San Angelo ISD is Celebrating All the Ways Our Students Are Smart

San Angelo ISD is Celebrating All the Ways Our Students Are Smart

At San Angelo ISD, we believe that students are more than just a test score. We value the hopes and dreams of each child and work diligently to enhance student learning and reduce achievement gaps to produce future-ready graduates - no matter what that future might look like. Starting this school year, we invite our community to join our District in celebrating all the ways our students are smart. At the heart of this celebration of student “smartness” is SAISD’s commitment to honor and develop each student’s unique strengths and support their individual needs. We believe this will create a brighter future for our students and the San Angelo community.

We celebrate all the ways students are smart through customizable offerings such as our Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses, award-winning athletics programs, interactive STEM labs, creative fine arts including performing and visual arts, and so much more. Our district and schools are committed to our mission of engaging all students in a relevant and inspiring education that produces future-ready graduates, and part of that commitment is lifting each individual child up to celebrate them and honor their strengths and support their needs. We focus on building important skills which leading organizations and employers want in their colleagues such as creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication, as well as a firm foundation for lifelong literacy, math, history and science. 

This intentional focus on celebrating all the ways our students are smart was born out of the impactful, collaborative work of our Community-Based Accountability System (CBAS) process. Through the CBAS process of teamwork between our community, schools and students, seven pillars were identified to focus on in order to create an accountability system for our students reflective of attributes needed to be successful in today’s world and to continue improving the system that empowers them. The seven pillars are Student Achievement, Student Readiness, Engaged Well-Rounded Students, Community Engagement and Partnerships, Professional Learning/Effective Staff, Systems and Operations and Safety and Well-Being. We believe that success for our district, our schools and our students cannot only be defined by one letter grade provided by school rating. Rather than relying solely on standardized test results and students’ performance on the day of testing, SAISD relies on the seven pillars to define student success and provide a complete picture of growth and opportunities for improvement. 

Throughout the school year, SAISD will be sharing ways we are celebrating our students for following their individual hopes and dreams through hands-on, collaborative learning experiences that challenge students to think critically through various design challenges. We hope you will join us in watching and sharing a short video about student smartness. Follow the San Angelo ISD Facebook, Twitter, and website, www.saisd.org/smart, to stay up-to-date and to find out more about how we are celebrating our students' smartness. Students, families, staff, and community members are encouraged to share how their students are smart through the hashtag, #SAISDSmart.