Positioned on the far South Aspect, proper exterior San Antonio metropolis limits and Loop 1604, Somerset Unbiased College District is considered one of a handful of college districts within the nation to academically recuperate from the 2020 pandemic.
Modestly sized with an enrollment of 4,145 college students, Somerset ISD has eight colleges, together with Somerset Junior Excessive, one of many highest-performing colleges in Bexar County.
Greater than 86% of scholars throughout the district are thought of economically deprived, which means they qualify at no cost or lowered lunch. On the junior excessive, the quantity is just barely decrease, at practically 85%.
To Roni Gonzales, who’s served as Somerset Junior Excessive principal for 5 years and has been with the district since 2005, it’s all about trying on the information and constructing a scholar’s confidence.
“We’re all the time taking a look at development — we’re each day taking a look at information and adjusting as we go,” Gonzales mentioned. “Our complete idea, particularly round a center faculty scholar, is constructing confidence. … Even when it’s dance or mariachi, we carry confidence out in youngsters to carry out, which they’ll then take into an algebra class or historical past class.”
Within the newest spherical of state accountability scores launched for the 2022-23 faculty yr, the junior excessive acquired an A score, whereas the varsity district scored a B.
Whereas the 2023-24 scores are held up in state courts and the 2024-25 scores are on observe to be launched in August by the Texas Training Company, there are newer benchmarks reflecting Somerset ISD’s effectiveness.
The Training Restoration Scorecard, a venture that measures modifications in scholar achievement, listed Somerset ISD as considered one of about 100 faculty districts within the nation that’s performing above pre-pandemic ranges in each math and studying of their 2024 report.
Launched in February, the report compares faculty districts’ efficiency to nationwide averages from the Nationwide Evaluation of Academic Progress, detailing restoration efforts in a post-COVID world. The report discovered that the typical U.S. scholar stays half a grade degree behind in math and studying, and wealthier districts are practically 4 occasions extra possible than poorer districts to academically recuperate.
“Nonetheless, we see examples of higher-poverty districts recovering in studying and math,” the report says.
Measuring efficiency
State of Texas Evaluation of Educational Readiness (STAAR) scores for the spring of 2025 launched this month present Somerset ISD college students outperforming most faculty districts within the San Antonio space.
In Algebra I, a take a look at taken by practically all eighth-graders at Somerset Junior Excessive, about 70% of scholars scored on grade degree or greater throughout the district. Throughout Texas, fewer than half of scholars scored on grade degree.
This yr’s outcomes mark a 12 share level enhance in comparison with 2019 Algebra I scores for the junior excessive and an general eight level enchancment for the district.
Regardless of seeing small positive aspects every faculty yr, not one of the huge three faculty districts in San Antonio — Northside ISD, North East ISD and San Antonio ISD — have gotten again to pre-COVID ranges on the Algebra I STAAR. The variety of college students who met grade degree this yr in these districts fell between 12% and 22% in comparison with 2019.
Gonzales credit her faculty’s substantial enchancment in math to a domestically designed curriculum designed by Somerset Junior Excessive academics that tailors classes based mostly on college students’ particular person wants.
The college has no “honors” courses, which means college students acting at completely different ranges typically work and study collectively, permitting for stronger college students to assist struggling college students.
“They’re studying from one another. They’re sharing concepts with one another. They share their methods,” Gonzales mentioned.
Academics additionally individualize instruction for college students based mostly on previous STAAR efficiency, Gonzales added, which means the identical lesson could also be offered otherwise for a scholar who “approached” grade degree of their efficiency, in comparison with a scholar who met or mastered grade degree content material.
“We all know all college students by identify and wish,” she defined.
Writing their very own curriculums
Wesley Thompson is the manager grasp trainer at Somerset Junior Excessive for seventh grade math and Algebra I, and a part of his job helps different academics write their very own curriculums and lesson plans to fulfill particular scholar wants.
“A state curriculum is one-size-fits-all, and after I first began instructing that dimension wasn’t becoming our children very nicely,” Thompson mentioned.
His focus on the faculty has been differentiating between completely different ranges of learners and creating detailed “profiles” for youths, a change the varsity carried out in 2019.
Since then, the campus and college district went from a B to an A score for the 2021-22 faculty yr leading to a go to from Texas Training Commissioner Mike Morath the place he referred to as the positive aspects seen at Somerset ISD as “nothing wanting extraordinary.”
Wanting on the faculty’s each day efficiency information, Thompson, who’s been with Somerset ISD for 10 years, mentioned he’s discovered that struggling college students should be taught in the identical classroom as college students who mastered their grade degree on STAAR exams.
Thompson laid out an instance of how differentiated instruction may work in a seventh-grade classroom: whereas a grasp scholar is perhaps requested to calculate an 8.25% gross sales tax, a scholar who meets grade degree could be requested to calculate 8%, and an “approaches” grade degree scholar could be requested to calculate 10%.
“The issue for lower-performing youngsters is that they’re normally in intervention courses surrounded by different struggling youngsters,” Thompson mentioned. “Being in a gaggle with higher-level college students and simply seeing and listening to the best way they assume and the way they strategy math and the way they strategy being a scholar, actually advantages our struggling learner.”
Past lecturers, Thompson and his boss, Gonzales, credit score the campus tradition and the district’s wraparound companies in fostering scholar development.
At the moment, the varsity has 15 academics that qualify for the Trainer Incentive Allotment, a system that rewards eligible academics’ “effectiveness” within the classroom with yearly stipends that vary from $3,000 to $32,000 relying on a trainer’s ability and their campus wants.
“I’ve a really low turnover fee,” Gonzales instructed the Report. “I attribute that to our district beliefs, the campus that now we have and the best way we maintain college students and academics.”
The district companions with the nonprofit Communities in Faculties of San Antonio and has a Thrive Middle, opened in 2021, the place Somerset ISD college students, workers and group members can go for psychological well being and emotional assist companies. College students at any district campus will be referred to the middle by their campus counselor.
Thompson mentioned the mix of getting a supportive administration, CIS and the Thrive Middle creates an atmosphere the place college students can study whereas having retailers for the emotional wants they’ll’t inform academics or friends about.
“We have now most likely a handful of children yearly that actually require these kinds of assist,” he mentioned.
