LTISD Info

As I promised in an earlier post, the TEA released the state wide preliminary results of their ratings for every school district in the state. TEA’s preliminary results are available via HTML or Adobe Acrobat (PDF).

The TEA news release has some interesting data, particularly in light of the LTISD’s dismal rating:

“The number of Exemplary school districts rose from 43 in 2008 to 117 this year.”

“The number of schools and districts that achieved a Recognized rating also rose this year. The number of Recognized districts and charter holders increased from 329 in 2008 to 459 today.”

“The movement of schools and districts into the two highest and the lowest rating categories left a declining number in the Academically Acceptable rating category. Last year, 818 districts or charter holders were rated Acceptable, compared to 561 today.”

“Schools and districts received the state’s lowest rating if they failed to meet the criteria required for an Academically Acceptable rating. This year, 87 districts were rated Academically Unacceptable, compared to 32 last year.”

Wow, did you read what the TEA said: “The movement of schools and districts into the two highest and the lowest rating categories left a declining number in the Academically Acceptable rating category.”

Guess who moved DOWN? That’s right, the LTISD!

Just how did Rocky manage to pull this off? No doubt that this is all part of Rocky’s master plan to  “make the LTISD the most exemplary school district in Texas,” right?

Isn’t it time that we, the parents and tax payers demand better from our tax dollars?

I took the TEA ratings and included the latest AEIS numbers of each revenue per student for each of the districts so that you may draw your own conclusions about how well your school district did relative to the tax dollars received by the district.

Let’s do some comparisons of the ratings and the money spent by each of the districts.

*Note: I only included the 1022 “independent” and “consolidated independent” school districts from the TEA’s 2009 ratings.

Of the 1022 “independent school districts” in Texas:

Now let’s compare the average revenue per student for the districts in each of TEA’s rating catagories:

According to data from the TEA, the LTISD revenue per student was $11,709. If that were a gauge of academic performance, then why isn’t the LTISD “recognized?”

Let’s look at some school districts surrounding the LTISD* and their TEA ratings:

I selected school districts that the LTISD likes to compare itself to as demonstrated by their presentations to the attendees of “Leadership Lake Travis.”

Again, all I can say is: “Just what do we expect for our money? Mediocrity or Excellence?”

Compared to what the LTISD must consider “cohort” districts, we are not getting our moneys worth. Based on the results, Rocky will have a hard time calling them “cohort” anymore.

Now let’s compare the salaries of superintendent’s, or the “chief executive officers” (LTISD written policy BJA(LEGAL) and Texas Education Code 11.201(a)) of their districts:

You can even look at previous data relating the salary of superintendent’s to the number of students and you will find that the LTISD is even more skewed.

What’s wrong with this?

Now if we were in a “Fortune 500″ wouldn’t the LTISD be looking for another CEO?

Just what were Rocky’s credentials before his arrival at the LTISD?

What was Rocky’s experience as an “educational leader and chief executive officer?”

Wildly throwing tax dollars around, overpaying an ineffective superintendent, and lower standards (standards which are already low when compared to the rest of the world) yet the district still can’t …