Congratulations to the students and teachers at Travis Elementary.
You made your improvement happen, and there are a lot of Midlanders who couldn’t be prouder. We talked with Bethany Solis, executive director of IDEA Public Schools of the Permian Basin, and she said that using the ratings system of 2019 – the last time grades were given to campuses – that IDEA Travis would have been given the grade of a B.
That is rare territory for MISD schools – only four campuses in the district received an A or B in 2019 – and it is a huge accomplishment for the elementary school in southeast Midland. Travis was not only a failing school but had one of the longest failing streaks in the state.
But the past appears to be the past. While there is room to grow with “absolute results,” the growth has been good enough to put an elite rating – well, elite for Midland -- on the campus. Still, this is the type of education news that many of us want to see. The No. 1 priority for the school district should be academic performance, and when we see dramatic improvement, our community should celebrate it. We should also ask how it happened, and if there is anything that can be replicated across the district.
Sadly, there are going to be some who don’t want to celebrate this academic good news. They are going to make unfounded accusations about IDEA Travis cherry-picking its student population. They are going to be critical of Midland ISD’s partnership with a charter program (IDEA Public Schools). They are going to come up with reasons to dislike the IDEA Travis news they read and the improvement being experienced. There might be even be elected representatives who acknowledge the improvement but attempt to temper excitement, saying that these types of partnerships are not in the best interest of the school district.
Here’s what I would tell any of those people. Midland needs achievement, not institutional protectionism. Midland needs an education system that can go from an F to B during a year when a pandemic rocked our education world. IDEA Travis didn’t make excuses, just gains in the classroom. And if it was so easy, it would have been done before. We wouldn’t have forced that campus to be among the worst in the state.
Midlanders should be excited about this new chapter in education. Midlanders should be pleased that the school board opted for a solution that didn’t require the closing of a campus but allowed what is still basically a neighborhood school to serve its own students. They also should see this as a win for the education of Hispanics in Midland.
- 83 percent of Travis students met or exceeded their individual growth goal on the STAAR exam;
- 62 percent of all English Learners met their English proficiency growth goal;
- An average of 1.5 years was made up during a year dominated by COVID.
- that students in grades 3-5, averaged improvement in their reading by a grade and a half,
- that 93 percent of Travis students met or exceeded their growth target in math;
- In pre-K through second grade, only about 5 percent were reading on grade level at the beginning of the year. By the end of the 2020-21 campaign, 70 percent were on level with where they should be in that curriculum.
“It is exciting, and I am proud of their growth, but they will be the top students in Midland. Period,” IDEA Travis Executive Principal Hailey McCarthy said. “They will outperform everyone else. It will take a little time.”
Solis added, “I mean, these are the things that people think are impossible, right? That a school that fails so many years – ‘Oh, it's not possible for those kids to progress that far in one year.’ No, it is. Because it was never the kids’ fault to begin with.”
We knew before that IDEA Public Schools was the proven commodity. Now, Midland has experienced how good IDEA can be here -- in one of the worst performing districts in the state. Our community should look forward to any expansion of IDEA in our community – either on its own or as a partner of the district. We also should encourage that as the school district makes a “call for quality” to improve another MISD school that IDEA gets earnest consideration. The business and philanthropic community in Midland believes in IDEA. Now, we know why. It’s time the rest of us say, “Let’s see more of what is happening at an improving school like Travis.” It is better for education in Midland.
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July 27, 2021 at 09:04AM
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Doreen: IDEA Travis' growth is a needed win for education in Midland - Midland Reporter-Telegram
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