PEIC Performing School Districts

By Amy Klinkovsky
 

Accountability. That’s the buzzword in Texas public schools as they strive to improve students’ scores on state and federal exams. The PEIC (Preschool-16 Educational Improvement Consortia) program at Texas A&M University is working with 18 schools in six school districts to improve the state and federal accountability performance ratings in the participating schools.

During the 2004–2005 academic year, the PEIC program tested a tutoring program aiming to increase the math skills of the participants — the Interactive Tutor Model (ITM).

The ITM pilot study involved math tutors who were juniors and seniors at Texas A&M working with 60 middle school students, grades 6–8, who had not passed the math portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test.

Comparison and analysis of the 2004–2005 TAKS results for students who were tutored and those who were not suggested that the ITM helped increase student scores.

Dr. Cathy M. Ezrailson, interim director and program coordinator for PEIC at Texas A&M, attributes the effectiveness of the program to its flexibility.

“The PEIC program’s greatest strength is that we design intervention and outreach around the individual and diverse needs of each of the participating schools,” says Ezrailson. “Enhancing student learning is always in mind when focusing on TAKS performance.”

Although the pilot study results are promising, participants in the public schools warn that sustainability over several years is necessary to prove ITM’s effectiveness.

“As with all reform, it must be long term, sustainable, and be formed through input from the participants,” says Barbara Thornhill. “We got a good start last year with all of these things.”

Thornhill is a former executive principal of Houston ISD West and is the PEIC coordinator for Houston ISD participating schools.

More than Texas A&M

The PEIC program at Texas A&M University is one of nine PEIC programs funded through the Texas Education Agency. Each of The Texas A&M University System’s campuses houses a PEIC Center dedicated to the improvement of academic performance in Texas schools.

Each university has a project director and coordinators for mathematics content, curriculum and instruction and professional development. Specific goals for the PEIC program also include heightening university faculty awareness of the impact of assessment testing on schools and curriculum, providing interventions for low-performing schools and participating in training and supporting the Texas Math Diagnostic System, Ezrailson says.

One successful pilot project equals more work in the future. Following the ITM pilot project, the PEIC program at Texas A&M will continue to promote academic performance with the projects slated for 2006. Projects include math instructional improvements, online professional development training and a training-of-trainers program.

“We are really looking forward to increasing the high school completion rates in all participating school districts, as well as improving the federal and state accountability performance in the participating schools,” says Ezrailson.