Realignment. HELP!!!!

[aaron067]

Well, at the risk of creating an even longer post I'm going to continue our friendly sparring match.

 

  Quote

Bands go through cycles and sometimes graduate off a large number of good players; it is not necessarily a sign of decline.

[Xenon]

I get a little wordy sometimes, and I guess this is one of those times.

 

  aaron067 said:

I could have sworn that contest functioned under the UIL judging rules that state if a band has at least 2 of 3 1st place votes in Music and 1 of 2 in visual they are declared the winner.  Maybe they've changed the contest a bit since the last time I attended, though.

The Plano East contest (in 2004 at least) uses the standard UIL Music and Marching judges, then also adds Percussion, GE, and Colorguard judges. The bands are ranked by each judge, then the ranks are multiplied by certain percentages based on the caption (so that some captions are worth more than others) before being added together. Because of these percentages and the fact that they create what looks like a score, it is harder for them to be able to justify how a Bad Judge rule would work. I don't know if they've implemented one yet, but I know that they didn't have one in 2004.

 

  aaron067 said:

And here we've hit the issue on the head.  Why can bands give such amazing performances for Midwest (or so I've heard) but not for TMEA?  Midwest is a full month and a half before TMEA.  Granted Honor Band concerts fall on State Marching years, but that extra month and a half should provide plenty of extra time to fully polish a concert.  That's why programs have 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes 4th bands to pick up the slack during marching season.

I really think that the big problem is that Honor Band concerts are on State Marching years, so the bands don't start really focusing on the Honor Band concerts until November. With Midwest being in December, bands tend to start focusing on it during band camp even before school starts and sacrifice some of the focus on marching band.

 

  aaron067 said:

This is true, but my own middle school was ranked 8th two years ago and I know what type of program that is.  In fact, I was teaching several students in that band, so I know what they played like.

Are you at Coppell South MS?

 

  aaron067 said:

My point, though unfortunate and perhaps a little pessimistic, is that making it to the State level doesn't necessarily mean what it should.  It's not truly the top 14 bands in the state; just a group of 14 bands made up of the top 2 from each Area.  Martin High School, for instance, would have more than likely been in the top 7 in 5A, but they didn't even advance from Area B because they were ranked behind two bands that ended up 3rd and 4th at State.

That is definitely true, I just don't really know how to fix it. The same thing happens in Marching as well. Area B Marching has been so tough the past two state years that there were several bands that would have placed very highly at state but didn't get to go because all but one band from Area B made State Finals; and in 2004 the one that missed finals only missed by one spot.

 

Also, you should have heard Byrd this year. They were really awesome. I'm not sure if they would have won or not if they were elligible, but they definitely would have made the top 7 cut. It is also interesting to note that even with Kennemer not make the top 7 cut, Byrd didn't make it either in 2000 or 2002 before they won in 2004.

 

  aaron067 said:

This one was based on AP exam results, and, if I'm not mistaken, that has always been one of Duncanville High School's strong points.

Yes, that had been classically one of Duncanville's strong suits compared to other schools in the area, but there are a lot of reasons for that and they are rapidly changing.

 

Probably the foremost reason that Duncanville ranked higher in the past than other schools is because Duncanville was one of the first schools in the area to really latch on and offer a lot of AP classes. Once the other schools caught up in offerings this advantage went away.

 

Also, as you've pointed out, there have been significant changes in demographics in Duncanville's ISD due in large part to all of the new residential and high density apartment developments along Clark Road in Dallas. These devolopments have and will continue to create large increases in student population and the make-up of that population. Also because of all of this, DHS spent 2 years rebuilding most of the campus to be able to handle the potential growth. These are all hard transitions for a teaching staff to be able to deal with, and I think that once things settle down things should start to turn up.

 

But back to what I was saying about the bias of these surveys, looking at AP results only takes into account how many students want to learn and how well you are teaching just them. Judging a school based on how well they teach students that don't want to learn or don't have some of the facilities to learn takes a completely different set of criteria. For example, Duncanville has one of the best special education programs in the South Dallas area and so we have a higher special ed percentage than most other schools, but according to the state any special ed students after a certain percentage count as automatically failing for TAKS purposes, and so this brings Duncanville down in the TAKS accountability standings.

 

  aaron067 said:

I see Tom Shine taking a Director of Fine Arts position once he steps down from directing.

He's already had that position in addition to Director of Bands for quite a while.

[aaron067]

  Quote

The Plano East contest (in 2004 at least) uses the standard UIL Music and Marching judges, then also adds Percussion, GE, and Colorguard judges.

[sax5warrior]

I love this chess-match, keeps me out of boredom for a little while

 

keep it up guys

[actualgirltrombone]

About none of the middle schools making straight 1s this past year.... apparently the sightreading piece was INSANELY HARD. I know that the middle school I attended, which has made straight 1s since it opened, as far as I know, recieved a 1-1-2 in sightreading this past year because of the sightreading piece....

 

Just my 0.02$

[aaron067]

  actualgirltrombone said:

About none of the middle schools making straight 1s this past year.... apparently the sightreading piece was INSANELY HARD. I know that the middle school I attended, which has made straight 1s since it opened, as far as I know, recieved a 1-1-2 in sightreading this past year because of the sightreading piece....

 

Just my 0.02$

I had heard that, but remember that I'm also making a small comparison between the middle schools in Duncanville and those in Midlothian where I grew up. Both top groups from the schools in Midlothian were given straight 1's, but, as I've said before, UIL ratings just aren't fantastic tools for measuring actual ability and performance levels because they're almost entirely subjective. Also, Byrd's sightreading ratings were 1 1 1. They're stage ratings, on the other hand, were 1 3 1.

