VIDOR, Texas — STAAR test results are out and 12News has been tracking results from districts around the area.
At Vidor Independent School District students excelled in key areas, but fell short in others.
Superintendent Dr. Jay Killgo tells 12News he saw some of the best performances in math from his 8th graders. He also highlighted some struggles among elementary school students.
"8th grade math was a shining star for us, 8th grade English, then biology at high school. Our areas at the high school are always strong," Killgo said. "The specific areas in which we struggled and I was disappointed in were 4th grade reading, 5th grade reading and 5th grade math."
Killgo pinpoints the problem back to Oak Forrest Elementary and Vidor Middle School.
"There's been a lot of transitioning at those two campuses," he said.
The original buildings flooded during Harvey and following the damage, students were left taking classes in temporary buildings.
Over the past two years, those students have been busy moving into their newly built campuses.
"There are breaks in the curriculum. In particular while STAAR testing was going this year at our middle school, we had some big storms we had a lot of school closure, late starts," said Killgo.
Everyone is affected differently and 12-year-old Zoriah Gilbert says she had no problem learning in portable buildings.
"In a building or a classroom, it doesn't make a difference, in both you can still learn," Gilbert said.
Gilbert's mother says she has started excelling in math and passed her recent STAAR test.
"It was easier than last year's STAAR because of the multiple choice and stuff," said Gilbert.
Killgo also points to the new AI grading system and open-ended questions for the lackluster scores.
"They could have some great points., but if you don't write to topic you're going to get a zero. And we saw double the number of students at 5th and 6th grade get zeros. We've got to do a better job at writing to the prompt," he said.
Killgo plans to continue adapting the curriculum at the elementary schools so that students can better meet the standards for AI grading.
He is also encouraging parents to push their kids to read over summer break so they don't fall further behind.