05.22.10
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Education, Public Schools, Right Wing Lies, SBOE at 2:24 pm by wcnews
The Texas State Board of Education, dominated by religious conservatives, approved the new Social Studies TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) yesterday by a 9 – 5 vote. Kuff has a great wrap-up, The clown show finally calls it a wrap.
First from blogs and media:
Anyway, here’s your wrapup from the Day Two festivities, which carried over a few minutes past midnight and into Day Three, from the Trib, TFN, and Abby Rapoport. And here’s your Day Three liveblogging and other reports, from TFN, the Trib, TFN again, the Trib again, Abby Rapoport, and Steven Schafersman. Mainstream media coverage is here, here, and here. Burka and Stace also weigh in, and of course Martha was working it on Twitter. May those who had to endure all this get a nice long vacation to recover their sanity.
Next from those who can change this next year if elected in November:
I have several statements, from the Texas Freedom Network, Bill White, State Rep. Mike Villarreal, and Fort Bend County Democratic Party Chair Stephen Brown, about this travesty beneath the fold. Texas Politics has a reaction from US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who echoes former Bush Education Secretary Rod Paige. The only thing we can do about this is elect some better SBOE members. Three such candidates running this year are Judy Jennings, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, and Michael Soto.
TFN has this post on where we go from here, The Next Steps.
Moments ago the State Board of Education cast the final vote on new social studies standards, ending more than a year of political wrangling that invited derision and scorn from the entire educational world. I’m not going to take you through the litany of problems with this curriculum. You can read about those on our blog or in the hundreds of news stories that will appear in the media tomorrow. All of these issues, as serious as they are, are really symptoms of the larger problem — allowing politicians with personal agendas to write our children’s curriculum, rather than teachers and scholars.
That’s why today’s vote is not the end of this fight. It’s the beginning.
For 15 years, all of us at TFN have been committed to safeguarding our children’s education from political ideology. And we’re not about to let up now.
Please make a generous contribution to our efforts today.
Our ultimate goal is nothing less than fundamental change at the State Board of Education. Parents, business leaders and concerned citizens across Texas must join together in our Just Educate campaign to send a clear message to politicians: stop dragging our children’s schools into the “culture wars.” That’s why TFN is mounting our largest grassroots mobilization effort in the history of the organization. And we are counting on you to take part.
Help them out if you can.
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05.18.10
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Education, Public Schools, Right Wing Lies, SBOE at 1:11 pm by wcnews
The title of this post is a classic quote from Winston Churchill and unfortunately what will likely happen tomorrow when the State Board of Eduction (SBOE) meets. The quote leads us to believe that we all have a different view of history. Some think Vietnam was a war that never should have been fought and was doomed from the beginning. Others think it wasn’t fought right, or to win, and that is the reason the Untied States was not victorious. Be that as it may, the current way the SBOE is going about changing history, shall we say, is not only turning Texas into a laughing stock, but it’s wrong.
The conservatives on the SBOE are currently the victors and they are trying to implement their version of history on public school children in Texas. What will likely occur tomorrow has been decades in the making by the conservatives in Texas, and payback, Texas curriculum fight was orchestrated over more than a decade.
The State Board of Education members have heard the constant drumbeat of criticism from lawmakers, academics and others over the proposed changes to the state’s social studies curriculum standards.
But many of them probably won’t listen.
The new standards, which are set for final adoption this week, are the final piece of a puzzle that reshapes Texas’ public school curriculum to reflect the conservative board members’ worldview.
Starting more than three years ago, the conservatives first pushed for “computational math” and phonics over “fuzzy math” and “whole language.” They then tackled evolution.
Now the aim is to rewrite a historical narrative that they perceive as hostile toward America, religion and capitalism.
Central to those contentious fights has been a willingness to challenge — rightly or wrongly — the predominant orthodoxy held by most teachers and academics.
So 1,200 college historians, for instance, can fume that the social studies standards are distorting history and be dismissed as mere noise.
The conservatives see no reason to delay or compromise, particularly because their time in control could expire at the end of the year when two of their leaders, Cynthia Dunbar , R-Richmond, and Don McLeroy , R-Bryan, leave the board.
Dunbar did not seek re-election, and McLeroy was defeated in the March primary.
The seeds of the current discord at the State Board of Education were sown in 1997 when the conservative minority was shut out of the final debate over new curriculum standards.
