Not Measuring Up: A Look a Wilmer-Hutchins ISD

[TexasStooge]

And I thought the building story is controversial, look at the results below:
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By any measure: the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District is among the worst-performing Texas School districts, and on many accounts, it's dead last! The Dallas Morning News examined the school district's record on academics, teacher qualifications and financial stability. Here's what they found:

Wilmer-Hutchins ISD

TAKS Scores:

The News reviewed 2003 results on the Texas Assessment of Knowlege & Skills (TAKS) for all 488 school districts that serve grades K-12 and have 1,000 or more students. The Districts were ranked, by percentage of students who passed the test from first to last (488th).

Here's how Wilmer-Hutchins fared:

3rd Grade:
Reading: 284th | Math: 170th | All tests: 248th. (87.5 passed all tests)

4th Grade:
Reading: 262nd | Math: 51st | Writing: 95th | All tests: 137th (82.8% passed)

5th Grade:
Reading: 337th | Math: 421st | Science: 225th | All tests: 348th (58.4% passed)

6th Grade:
Reading: 488th | Math: 488th | All tests: 488th (27.3% passed)

7th Grade:
Reading: 486th | Math: 486th | Writing: 487th | All tests: 488th (26.9% passed)

8th Grade:
Reading: 483rd | Math: 472nd | Social Studies: 488th | All tests: 474th (43.9% passed)

9th Grade:
Reading: 486th | Math: 484th | All tests: 485th (27.7% passed)

OK, here's where it gets ugly:

10th Grade:
English Language Arts (ELA): 487th | Math: 487th | Science: 488th | Social Studies: 484th | All tests: 488th (5.5% passed)

11th Grade:
ELA: 488th | Math: 487th | Science: 486th | Social Studies: 488th | All tests: 488th (5.7% passed)

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I'll be back with Part 2 of the results.

[TexasStooge]

Here's part 2 of the results:
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Peer Districts:

The Dallas Morning News compares Wilmer-Hutchins with the 5 Texas school districts that were most similar. The peer districts like Wilmer-Hutchins have between 2,000 to 5,000 students; more than 80% of the students are not white; and 60-70% of their students qualify for free & redeuced-price lunch.

Here are the other peer districts:

* Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD
* Kingsville ISD
* Everman ISD (Not too far from Wilmer-Hutchins)
* Hereford ISD
* Fort Stockton ISD

Other Measures among Peer Districts:
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Advanced Courses:
The percentage of high school students who took at least one advanced course in 2001-02:

Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: 16.9%
Fort Stockton: 13.1%
Hereford: 12.4%
Everman: 10.5%
Kingsville: 8.2%
Wilmer-Hutchins: 2.0% (486th out of 488 districts)
Statewide 19.4%

Advanced Placement:
The percentage of high school juniors and seniors who took at least one Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test in 2002:

Kingsville: 10.4%
Everman: 7.6%
Hereford: 7.4%
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: 5.7%
Fort Stockton: 0.4%
Wilmer-Hutchins: 0.0%
Statewide 15%

Attendance:
The districtwide attendance rate in 2001-02:

Everman: 96.2%
Hereford: 96.1%
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: 95.2%
Fort Stockton: 95.1%
Kingsville: 94.2%
Wilmer-Hutchins: 93.6% (484th out of 488 districts)
Statewide 95.6%

SAT participation:
Percentage of students in the Class of ’02 who took the SAT:

Everman: 60.0%
Kingsville: 49.5%
Wilmer-Hutchins: 41.1% (445th out of 481 districts)
Hereford: 37.5%
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: 37.1%
Fort Stockton: 31.9%
Statewide 61.9%

SAT scores:
Average scores for the Class of ’02:

Hereford: 1101
Kingsville: 960
Fort Stockton: 946
Everman: 892
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: 813
Wilmer-Hutchins: 782 (462nd out of 465 districts)
Statewide average 986

SAT high-achievers:
Percentage of SAT takers who scored above 1100 in the Class of ’02:

Hereford: 21.5%
Fort Stockton: 15.9%
Kingsville: 14.5%
Everman: 6.1%
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: 1.6%
Wilmer-Hutchins: 0%
Statewide average 26.6%

SOURCE: Texas Education Agency


I'll be posting part 3 of the results shortly.

[TexasStooge]

Here's part 3 of the results:
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Teacher experience:
Teachers in Wilmer-Hutchins are three times more likely to be rookies than the state average. The percentage of teachers in 2002-03 who had no prior teaching experience in peer districts:

Kingsville: 0.3%
Hereford: 4.6%
Fort Stockton: 5.6%
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: 7.6%
Everman: 12.1%
Wilmer-Hutchins: 23.6%
Statewide average: 7.8%

Teacher turnover rates:
Wilmer-Hutchins teachers are almost twice as likely as the state average to leave the district each year. Annual turnover rates for teachers in 2002-03:

Kingsville: 9.2%
Hereford: 12.3%
Fort Stockton: 15.4%
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: 18.2%
Everman: 21.1%
Wilmer-Hutchins: 29.2%
Statewide average: 15.6%

Emergency permit teachers:
A Wilmer-Hutchins teacher is roughly 10 times more likely than teachers in other Texas districts to be working on an “emergency permit” that allows an uncertified teacher to work without meeting normal requirements. The number of emergency permits per 100 full-time-equivalent teachers in 2002-03:

Hereford: 0.0 per 100
Fort Stockton: 1.1 per 100
Kingsville: 1.9 per 100
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: 3.5 per 100
Everman: 4.5 per 100
Wilmer-Hutchins: 26.4 per 100
Statewide: 2.6 per 100

Financial stability:
Wilmer-Hutchins is one of 21 Texas districts (out of 1,039) to be rated
“substandard” in the state’s 2002-03 Financial Integrity Ratings, released
last week. How its peer districts fared:

Everman, Fort Stockton, Hereford, Kingsville, and Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: Superior
Wilmer-Hutchins: Substandard

Negative balance:
Wilmer-Hutchins is one of 12 Texasdistricts with a negative unreserved
fund balance in the 2002-03 school year. In its peer districts:

Everman: $8,107,175
Hereford: $7,042,958
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: $6,958,923
Fort Stockton: $4,180,045
Kingsville: $3,456,434
Wilmer-Hutchins: — $328,344

Spending in classroom:
Wilmer-Hutchins spends 50.9 percent of its operating budget on classroom
instruction. The state average is 59.9 percent. The Texas Education Agency cited the district last week for not spending enough on instruction. How much peer districts spent on instruction in 2002-03:

Everman: 60.9%
Kingsville: 57.1%
Hereford: 56.3%
Pecos-Barstow-Toyah: 54.2%
Fort Stockton: 53.3%
Wilmer-Hutchins: 50.9%
Statewide average: 59.9%

SOURCE: Texas Education Agency

For complete results, Click here.

Good thing I stayed in Irving ISD throughout my schooling years.

[TexasStooge]

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