BY HANNAH NORTON & CHLOE YOUNG
The details
The impact
their children math skills, said Alicia Westcot, senior director of math and science curriculum. “[Parents] might count numbers, but as we start getting into some of those more intricate math skills, not as much of that happens on a regular basis at home as does sitting and reading with a book,” Westcot said. Furthermore, in 2023, the state redesigned the STAAR to be administered fully online and feature more open-ended questions as opposed to multiple choice, a factor Gonzales-Dholakia said she believes negatively impacted student performance.
Brenda Cruz, LISD assistant superintendent of empowered learning, told Community Impact it’s difficult to pinpoint one reason student perfor- mance suffered in 2024 as the causes may differ for each child and grade level. The district doesn’t consider a difference of a couple of percentage points as a drop in perfor- mance but notes when there is a change of 4 or more percentage points, she said. While parents may have felt comfortable regularly reading with their children during the pandemic, families have often relied on educators to teach
Under state law, students who receive a score of “did not meet grade level” must undergo accelerated instruction at school. Some students will be taught by a highly skilled teacher for the following school year, and others will receive at least 15 hours of small- group tutoring on specific subjects. This school year, LISD will begin administering its district assessments to students, which are focused on LISD’s curriculum and became optional in recent years. LISD has also implemented “Building Thinking Classrooms”—a book that demonstrates optimal math teaching practices—into its professional development for teachers this school year, Westcot said. Additionally, the district is looking to provide parents with various math resources they can use at home, Gonzales-Dholakia said. “We’re hoping that these are different tools, fun tools, that are as easy to pick up as a book and read at home,” she said.
The approach
LISD’s focus on math
LISD officials stressed the importance of consid- ering a range of assessments in evaluating students’ performance—not just the STAAR. “We don’t want to look at one number to define a student’s abilities or their trajectory for learning,” Westcot said. “We want to look at what we would call a collection of evidence.” Even when looking across multiple assessments, however, Gonzales-Dholakia said the district recog- nizes it needs to improve math performance. “We know that there’s work that we need to do in math because regardless of the moving target, regardless of the pandemic, this is where we’re at,” she said. A district presentation from February showed stu- dents did not display the expected level of growth in math during the middle of the 2023-24 school year, which former Area Superintendent Christine Simpson tied to teacher turnover.
Reviewed curriculum for second through fifth grade teachers Hired five elementary school math specialists and one secondary school math specialist
Hired five new co-teachers
Renewed commitment to professional learning communities
“If we really want a child to be supported throughout their education journey, that happens at school and it happens at home.” GABE GRANTHAM, TEXAS 2036 EDUCATION POLICY ADVISER
SOURCE: LEANDER ISD/COMMUNITY IMPACT
Texas as a whole is grappling with high teacher turnover and rising rates of uncertified teachers, according to the TEA. Students taught by uncerti- fied educators without classroom experience lose three to four months of reading and math learning, according to a study by Jacob Kirksey, an assistant professor of education at Texas Tech University.
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