Are Lancaster test scores better or worse than 4 years ago?

Bacause the state revises the "passing" standard from year to year, it can be difficult to make a direct comparison.

But it's not too difficult. Although Lancaster ISD website only reports ver little about its scores the Texas Education Agency retains test scores back to 1993 at their website .

Also, the state compares each measure for our district to the Dallas/Fort Worth vicinity ("Region 10") and the state of Texas as a whole. This allows us to compare Lancaster scores to the region and state scores -- even when the test standards change. For a simple example, if the passing rate for "all tests" over "all grades" in any given year was "40%" for the State of Texas and "42%" for Region 10, while the Lancaster ISD score was "39%" we could see that the district is performing comparably to, although slightly more poorly than, our peers in other districts. If the following year the same sort of score were shown as "50%" "49%" and "42%" we might conclude that even though LISD test scores were "up" from the prior year, our district was "falling behind" compared to our peers.

The table below shows the changing scores for "all tests" over "all grades'" * for the period of the 2004-05 school year, back through the recent years of Dr Lewis's tenure, for the past dozen years. The first column is the state's passing rate, the second is the passing rate for the region, and the third is the passing rate for LISD. The fouth column divides the LISD passing rate to the smaller of the region or state rate of the same year. (By comparing our rate to the lesser of the two other values we give LISD the best possible comparison score.)

TAKS all tests, all Grades
      Comparison
Year state reg  LISD  district/region
2005 62 64 34 54.84%
2004 58 60 31 53.45%
2003 58 60 36 62.07%
2002 85 84 73 86.90%
2001 82 81 71 87.65%
2000 80 78 66 84.62%
1999 80 78 66 84.62%
1998 78 78 64 82.05%
1997 73 74 58 79.45%
1996 73 73 64 87.67%
1995 61 65 54 88.52%
1994 56 60 52 92.86%

This chart indicates that a dozen years ago the LISD TASS scores were
within 10% of scores of neighboring school systems. But between 1994 and 2002,. though the actual comparison drifted up and down, LISD compared slightly less well -- about 20% more poorly than our neighbors. But beginning in 2003, the first year of Dr Lewis's administration, our comparison to the state and region dropped sharply. We fell from over 80% comparable in 1998 to just over 60% in 2003, and fell further to about 50% comparable in the two years following.

It's possible this is a statistical anomaly, so the AEIS data on SAT and ACT scores for high school students should be reviewed as a "sanity check". The following tables again shows state and region scores by year and local district scores for the same year and calculates a ratio for comparison.

HIGH SCHOOL SAT YEAR
MEAN SAT SCORE,
 TEXAS  Region 10  LISD district/region
2004 987 1008  802 81.26%
2003 989 1009  808 81.70%
2002 986 1009  847 85.90%
2001 987 1008  830 84.09%
2000 990 1012  888 89.70%
1999 989 1013  859 86.86%
1998 992 1016  913 92.04%
1997 992 1010  928 93.55%
1996 993 1011  985 99.19%
1995 993 1011  985 99.19%
1994 891  918  863 96.86%

We see the same sort of decline in High School
test scores as we see in state TASS and TAKS tests.
A dozen years ago, scores were comparable if
slightly lower. The past couple of years under
Dr Lewis, the scores have declined.

Dr Lewis invites those who disagree with his reported numbers to sit down with him one on one to discuss. I hope the parents of the district will check out the TEA website and gather their own data for the grade levels of their own children and schedule just such a meeting.