The National Center for Educational Achievement (NCEA) has recognized La Porte ISD's Baker Sixth Grade Campus and Lomax Elementary School as part of the 2009 Just for the Kids Campaign for Higher Performing Schools in Texas. The Baker Sixth Grade Campus earned recognition in mathematics and reading, and Lomax Elementary was honored for reading.
NCEA used two measures-growth and college and career readiness-in selecting schools for this recognition. Baker Sixth Grade Campus and Lomax Elementary were both recognized for growth. According to information from NCEA, schools recognized for growth achieved better improvement rates for their students compared with other schools with similar demographics.
"The NCEA's mission is to help kindergarten through 12th grade students reach college and career readiness by being exposed to rigorous academic preparation that begins early on," said Linda Wadleigh, LPISD deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
The honor demonstrates that the two schools are among the top 10 percent of similar campuses across the state, she added. This marks the second year that Lomax Elementary has been recognized by NCEA.
As part of the recognition, the schools were asked to share insights with NCEA researchers regarding practices that help make their schools successful. The names of the schools were included on the full list of Just for the Kids Higher Performing Schools in Texas released on the NCEA web site,
http://www.nc4ea.org
, in January.
Representatives from both campuses were recognized by the La Porte ISD Board of Trustees at its Feb. 9 meeting.
"This truly is an excellent achievement," Wadleigh explained. "High academic achievement is something we take very seriously in La Porte. If we want our students to be post-secondary ready, we must expose them to rigorous academics. Simply meeting the standard will not prepare our students for post-secondary readiness. They must be scoring at the commended level, and that's what these students have done."
Lomax Elementary was also recognized by the Texas Education Agency as a Title I Distinguished Performance School for outstanding academic performance. To earn this honor, Title I campuses must have met adequate yearly progress (AYP) in 2008 and 2009, achieved a campus rating of Exemplary in spring 2009, and achieved a campus rating of Exemplary or Recognized in spring 2007 and 2008.
Lomax has been an Exemplary Campus for the past three years, and Baker earned its first Exemplary rating in 2009.
