Director presents bilingual/ESL evaluation, rising exceptions and planned TEA submission

Dr. Carmen Pompa, director of bilingual and ESL programs, presented the district's annual bilingual/ESL evaluation for 2024–25 and outlined the exception report the district must submit for 2025–26 to the Texas Education Agency.

Dr. Pompa said the district follows Chapter 89 requirements for bilingual education reporting and that the annual evaluation must show enrollment, exits, program services, and assessment results. "Chapter 89 is the policy that we follow as a district providing bilingual education," she said.

She reported results and program usage: the district recorded roughly 9,610 students identified as emerging bilinguals (which she described as about 49% of enrollment), and reclassification (exits) changed from the prior year because the state now permits designated-language supports while still allowing reclassification. On TELPAS, the district's proficiency rate rose from 51% to 54% districtwide, and the number of campuses meeting long-term targets increased (from 21 of 28 to 24 of 28). Dr. Pompa said TELPAS proficiency points contribute to domain 3 accountability for campuses.

On STAAR (state assessment) performance for current emerging bilinguals: in elementary grades the district reported approaches 79%, meets 55% and masters 24% for current EBs; district figures including monitored former EBs were 82% approaches, 59% meets and 30% masters. Middle school and high school results were presented in similar district summaries and discussed relative to all-student outcomes.

Programs and interventions: Dr. Pompa described multiple instructional supports the district uses. Summit K-12 usage and internal "Summit" recognitions were cited: the district had heavy usage, won district-level recognition and had individual campus and teacher awards. Dr. Pompa also described Lexia English, used specifically for recent-immigrant/recent-arrival students; she reported 734,909 total minutes of usage and said the percentage of students at the lowest "newcomer" level decreased (for the district overall) from about 57% to about 26.8% by the end of the year.

Diagnostics and local screening: the bilingual department developed a local screener and diagnostic assessment (based on Florida Center for Reading Research models and similar to TPRI) to evaluate newcomers who may not know alphabetic skills on entry. Strategists administered the screener; Dr. Pompa said comprehension, fluency and constructed-response scores improved districtwide from fall to spring on the screener.

Exception report and certification: Dr. Pompa told the committee the district must submit an exception report (listing teachers who do not hold required bilingual or ESL certification and the number of students affected) via TEA's TEAL portal before Nov. 1. She said the preliminary count for 2025–26 was 60 teachers to report, later reduced to 57 after follow-up; the count of students potentially recoded into alternative-language programs dropped from 575 to 537 as certifications were completed or teachers left or changed assignments. "This report is going to be submitted by our superintendent, mister Pro, and it's gonna go through TEAL... and it must reach TEA on or before November 1," she said.

Professional development and certification supports: Pompa reviewed the district's PD offerings aimed at increasing bilingual/ESL certification and classroom capacity. Over the past three years the department provided 14, then 21, then 33 PD events focused on bilingual/ESL certification and instructional practice. She said the district is working with universities and district review opportunities to help teachers obtain required certifications.

Program accountability and family engagement: Dr. Pompa described progress reporting practices (30-day letters to families, progress checks and report-card cadence) and a verification process the district uses to document that campuses sent the required notifications. She also highlighted summer camps (elementary mandated summer program and smaller middle/high school "Elite" and "Elite Plus" camps), scholarship outreach and credit validation practices for students arriving with prior coursework.

Questions and next steps: trustees asked about monitoring duration for reclassified students (Dr. Pompa said four years) and about recent-immigrant counts (she provided counts by level: example figures cited included about 308 elementary RERAs, 233 middle-school RERAs, and 358 high-school RERAs). Dr. Pompa said progress continues and the department will finalize the exception list for TEAL submission.

Formal actions: the presentation was informational; the superintendent will submit the exception report through TEAL before the Nov. 1 deadline. No board vote was recorded during the item.