Unlike today’s curriculum critics, the conservatives and their allies didn’t march in protest or hold news conferences to disparage the majority, said David Bradley , R-Beaumont, a board member since 1996 .
“We just went out and won some elections,” Bradley said.
The Texas Freedom Network (TFN), will be holding a rally on Wednesday, Rally with TFN for Education over Politics.
Tired of seeing far-right extremists on the State Board of Education censor and whitewash what public schools teach Texas kids? You can help us do something about it this week.
Join concerned parents, educators, businesspeople and other Texans at the “Don’t White-Out Our History” rally at 1 p.m., Wednesday, May 19, in front of the Texas Education Agency. The TEA building is located at 17th and Congress just north of the Capitol in Austin.
A few more links from TFN to check out:
Why Does the Far Right Hate Democracy?
Statesman Op-eds Focus on Social Studies
Scholars Blast Shoddy Social Studies Standards
[UPDATE]: And one more from BOR, Help Us Save History in Texas.
Democratic state Rep. Mike Villarreal Calls SBOE Proposal a “National Embarrassment” at Press Conference.
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04.29.10
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Cronyism, Education, Election 2010, Had Enough Yet?, Public Schools, Right Wing Lies, SBOE, SBOE District 10 at 11:37 am by wcnews
One thing yesterday’s Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC) hearing on the Texas State Borad of Education (SBOE) highlighted was, why the SBOE has been able to get away with mangling science and now social studies/history curriculum for Texas public schools. For the most part they’ve been able to operate below the radar and not held accountable for their actions. That changed yesterday when state Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer (D-San Antonio) held a hearing.
The first thing that came to light, even before the hearing started, was that the head of the SBOE didn’t want to show up, SBOE Chairwoman Gail Lowe Ducks Texas Lawmakers. Would Lowe have been subject to tough questioning? If having to come before legislators to defend the board’s recent actions is tough questioning, then the answer is yes. But to the average Texans it doesn’t seem like too much to ask for a governor’s appointee to show up, when asked, by elected leaders.
More than likely she was afraid she would let some truth slip out like Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott did, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott Describes SBOE Curriculum Changes As “Payback”.
Rick Perry appointee and Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott described the process involving the curriculum changes under consideration by the SBOE as “payback” while testifying at a hearing at the Texas State Capitol.
[...]
The first person to testify during the hearing was Robert Scott, Texas Education Commissioner. During his testimony, questions were raised about the curriculum process and why certain decisions were made. Scott responded to the questions by justifying the SBOE’s controversial changes as “payback.“
I transcribed the key part from his testimony — video archive will be available after the hearing:
“One of the things, I think, that has been a problem in all of our deliberations regarding – whether it’s education or anything else – is that when you push out a particular group, and say we don’t care about you, when you push out, regardless of who that is, over time that creates a problem. And when the pendulum swings back, you know, there’s – whether you call it payback or a shifting in the alignment – I think that we need to be mindful as we deliberate to try to prevent the pushing out of any group, regardless of who they are. And that’s what I think this process needs to be about.”
Scott’s remarks are disgusting. Unequivocally disgusting.
Read the rest of this entry �
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04.14.10
Posted in 2010 Primary, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Education, Election 2010, Public Schools, Right Wing Lies at 1:18 pm by wcnews
Although Democratic candidate for Texas Governor Bill White pointed this out last week, White challenges Perry: What’s happening to Texas students?, the Texas traditional media has finally decided to call out Gov. Perry, Whopper is too big to let pass. Although the title and the first couple of paragraphs on the rationalization for not calling out lies by politicians is enlightening, to say the least. (I’d like to see there “whopper” calculating metric, or how they decide which lies are “big enough” to point out.)
Politicians running for re-election are generally afforded some leeway on accuracy. [Emphasis added].
After all, similar to drinking while driving, speaking while stumping has been associated with any number of side-effects, from impaired judgment to short-term memory loss to feelings of grandiosity.
Campaign rhetoric is usually judged in this context. But, occasionally, the whopper spewed from the candidate’s lips, or those of a spokesman, is so big, it can’t be ignored. And it might be dangerous to do so.
Such was the case last week with Gov. Rick Perry and his spokesman, who claimed, despite voluminous evidence to the contrary, that Texas’ dropout problem isn’t that big of a deal.
