OPINION
Texas has released the letter grades for its school districts.
Overall, Pilot Point got a 77, Aubrey a 79 and Tioga earned an 87.
“I put all of our surrounding districts in a comparison group, so anybody that touches us geographically,” Tioga ISD Superintendent Josh Ballinger said on Monday. “… I figure we’re going to end up as close to 50/50 transfer population versus resident population as we’ve ever been.”
He mentioned that most of the transfers come from those surrounding towns.
“Our member to the east nudged us a little bit, but we got them in the overall rating,” Ballinger
said.
He took a pause and then said, “I don’t like saying stuff like that because I feel like I give into exactly what the state wants us to do and start comparing and ranking and pitting each other against one another, and that’s just not healthy.”
He said the outcome should be using the information to improve instruction.
I agree with his perspective.
While it’s easy to fall into the trap of gamifi cation of education, the thing that truly matters at the end of the day is that the students receive quality instruction and have a safe and supportive learning environment.
A bit of competition is good, because it keeps people engaged and motivated.
However, competition doesn’t tend to breed compassion naturally.
And as someone who got her fair share of great letter grades over the years, being a high achiever as far as grades go doesn’t guarantee success.
I hope to delve into the rankings more at Txschools. gov, and I welcome you to do so, too.
My hope is the information we learn can help district leaders and community members work together to keep making improvements for the benefit of the students in our area.
That’s who matters at the end of the day in anything tied to education.
Abigail Allen is the Editor & Publisher of the Post-Signal. She can be reached at [email protected].
