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Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD students learning English posted math gains this year, but overall second-grade and fifth-grade growth fell short of district targets, administrators told the Board of Trustees during an April 9 work session.
The mixed results come as the district prepares to replace a 19-year-old math curriculum that officials say has contributed to performance gaps.
Executive Director of Assessment and Accountability Dr. Chris Julian and Executive Director of Multilingual and Academic Programs Dr. Tuyet Huynh presented the data, which tracks progress toward long-term board goals. The district aims to raise the percentage of third graders meeting grade level on the STAAR Reading and Math assessment, a nationally used skills test, from 49% to 65% by 2030, and fifth graders from 51% to 61%.
Emergent bilingual students, those still developing English proficiency, drove most of the year's gains. Second graders in that group rose from 22% to 25% on the winter Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment. Third graders climbed from 21% to 25% on the District Common Formative Assessment, an internal test aligned to state standards. Fourth graders rose from 28% to 31% on winter MAP. All three figures hit or exceeded district targets.
Overall results lagged. Second-grade winter MAP performance slipped two points to 33%, missing the target by four points. Fifth-grade winter MAP held steady at 49%, three points below goal.
Julian told trustees the district is seeing strong year-over-year growth even where performance targets were missed and that growth typically shows up in scores after a lag.
Huynh identified three areas needing focus: instructional capacity, academic language support and numerical fluency. She said 41% of third-grade teachers and 42% of fifth-grade math teachers have fewer than two years of experience or are new to the grade level.
Trustee Kim Brady asked what was driving the second-grade decline. A district math specialist responded that the aging curriculum has left gaps in vertical alignment between grade levels, and that the upcoming curriculum adoption is expected to address those gaps as students build numerical fluency.
District officials have been reviewing two finalist math curriculum options through vendor presentations and will bring an adoption recommendation forward in the coming months. Huynh said both finalists include explicit language supports and visual components that align with the district's coaching priorities.
Trustee Ileana Garza-Rojas asked how coaching effectiveness is measured. Huynh cited classroom observations, coach feedback and biannual goal setting evaluations.
Superintendent Dr. Wendy Eldredge praised classroom teachers but said management remains a hurdle for newer staff. "I think we give them materials that are not up to date, and then they bring in their own materials," Eldredge said, calling the curriculum adoption overdue.
Trustee Randy Schackmann tied the data to teacher retention. "Anything that you see as a board we can do that supports and strengthens our teacher retention processes, I think it's going right to the heart of what we're trying to accomplish," he said.
Board President Cassandra Hatfield asked staff to help shape the district's legislative priorities, citing the need to push lawmakers for additional school funding. "We need to be in Tan Parker's office, but I could go and I can't explain it as eloquently as y'all can," Hatfield told administrators, referencing the state senator who represents part of the district.
Later in the meeting, trustees who attended the Thompson Executive Leadership Institute, Hatfield, Brady and Garza-Rojas, walked the board through a sorting exercise based on a leadership handout from the conference. The discussion produced one concrete proposal: quarterly community town halls.
"It's clear the public wants to hear from us and wants to know where the district's going, and we owe it to them to do what we can to do that," Trustee Paul Gilmore said.
Brady proposed adopting the Thompson framework as the board's self-evaluation tool, potentially replacing the standard Texas Association of School Boards instrument. As is standard for work sessions, no formal votes were taken, but trustees signaled interest in developing both proposals further.
The board moved into closed session before reconvening and adjourning at 8:44 p.m.
The town hall proposal is expected to return at a future work session.
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