La Hoya ISD tightens classroom plans and unveils preliminary STAR gains; district projects improved accountability ratings

District academic leaders told the board they will keep the district’s instructional framework and lesson structure while providing teachers with more prescriptive daily materials and quicker in-class interventions to increase consistency and accelerate student learning.

“Those daily lesson PowerPoints take that to the next step where we're really creating what the teacher is going to have to use to engage with students,” Deputy-level presenter Dr. Little said, describing a package of supports that includes teacher-facing slides, assessment items aligned to STAR and curated small-group (‘lead’) activities teachers can use immediately when students struggle.

Dr. Little and Superintendent Dr. Sorenson said the shift is aimed at reducing teacher prep time while increasing consistency across campuses and improving in-the-moment instructional responses. The district will continue to anchor instruction in the state-adopted Blue Bonnet materials and other high-quality instructional materials while narrowing and clarifying supplemental resources and rollout timing.

The presentation included a district accountability update based on preliminary STAR and end-of-course results. Dr. Little reported that 23 campuses showed improved accountability ratings year over year and 16 campuses are projected to rise a full letter grade. He said the district outpaced statewide growth in 12 of 18 tested areas and highlighted the strong growth at two ACE campuses, Sigin and Garza, projected to move out of the lowest ratings.

“23 of our campuses are showing improved accountability ratings over last year,” Dr. Little said, and later described Sigin as “the highest improving school in the district making 26 points of growth in their accountability rating.”

Reading-fluency data prompted targeted next steps: leaders acknowledged growth but said the district missed a reading fluency target (end-of-year fluency ~32% vs a 44% goal). K–1 showed progress; second grade had an unexpectedly larger share of students still working on foundational skills, which district leaders said will be a focus for next year’s literacy coaching and MTSS implementation.

Board members asked for clarifications about who produces the new lesson materials; leaders said Blue Bonnet and TEA-supplied materials will be used where available and district teams will customize or create materials in other grades/content areas. A structured professional-learning schedule this summer and during the back-to-school period will support implementation.

Next steps: the district plans additional professional learning this summer and will present final STAR/accountability data when the state issues certified reports over the summer.