Snyder ISD students’ scores on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) contained few surprises for school district officials.
Snyder students showed overall progress on the STAAR, but trouble spots came in the expected areas, said Dr. Rachael McClain, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
According to information released by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), Snyder’s overall campus scores included:
• Snyder Primary School — 73.5 percent of students approached standards, while 18.5 percent mastered standards.
• Snyder Intermediate School — 65.2 percent of students approached standards, while 19 percent mastered standards.
• Snyder Junior High School — 60 percent of students approached standards, while 12.7 percent mastered standards.
• Snyder High School — 68 percent of students met standards, while 14 percent mastered standards.
A masters level distinction indicates that students are expected to succeed in the next grade or course with little or no academic intervention. Students demonstrated the ability to think critically and apply the assessed knowledge and skills in varied contexts, both familiar and unfamiliar, according to the TEA website.
According to the TEA website, approach standards indicates that students are likely to succeed in the next grade or course with targeted academic intervention.
Students achieving approached standard level or above passed the test, officials said.
In individual grade-level scores, students showed improvement from the previous school year in most areas, but some grades already considered concern areas struggled, McClain said.
At Snyder Primary School, third graders showed improvement from the previous school year in both math and reading, achieving a scaled score of 75 in math and 65 in reading, compared to 64 and 60, respectively, in math and reading in 2017-18.
Snyder Intermediate School fifth graders also showed improved scores on all tests. Snyder Junior High School sixth graders improved over the previous year in math, while seventh graders showed improvement in all three of their STAAR tests.
At Snyder High School, students improved scores on the English I test and biology end-of-course (EOC) tests.
Some grade level scores slipped from the previous year, however. Snyder Intermediate School fourth-graders scored lower on both math and reading, Snyder Junior High School sixth graders posted lower scores on their reading test and eighth graders scored lower in math, reading, science and social studies from the previous year, McClain said.
“I was extremely happy with the progress shown at the primary school campus and I was pleased with the fifth grade scores,” McClain said. “But we had hoped to see progress in fourth grade reading and writing. At the junior high school, students showed progress in every area except in the eighth grade scores. We need to show more growth at the eighth grade level.”
Overall, however, McClain was happy with the test results.
“We still have areas where we aren’t where we need to be, but we are showing improvement,” she said. “We are going in the direction we want.”
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