Alvin ISD midyear review: attendance edges up but math lags behind board goals

Alvin Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Valdez told the board at its February meeting that the district is making modest progress on some performance goals but remains off track on others.

"Are we currently on track to meet this? The answer to that is no," Dr. Valdez said when asked whether the district would meet its midpoint attendance objective. She reported first-semester attendance rose from 95.3% last year to 95.5% this year, a 0.2 percentage-point increase, just shy of the board's 0.3-point target.

At a packed midyear academic review, executive directors of curriculum presented a campus-by-campus analysis. "We are on track for reading. We're on track for CCMR, but we're not on track at this time for math," said Hobia Shaw, one of the curriculum executives leading the presentation. The board's House Bill 3 targets for third-grade math (a 50% goal) were not met in the first local CBA, which showed a 42% result.

District staff attributed the math shortfall to a combination of factors: changes to the Content-Based Assessments (CBAs) that altered item types, a higher passing standard this year and local impacts from state policy changes noted in the presentation. Presenters cited a state-level change they referred to in the meeting as "Senate Bill 21 24," which the district said removed a prior requirement related to summer bridge placement; staff said more than 100 students did not receive intensive summer instruction as a result and are now affecting secondary math outcomes.

Presenters also highlighted growth areas. College, Career and Military Readiness (CCMR) outcomes were projected to finish above the board's 76% goal (internal projections showed a 79% result). The report noted gains in English 1-to-English 2 writing measures at the high school level and growth in several priority campuses after intensive, frequent coaching and data-monitoring interventions.

Shanda Hobbs, another curriculum director, described how the district's priority campuses receive weekly or biweekly monitoring and targeted professional learning: "We pull teachers together, we give teachers a half-day sub, we do some learning, and we put higher-order questioning directly into lesson plans," she said, summarizing steps staff are taking to raise instructional rigor.

Superintendent Dr. Valdez said the midyear analysis is intentionally conservative: if a campus is not on target at midpoint, staff treat it as off-target and create detailed corrective plans. The board received a full district-and-campus 100-page midyear packet in advance and heard that staff will continue refining curriculum alignment, assessment practice and targeted supports for priority campuses.

The presentation concluded with a reminder that some accountability measures are lagging indicators: staff noted CCMR results reflect prior graduating cohorts. Board members asked follow-up questions about summer interventions and how the district will track the effectiveness of midyear course corrections; staff said they will report progress in subsequent updates.

The board did not take formal action on the midyear report at the meeting; it was presented for review and planning.