In the face of years of research showing the rate upwards of 30 percent, and as high as 50 percent in some large urban districts, Perry’s camp insisted it was only about 10 percent.
“The percent of students who enter high school and eventually earn a diploma or equivalent, or who remain in pursuit of a diploma or equivalent, is 90 percent,” Perry spokesman Mark Miner told the Chronicle’s Gary Scharrer.
The number prompted laughter from a few, including Republican state Rep. Rob Eissler, chair of the House public education committee.
“Yeah. That’s not what I base my stuff on,” said The Woodlands lawmaker, who believes the figure is about 30 percent. “You’ve got to categorize that as a bit campaign rhetoric. If our dropout rate were just 10 percent, I’d be feeling a lot better.”
The governor, meanwhile, seemed to blame at least part of Texas’ embarrassing dropout statistics on untimely student deaths: “If a child dies, they count that as a dropout. I think that’s a little harsh,” Perry said.
Actually, according to the most recent Texas Education Agency figures, the number of deceased students reported in the 2006-2007 school year was 601, a tiny fraction of the more than 134,000 students who walked out of Texas high schools that year without a diploma.
[...]
Last week, Perry and his spokesman were responding to Democratic gubernatorial opponent Bill White’s claim that nearly 1 million Texas students have failed to graduate or get a GED on time during the past nine years.
The former Houston mayor may actually have undercounted the number of dropouts. According to Texas’ foremost authority on dropouts, the non-profit San Antonio-based Intercultural Development Research Association, more than 1.2 million students have been lost to attrition in Texas since 2000.
The total number lost since 1985, the year the state hired IDRA to study the magnitude of the problem, is more than 2.9 million.
The organization generally calculates that Texas public schools fail to graduate one out of every three students, with the percentage inching up to 40 percent for black and Hispanic students.
These numbers shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been paying attention. They’re in line with what a diverse array of groups, from Education Week’s Research Center to the Manhattan Institute to the Libertarian-leaning Foundation for Educational Choice (formerly, the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation) have found.
It’s never too late to start and this is a great start in pointing out a huge attempt by Perry to cover-up his neglect of public education.
[UPDATE]: Oops, more problems for Perry, Perry ducked state law on disclosing some stimulus money.
Gov. Rick Perry has always publicly stiff-armed federal stimulus dollars, even as he accepted billions to balance the state budget and tens of millions that he could award to constituents.
He even ignored state law and his own executive order that require all state agencies and institutions of higher education to be “accountable and transparent” by posting their stimulus spending reports on their Web sites.
Until Tuesday, that is.
After a reporter’s inquiry, the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division began posting reports, some of them months old, on its Web site. Perry’s spokeswoman, Katherine Cesinger, would not elaborate on why the governor chose not to follow the law that he expected other state officials to follow.
State Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco , who leads the House committee overseeing federal stimulus programs in Texas, said Tuesday that he isn’t surprised by the governor’s actions.
“Unfortunately, it’s a pattern of the governor publicly distancing himself from the federal stimulus while accepting the majority of the money,” Dunnam said. “They took $16 billion, and most Texans think they haven’t taken any of it.”
The GOP used the federal stimulus to balance the budget last session, most Texans need to know that as well.
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01.22.10
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Education, Public Schools, The Budget at 5:47 pm by wcnews
There’s a big whole in the budget and the next session is going to be ugly. Here’s the latest from Texas AFT, Hard Times, Hard Choices.
For months now, we’ve been hearing the comptroller report that state revenue collections have dropped dramatically as the national recession caught up with the Texas economy.
For several years, we’ve known that the school property-tax cuts passed in 2006 would not be fully replaced, as promised, with revenue from the new state business-franchise tax passed that year. When you hear folks talking about a structural state budget shortfall, that’s generally what they’ve been talking about. This “structural shortfall” terminology also has been applied lately to the use of one-time federal stimulus funding to cover the cost of ongoing programs–for now.
For decades, state lawmakers have failed to come up with a sustainable revenue structure that would grow along with the state’s rising population and growing needs. That’s another kind of structural budget shortfall less often noticed but of crucial importance. It’s the underlying reason why the state’s school-finance system periodically plunges into constitutional crisis over the inadequacy and inequity of education funding.
They go on to point out that “..in the last week, three key developments occurred at the state legislature”. They are:
- January 12: House Speaker Joe Straus announced the creation of a House Select Committee on Fiscal Stability.
