Area teachers reaping rewards of hard work across the board

Belle Holmes has big plans to pay off her bills and take a vacation to see family in California. And it’s her students’ math and reading scores that made those plans possible.

Holmes is one of many Waco Independent School District employees who brought home extra money this week as a reward for helping students improve their state test scores. Waco ISD handed out more than $600,000 to campuses and teachers as part of the state’s District Awards for Teaching Excellence grant program.

“That’s the fun part — knowing these teachers did great things with their kids. They earned these awards,” said Marsha Ridlehuber, assistant superintendent for instruction and accountability.

Last year, legislators set aside more than $147 million to be used for the rewards. More than 200 Texas school districts, including Waco ISD, volunteered for the program and then applied for the grants.

At least 60 percent of the state’s grant dollars are going to teachers, and 40 percent of the money must be used for things like recruitment and retention of teachers and master teachers and incentives to principals and other school staff who increase student performance.

In Waco ISD, 102 teach- ers received individual awards, and 13 campuses got money, which will be distributed to a total of 598 staff members.

Passing goals

Holmes, who has been at Meadowbrook Elementary School for 15 years, was awarded $6,000 for bringing her fifth graders’ test scores up last year. She was given an average of her students’ fourth grade scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests, then was given goals to meet on those scores. And then she shot past those goals.

Her class’s average math TAKS score went from 2,265 to 2,406. The average reading score climbed from 2,144 to 2,259.

Holmes says collaboration with other teachers and support from staff and supervisors contributed to her success. Different resources, such as laptops to use for research and science experiments done in the classroom, also help students learn, she said.

Credit to the kids

But the real credit for her classroom success, she said, goes to the kids.

“Even the best teachers in the world can’t do anything without the cooperation of the children,” Holmes said. “Hard work paid off not only on my part, but on the part of my children. I will look for them, maybe, and give them a little gift.”

Ridlehuber said she heard the same sentiment from teachers across the district when she notified them of awards. The first thing many of them said when they replied to her was, “My kids worked so hard.”

Meadowbrook, as a school, is also getting money for taking its state rating from “academically acceptable” to “recognized.” Everyone will get a piece of that pie, principal John Campbell said, from the administrators to the custodial staff.

Campbell said his staff and faculty are excited about the awards but that they would be working toward the goal of greater academic achievement whether there was money at stake or not.

“We feel that’s our responsibility, to make sure students have an equal opportunity to achieve and do their best,” he said.

Using the cash

Ridlehuber was touched by what teachers said they would be spending their award money on, including one teacher who intends to use it toward a down payment on a house.

“To know (that) for some of them it’s a means of achieving a next dream — that’s pretty cool,” Ridlehuber said.

Gov. Rick Perry, who came to Waco’s Cesar Chavez Middle School last year to speak about the DATE grants, said that they, along with the Texas Educator Excellence Grants program, represent the largest investment in teacher incentives of any state in the entire nation.