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12 All nine schools in the Eanes school district and the district as a whole received exemplary ranking in the 2010 school accountability ratings released Friday by the Texas Education Agency.
This is the second consecutive year that all Eanes schools and the district have received that distinction.
“We continue to be proud of our staff and students, as this achievement is not an easy standard to meet,” district superintendent Nola Wellman said. “It takes hard work and diligence to attain a rating such as this, and we are thrilled with the result.” Statewide, 31.1 percent of all schools statewide were designated as exemplary. Fewer high schools were able to earn the top exemplary rating, only 11.4 percent statewide, with Westlake High School being one of the largest high schools to earn the designation, said Claudia McWhorter, district director of communications. Approximately 20 percent of middle schools statewide earned the exemplary ranking along with the local district’s two middle school campuses – Hill Country Middle School and West Ridge Middle School. The ratings are based primarily on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills and state-developed alternative assessment test results and include five subject areas: reading/language arts, writing, social studies, mathematics and science.
At least 90 percent of the students in a school and in every sub-population with enough representation to qualify must meet the standard on the test for a school to be rated exemplary, McWhorter said in a statement released Friday.
“To accomplish exemplary ratings district-wide for two consecutive years is a remarkable achievement,” Wellman added. “Our students are well-prepared for academic challenges, including various assessments, thanks to the diligence and commitment of our teachers and staff.”
The TAKS tests are easy for our kids because of who our kids are; they are not, IMHO, indicative of excellence. Think about it: more than 905
% of our kids pass these tests with scores of 95%+. Any test that is that easy simply is not a test in any sense of the word.
Our kids pass because they have involved parents, who value school and who have above average educations and more often than not have challenging jobs and careers that the kids come to understand they cannot have unless they work.
As one of our principals said to me once, “teachers in EISD think they can teach: you’d have to be a complete incompetent not to teach kids like these.”
The exemplary label is more important for property values than it is for anything else. And if its one thing we collectively value in Eanes, it is property values.
To It is what it is: That is an unbelievable slap in the face to the excellent teachers in this district. You should be ashamed.
I agree with WOW! My hobby for the last ten years in my retirement has been to substitute teach in the Eanes district. I also substituted in AISD. The difference in attitude and competency was easily noticeable between the two districts. If your children graduated in the last eight years, I probably taught them – and believe me, they were wonderful! So are the other parents, students, administrators, and especially the teachers. Don’t demean the “Exemplary” rating because you didn’t receive enough positive education to recognize it when you see it! You are what you are.
Here are the facts:
1) The demographics of Eanes ISD are as easy as pie. They simple don’t get any easier.
2) Parents provide incredible support at home including the provision of private tutors (at $75/hour and up) at every grade level. These tutors are very often Eanes ISD teachers and even administrators (after school and weekends) and at all grade levels (K-12).
3) The population of special needs students has decreased dramatically since Nola Wellman began. It has decreased from 11% down to 8%. Those children must find and fund private school while there parents still pay property taxes which are then spent for … athletic improvements. (Now that’s a slap in the face.)
4) Those children with special needs (who are indeed pushed out of Eanes — thank you Nola Wellman) are then replaced by students who do not live in the district but are accepted by virtue of there EASY AS PIE profile (the way Nola likes ‘em) including high TAKS scores, perfect attendance, perfect behavior, high grades (i.e. no special needs). Now that’s a reason for shame, Nola. And wow, doesn’t that make the easy demographics even easier? Way to go Nola. How do you sleep at night?
Further, this district received exemplary ratings before Nola was here. Once she arrived the district rating dipped to Recognized and an all-time low of Academically Acceptable (only two years ago) and now it’s back up.
Passing the TAKS is sort of like saying you received an A+ in a regular class at WHS. Not saying much.
So what would happen to the TAKS test scores if every one of Eanes students were at Del Valle, and every one of Del Valle students were at Eanes? Would the Del Valle students in Eanes with the brilliant teachers in EISD now pass the TAKS at 95+%? Doubtful–the families in EISD demand excellence of their children. The teachers here have a gold mine! There aren’t too many 3rd grade teachers in ANY school district who don’t know quite a bit more than the average 8 y.o. (even EISD 8 y.o.’s), Not that there are not many excellent teachers in EISD–of course there are! But there are many excellent teachers in many school districts who are going up against a losing battle with families who just are not engaged with their children’s education.
My gifted student was bored to tears in Eanes. The gifted programs are a joke. Oh yes of course my student received Commended on the TAKS tests and actually could have taken the test blindfolded and passed. So we hopped out of Eanes and into private school. All better. Want to impress me Eanes? Then start transferring in the at-risk children from surrounding districts and educate them. Accept their TAKS scores. What? Not what you had in mind? Didn’t think so Nola. You are not competent and worse — you place the needs of children last. The community is waking up.
To Impress me: What arrogance. I had students at both WHS and private. You are kidding yourself. But if it makes you fell that good that you can be snotty about it, then go right ahead and hop on outta here.
Poor, poor Impress Me. Your darling was bored at Eanes. Your self-importance says a lot about you.
Hold your sympathy Agre. And your animosity too. Children should be educated at an appropriate level. It’s no more “snotty” to be intellectually gifted than it is to have brown hair or blue eyes. It’s isn’t arrogant to advocate for your child’s needs. When a student tests many years above the curriculum offered by Eanes and when the district’s gifted programs are stale or even worse omitted, good parents find solutions in a timely way and in many cases, the only solution is private school. Again, TAKS scores are not a valid measure of excellence for any district (low bar) and especially for a district with the easy demographics of Eanes.
It amazes me how some of you can take a positive article and twist it into something negative… I agree with 8 & 9, some of you are really arrogant and self-important … Yes, everyone’s child in Westlake is “gifted and talented” and obviously can do no wrong… After all, they are the baby-Jesus’s… oops, I mean baby-geniuses that we created! We’ll see how they all turn out when you teach them they are above school district rules/regulations if they rub you the wrong way , show irreverence for authority and viciously attack (rather than open-mindedly listen) to those that disagree with you. In a few years, we’ll come during their visiting hours to start the lawsuit against the District for messing our precious angels up…
Impress Me—Remarkably, “boring” seems to follow you everywere. I’m not sure what PRIVATE school your “gifted” child attends, but the joke is apparently on you. In an annually published list of the best private and public schools in the United States, not a single “private” Austin area school is ever on the list. On the other hand, Westlake HS makes the top tier of the list year in and year out.
Thank you for your school tax payments, while not burdening our classrooms and system. Keep writing those checks Impress me…you may have more money than sense and the needs of you and your “gifted” child may exceed that found in any classroom.