Achievement: a thing done successfully, typically by effort, courage, or skill.
Wylie students and teachers work very hard, and evidence of their achievement is not difficult to find. For example, academic achievement in Texas Public Schools measures their performance on the Student Assessment of Academic Readiness or STAAR test. Comparing our student scores to all other public school students in Texas reveals that Wylie I.S.D. is among the elite in the State of Texas regarding academic achievement!
I am so proud of our students and grateful for the effort, courage, and skill necessary to achieve these amazing STAAR results. You will not hear a lot about standardized tests from me. Do not get me wrong; these are critical measurements of what students have learned and let us know if they are progressing.
I believe more important measures are responsible for these amazing academic achievement outcomes. In my opinion, the single biggest factor regarding academic achievement is a teacher that cares about the kids in their classroom. In Wylie ISD, we not only believe this, but we also measure it three times a year. Does it work? You bet!
“Does my teacher care about me?”
We ask every student in grades 5-12 one simple question, Does my teacher care about me? We follow up with a second question, why or why not. We tallied the results and provided them to teachers along with comments from the students. How did our teachers achieve? More than 90% of students said their teachers do care about them!
“More than 90% of Wylie students said their teachers do care about them!”
When you compare our teacher relationship survey results to our STAAR score averages, they are about the same. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Congratulations teachers and students for these amazing academic achievements! Congratulations to our teachers for the positive relationships you develop with our kids. You make them more hopeful, engaged and happy that contributes to their academic achievement. Measuring what matters, it’s the Wylie Way!
