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BISD completion rates show improvement |
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Knocking on students’ doors and calling parents helped Brazosport ISD improve the percentage of its students completing their high school education in the 2006-07 school year.
Brazosport ISD officials presented the statistics from the Texas Education Agency to school board members during a regular meeting Tuesday night.
While the completion rate went up to 90 percent in 2007 from 87 percent in 2006, the graduation rate in that same time frame fell slightly to 76 percent from 77.3 percent, said Becky Rinehart, executive director of curriculum and instruction.
The graduation rate tracks students who enter high school as a freshmen and graduate as seniors while the completion rate tracks students who come back after four years and graduate, she said. The rate factors in three of the district’s campuses, including Brazosport High School, Brazoswood High School and the Lighthouse Learning Center.
“I’m glad to see those are up,” board president Jay Luce said of the completion rates. “I’m just real proud of what our people have done.”
The efforts of the District Community Liaison Teams’ and campus staff members helped drive up the completion rate, Rinehart said. They would find students who were not attending class or had dropped out and encourage them to come back and finish, he said.
“The community liaisons really work with the campuses,” said Jackie Brewer, director of federal programs, who oversees the community liaisons.
In August, the Texas Education Agency named Brazosport High School academically unacceptable and Brazoswood High academically acceptable. The district earned an acceptable rating. Ratings are based on scores from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
The district has until October to submit an improvement plan to the state on how to address Brazosport High School’s rating, Rinehart said.
The graduation and completion rates are one factor that determines the district’s rating, Brazosport ISD Superintendent Joe Ripple said. Other factors include attendance, dropout rates and scores from the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
Despite the school district’s recent acceptable rating, Ripple said the graduation and completion rates are a reflection of the community liaison’s efforts to help students finish.
“They’re out there in force finding these kids … and they’re making a difference,” he said.
Brazosport High School’s 2007 graduation rate increased to 81.4 percent, up from 74.4 percent the previous year while the school’s completion rate jumped to 91.9 percent from 79.6 percent, the statistics show.
Brazoswood High School’s graduation rate fell slightly in 2007 to 88.7 percent from 89.5 percent the previous year. The school’s completion rate edged down slightly to 92.6 percent in 2007 from 92.7 percent in 2006.
Trustees also were presented with attendance figures Tuesday night that showed attendance districtwide had dropped half a percentage point in the 2007-08 school year to 95 percent from the previous year.
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