Stone Says QISD Ranking Disregards Current Status

"To me it’s past data. It should not discourage us from where we need to go, and we need to let the ones in the trenches know that this didn’t have anything to do with them," Quinlan Independent School Board President Kenny Stone said Monday night about the Unacceptable ranking given the district and W.H. Ford High School by Texas Education Agency (TEA).

Stone said the information from which the agency based the rank was from the 2004-05 school year.

"We know where we’ve been," he said. "That’s why we hired Micheal (French as superintendent). We knew we had to get our kids straightened out."

French told the board that the state used old data. "To label the entire district when the scores went up — that’s absurd. You can see it gets me a little emotionally upset," he said because the students and teachers worked very hard.

"We asked them (teachers) to work hard last year," French said. "We’re probably going to double that this year. We’re asking a tremendous amount — most of them have not seen before."

Secondary Curriculum Director Gail McDaniel told the board that W.H. Ford High School scored the highest in every category that it had ever scored since the TAKS tests had been administered.

McDaniel said a TEA official said the low ranking was based solely on the incompletion rate. "We had too high a dropout rate," she said for the school year 2004-05.

The rank was based on the freshman class and the number of them who graduated this year. She said next year and the year following, the district would continue to suffer from past performance since those years would be based on dropout rates of freshmen from the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years.

French told The News that he thought the district would be okay on the rates for those years but would not know for sure until the time came to compute them.

"It’s really hard to swallow," McDaniel said. She said currently the district was waiting to hear from the state commissioner on the appeal that QISD had filed.

Test scores for the high school increased as follows: Reading, 91 percent, up from 89 percent the year before; Social Studies, 95 percent, up from 89 percent in 2008; mathematics, 64 percent, up from 51 percent in 2008; and Science, 75 percent, up from 68 percent in 2008.

McDaniel also reported that C.B. Thompson Middle School achieved the Academically Acceptable ranking.

She read a letter from Region 10’s Danna Myers, Program Coordinator for Curriculum and Assessment, to French that praised Quinlan ISD on the progress it had made.

"I wanted to take this opportunity to commend you and your administrative staff at Quinlan ISD on your CSCOPE implementation plan. Quinlan ISD is an example of a district doing things right! Your staff has worked long and hard to provide the very best environment for student success.

"The Curriculum and Assessment consultants have been impressed by the level of support provided to classroom teachers and the professionalism of your team. We are here to support you every step of the way, and we are celebrating your successes. We have shared your implementation plan with other districts and used your website as a model. Quinlan ISD is a bright and shining example of what can be!"

Myers goes on to state, "We would be honored to have your district represent Region 10 at the Fall CSCOPE Leadership Conference."

Elementary School Curriculum Director Sue Boone reported that both D.C. Cannon Elementary School and A.E. Butler Intermediate School received Recognized status. Cannon also achieved the rank last year. She said overall, the campus’ test scores improved from the previous year.

Boone especially praised the fifth-grade science program that "did an excellent job." The test scores were raised from 70 percent to 81 percent.