The Board of Trustees held their monthly Information Session this week, focusing on three key Scorecard updates. These sessions aim to keep the community informed about the district's progress toward significant educational initiatives.
The Board of Trustees conducts two types of meetings. The first is an Information Session where administrators provide updates on various topics such as academic progress and budget matters. This session serves as a precursor to the second meeting, the Regular Voting Meeting, where trustees make decisions on items like real estate, contracts, or staffing changes. The scorecard functions as a report card for the superintendent, setting five-year goals and tracking progress to hold the administration accountable for student outcomes.
During this week's session, the administration presented data on three Scorecard items:
Firstly, they discussed high school students' enrollment in college-credit eligible courses for the 2024–25 school year. It was noted that 39% of 11th and 12th-grade students began the year with credits eligible for college credit. In total, 64% of Austin ISD high school students are enrolled in such courses. The trend shows increased enrollment across all student groups due to expanded access to advanced coursework. Crockett, Navarro, and Northeast Early College High Schools were highlighted as campus outliers with underserved groups enrolled in these courses.
The second Scorecard measure addressed Special Education evaluations. These evaluations are crucial for identifying students suspected of having disabilities and ensuring they receive necessary educational support. As of December 20, 2024, Austin ISD maintained compliance with no past due initial evaluations since August but reported 51 past due reevaluations. The district is on track to meet constraint progress measure 1.2 by December 2025.
The final Scorecard item focused on advanced coursework completion rates among students and efforts to increase African-American student representation in Gifted and Talented programs. Administrators aim to close opportunity gaps and better prepare students for postsecondary success. Data collection methods will be developed to track progress across different student groups and campuses needing additional support. Notably, there was a 28% year-over-year increase in African-American students participating in this year's Gifted and Talented screening process.
In addition to these presentations, Trustees elected new board officers: District 5 Trustee Lynn Boswell will serve as President; District 4 Trustee Kathryn Whitley Chu will serve as Vice President; District 6 Trustee Andrew Gonzales will serve as Secretary.
The next Regular Voting Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 30.