AssistantSuperintendent BoardReport

The C&I Department has been working with software vendors and instructional materials vendors to get final quotes for 2024-25 programs. All Science Adoption materials will be purchased using the 2022-2024 IMA funds. Other programs will be purchased primarily using 2024-2026 IMA funds with a few that have historically been purchased with 199 funds. All POs and orders are expected to be placed before the end of June to ensure delivery/availability by August 1st.

We have completed our Summer School 2024 program. We appreciate the teachers and staff who chose to serve the needs of our summer learners. Bilingual Summer School for incoming Kindergarten and 1st-grade Bilingual students was held Monday-Friday, June 3-21, 2024, at Finley-Oates. All other students attended Summer School Monday-Thursday, June 3-20, 2024. L.H. Rather students attended Summer School at I.W. Evans due to Junior High pre-construction events at LHR. Campus principals will use pre and post assessment data to evaluate the effectiveness of their respective summer school program.

The Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) is an English language proficiency assessment aligned to the Texas English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS). This assessment is designed to assess the progress that emergent bilingual (EB) students make in learning the English language. TELPAS fulfills ESSA requirements for assessing EB students in kindergarten through grade 12 in four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Link: TELPAS Educator Guide

• Students in Kindergarten through Grade 1: For students in kindergarten through grade 1, TELPAS consists of holistically rated assessments in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The holistically rated assessments use classroom observations to measure students' progress in listening, speaking, and writing in English.

• Students in Grades 2-12: For students in grades 2-12, TELPAS has two online tests: a reading and writing test, and a listening and speaking test. TELPAS assesses the progress that students are making in learning English. The test measures a student's annual progress in learning to read in English.

The data table shown below illustrates student composite ratings compared to last year at the top two domain levels. Students must have a composite rating (average of the 4 domain ratings) of Advanced High to meet reclassification criteria and "exit" the BE/ESL program. We are excited about the number of students achieving AH level and will review other necessary criteria to determine which of these students will be reclassified as "non-LEP" for the 24-25 school year. We monitor EB student progress and provide training opportunities for staff who serve those students to ensure we continue to meet the linguistic needs of these English learners. (Click image to open in larger view.)

Summer retesting for EOCs took place June 18th through June 25th. Summer School at BHS is focused on remediating students for retesting in subject areas as needed. Final accountability reports will not be received from TEA until July 10th and 17th, and preliminary reports were be uploaded into the parent portal in mid-June.

TEA's 2023-2024 Assessment Calendar of Events indicates the dates different stages of assessment results will be made available to districts. See the image below for Spring STAAR/EOC and June EOC reporting dates. Click HERE for TEA's assessment calendar of events. [reposted from May report]

On Thursday, May 30th, BISD Bilingual and ESL teachers attended a training in the BISD Boardroom with Dr. Edith Trevino (Dr. ET). The session was entitled, "Best Strategies for Teachers of Emergent Bilinguals" and focused on providing teachers with tools, resources and strategies to better meet the needs of our second language learners. Feedback from the training was overwhelmingly positive so Dr. Wilson and I discussed having Dr. ET return to BISD for convocation. We are thrilled that she accepted our request and will be serving as the keynote speaker at the 2024 BISD Convocation. More information about Dr. ET and Company can be found here.

Our 2nd Annual LEAD Conference is scheduled for August 8th and 9th at BHS. Once again, the conference will be composed mainly of sessions taught by BISD staff and there will be sessions available for every staff member in the district. The Curriculum and Instruction Department used feedback from last year’s end-of-conference survey to make some changes. Those changes include adding more food trucks, a designated lunch hour for all staff, concessions, bells set to signal the end of each session, etc. We have also arranged for booths to be set up in the aux gym for insurance questions, ATPE, technology help, and local vendors. All instructional staff members will be required to attend a total of 9 sessions and will end Day 2 with 9 hours of professional development.

TEA recently published the ESSA Consolidated Grant Entitlement planning amounts for the 2024-2025 school year. The image below shows the 24-25 planning amounts and a comparison to 22-23 and 23-24 planning amounts.

We will participate in the Region 10 SSA for ESSA grants again this year and plan to continue using Title I, II and IV funds for most shortage stipends and some instructional support salaries. Title III funds will continue being used to improve instructional programs and services for Emergent Bilingual students. [reposted from May report]