Pulling meaning or conclusions from the Dallas area's state testing results can be difficult. Our evaluation of the 2008 TAKS scores revealed these highlights.
DALLAS ISD PROGRESS
Scores in Dallas ISD were up in most subjects, but the gains were incremental over previous years. Slow growth is not unusual in a district that tests tens of thousands of students each year.
The gains were welcome news as the district enters the fourth year of a seven-year reform plan. It is doubtful, though, that scores will rise fast enough to meet the superintendent's goal of having 90 percent of students pass all their exams by 2010.
In Dallas, the big news is eighth-grade math scores, where gains markedly outpaced other subjects. Scores jumped among students of every ethnicity.
TOP PERFORMERS
By and large, wealth translates into higher TAKS scores. Highland Park, which has no low-income students, continues to rank at the top of the results for many tests. Districts that eclipsed Highland Park's performance on some tests included Carroll ISD, Coppell ISD and tiny Lovejoy ISD, which serves students in Fairview and Allen.
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
Last year, Richardson ISD won accolades for exceeding expectations in a district that serves many poor students. This year, the district continues to show that trend.
More than 34,000 students were enrolled in Richardson this past school year, and nearly half were considered poor.
When compared with districts with similar demographics, such as Mesquite, Carrollton-Farmers Branch and Garland, Richardson students usually scored higher. Conversely, Richardson students do as well or slightly better than students in some wealthier school districts. For example, students' math and reading scores in certain grades were comparable to students' scores in Plano, McKinney and Lewisville.
AT THE BOTTOM
Lancaster schools scored the lowest in the region in almost every category. Dallas public schools, which have more poor students than Lancaster, scored higher overall. About 76 percent of Lancaster schoolchildren are poor.
In many instances, Lancaster students' scores lag their peers in other districts by double-digit gaps. Students fared worst on the 10th-grade math test, with only about 34 percent passing. By comparison, 51 percent of Dallas students passed.
Lancaster students have struggled in the past, but in some areas they lost ground in the 2008 results. For example, this year 69 percent of seventh-graders passed reading, compared with 82 percent the year before.
A NEW SCIENCE TEST
Eighth-grade students' science scores will factor into state accountability ratings for the first time this year. For many school districts, this test proved one of the toughest.
Highland Park fared best with a 97 percent passing rate, and Lancaster the worst, with just 38 percent. But many districts fared poorly as well. School districts and schools must reach a 45 percent passing rate in science to become academically acceptable, 75 percent to be recognized and 90 percent to be exemplary this year.
