Arnoldo Mata
McAllen TX - The McAllen ISD Board of Trustees held a special meeting Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2026, to receive a detailed presentation on the district’s 2026-2027 teaching and learning framework, with an extended discussion centered on declining math scores, inconsistent curriculum use, and the district’s plan to improve student outcomes through a high-impact tutoring framework.
Associate Superintendent for Instructional Leadership Janet Niño delivered the presentation alongside the district’s curriculum and professional development teams. Superintendent Dr. René Gutiérrez was also present.
Accountability Results
The district earned an overall score of 89 and a letter grade of A on the 2026 Texas Education Agency accountability ratings. Niño noted the district is appealing that rating but offered no further information on the grounds for the appeal.
Elementary domain scores showed mixed results. Student achievement earned an 82, a letter grade of B. Academic growth fell six points to a 78, a letter grade of C. Relative performance rose one point to an 86, a letter grade of B. Closing the gaps declined eight points.
In a three-year comparison of campus ratings, five campuses earned an A in 2026, down from eight in 2025. Ten campuses earned a B, two earned a C, and one earned a D. The district is also appealing the D-rated campus’s score, which registered a 72, seeking recognition of it as a C. The campus was not identified by name during the meeting.
Eight elementary campuses dropped a letter grade year-over-year. Closing the gaps fell from 91 to 87, and academic growth stood at 79.
Math Scores Draw Sharpest Scrutiny
The sharpest board discussion centered on seventh grade math, where the district’s approaches rate fell from 69% to 53%, a 16-point drop, while meets declined 13 points and masters declined 5 points. By comparison, the statewide drop in seventh grade approaches was 4%.
Trustee Roberto Haddad put the numbers in human terms.
“Three out of every five eighth graders that we interact with in this community are not prepared for math right now,” Haddad said. “That is a major challenge for us, and one that should keep us all up at night.”
He noted that of approximately 1,369 students who took the seventh grade STAAR test, 876 did not meet grade level.
Niño explained that part of the decline is attributable to the acceleration pathway required under Senate Bill 2124, which removes high-achieving students from grade-level testing cohorts, skewing the denominator downward. Under the law, fifth graders who score at the meets level or in the top 40% are automatically enrolled in an accelerated math pathway, compressing sixth and seventh grade math into a single year so students can take Algebra One by eighth grade.
Trustee Carreon pressed Niño on the history of inconsistent math curriculum implementation, noting that students in second through fifth grades spent approximately nine years using the Sharon Wells math program, which is not a state-approved high-quality instructional material.
“What drove the variability in our curriculum implementation?” Carreon asked. “You started the presentation by noting consistency, alignment, fidelity, and this tells a fairly radically different story.”
Niño acknowledged the variability, attributing it in part to teachers seeking more scripted, procedural delivery tools. Gutiérrez added that Sharon Wells will not be used as a primary curriculum but may be made available as supplemental material at teacher request, noting that the district’s new adopted resource, Savas by Pearson, is the same company that writes the STAAR test.
Trustee Peña raised concern about the cumulative demands on teachers.
“I see just a ton of enrichment, a ton of resources, a ton of training, all of this going into everybody who touches the lives of our kids every day,” Peña said. “But yet our numbers are not telling that same story.”
Trustee Kittleman called for surveys of principals and teachers to capture qualitative feedback on what is working and what is not, and urged the team to do a deeper systematic analysis of why declines are occurring.
“All elementary campuses got the same schedule, but results went in opposite directions,” Kittleman noted, pointing out that some campuses rose significantly while others fell sharply under the same conditions.
Board President Lucia Regalado questioned how often the district’s instructional team is meeting collectively and how frequently campuses receive visits. Niño said high-performing campuses are visited once every six weeks, while higher-needs campuses receive visits two to three times per week.
Trustee Rivera raised a parent-level concern about the acceleration pathway, describing her own family’s experience of arriving at schedule pickup to find her eighth grader already enrolled in Algebra One with little opportunity to discuss the placement.
“It’s such a needed true understanding of it because then you get to geometry and I know because my geometry teacher was my oldest tutor and she would tell me he gets it, he’s just making algebra one mistakes,” Rivera said, noting the downstream consequences of acceleration decisions made without sufficient parent engagement.
Niño encouraged parents to initiate conversations with campus principals about placement, acknowledging the timing of STAAR results in mid-June creates challenges for pre-registration decisions.
High-Impact Tutoring Framework
Niño presented the district’s primary intervention response: a high-impact tutoring framework launched district-wide on the first day of school across all 18 elementary campuses and now being extended to secondary. The framework is built around seven key principles from the Texas Education Agency and is embedded in the district’s existing reteach and enrich block, which runs 45 minutes daily for all students.
Trustee Carreon asked when eighth grade students who did not meet grade level could expect to receive remediation services through the framework. Niño confirmed high-impact tutoring launched at the secondary level on day one and committed to providing campus-specific details.
Trustee Peña asked whether she could visit a classroom the following week and observe the framework in practice. Niño confirmed it is occurring daily and offered to provide campus schedules.
Board Requests
The board made several specific requests for follow-up information:
A report on the overall quality of instructional interventions, teacher survey results, and measured impact on student achievement from professional learning activities, requested by Trustee Carreon
Access to district and campus action plans already prepared and stored on OneDrive, requested by Trustee Kittleman
Department-level action plans addressing specific declines, confirmed as ready by Niño
Campus-level surveys of principals and teachers to capture qualitative feedback on curriculum changes and school day adjustments, requested by Trustee Kittleman
Board President Regalado noted that several questions submitted in advance of the meeting were not fully addressed and requested follow-up in pre-meeting preparation sessions.
“My hope was that we were working towards that plan over the last two months,” Regalado said. “I’m a little bit disappointed to not have a plan because I don’t know how to guide. What we can control is the resources, and I was hoping that we would have that ask from y’all today.”