MIDLAND, Texas — The STAAR test only comes around once a year, but the Midland ISD Board of Trustees got to see where the district stands compared to the rest of the state of Texas.
In the reading and math assessments, MISD reached the "meets grade level or above" status at a better rate than the state average. Midland ISD saw it's reading improve by 1%, while the state average fell by 4%.
In math, Midland ISD saw a 7% regression. However, the state average fell by 15%.
"The state saw a regression in reading, where MISD did not see a regression in reading," Diane Martinez, MISD's Executive Director of Research Evaluation and Innovation, said. "MISD actually maintained and improved by 1% in the area of reading, despite the COVID impacts that were experienced in our community."
COVID-19 impacted schools all across the state and country, but each school within MISD was impacted a little differently, causing fluctuations in a school's individual score.
"Every school had a different impact when it came to COVID," Martinez said. "Some campuses had more teachers that had to be quarantined or students than others. And as a district, we are looking at campuses individually to determine what occurred at that campus."
Even though MISD regressed in math, the district is pointing to its commitment to getting students back in the classroom as one reason for its smaller slide.
"What we can assume is MISD did focus on bringing students back a little earlier than most districts across the state of Texas, and so we’re examining that could that have been one of the reasons why our students showed less decrease in reading and actually less decrease in math and an increase in reading," Martinez said.
As for ways to improve on the scores, Martinez said that MISD is working on ways to personalize goals for students.
"We’re looking at their performance this past school year, and based on that, we are working very closely with our principles to make sure that the goals that we are setting are individualized and are meeting the needs of the individual child," Martinez said.
The results here are based on 3rd through 12th grade.