 

Obviously that 3 wasn't deserved, but you also have to wonder if maybe the 1s weren't deserved. Still, that's just one concert out of the year and it could have very well been like Coppell MS North's performance at their contest in San Antonio where they fell apart. You wouldn't expect that from the band that was to be named CC State Honor Band later that year, but it happens.

[takigan]

  euro_euph06 said:

Area D

 

2006 Re-alignment

 

 

UIL 4A/5A Marching Band Areas

 

A - 1  2  6  16  22

B - 5  7  24  25

C - 3  4  20  21

D - 8  12  18  26

E - 13 23  27

F - 9  10  17  19

G - 11  14  15  28

 

 

Area B Notables

Haltom

Richland

L.D. Bell

Marcus

Martin

Plano East

Hebron

Lewisville

Collyville

 

 

Area D Notables

Cedar Park

Leander

Winston Churchill

Ronald Reagan

James Bowie (Austin)

Judson

Seguin

Westlake

 

Area F Notables

Brazoswood HS

Clear Lake

Clear Brook HS

Conroe HS

Oak Ridge HS

The Woodlands HS

Klein HS

Klein Forest HS

Klein Oak HS

Pearland HS

Spring HS

Westfield HS

 

Not sure why you have Leander as an Area D notable. Leander is more of a second-tier band like Georgetown, Round Rock and Stephen F. Austin, which trade rankings on a constant basis in this neck of the woods. Before '02 it may have been....but nowadays....not really.

 

....Also, please note that none of this is bias that comes from me being from Georgetown, and Leander being Georgetown's eternal rival since the early 80s. That would be childish ....

 

On another note, Reagan and Churchill are in our area now?!! Swapping Spring, Westfield and Woodlands for Churchill, Reagan and Judson is NOT a fair trade I'd say *sigh*.....they'd better have 5 seeds this year at area, or there's going to be some really good bands getting the shaft for state.

[euro_euph06]

  takigan said:

Not sure why you have Leander as an Area D notable.  Leander is more of a second-tier band like Georgetown, Round Rock and Stephen F. Austin, which trade rankings on a constant basis in this neck of the woods.  Before '02 it may have been....but nowadays....not really.

 

....Note that none of this is bias that comes from me being from Georgetown, and Leander being Georgetown's eternal rival since the early 80s.  That would be childish >_>....

I put Leander as a notable because they are coming back and I have insider info (hooray for graduating from their sister school CP) from a person that I know there.

[takigan]

Yeah....I've heard rumors about that myself (prob not to the extent you have though), but let's just say I'll believe it when I see it ^^....(My roomie in College this year played Trumpet at CP --class of '03-- so I've heard a few things >_> ).

 

....They say all of Leander's powers went to Cedar Park when they opened, and CP took it and ran with it. To hear that Leander might be gaining back the power it lost sounds very disheartening.....this stupid area just keeps getting more and more competitive *sigh*.

[euro_euph06]

  takigan said:

Yeah....I've heard rumors about that myself (prob not to the extent you have though), but let's just say I'll believe it when I see it ^^....(My roomie in College this year played Trumpet at CP --class of '03-- so I've heard a few things >_> ).

 

....They say all of Leander's powers went to Cedar Park when they opened, and CP took it and ran with it.  To hear that Leander might be gaining back the power it lost sounds very disheartening.....this stupid area just keeps getting more and more competitive *sigh*.

Things sort of dipped when Leander's progam went through some internal changes (if you get my drift). But either way...we support each other at whatever events we attend together.

 

 

Does your friend's name (from CP) start with a "B" and ends with a "T"?...just curious

[takigan]

Yup....sent you a PM, we can continue this there...

[takigan]

  manuel_pablo said:

Westfield is not competing in UIL, although we have a.....mmm I'll just keep my mouth shut.

Heh...So what are ya'll doing show-wise this year?

 

More of Uematsu's music from Final Fantasy maybe? lol, that would be pretty sweet. I about wet myself when I heard the opener for ya'lls '04 show. Big FF fan right here

[springbassliner26]

  mbui said:

Spring has yet to register for a single BOA Texas Regional....you guys are going, right??

 

Gosh, I hope so.

Spring isn't doing any sort of BOA activity this year. Dangit!

 

We are doing the Katy ISD Marching Contest on October 14th, Lone Star on October 21st and UIL.

[whitewing09]

  euro_euph06 said:

Area D

 

2006 Re-alignment

 

 

UIL 4A/5A Marching Band Areas

 

A - 1 2 6 16 22

B - 5 7 24 25

C - 3 4 20 21

D - 8 12 18 26

E - 13 23 27

F - 9 10 17 19

G - 11 14 15 28

 

 

Area B Notables

Haltom

Richland

L.D. Bell

Marcus

Martin

Plano East

Hebron

Lewisville

Collyville

 

 

Area D Notables

Cedar Park

Leander

Winston Churchill

Ronald Reagan

James Bowie (Austin)

Judson

Seguin

Westlake

 

Area F Notables

Brazoswood HS

Clear Lake

Clear Brook HS

Conroe HS

Oak Ridge HS

The Woodlands HS

Klein HS

Klein Forest HS

Klein Oak HS

Pearland HS

Spring HS

Westfield HS

So area B and D are gonna be the power house areas or what?

 

 

 

NO offense and im probably wrong but isnt round rock better then leander??