HISD has released TAKS results for third and fifth graders, and the news is mixed:
HISD third-grade students performed well on the TAKS reading test this year, with 83 percent passing the English version of the test and 79 percent of Spanish-speaking students passing–even though the State of Texas made the test harder to pass this year.
But the news is not nearly as good at the fifth-grade level, where 62 percent of HISD students passed the English version of the TAKS and 68 percent the Spanish version.
“The passing standard was higher this year, but still about 8 out of 10 third-graders passed the test. That’s good news. But the fifth-grade scores are more disappointing, and clearly we have a lot of work to do at that level,” new HISD Superintendent of Schools Abelardo Saavedra said.
First, congratulations to HISD and students for the third-grade results. Those are some nice scores, on a harder test.
As for the fifth-grade results, we have already seen that Dr. Saavedra is very focused on improving education in HISD. This year’s results are undoubtedly a disappointment, but I’ll be interested to see if, under his leadership, those scores rise over the next several years. I imagine they will, if he is allowed to do his job and isn’t hindered by the naysayers.
