Cedar Hill ISD presents 2025'2030 academic goals, lays out progress-measure timeline

Dr. Charlotte Ford, the district's chief academic officer, told Cedar Hill ISD trustees that the board has adopted multi-year student achievement targets and will return with progress measures to show whether the district is on track to meet them.

The board goals cover early literacy and numeracy, college, career and military readiness (CCMR), and eighth-grade science, which Dr. Ford said are required by House Bill 3. She said the district must change adult behavior and district practices to affect student outcomes.

Dr. Ford summarized headline targets the board set: third-grade reading meets-or-above on STAR from 38% to 46% (2025 to 2030); third-grade math from 36% to 51% (2025 to 2030); CCMR readiness from 80% to 90% (2025 to 2030); and increases on STAR more broadly (presented as 34% to 48% on one slide). On science, the district is in the third quintile and aims to grow by about 3 percentage points, a goal Dr. Ford illustrated by citing a target of 14 students at campus/classroom levels as the incremental unit of growth.

"Student outcomes do not change until adult behavior changes," Dr. Ford said, urging the board to push goals down to campus and teacher practice. She emphasized that the board's targets are intentionally attainable and rooted in district data and comparisons with quintiles used across Dallas County districts.

Trustees pressed for plain-language messaging to the public. One trustee asked how to explain the goals'relationship to expectations such as 70% proficiency; other trustees stressed communicating quintiles versus simple percentages so parents can understand what the targets mean for their children. Dr. Ford said goal progress measures will be presented Aug. 18; superintendent guardrails will be presented Sept. 2; additional workshop items and progress measures on Sept. 15; the district improvement plan on Oct. 6; and campus improvement plans on Oct. 20.

The board did not take a formal vote on the goals during this meeting; trustees were told the vote is scheduled for the next meeting.

The presentation and follow-up schedule intend to give campuses and teachers concrete classroom-level targets, Dr. Ford said; trustees asked the communications team to prepare plain-language descriptions for families ahead of broader public outreach.

The presentation was introduced during the board's open session after an executive session and was led by Dr. Charlotte Ford, with Dr. Jackson and Dr. Montgomery referenced as contributors to the data work.

The board will consider the formal adoption of the goals at its next meeting.