The San Angelo Independent School District (SAISD) Board of Trustees received a positive Mid-Year Academic Performance Report at its regular Board Meeting Monday March 24, 2025.
Dr. Farrah Gomez, Deputy Superintendent and Chief Curriculum Officer brought the presentation.
MAP Testing Is Different Then STAAR
Dr. Farrah Gomez began by explaining that the STAAR Test does not provide the District information about academic performance, or allow the District to gage how students are progressing academically during the year.
For that, the District performs MAP Testing during the school year. MAP stands for Measures of Academic Progress. These tests are administered three times a year so that academic levels and performance can be measured at Beginning of Year (BOY), Middle of Year (MOY) and End of Year (EOY).
Gomez reminded the Board that goal 2 of the Superintendent’s academic goals was an increase of 8% in MAP scores for grades 3-8 in English I and II, and an increase in 10% for grades 3-8 for Math and Algebra I.
Reading and Language Arts
The BOY (Beginning of Year) scores showed that 52% of students coming to SAISD in kindergarten were considered well below the benchmark level. This is a significantly higher number over the national average of 45% By mid-year that number dropped to 40% compared to the national average of 30%
18% of kindergarteners were considered below benchmark level at the beginning of the year. The number rose to 20% by mid-year.
14% were at the benchmark level at the start of the year, and 22% were at the benchmark level by mid-year.
16% were above the benchmark level to start the year, and that increased to 18% at mid-year.
Overall what this reveals is that our student population struggles with early literacy at a rate greater than the national average.
The good news is that the Districts efforts at intense early interventions shows progress and the District is closing the gaps with the national averages.
Math/Algebra I
In math the MAP scores showed student growth at all grade levels, although that growth is not as high at all levels,
One factor that could be impacting this is that 6-8th grades do not have new instructional materials yet, as do the other grades.
Trustee Pam Duncan commented that in the sixth grade lots of new material had been introduced for the first time. Therefore, sixth grade growth may not be as much as time is needed to understand curriculum involved at each grade level . In her opinion that would be a factor in the lower growth scores. Middle school may not see the same type of growth at earlier grade levels.
Board President Taylor Kingman commented that some of the cohorts may be seeing faster growth than others, but the positive take away is that we are seeing growth across all areas.
Superintendent’s Comments
Superintendent Dr. Christopher Moran emphasized how important pre-K education is to early academic performance.
The state may eventually go to a universal pre-K requirement, but he did not see that happening this legislative session. But, he reported the District is working on plans to be able to expand pre-K offerings even without legislative action.
Dr. Moran noted that these results are positive, but that he is not satisfied and “we have a lot of work to do”. At the end of this year he said we will have created a base line with one full year’s data. This will give us a real good picture of where we are.
“Rigor is far more with this curriculum.” He said. “We are headed in the right direction.”
One of the consistent problems, Moran noted, is the transient nature of students. “This year alone 800 students have withdrawn and 650 have come to us. The truth is that we have a lot of students leave and come back to us multiple times.”
In Other Business
- Approved bids for purchase of warehouse products for Child Nutrition Department.
- Approved trades bids for the District.
- Approved the bid of Precision Plumbing Solutions of San Antonio, in the amount of $334,489 to replace the sewer line connecting the Oakes Campus to the City’s sewer system.
- Approved the District’s transition plan to transition to the Bluebonnet Learning Curriculum.
- Certified the provision of the District’s choice of instructional materials (Bluebonnet Learning).
- Approve purchase of a new 2024 Ultra Coachliner SE 102 bus in the amount of $373,550.
- Approved Superintendent’s recommendations for contracts with senior staff.