- January 13: At a little-noted hearing of the Texas House Ways and Means Committee in Houston, it became clearer just how hard that “fiscally responsible work” will be. Analysts at the Legislative Budget Board estimated that the state in the next biennium will have at least $10.8 billion less than the amount lawmakers used to make ends meet for 2010-2011.
- January 15: The Republican state leadership triumvirate–Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and Speaker Straus–instructed state agencies to come up with proposed cuts of 5 percent of their current budgets to be implemented in the current biennium.
And yesterday there was a fourth, Special State Committee Formed to Study School Finance and More.
A key committee with a wide-ranging portfolio took shape today as the lieutenant governor and House speaker jointly announced their appointees. Today’s appointees to the Select Committee on Public School Finance will join two already named by the governor, plus the commissioner of education, Robert Scott, who serves ex officio.
Four senators named by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to this panel today are Florence Shapiro (co-chair), Republican of Plano; Robert Duncan, Republican of Lubbock; Dan Patrick, Republican of Houston; and Royce West, Democrat of Dallas. The lieutenant governor also named Dr. Leonard Culwell, superintendent of Garland ISD, as a representative of the “public school community,” and Dr. Harrison Keller, former top education adviser to previous House Speaker Tom Craddick, as a business representative.
Four legislative appointees from the Texas House are Reps. Rob Eissler (co-chair), Republican of The Woodlands; Jimmie Don Aycock, Republican of Killeen; Scott Hochberg, Democrat of Houston; and Mike Villarreal, Democrat of San Antonio. Also named today by House Speaker Joe Straus were Dr. Richard Middleton, superintendent of North East ISD in San Antonio, and Larry Kellner, former chief executive of Continental Airlines.
The gubernatorial appointees to the panel are Switzer Deason, a business executive from College Station, and Mary Ann Whiteker of Lufkin, superintendent of Hudson ISD.
This 15-member select committee will hold hearings around the state as it makes a comprehensive review of the education funding weights, allotments, and adjustments that have built up over the years in response to various funding needs and pressures. For example, the state doesn’t just allocate a set amount of dollars per student; school districts are entitled to extra funding–weighted funding–as specified by state formulas for various types of students with special needs. Some other adjustments are made based on the varying costs districts face.
This is essentially the same crew (Perry, Dewhurst, Shapiro, et al.), that “fixed” public school finance in 2006 with a tax swap that has created a structural deficit in this state. Why anyone in this state would expect these people to come up with a “fix” this time is not rational. It’s unlikely the state can survive another failed tax scheme like the one that they came up with in 2006.
Today state Sen. Eliot Shapliegh sent out a press release on the “Texas Dropout Epidemic” and it shows that we’ve known for quite some time that education is the key to future economic success.
“If the current relationships between minority status and educational attainment, occupations of employment, and wage and salary income do not change in the future from those existing in 1990, the future workforce of Texas will be less educated, more likely to be employed in lower-level state occupations and earning lower wages and salaries than the present workforce.”
- former Texas State Demographer Dr. Steve Murdock
That was written in 1997. Economic success in the way of jobs that pay a living wage that can sustain families, of all kinds, and allow them to raise well educated children. Not economic success, as in huge corporate profits and a plethora low and minimum wage jobs. It’s well know too that every penny we spend on education is money well spent and is the best long-term economic stimulus there is. It’s been proven over and over again that as long as these people are in charge public education in Texas will continue to be neglected, like so many other things in this state. And it’s insane to keep returning them to power.
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11.20.09
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Election 2010, Public Schools, Taxes, The Budget, The Economy at 11:55 am by wcnews
Kuff has a post today with links to a couple of articles about the economic snowball that’s heading towards Texas in the next biennium and beyond, State sales tax revenues way down. This TexasTrib article he links to states:
The people in government who look at spreadsheets — so the rest of us don’t have to — are getting nervous about the state’s finances.
Sales tax revenues have taken double-digit dives for five months running; in each of those months, the state’s income from those taxes has been more than 10 percent lower than in the same month the year before. In a state where a steady rise in sales tax money has become almost a rule, the intake for the last 12 months is down more than 5 percent. And budgeteers assumed not only that they’d match the old numbers, but that they would exceed them.
