Big Changes Require Complete Communication

Communication is key when you are making wholesale changes to an education system that has been running the same way for generations. That is what is happening in Hillsboro, Texas, Independent School District.

The district is a member of the Texas Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC), a group of 44 districts in Texas who are looking to change the traditional accountability measures and standards that have been in place for generations.

But in order to move away from GPAs and standardized test scores, it takes buy-in from the community. I sat down with Superintendent Vicki Adams, Hillsboro Intermediate School Principal Stephanie Tucker, and Hillsboro High School Associate Principal Jo Hayes to discuss the challenges of making those kinds of changes.

One topic we discussed was the emphasis the district has put on communication with the parents and the community at large. That emphasis is paying off. As Superintendent Adams told me, “We have found through the surveys that we’ve conducted that the communication has improved greatly. I think, this year, we were up to 76% who feel that we’re doing an excellent job of communicating with them and only about between 7% or 12% feel like the communication is still not good.

“That is a complete reversal of what it was a couple of years ago when it was just about the opposite of that. They felt they weren’t getting communication in every avenue.”

They’re doing good work down in Hillsboro ISD, and the entire community will be better off for it in the long run.

About Hillsboro ISD

Hillsboro Independent School District is a public school district based in Hillsboro, Texas, that also serves a portion of Carl’s Corner. The Superintendent of Hillsboro ISD is Vicki Adams.