Vidor ISD presents Oak Forest Elementary Targeted Improvement Plan after state identification

Oak Forest Elementary’s principal and district staff presented a Targeted Improvement Plan at the Vidor Independent School District public hearing on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, after the campus was identified by the Texas Education Agency’s closing-the-gaps accountability domain. The presentation summarized 2022–23 and 2023–24 academic performance data, explained the diagnostic process used to identify strengths and challenges, outlined curriculum and professional-development strategies, and described funding efforts including a LASO 3 grant application that the district expected an award decision on Feb. 25.

The plan matters because the campus fell into the bottom 5 percent among Title I elementary schools on the TEA closing-the-gaps measure and therefore must implement a targeted improvement plan under state accountability rules. District staff said Oak Forest’s combined closing-the-gaps score for the year identified the campus for comprehensive support, and the campus must improve above its original identification score over two years to exit that status.

Heather Watson East, identified in the presentation as Oak Forest’s new principal, and district staff described the specific data points that led to the identification. In reading (RLA) for “meets grade level,” the campus score moved from 44 percent (2022–23) to 36 percent (2023–24), compared with a statewide target of 46 percent; math “meets” declined from 45 to 35 percent, versus a 49 percent target. District staff said those declines, and similar shortfalls for qualifying subgroups and the high-focus group (special education, English learners, economically disadvantaged, highly mobile students), resulted in zero points awarded in the academic achievement and academic growth subareas of the…