. Reading improved from 57 to 67 percent over the same time period.
Science also was tested, but in the spring only. Thirty-nine percent of BISD’s fifth-graders are at the “meets” level.
Boerne ISD averaged 22 percent higher than Region 20 in general at this level.
In middle school, the upward trend continued in both math and reading.
In sixth grade, students at the “meets” level improved from 39 to 63 percent in math and from 42 to 54 percent in reading. In seventh grade, math “meeters” increased from 40 to 51 percent while the tally went from 59 to 67 percent in reading.
Boerne averaged 24 percent higher that Region 20 in general.
In eighth grade, where algebra, science and social studies were added to math and reading, percentages also improved. In math, the “meets” percentage rose from 23 to 35 percent, and in algebra, it went from 61 to 85 percent. Reading percentages increased from 53 to 60 percent.
Science and social studies were tested for the first time in the spring, and the “meets” percentages were 57 and 35 percent, respectively.
Boerne averaged 20 percent higher than Region 20 at this level.
In high school, one percentage dropped from fall to spring as students at the “meets” level in English 1 decreased from 56 to 53 percent. The algebra I percentage improved from 13 to 19 percent while English 2 increased from 47 to 51 percent.
Overall, BISD averaged 20 percent higher than Region 20.
In high school biology and U.S. history, students were assessed for the first time. “Meets” percentages were at 63 and 76 percent, respectively. Biology is taken by freshmen while juniors learn U.S. history.
Compared to Region 20, BISD averaged 20 percent higher in these results.
2021-2022 comparison
Flores also compared spring 2022 results to spring 2021 results, and the percentages of improvement in students were less noticeable and in some cases worse.
In fact, in four of the five high school categories, 2022 percentages were lower this spring compared to last spring.
The most noticeable is in English 1 as 63 percent of BISD students were at the “meets” level last year compared to 53 percent this year. In English 2, the percentage dropped from 58 to 51 percent. The algebra 1 numbers (middle and high school) dipped from 51 to 46 percent while U.S. history came in at 76 percent this spring compared to 77 percent a year ago.
In biology, the percentage of “meets” students increased from 62 to 63 percent.
Flores noted the district needs to work with students more in these areas.
Results were vastly different at the elementary and middle school levels as all tested subject areas increased. The highest came in eighth-grade social studies, moving from 25 to 35 percent.
Next in line was grade 3-8 math at 7 percent from 47 to 54 and in eighth-grade science at 7 percent from 50 to 57 percent. Fifth-grade science results improved at the “meets” level this year from last by 3 percent, 36 to 39, and grades 3-8 reading increased from 58 to 60 percent.
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