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% of students meeting grade-level mathematics performance
% of students meeting grade-level mathematics performance
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) recently released the Spring 2024 STAAR results, revealing ongoing challenges for Beaumont ISD and continued success for several other districts within Jefferson, Orange, and Hardin counties. Despite debates over the flaws of standardized testing, it remains the sole consistent metric for evaluating district performance. The following analysis compares scores within the tri-county area of Region 5:
Mathematics
The worst: In third grade mathematics, 54% of the 1,234 tests taken by Beaumont ISD students did not meet grade level, marking the second-worst performance in Region 5, just above West Orange-Cove CISD. Region-wide, 33.24% of students failed to meet grade level. Beaumont ISD's fourth graders followed a similar trend with 57% not meeting grade level. In fifth grade, 43% fell short, with sixth grade at 57%, seventh grade at 81%, and eighth grade at 46%. Overall, Beaumont ISD performed worse than all other districts in the region, except for West Orange-Cove CISD.
The best: Hamshire-Fannett ISD third graders led Region 5 with 83% of students meeting grade level. Similarly, Nederland ISD saw 84% of its fourth graders and 89% of its fifth graders meet grade level standards. At Sabine Pass ISD, 89% of sixth graders and 82% of eighth graders achieved grade-level performance.
Reading
The worst: In reading, Beaumont ISD underperformed across all grade levels, except for seventh grade, where only Port Arthur ISD did worse by 2%. Of the 1,237 third grade reading tests, 49% did not meet grade level, with West OrangeCove CISD close behind at 47%. In fourth grade, 33% of students did not meet grade level, with fifth grade at 39%, and sixth grade at 50%. In seventh grade, 45% of Beaumont ISD students did not meet grade level, compared to 47% in Port Arthur ISD.
The best: 90% of third graders at Hamshire-Fannett ISD and Kountze ISD met grade-level performance on their reading tests. Nederland ISD’s fourth and fifth graders led the pack, with 93% and 90% meeting grade level, respectively. Additionally, 83% of Bob Hope sixth graders met grade level, and Sabine Pass ISD achieved 100% of seventh and eighth graders meeting grade level, outperforming the region.
Science
The worst: For the science exams, which are taken only by fifth and eighth graders, 63% of Beaumont ISD fifth graders did not meet grade level, putting them just ahead of West Orange-Cove CISD at 65%, Port Arthur at 64%, and tying with Little Cypress-Mauriceville CISD. Eighth grade science results were similarly poor, with 54% not meeting grade level, second only to Port Arthur at 55%.
The best: Orangefield ISD fifth graders posted in Region 5 with 74% of students meeting grade level, surpassing Nederland and Silsbee, both at 71%. Sabine Pass ISD excelled with 100% of students meeting grade level, followed by Hardin-Jefferson ISD at 84%. Social Studies The worst: Eighth grade students also take social studies tests, where 63% of Beaumont ISD students did not meet grade level, ranking fourth from last behind West Orange-Cove CISD, Silsbee, and Port Arthur ISD. The best: Sabine Pass ISD led Region 5 with 93% of students meeting grade level, directly ahead of Hamshire-Fannett ISD where 72% of students met grade-level performance.
Over the past decade, Beaumont ISD has faced numerous stated challenges, including multiple superintendent changes, a pandemic, financial crises and standardized testing fraud. After Dr. Carrol Thomas retired in 2012, Dr. Timothy Chargois took over, followed by Dr. John Frossard and then the current Superintendent, Dr. Shannon Allen, in 2019. Despite various changes and efforts to incentivize and encourage improvement, the district’s performance on standardized tests remains one of the lowest in Region 5.
Conversely, districts like HamshireFannett, Sabine Pass and Nederland continue to lead the region with the highest percentages of students meeting grade level performance.
The Beaumont ISD Board of Trustees met on June 25 in a regular session meeting, in which Dr. Allen delivered a comprehensive superintendent’s report related to the recently released standardized testing results.
In a statement from the district, Dr. Allen said, “Despite promising early indicators, this year’s performance did not align with the intensity or effort put forth by our teachers and staff,” as she delivered lower than anticipated results.
Despite statewide and local decrease in third, fifth and eighth grade reading scores, as well as an overall decline in math and science across all grade levels, BISD did see growth in fourth grade ELA and Algebra 1, in addition to eighth grade math and social studies.
The overall impact of this year’s Artificial Intelligence grading is unknown, but the new grading technique was utilized in 75% of student’s written responses.
“These results come in the face of challenges out of our control: changes in the assessment, AI grading, lack of resources,” Allen said, adding that the district is currently reviewing the data and meeting with task force teams and curriculum developers to continue to make adjustments. “Nevertheless, we will continue to analyze the data and make adjustments for improvements for next year.”