JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND –
Lackland Independent School District is the only school district in Bexar County to have all its schools receive distinction designations from the Texas Education Agency based on their performance on the 2012-2013 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam.
Lackland Elementary School and Stacey Jr./Sr. High School earned designations in student achievement, student progress, and closing the achievement gap. Stacey also earned a designation in post-secondary readiness.
Lackland ISD Superintendent Bernie Roper was pleasantly surprised that his schools surpassed TEA's Met Standards, the performance criteria that the state uses to measure schools' performance, on the first year the test went into effect.
"I honestly did not know if we were going to meet the Met Standards, and for the schools to perform the way they did, it was shocking. It's surprising, but we are grateful our schools did well."
The superintendent credits the teachers for their dedication to helping students succeed.
Roper said teachers followed the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills curriculum to prepare students for the STAAR. If students do not perform well on a subject's assessment test, teachers would re-educate students on the subject. At the high school level, students are required to attend a learning lab if they did not perform well on a subject's assessment test.
"I have to have great teachers in the classroom in order for good instruction to take place," Roper said. "I have excellent principals, leaders of the campuses, and instructional leaders, who are there to serve as a resource for teachers to provide them what they need so they can be successful."
While he is proud of the students' performance on the STAAR, Roper said he does not try to be concerned about test scores. He would rather focus on preparing students for their future.
"(Students) have to prepare for a future differently than the one I had to prepare for," Roper said. "We have to prepare children for a future where jobs don't even exist yet. What I'm stressing with my faculty is that we have to prepare kids on how to be critical thinkers and how to collaborate and work with people because rarely these days' do students work individually.
"They usually work on teams so they have to know how to communicate effectively with people and how to communicate ideas effectively."
To keep students engaged in learning, Roper said the district sends teachers to a project based learning seminar. PBL helps students learn how to cohesively work together.
He also advises instructors to make their lessons exciting and interesting so students will stay engaged.
"We don't want to just teach students facts because then it goes into one ear and out the other," Roper said. "We want them to remember what they've been taught so when the time comes for them to take an assessment test they will do well."