Bay City ISD reports gains in dual-credit and CCMR measures but English I benchmark falls to 48%

At a Bay City ISD Board of Trustees meeting, district staff reported increases in students meeting College, Career and Military Readiness (CCMR) markers while flagging a decline in English I benchmark results when a full-length exam was administered in January. District presenters said dual-credit enrollment and TSI (Texas Success Initiative) pass rates have risen this school year, but a comprehensive benchmark for English I produced a 48% “meets” rate in January.

The district presenter said freshmen CCMR indicators rose from 3% last year to 6% in current tracking and noted that if students already enrolled in dual-credit courses were included, some cohorts show an 11% rate. The presenter reported seniors began the year at 58% meeting CCMR markers and were at 63% in January after additional TSI results were counted. The district plans additional TSI testing and Saturday sessions open to eighth graders and current high school students to expand opportunities for students to earn college credit early. "So as freshmen, they don't come to us with a whole lot, but they started at 3% from the end of last year...and now we are at 6% for real," the presenter said.

Board members pressed for more detail about the January English I drop. The presenter said the January assessment was a full benchmark that included content (argumentation and poetry) not covered on earlier short CBAs, which contributed to a lower “meets” percentage than the November checkpoints. The presenter explained differences in performance-level cut scores between eighth grade and ninth grade: approaches raw-score thresholds and performance-standard shifts mean an apparent drop from eighth- to ninth-grade results can reflect higher expectations rather than regressions in student learning. The presenter gave the raw-score thresholds they were using as examples — eighth-grade approaches at 34 and English I approaches at 42 — and said the district will give another full release test in February and provide updated comparisons to teachers.

District staff also outlined operational steps: targeting sophomores and juniors for spring TSI, reserving industry-based certifications for high‑school-level CTE courses (because the state now requires two courses in the same program of study for certification to count toward graduation), and continuing teacher PLC work to spiral and reteach tested skills. A board member asked the superintendent to distribute the underlying data and scale-score conversion tables so trustees could track trends between now and the next benchmark.

The presentation included other academic indicators such as reading/genre assessments and progress on state-required monitoring; staff said they will provide a data packet and hyperlinks to underlying files for the board’s review. The district emphasized follow-up benchmarking in February and additional interventions before spring STAAR testing.