ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — Ector County Independent School District (ECISD) was named as the K12Dive District of the year for 2024, according to an email from Chief Communications Officer for ECISD, Micheal Adkins.
This comes after much investment of programs offered by the district. This same district five years ago was significantly underperforming according to Scott Muri the district's superintendent emeritus.
According to Muri "students were struggling academically in school". This was in 2019, now just a few short years later, ECISD is on the upswing. According to an online article from K12dive, the district earned its first ever B rating from TEA in 2022.
From the year 2019 to 2024 postsecondary success rates jumped from 56% to 88% according to Texas' College, Career, Military Readiness metric. This is at every level however as even the youngest members of the community's success rates jumped, in 2019 five-year-olds ready for kindergarten was at 36%, now the youngest generation is beginning to thrive in 2024 57% of ECISD children are prepared for kindergarten.
This success rate did not only change in the students, but for teachers as well. According to Muri the districts teacher turnover rate dropped from 18% to only one percent.
Muri attributes the districts' five-year strategic plan as a key driver to the districts ongoing improvement.
This plan focused first on the beginning principles of the fundamental framework, ensuring transportation for students ran on time, and students had nutritious meals to supplement a successful learning environment. This also included ensuring that there was a surplus of teachers to provide the best education for students.
The rest included significant investments in pipeline and compensation programs for both teachers and principals. The last piece focused on the core of it all which was academics through the districts "personalized blended learning model that taps into high dosage online tutoring."
However, according to Muri, "it's an overall strategy that has helped us get to where we are today."
to read more you can view the full article from k12dive here.
