Buried in the good news of overall performance by Snyder ISD students on their state academic tests this year were some nuggets of troubling statistics.
First, the good news: Snyder students continued their recent overall trend of improved performance on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests. Overall, 62 percent of local students passed the tests, compared to 59 percent in 2017. And in most areas, Snyder ISD showed increases in student achievement.
The bad news, at least for school officials, is that test score improvement from one grade to the next did not meet expectations.
“The scores didn’t come in as high as we wanted them to,” said Dr. Rachael McClain, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “Across the board, we have to increase our standards.”
Simply put, scores in grade levels that were expected to struggle did so, while other grade levels came in lower than anticipated.
“We expected our fourth graders and seventh graders to struggle in reading and writing and we expected our high schoolers to struggle in English,” McClain said. “What we weren’t expecting was that scores from (Snyder Primary School) students came in 5 percent to 10 percent below what we expected. And sixth grade math and reading scores caught us off guard. They didn’t go as anticipated, which is a cause for concern.”
Third grade math and reading scores remained fairly static from 2017 — in math, 68 percent of the students passed, compared to 66 percent last year, while 66 percent of the students passed their reading tests, compared to 62 percent in 2017.
Fourth grade reading and writing scores were disappointing, but expected, McClain said. In reading, 52 percent of the students passed, while only 43 percent passed the writing exam.
At the seventh grade level, student scores in reading and writing regressed from 2017 — 48 percent of the students passed the reading test, compared to 55 percent the year before, while 43 percent passed the writing exam, down from 52 percent in 2017.
At Snyder High School, English scores regressed, as well — from 43 percent in 2017 to 40 percent this year in English I and from 49 percent to 47 percent in English II.
McClain hopes those numbers will improve somewhat — the district has identified more than 100 student test scores they want Texas Education Agency (TEA) officials to re-score.
“We don’t agree with the scores we received,” she said.
The news was not all gloomy, however.
Eighth grade students showed dramatic improvement in social studies from the previous year, jumping from 39 percent in 2017 to 60 percent this year. Notable improvement was recorded at other grade levels, also, including fifth grade math and science, sixth grade math, seventh grade math and high school U.S. history.
While she concedes more improvement is needed, McClain said the overall test results showed the district is moving in the right direction.
“Did we do better than last year? The answer to that question is, ‘Yes,’” she said. “But we have to show more improvement, especially at the meets standards and masters standards levels.”
The district will receive its academic rating from the TEA sometime in August, McClain said.
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