Today, I welcomed nearly 12,000 AISD employees back to school with a Convocation video featuring white board animation.
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| Adam Miller, who teaches social studies and history at Crockett High School, did an amazing job of illustrating the twenty-minute video in an informative and entertaining way. |
Our District’s Priorities
Our Board-approved five-year strategic plan includes goals for the district, and each year the Board gives us a road map to reaching those goals by setting its priorities for that year. For this year, the goals are: cultivate Whole Child, Every Child, build a College-Ready Culture, deliver effectively the current Portfolio of Options, invest in human capital and strengthen our Systems.
When we say “Whole Child, Every Child” we mean shifting the focus away from a culture of testing—which can be punitive and narrowly focused on test results—to one that emphasizes academic standards of excellence and strengths and interests of the whole child with art programs, athletics, health and wellness initiatives and Social Emotional Learning. And, it’s our goal that the No Place for Hate initiative will reach every campus and every department in the district by the end of the school year.
A College-Ready Culture means ensuring students get as much mileage as they can out of their AISD education and are prepared for life after graduation. To do this, we know students need to be in class every day, getting a solid foundation of knowledge. It means creating access to rigorous programming for all students and offering alternative pathways to graduation.
Our third priority is to deliver our current Rich Portfolio of School Programs. We do this by expanding our dual language programs, and implementing in-district charters—like the one at Travis Heights Elementary and others at Lanier and Travis High Schools that provide alternative pathways to graduation, much like our Twilight Programs. We also rely on Pre-K Centers and signature programs throughout our vertical teams.
Fourth, we invest in Human Capital, because student success depends on attracting and retaining the best talent in Texas. Further, research shows that when students have a quality teacher they do achieve at high levels.
Our fifth priority is strengthening Systems, which means providing strong supports for our academic work. This includes budgeting, implementing the 2013 bond program, developing the Facility Master Plan, and using information in our data warehouse to eliminate the achievement gap.
Areas of Focus for the 2013-14 School Year
For the upcoming school year, we will focus on these four areas:
Competitive Salaries: This year we will maintain last year’s temporary 3 percent salary adjustment, which is pensionable. On top of this increase, we also plan to provide for every employee the equivalent of an additional 1.5 percent increase based on current annualized salary, that is not pensionable, and will be paid in two lump sums. If we can identify an additional $2.4 million in budget savings, we will provide every teacher with an increase of at least $1,000.
Balance the Budget: We will fill our budget gap by drawing nearly $18 million from our reserves and identifying savings of up to $12 million through cost containment strategies such as the current hiring freeze, deliberate vacancy and lapsed salary savings, waste and contract cost reductions. NOT through layoffs.
Implement the 2013 Bond Program/Facility Master Plan: In May, voters approved nearly $490 million in bond funds for the district. As a result, every school in AISD will benefit.
These funds will allow us to repair and renovate our facilities, upgrade technology, renovate science labs, expand and renovate libraries, purchase new buses, and improve energy conservation. We have committed to developing a facility master plan by next summer. It will serve as a long-range capital improvement plan and will also have to include the areas in the bond propositions that did not pass. We will need strategies for addressing over- and under- enrolled schools, career and technical education, special education, arts and athletics. As part of good stewardship it will mean possibly changing transfer policies and practices. School boundary changes are likely to be considered as well as we better utilize our existing school infrastructure.
Focus on Literacy: By intensifying our focus on literacy education, and devoting more brain power (mental resources and energy) and professional development to this area, we'll be able to beef up what we are already doing well to strengthen students’ literacy skills.
Literacy can lead our students beyond the terrain that high stakes testing measures, to help them develop habits of mind that will prepare them for a full life in whatever path they choose. By encouraging students to read, and giving them opportunities for sustained, silent reading in all subjects on topics that interest them, we can lead our students to deeper thinking, which does result in higher achievement. One part of our district’s focus on literacy is the importance of Free Voluntary Reading---giving students the freedom to choose what they want to read. Good readers are better writers and make the best thinkers.
Our Accomplishments
AISD is one of the highest performing urban districts in the state and even the nation. We have continued to improve in the face of tougher accountability requirements, dwindling resources and changing demographics.
Take for example our attendance rates. For the third year in a row, attendance rates continue to rise, generating over $5 million for AISD, especially now that they exceed 95 percent.
And because our students are coming to school ready to learn, we’ve seen dramatic improvement in our graduation rates as well. Graduation is the bottom line in measuring the success of our school district. Over the past five years, our graduation rates have increase from its lowest at 74.3 percent in 2008 to an all-time high of 82.5 percent in 2012.
These gains for students who have typically had lower graduation rates are even more impressive when viewed over a four-year period. You can see increases like 7.1 percentage points for Special Education students, 13.9 percentage points for African American students, 14.7 percentage points for Hispanic students and English Language Learners closed the gap by a whopping 27.6 percentage points.
We are seeing results in closing our achievement gap every day at every level. Elementary schools exceeded the state passing rate in reading, math, writing and science at grades 3,4 and 5. Middle schools ranked first among the Big 8 districts in four areas. High schools are improving too. AISD students outperformed students in every other large urban district in 8 out of 11 End-of-Course Exams—ranking us number 1 or number 2 across every subject.
At the national level, AISD has consistently made gains and been among the leaders in the nation on performance. On the Nation’s Report Card, or NAEP, AISD students ranked first in 8th grade mathematics and second in 4th grade mathematics.
All of that work is making a difference for our students, whether they are still in AISD or have already graduated. After graduating, we’re seeing our more students going on to two- or four-year colleges or universities more than ever before. Last year, the post-secondary enrollment rates for AISD graduates went up an amazing six percentage points, from 62 to 68 percent.
This month we received the latest ratings from the Texas Education Agency which does tell some but not all of the story about our good work. Here’s what the headlines don’t tell you:
• AISD leads comparable, urban school districts and exceeds the state average on student achievement and outperformed the state on student progress.
• Further, our results exceeded the state’s target for the second year of STAAR in all four areas—student achievement by 28 points, student progress by 14 points, closing performance gaps by 15 points and postsecondary readiness by 6 points.
• And under the new accountability system, 110 of our 123 schools met the standard and 55 schools earned academic distinctions—that’s almost half of our schools.
• Finally, the percentage of AISD schools rates as “improvement required” is lower than the state average and the second lowest among comparable urban districts.
Austin is a dynamic, creative city that has, and deserves, a high quality public school system. Our accomplishments don’t just happen. Whatever it is that you as a member of the AISD staff do to support our students and families, you should know that our work is working.
Welcome back, and have a great school year!