5 county schools get 'recognized' designation
13 other campuses rated acceptable by Texas Education Agency

Cherokee County schools did well in academic accountability ratings that were released Aug. 1. Thirteen campuses scored acceptable and five were recognized. Only one was unacceptable.

Wells Elementary School was the lone campus scoring unacceptable because of its elementary school science scores. Rusk had three campuses scoring recognized and Jacksonville, two campuses.

Three campuses receiving unacceptable ratings last year were deemed acceptable. They are Jacksonville Middle School, Rusk High School and Alto High School.

Dale Morton and his staff at Wells ISD were aware last spring that the campus might score unacceptable in the 2007 ratings. "We have increased our staff by four persons and added a curriculum specialist in this subject area. Our scoring was unacceptable because of one grade level in one subject," he said.

"We are addressing this matter. This is the first time this has happened since the accountability program began. And, we certainly are not anticipating this rating to continue," Mr. Morton said.

Wells Elementary and High School both scored recognized in 2004 and scores on both campuses rated acceptable for 2005 and 2006.

"Three out of our five campuses were recognized," said Rusk ISD Superintendent Dr. Jim Largent. They were the intermediate, primary and elementary schools. "The junior high school only missed recognized rating by one score in one sub-group. Our high school was much, much improved," he said. Rusk High School had scored unacceptable in the 2006 ratings.

"We had expected these scores and are proud of our gains. This has been a great academic year and we are extremely pleased with our staff and our students. Next year, we are going to try harder and do even better," Dr. Largent said.

"We have really worked in preparing our students for the test and our students have worked extremely hard," Dr. Ray DeSpain, superintendent at Alto ISD said. "The teachers have done an excellent job in getting our students ready for the test. We are very pleased with the junior class. This class has been a big key in getting the high school off the unacceptable rating.

"We are pleased overall with our scores. There are a couple of areas that we want to improve. Science scores across the board need improvement and we also need improvement in some sub-population groups. We just need to continue to do better as the state is raising its percentage figures. The tutorials have really paid off and we are very pleased to get off the unacceptable rating," Dr. DeSpain said.

Judy Terry, curriculum director at Jacksonville ISD said the school's goal is to become a recognized district overall.

Jacksonville ISD had two recognized campuses this year. These two campuses, East Side and West Side, have been recognized since 2005. In 2004, East Side was an exemplary campus and West Side was recognized. Joe Wright was recognized in 2005. The Compass Center, the alternative campus, received an acceptable rating, the same it has received since accountability testing began.

"We are really pleased with East Side and West Side schools. These schools only missed exemplary by a few points in two areas," Mrs. Terry said.

The middle school scored unacceptable last year and has made "tremendous gains this year. We are very pleased with the school and its students," she said.

New Summerfield scored acceptable. The school has only one campus. All grades were rated together.

"We had looked through the numbers and felt like we would be acceptable. But, we were glad when the rating came out and we were actually rated acceptable.

"It was certainly a relief. Our teachers worked really hard in getting our students ready for the tests. We know that we will have an up-hill battle to keep our acceptable status. We will have to keep hammering at it," Superintendent Gregg Weiss said.