LISD Academic Advocates

1. Call to Order and Pledge. The meeting was called to order at 7:03 by president Elizabeth Fry and those present recited the Pledge..

2. Secretary's report.. Minutes of the May 2003 meeting were approved by the Executive Board in June so they could be posted in a timely manner to the website. Please remember to check the website for Academic Advocates meeting information as well as links to additional education related information.

3. Treasurer's report and budget The treasurer was not present however the payout of $500 for our two 2003 scholarships was noted.

4. Membership report. As of August 27, we have 54 paid members for this school year. Those who staffed tables for Open Houses remarked that it was difficult to garner attention with many students and parents focussed on meeting their teachers and signing up for extracurricular activities, however, the conversations with those who did stop to sign up for Academic Advocates were very positive. The assistance of student members in staffing the membership tables was acknowledged. Ray Cowperthwaite is continuing to approach local businesses for their support and we will look at the possibility of giving short information briefings at PTA membership meetings to gather additional members.

5. Speaker: Ms Becky Shelton, LISD Director of Research and Evaluation: LISD and TAKS Ms. Shelton shared a number of insights with respect to LISD's performance on the new state wide TAKS test. In general, students in our district out performed the state averages in all tests except the 11th grade Language Arts test (for which there was no incentive to pass). However, on closer examination areas of weakness in writing, math and science were apparant in individual segments of the tests. As an example, writing of short answer essays in the high school langauge arts tests were an especially weak area, although other areas of the tests were completed satisfactorily. Staff and teachers examined the test results carefully and a number of teacher workshops have been held to help the teachers address these deficiencies. The test results were reported differently from the past as well, with the percentage of correct answers listed rather the percentage of students who passed the test, which made interpretation and comparison with previous testing results difficult. Additional information on the test results was noted in a story in the Hill Country News reporting a presentation to the LISD Board. The story, "LISD Board concentrates on weak areas of TAKS test", can be found at http://www.hillcountrynews.com/articles/2003/09/12/news/news10.txt . You can view details of the statewide grade by grade and subject by subject scores at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/reporting/results/swresults/taks/index.html and released copies of the tests, answers and scoring guides are available at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/resources/release/ in both PDF and interactive online formats. District results and AIES reports are expected to be posted by October 1at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/reporting/results/swresults/campdist/index.html and http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/index.html respectively. Thanks to both Ms Shelton and to Monta Akin for their participation in this discussion.

6. Discuss future speaker topics and

7. Round table discussion: Due to time constraints, these agenda items were delayed until our next meeting where they will be the main focus of the agenda.

8. Announcements:
a. Next meeting, Wednesday, September 24, 2003, 7 p.m. , CPMS Library
b. Renew Hill Country News paid subscriptions, designate Academica Advocates for the $10 education organization donation

9. Adjournment. The meeting adjourned at 8:30.

Respectfully submitted,
Erika Mittag
Secretary