Leander ISD scored an exemplary 95 percent on the Texas State Accountability Ratings. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) largely bases the accountability system on STAAR and End of Course (EOC) exam scores from the 2017–18 school year. Districts and schools earn grades in three domains: Student Achievement, School Progress and Closing the Gaps. While TEA exclusively calculates elementary and middle school performances on state testing, high schools ratings also consider college, career and military readiness and graduation rates as part of the Student Achievement domain.
While earning a 95 percent, TEA rules stipulate any district with an Improvement Required (IR) campus cannot earn an “A” rating. The official letter grade for LISD is a “B” due to one of 42 campuses being rated “IR.”
Highlights for Leander ISD include:
- 93 percent of student exams met or exceeded state academic standards on STAAR.
- 39 out of 40 schools rated “Met Standard.”
- 87 percent of LISD students showed academic growth according to state testing standards. In addition, LISD met 22 of 23 measures for closing achievement gaps.
- Leander ISD graduation rate is over 99 percent.
“While state accountability, college entrance exams and other academic measures are important for calculating academic growth, our focus continues to be on growing the whole child, whatever their talents, to prepare them for life beyond the classroom,” said Leander ISD Superintendent Dan Troxell, Ph.D. “We believe accountability is essential to ensuring our community high quality schools. However, the simplification of a complex rating system to a single letter grade does not represent the charge of public education.”
Starting in August 2018, the Texas commissioner of education will label each public school district with a rating in the form of an A–F letter grade. In 2019, both campuses and districts will receive A-F ratings.
