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The Texas Education Agency recently
released the 2006 school accountability ratings -- based in part on
the most recent Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) scores
-- and the DeLeon Independent School District received an
“academically acceptable” rating.
Individually, DeLeon High School and
Perkins Middle School also received academically acceptable ratings,
while DeLeon elementary received a “recognized” rating.
These ratings are the same as last year,
and, for that matter, the year before, but Superintendent Dr. Randy
Mohundro said there has definitely “been progress made.”
“We are excited about the progress,”
Mohundro said. “The district as a whole missed being recognized by
only three sub-indicator points, out of 19,” he said. “We were very
close. The elementary was recognized, and the middle school just
barely missed being recognized. They were right on the verge. We are
very pleased. We’re moving in the right direction.”
This past school year was the first one
to feature “Maroon Madness” which was described as “an incentive and
motivational lifter for the TAKS test.”
“I think the effort made by our staff to
focus our students on needing to give 100 percent is paying off,”
Mohundro said. “It’s not what I’m doing, it’s not what the principals
are doing, it’s what the teachers are doing in the classroom, first
and foremost.”
Mohundro said there’s been no final
decision on whether Maroon Madness will be repeated this year, but
there will be an incentive program of some sort. “We want to do
anything we can to encourage students to do their best,” he said. “I’m
not afraid to get out of the box and say ‘let’s try it,’ and if it
works great! If it doesn’t work, then I’ll admit it doesn’t work and
we’ll do something different. But I don’t like the excuse, ‘we’ve
never done that before’ -- that doesn’t mean you can’t.”
Mohundro said that even though progress
has been made, there are a few areas in which he’d like to see
improvements.
“Math continues to be an area where we’ll
be working hard,” Mohundro said. “For example, our sophomores and
freshmen will be taking two math classes this year, and writing will
also be a big focus.” |
