LTISD Info

The 2007 Accountability Ratings have just been released by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

The LTISD was given a 2007 Accountability Rating of only “Academically Acceptable.” Did you also know that this is the LOWEST acceptable rating available from the TEA? This is the second year in a row as “Academically Acceptable.” I can’t wait to hear the district spin the “Rocky facts” as to why it happened again.

Reading the article from the Austin American-Statesman about the newly released TEA ratings, you will read:

“Tougher standards made it harder for campuses to earn the highest grades on the state’s report card this year, Texas Education Agency officials said Wednesday, and harder for struggling schools to win their way free of the threat of closure triggered by earning the state’s lowest rating.”*(Link is no longer valid)

but …

“Statewide, 43 percent of schools were exemplary or recognized, compared with 37 percent last year.”*

Let’s ask ourselves some important questions:

• Why hasn’t the LTISD improved their rating?
• Does the LTISD Board of Trustees believe that this rating is acceptable?
• What does the Board plan to do about this?
• Why hasn’t the LTISD done well?

If our taxes paid to the district are proportional to performance, then I would say that we are getting a really bad deal for our money! I wonder what Mayo Davidson has to say on the subject?
Just what is Rocky doing besides getting paid more money?
Oh, and don’t forget, he is also getting an extra 15 days of paid leave per year to “maintain balance and focus on his personal and professional life.”^TPIA I guess that the part about “The Superintendent shall be the educational leader and chief executive officer of the District. Education Code 11.201(a)” is not important.

• Does this mean that Rocky will make another organization change?
• Perhaps Rocky could get some pointers from the superintendents that have achieved “the finest example of an exemplary public school system in the great state of Texas!”?
• Better yet, perhaps we can even hire a superintendent with a proven record of managing the academic success of a district?
  

  Who knows, he or she might not cost the district so much money.

• Perhaps we should take Rocky’s pay raises and give them to the teachers who actually make the “rubber meet the road”?
• How many of us, other than Rocky, have guaranteed job security and pay raises independent of performance?^TPIA

Perhaps Rocky should read his own web page on the district’s web site which says: “Our commitment is to be the finest example of an exemplary public school system in the great state of Texas!”

I hate to tell Rocky, but: “Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.” (Mark Twain)

I guess it is easier for the LTISD to persecute parents and tax payers than to do the job that we are paying them to do.

* Source: “Schools affected by tough grading”, Laura Heinauer, Austin American Statesman, August 2, 2007, Vol. 137, No. 5 and “Tougher state standards affect school ratings”, Laura Heinauer, Austin American Statesman, August 2, 2007, http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/08/02/0802schools.html (Link is no longer valid)