COPPERAS COVE – Copperas Cove ISD continues to out-perform school districts across Texas on state tests.
Tuesday, CCISD released its preliminary state testing scores for all grades tested, in which the district showed growth on 14 tests and out-paced state averages on 13 exams.
“Our district has long had a track record of excellence, and this year is no different,” said Superintendent Dr. Brent Hawkins. “In the past couple of years, we have seen the test become more difficult for students and the accountability measures become more difficult for districts, as a whole. Yet, the resilient students and staff in Copperas Cove have not wavered and have continued to show that CCISD truly is the premiere school of choice in central Texas.”
In STAAR and End-of-Course state testing, there are four score marks set by the state: Does Not Meet, Approaches Grade Level (passing score), Meets Grade Level and Masters Grade Level. In CCISD’s strategic plan, Vision 2029, the district is specifically targeting growth at the Meets Grade Level mark in reading and math.
Beginning with EOC testing, CCISD outpaced state and regional averages in Algebra I, with 78% of students who took the exam passing across four campuses. Including at the junior high level, where all 8th-grade students in Copperas Cove take Algebra I a year earlier than what the state requires, with the number of students scoring “Meets” or “Masters” both increasing by 3%.
The same was true in Biology, with CCISD outpacing the state and region. Both Copperas Cove and Crossroads High Schools saw more than 90% of students pass, with 100% of Crossroads students earning passing marks. Altogether, CCISD saw increases at Meets & Masters.
Cove students continued to outperform state and regional averages at the passing and “Meets” level in both English I and English II. In English I, 72% of students passed with 54% scoring at “Meets.” In English II, 74% of students passed with 61% scoring at “Meets.”
Finally, in U.S. History, CCISD outpaced the state and region at all three levels, with 96% of students passing, 72% at “Meets” and 40% at “Masters.”
Pivoting toward the STAAR exam from grades 3-8, the district was on-pace with state averages and remained steady across the board.
“Our instructional services team, not just at an administrative level but in the classroom, too, has worked hard to ensure our students receive a high-quality education,” said Deputy Superintendent for Instructional Services Amanda Crawley. “Our instructional coaches, campus administrators and teachers, alike, work tirelessly to make our district a school district of choice and that work has paid off. With our scores remaining steady or improving, despite a more difficult test and accountability manual, that’s an enormous credit to all of the instructional team.”
In 3rd-grade reading & language arts, the district saw increases at all three scoring marks, up by 6% at approaches, 3% at Meets and 3% at Master’s. When broken down by campus, four of six went up at all three marks with Williams/Ledger Elementary improving by 15% at Approaches, 19% at Meets and 4% at Masters. This is largely thanks to the district’s focused literacy program from Kingergarten-2nd grade, establishing a strong foundation for students to learn more effectively across all subjects. These scores out-pace the region, and the state at Approaches.
In 4th grade, the district remained steady at Approaches and Masters while seeing an increase at Meets, out-performing the state at Approaches and Meets, while performing on-pace with the state at Masters. When broken down by campus, Martin Walker Elementary saw improved scores at all three levels.
In 5th-grade RLA, CCISD out-performed the state and region at all three levels, with a steady performance at Approaches and increases at Meets and Masters. Williams/Ledger Elementary saw its scores remain identical or improved at all three levels.
In 6th-8th grade reading, Copperas Cove students are on-pace with state averages, with increases in 6th grade at Masters and scores remaining identical in Approaches at 6th & 7th grade.
CCISD has continued to show steady growth coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, outperforming pre-COVID marks on reading, across all grade levels.
Moving to math tests, CCISD is steady and on-pace with state results or better, depending on the grade level.
Copperas Cove saw a districtwide 13% increase at Meets in 3rd-grade math, as well an increase at Masters. Four of the six campuses improved at the Masters mark in both 3rd and 4th grades, with three seeing the same in 5th grade.
In 6th-grade math, there was a 2% districtwide improvement at Approaches, a 4% at Masters and Meets remained the same as a year ago. In 7th-grade, districtwide rates remained consistent.
In science, CCISD saw a 6% districtwide improvement at Approaches while remaining consistent at Meets and Masters in 5th grade. In fact, Clements/Parsons and Williams/Ledger Elementaries saw improvement at all three marks.
In social studies, CCISD saw a 10% uptick at Meets and remained steady at Masters.
According to Vision 2029, Copperas Cove ISD is working to improve its “Meets Grade Level” marks in 3rd-grade math and RLA by 10% from 2024-2029.