TEXARKANA, Texas - Red Lick Independent School District has been ranked fourth of 979 Texas school districts by Schooldigger.com, a free website which uses test scores and other data to rank school districts nationwide.
Superintendent Brandon Dennard said the ranking is representative of the efforts the district's teachers and staff put in to educate their students at both the elementary and middle schools. The free site ranked the district as sixth last year.
"It validates the work that our staff puts in on a daily basis and the quality of our students, our families and our community," he said. "We have a high transfer population, but we really deliver that quality instruction and we are excited to see we moved up from sixth last year to fourth this year."
The site uses 20 years of enrollment data, crime data and real estate data. Schooldigger also calculates rankings based on the latest STAAR reading, mathematics, writing and science test scores released by the Texas Education Agency. The rankings were last updated July 16.
Dennard said that although the rankings are partially based on test scores, that's not all the district focuses on.
"The test is great, but ultimately, we want to deliver quality, engaging instruction and hopefully the test just takes care of itself," he said.
The top three districts listed on the site are Carroll ISD, Lovejoy ISD and Highland Park ISD.
"We're proud of our staff and our students and supportive families and community," Dennard said. "We are up there with some other really notable districts."
He also emphasized that while Red Lick was highly ranked by the site, other quality school options are also available in the area.
"Sometimes school districts can see that they're all competing and I always try to tell people they have a lot of great options in Bowie County and choices for what fits your family," Dennard said. "We are proud of our ranking as fourth, but there are a lot of other great school districts in Bowie County. At the end of the day, we want what's best for kiddos and what's best for their families."
The rankings are available at www.schooldigger.com.