Representatives from the Bellwood-Antis School District including two parents traveled to the Lone Star State this week to meet with school officials and study methods used in a Texas school district as part of a program designed to improve student test score achievement.
The Bellwood-Antis Middle School was among 16 schools chosen in May to participate in a program designed to show how the achievement gap can be reduced in an effective manner.
At the time B-A administrative assistant Don Wagner said, “This is an initiative by the State Board of Education, specifically the Council of Basic Education.”
Wagner is in charge of curriculum and federal programs at Bellwood-Antis.
Wagner further explained, “Their goal is to reduce the achievement gap in schools throughout the state.”
In a previous Daily Herald article published in late May, The Chair of the State Board of Education’s Council of Basic Education, Luis Ramos, explained how Bellwood-Antis and the other schools were chosen to be a part of the pilot program.
“We went to the intermediate units and we asked them to seek out schools which were willing to volunteer to be a part of it,” said Ramos. “We actually had about 30 schools volunteer, but due to funding we were only able to select 16.
“We also wanted a statewide representation, a regional mix and a cross section of (social and economic) groups.”
Wagner was asked to explain just what is meant by the achievement gap.
“What they have found is the majority of the white students throughout the state tend to do better than the subgroups throughout the state on standardized tests specifically the PSSA,” said Wagner. “The subgroups are ethnic minorities or poor economically-disadvantaged students.”
The district plans to gain information from the visit to the Texas school located in McKinney. Bellwood-Antis would then take what it has learned and implement the measures to reduce its achievement gap and serve as a model for other schools.
In May Wagner said, “We are pretty excited to have this opportunity and the support from the state. We are really anxious to reduce the gap. One of the reasons we were interested was because of the fact, at the middle school we were placed on a warning list because our economically disadvantaged subgroups didn’t meet state requirements in math.
“The school district prides itself on academic achievement and that is not acceptable to us,” he explained. “Any support we can get to reduce that gap we are convinced would be a good opportunity.”
In addition to Wagner, others who made the trip to Texas were Bob Fisher, B-A’s middle school principal and two middle school teachers, Connie Stewart and Joanel Young. Also making the trip were school board member Rhonda Hocutt and two parents, Pam O’Shea and Linda DelGrosso. A representative of the IU8 district, Daryl Smith was invited to accompany the B-A officials and parents.
According to the district’s administrative office, the group left on Tuesday and is expected to return by Friday.
