I have to start by apologizing for my absence. I started my Ph. D. program a year ago and it keeps me quite busy writing.
Yesterday was our first day of school. There is a kindergartener this year that was born my first year as principal at Degan. He has three wonderful older brothers who are now in middle school, but I would say he has come to my school almost every day of his life that school was open. A couple of weeks ago, he came to meet with me pretty uptight because he wanted to know why school hadn’t started yet. We talked and then we counted how 
many days were left. The night of “meet the teacher”, he was starting to look pretty nervous, so I promised him I would be there for him when he walked through the door. On the first day, he was on cloud nine. He was the model student showing the other kindergarteners how to “ give me five” and had an amazing eagle tail and bubble. I am so grateful to be a part of his life and so grateful his mom shares her boys with me.
The state’s crazy accountability system that grades schools on tests came out today. According to that, we’re “okay” but that system is only about STAAR. Don’t get me wrong, my school grows every year on STAAR and that is without test prep. I could name distinctions and areas where our scores are in the top quartile, but I won’t. (I refuse to play that game). This new accountability system will never tell the stories of the powerful partnerships Degan has with their families. They won’t tell you how my teachers accomplish life-changing gains with our students. And they will never tell you how we focus on caring about the whole child. That’s okay. I will never go back to a district that is driven by a test. My non-economically disadvantaged kids perform as well as any non-Title school. My economically disadvantaged kids outperform their counterparts in non-Title I Schools. They simplified accountability but they left out all the stuff that really matters. Friends, look deeper before you judge. Is the letter grade about what matters? I believe in creating great thinkers, collaborator, and citizens-not test takers. And according to a survey done by TEA, that’s what most parents say matters, too. #morethanatestscore #exemplaryinwhatmatters