Mainly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 74F. Winds light and variable..

Mainly clear. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 74F. Winds light and variable.

Students Kalina Long and Brayden Drozd work on engineering projects Friday morning at Smith Elementary School.

State Rep. Geanie Morrison talks to student Sloane Cruz about her engineering project at Smith Elementary Friday morning. 

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath speaks during a visit on Friday at the district's Connections center.

Victoria Superintendent Quintin Shepherd speaks during a presentation on Friday after touring with the Texas Education Agency commissioner at the district Connections center.

Students Kalina Long and Brayden Drozd work on engineering projects Friday morning at Smith Elementary School.

Victoria Superintendent Quintin Shepherd speaks during a presentation on Friday after touring with the Texas Education Agency commissioner at the district Connections center.

Victoria’s school district showcased itself to the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, Mike Morath, during an “innovation celebration” event Friday.

District and TEA officials as well as Morath and other guests from the ranks of Victoria’s educational, political and economic leadership were loaded onto a school bus to visit Smith Elementary School to hear about its STEM programs.

There, Principal Tiffany Absher spoke about the school’s hands-on education, and the group visited classes of elementary schoolers working on designing a structure to stand up to the “huffs and puffs of the big bad wolf,” which strikingly resembled a hair dryer.

State Rep. Geanie Morrison talks to student Sloane Cruz about her engineering project at Smith Elementary Friday morning. 

“We no longer have kids who want to be superheroes in kindergarten,” Absher said. “We now have kids that want to be doctors and engineers, and they’ve met some in real life.”

Morath also heard about the district’s P-TECH program, which stands for Pathways in Technology Early College High School, from a group of Victoria East High School students who were in the program’s earliest cohort.

The high school students said they had developed close friendships with the other students inside the program, which allows district students to take classes for college credit and get ahead on the path toward post-graduate careers.

Kelly Gabrysch, the principal of Shields Elementary, talked about how her campus had made significant gains in the TEA’s accountability ratings since 2019 by using student data to drive instructional strategies and by hiring instructional coaches and additional teachers.

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath speaks during a visit on Friday at the district's Connections center.

“When the students own their own data and know what the goal is, they’re going to strive,” she said. “What Shields really needed was, they needed to feel success. And so, even if they are struggling … we’re going to push you a little bit, and we’re going to push you a little bit more, and ultimately, our goal is to close those gaps and grow the students.”

This explanation for Shields’ advances echoes those of other schools from around the Crossroads, which pointed toward student involvement, and data as key to improvement.

Superintendent Quintin Shepherd’s remarks at the district’s Connections center focused on one of the district’s favorite calling cards, the idea that data should be used as a “flashlight” to find areas for improvement instead of a “hammer” to punish.

“I think you can walk into any campus or any classroom anywhere in the county and within seconds, you know what the data culture is for that campus,” he said. “And I use kindergarten parlance: It’s either a hide-and-seek or a show-and-tell culture.”

At the end of the event, which was not open to the public, Morath said it was “an honor” to be invited to see the district and its operations.

“It’s very heartwarming for me to be able to walk into a classroom to see a master ply her trade molding eager young minds,” he said.

Ian Grenier covers K-12 and higher education for the Victoria Advocate. You can reach him at igrenier@vicad.com. 

Ian Grenier writes about K-12 and higher education for the Victoria Advocate. He grew up in South Carolina and studied history and political science at the University of South Carolina.

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