I recently had an interesting talk with three administrators in the Hillsboro, Texas, Independent School District, Superintendent Vicki Adams; Hillsboro Intermediate School Principal Stephanie Tucker; and Hillsboro High School Associate Principal Jo Hayes. The district is a member of the Texas Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC), which is a group of districts in the state looking to overhaul the accountability systems that are currently in place in schools.
Drastically changing accountability measures means moving away from letter grades, test scores and GPAs, which makes some parents uncomfortable. Many parents feel like “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” regarding the current accountability system also used when they were in school, but they fail to realize the system is, in fact, broken.
In order to make such sweeping changes, the district and the school have concentrated on gaining the trust of parents and building relationships with them. With a trusting relationship comes the feeling that the administrators are doing the best thing for the kids and the community.
As Superintendent Adams put it, “We have gone all out as far as building those relationships with parents so that they trust us and so that they are supporting the fact that we're trying to give their students what they want as parents.”
About Hillsboro ISD
Hillsboro Independent School District is a public school district in Hillsboro, Texas, that also serves a portion of Carl's Corner.
Further Reading:
Los Angeles Times - Students’ progress stalls on California’s standardized tests
Sooke News Mirror - Technology increasingly being used to track students progress in SD62
The Atlanta Journal Constitution - Georgia to search for alternative to standardized state tests
Additional Reading:
A passion for collaborative learning and student growth
Equity in education supported by progressive school leadership
Assessment platforms helping transparency in schools
About Rod Berger, PsyD.
Dr. Rod Berger is President and CEO of MindRocket Media Group. Berger is a global education media personality and strategic influencer featured in The Huffington Post, Scholastic, AmericanEdTV, edCircuit, EdTechReview India and Forbes
Audiences have enjoyed education interviews with the likes of Sir Ken Robinson, Arne Duncan, Randi Weingarten, Sal Khan along with leading edtech investors, award-winning educators, and state and federal education leaders. Berger’s latest project boasts a collaboration with AmericanEdTV and CBS’s Jack Ford.
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