TEA lists 369 underperforming schools

The Texas Education Agency published a list Monday of 369 underperforming schools from which students may transfer under a 1995 state law.

Nine Galveston County campuses from four different school districts are on the list, but all except three were on it for performance in years past. Only three were added this year.

District officials said one of those was in error and another beside the point.

Campuses make the Public Education Grant program list when 50 percent or fewer of their students pass reading, writing, mathematics, social studies or science tests on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills battery or when a campus is ruled to be academically unacceptable because of high dropout or low completion rates.

Once on the list, campuses can’t get off for three years, even if they show great improvement.

Students can transfer from schools on the list to schools judged to be better.

Two additions to the 2010-11 list were AIM Middle School and Rosenberg Elementary from Galveston Independent School District.

AIM Middle School should not have been on the list because it’s a special program for students who are behind their peers and trying to catch up, district spokesman Johnston Farrow said. It wound up on the list because of a reporting error by the district, he said.

Rosenberg Elementary has been closed, and its students have been spread through the district.

Ball High School and Austin Middle School both have been on the since 2008 because of high dropout and low completion rates.

District officials have argued that was unfair and misleading because the rates were skewed by the effects of Hurricane Ike.

Hitchcock’s Stewart Elementary was added to the list this year because it failed to meet year-to-year improvement measures.

Two other Hitchcock ISD campuses — Crosby Middle School and Hitchcock High School — have been on the list since 2008 but should be removed next year, according to TEA documents.

La Marque High School has been in the list since 2008 because of low passing rates on TAKS science tests.

Texas City High School made the list in 2009. It performance improved in 2010, but it can’t get off the list before 2012.