Preliminary TAKS results show improvement

By The Democrat Staff

Marlin ISD's preliminary state testing scores are in - and teachers and administration are cautiously optimistic.

All campuses saw improvements in the unofficial numbers released Thursday - numbers that could change come August when the official scores are tabulated.

"We have some significant gains in some and modest gains in others," Superintendent Ray Matthews said.

Marlin High School improved its passing scores across all subjects and subdivisions - the biggest gains in science and English language arts, which each had 13 percent more students pass.

"We were real pleased with that," said Matthews of the high school's results.

Marlin Elementary students also improved their passing rate in science from 42 percent to 60 percent.

The rest of the elementary subjects and the middle school had the "modest" gains.

Overall, middle school students had better passing rates on reading, math and writing tests while dropping 8 percent and 2 percent in science and social studies, respectively.

Elementary school students passed reading at a 1 percent lower rate, math at a percent higher and writing saw a decrease of 9 percent.

"These are preliminary," Matthews said. "Once the finals come in, usually they're a little higher."

The district was rated academically unacceptable by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in 2007, prompting the schools to work with the organization to hire an interventionist and create a Campus Instructional Leadership Team (CILT) or a Campus Improvement Team (CIT) at each campus.

"We've made a lot of changes, we've got a lot of positive things going on," said Mattthews in March. "We're not just blowing smoke, we're going to do it, but it's still going to be close (this year)."

The Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) report will come out in August.