School report cards assessing the progress of schools throughout the state for the 2013-14 school year have been made available by the Texas Education Agency with the high school ranked as “Met Standard,” the highest level assigned by the TEA.
“Really what it says is that we’re doing good things in the four different areas that it ranks schools or gives schools a rating in,” Principal Chris Mayfield said. “Really I would say, and it’s not me saying this, it’s the report card that says that students at Lovejoy High School are excelling and going above what the state expectations or standards have laid out. We’re doing really well.”
The school report cards, which are sent out every year and changed last year to include English language learners, reflected well on the whole district.
“The school report cards are really generated by the state of Texas,” superintendent Ted Moore said. “They’re intended to be a concise way for parents and taxpayers to know how the schools are doing.”
The high school was at least 25 points above the state average in all performance indexes measured, including Student Achievement, Closing Performance Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness. Across Texas, 9 out of 10 school districts met state expectations.
“Texans should be pleased to see the vast majority of districts, charters and campuses are meeting the standards set in the second year of the state accountability system,” Education Commissioner Michael Williams said in a statement. “While the 2014 numbers are positive, the work continues in districts across our state to meet and exceed increasing state standards and the expectations of their local communities.”
For schools exceeding the state’s expectations, the report cards tell administrators that the schools are on the right track.
“There’s always room for improvement where we can continue to try to improve our instruction in classroom, the experience kids get, and preparing them for the college experience,” Mayfield said. “We’re always going to continue with that. What the report card really tells us is that we’re doing good work in those areas”
The high school is ranked 234 in the nation and 32 in Texas, and while national rankings may not be as impacted by a good school report card as AP or SAT scores, the reports mean that students are more likely to perform well on those tests and boost the school’s rank.
“There are a lot of reasons that people choose to move to Lovejoy community, probably our schools are the number one reason,” Moore said. “Academics would be one of the reasons, but some people choose the districts based on fine arts, some people chose based on athletics, some people the size of the community. But academics and a good school report card is a positive for school growth.”
The reports will be used to continue to help students excel.
“It really is just kind of an opportunity for us to see results,” Mayfield said. “We don’t really use it as a planning tool, but if we do notice that there’s areas that we want to be particular in paying attention to, then certainly. But really it more validates the work that we’re doing, it doesn’t act as a diagnosis of what’s not going well or what areas we need to work on.”
