The Texas Education Agency recently released this year’s PEG list.
Local schools on the list include: Athens Middle School, Cross Roads High School, Lakeview Elementary School (Mabank ISD), Murchison Elementary School, and Trinidad ISD.
With a name like the Public Education Grant (PEG), readers might assume this was a good list to be on — but that’s not true. Schools earn a spot on the list for not performing up to standard. Specifically, this PEG list includes “2014 campuses with passing rates on STAAR that are less than or equal to 50 percent in any of two of the preceding years: 2012, 2013 and 2014 or the school was rated Improvement Required in 2013 or 2014.”
Schools stay on the list for two years. For instance, Athens Middle School earned a spot on the list last year based on standardized test scores from 2013.
In a statement to Henderson County Now, Athens ISD wrote: “As the district reported at the time, AMS met three of the four standards on that particular test, resulting in an accountability rating of ‘improvement required.’ The performance index not met was in the category of closing performance gaps.”
“The target score for that particular performance index that year was set at 27. We missed the mark by a single point,” said AISD Superintendent Blake Stiles. “In every other measure on that campus, we exceeded the target goal.”
The following year, Athens Middle School met all requirements of the state accountability ratings and was designated as “met standard.” Under the current system, schools are labeled either “met standard” or “improvement required.”
“Although we made the necessary improvements as soon as was possible,” said Stiles, “we are still on the PEG list because the state designation remains for at least two years. It has no bearing on what is happening at the campus now. We have every confidence in our teachers and the leadership at the middle school. Our students are in very good hands.”
The PEG program permits parents whose children attend schools on the PEG list to request that their children transfer to schools in other districts. The school the student transfers to gets a little extra money from the state, which is where the grant part of “Public Education Grant” comes in.
Well while this may seem to be undesirable news , I am confident that the $60,000,000 bond election recently will solve Any problem the A.I.S.D. has incurred in it’s ratings over the past years . Oh Wait the ‘ Lion’s Share ‘ of the bond was for a New A.R.C. , over 40% of that money will be ear marked for a ‘Non Educational ‘ project . Oh well as long as proponents of this election are all happy and giddy and stuff for their victory , thats all that matters . After all school is about the buildings , Not the students education . Again I would ask folks to just drive by the Cross Roads School’s construction project and imagine what Athens will look like with much more going on between the buildings . Atleast C.R. new buildings are somewhat outside the normal flow of student traffic , But Athens’ will be right in the middle of the campus . I sure hope no students get mud on their shoes moving from class to class , that is Much more Dangerous than just getting wet when making the trip .