Liberty Hill ISD presents TAPR results: district reports higher STAAR rates, growth mixed; special education and CCMR flagged for attention

Liberty Hill ISD district staff on Feb. 18 presented the district's Texas Academic Performance Report (TAPR) and the state's Results Driven Accountability (RDA) review, telling trustees the district outperformed region and state averages on many STAAR measures but faces continuing challenges in special education, industry-based certification reporting and lagging reporting windows.

Todd Washburn, the staff presenter, said the TAPR data are often a year or more old but give a useful baseline: "When you look at all-star grades, that's 3 through English II ... the short story is that we are outperforming the region and the state in all these areas for approaches, meets to masters," he told the board. He highlighted approaches-level results published in the TAPR: reading at about 86% (regional 77%, state 76%), math at about 81% (regional/state ~72%), and science at about 86% (regional 76%, state 75%).

Washburn also emphasized student growth measures used in state accountability. "This basically states 72 percent of our students on reading are meeting or exceeding one academic year's worth of growth," he said, and noted combined reading-and-math annual growth around 68% on the measures the state reports. He described district-level work to align early-literacy and numeracy screeners (MAP Growth, mCLASS) with state expectations so campuses can set five-year improvement goals.

The presentation included other key data points the district cited from the TAPR and related reporting: special education at roughly 15% (district noted it rose to 17% in the current year), gifted-and-talented at 10%, career and technical education (CTE) participation about 25%, and total district enrollment near 9,966. The district reported a graduation rate of 99.3% and said AP performance improved: the number of AP examinees scoring 3, 4 or 5 rose from 398 (spring 2023) to 595 (spring 2024), and the district said industry-based certifications (IBCs) also increased year over year (district figures presented: 398 -> 533 -> 775 across different reporting years and cohorts, noting some data are lagged).

Ella Hussey summarized Results Driven Accountability for special education, explaining RDA replaces older PBMAS reviews and evaluates three domains: academic achievement, postsecondary readiness and disproportionate identification. She said the district received a "determination level 1," the highest overall state rating, and listed strengths (several specific performance areas at the state's performance level 0) and continued areas of work. Hussey called out required improvements: timely evaluations for children transitioning from early childhood intervention by age 3 and completing transition documentation for students age 16 and older. She also said the state found "significant disproportionality" in the identification of autism for students with Asian ethnicity, intellectual disability for students with Hispanic ethnicity, and placements rated over 60% for students with Asian ethnicity; those findings factor into the RDA corrective actions the district must monitor.

Public comment during the TAPR hearing included one speaker who criticized testing and curriculum. Resident Jim Dillon told trustees the TAPR contained "a lot of numbers and statistics that were more disappointing and discouraging" and urged choices he said would raise educational quality; his remarks reflected a broader set of public questions the trustees heard in the meeting.

Trustees asked clarifying questions about how the state sets approaches/meets/masters cut points, how the district monitors growth and how lagged data (for example, TEA and Coordinating Board measures that use older cohorts) affect planning. Washburn and Hussey told trustees they would return to the board with campus improvement goals and additional correlated data points so trustees could review proposed five-year targets.

Why it matters: TAPR, RDA and related reports are the state's public accountability documents used for transparency, campus improvement planning and some teacher recognition processes. Liberty Hill's board received data indicating district performance above regional and state averages in several categories, but staff also highlighted RDA-identified discrepancies and lagging indicators the district must address as part of continuous improvement and special education compliance work.

What trustees directed: trustees asked staff to bring back campus and district improvement plans built on the TAPR and the district's newer early-screening assessments. Washburn said staff will return with recommended five-year goals and campus plans once more current school-year assessment data are available.

Provenance: TAPR presentation began when staff introduced the report ("Good evening President Parsons, Superintendent Snell...") and concluded after the staff summary and Q&A about data and growth. Evidence excerpts captured the start and end of the TAPR/RDA presentation and related Q&A.