And an ongoing “structural deficit” — the kind of term that seems designed to scare people away from a conversation about money — creates an ongoing problem. In 2006, in an effort to lower property tax burdens, the state agreed to spend more on public education. Lawmakers created a new business tax, but it raises less than they agreed to spend on the property tax fix. The gap has to be filled every time they write a budget. Last time, the feds showed up like leprechauns with pots of stimulus money and kept Texas from choosing to use its Rainy Day Fund, raise taxes or make spending cuts. Next time, the stimulus money won’t be there, but the hole will be.
It’s impossible to see how that does not mean trouble for Texas, a state without an income tax that relies heavily on a statewide sales tax. And an ongoing, or structural deficit, means that the Perry/GOP tax shift of 2006 will cost middle class and poor Texas – because that’s who pays – even more money in the long run. As Kuff goes on to point out the other problem this creates is it will, again, put Texas public education back in the forefront.
In 2007, that gap was filled by surplus general revenue funds. More surplus funds were put aside that year to pay for the shortfall in 2009. Needless to say, no such surplus will be available in 2011. The Rainy Day Fund, assuming the votes are there to use it, might be able to cover both the revenue shortage and this structural gap, but I wouldn’t be too optimistic about that. But sooner or later, which is to say this session or the following one, that great big unaffordable property tax cut is going to have to be dealt with. The only thing that sustains me when I contemplate the possibility of another term for Rick Perry is the knowledge that this reckoning would have to happen on his watch.
Of course, I’m sure he’ll defend the property tax cut to his last dying breath, and if he has to provoke a budgetary crisis or two to do that, he will. But his options may be limited this time around.
We knew it back when the tax shift was passed in 2006 that it was only “kicking the can down the road”, so this should surprise no one. And for all of the credit Perry has taken for Texas’ economy doing so well, he’ll definitely be more than willing to take the blame for this….right?
These issues will continue to become bigger as we continue to move forward toward the 2010 primary and general election, and all candidates running for office need to be able to speak about how they will tackle them.
[UPDATE]: Unemployment numbers continue to rise in the state and Austin area. TWC press release.
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08.07.09
Posted in Around The State, Public Schools, SBOE, Take Action, Transportation at 3:26 pm by wcnews
Via the TEA web site, Social Studies TEKS first draft released.
The first draft of proposed revisions to the social studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills are now posted and available for public review.
There’s quite a bit to read here for anyone interested in the upcoming changes to the this curriculum by the SBOE.
Two upcoming committee Meetings:
- Wednesday, August 12th in Austin – Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, Select (House). Invited testimony only at this hearing.
- Thursday, August 20th in Arlington – Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee. Topics to be discussed may include, but are not limited to, border security, traffic safety, the H1N1 virus, the TxDOT management audit, HOV lanes, stimulus funding, high speed rail, transportation finances, the TTI Mobility Report, and updates on agency activities.The Committee will also receive public testimony. If you would like to testify, please limit oral remarks to 3 minutes. If you would like to submit written testimony, please submit 15 copies, with your name on each copy, to the Committee Staff at the hearing.
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07.09.09
Posted in 2010 Primary, Around The State, Commentary, Election 2010, Public Schools, SBOE, SBOE District 10 at 11:08 am by wcnews
It also plays into Perry’s fundraising strategy for GOP Primary
As the State Board of Education (SBOE) did last year with the science curriculum in Texas, they will next attempt to do with the social studies curriculum. Known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS, for social studies, which includes history, will be rewritten over the next year.
Here’s what the DMN had to say today about the six experts that are overseeing the rewriting process, Conservatives seek to shift focus of state social studies lessons.
Civil rights leaders César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall – whose names appear on schools, libraries, streets and parks across the U.S. – are given too much attention in Texas social studies classes, conservatives advising the state on curriculum standards say.
“To have César Chávez listed next to Ben Franklin” – as in the current standards – “is ludicrous,” wrote evangelical minister Peter Marshall, one of six experts advising the state as it develops new curriculum standards for social studies classes and textbooks. David Barton, president of Aledo-based WallBuilders, said in his review that Chávez, a Hispanic labor leader, “lacks the stature, impact and overall contributions of so many others.”
[..]
Although the actual standards are being drafted by teams of teachers, academics and community representatives, the education board appointed a panel of six experts to help guide the writing teams. Three of the experts, including Barton and Marshall, were appointed by Republican social conservatives on the board, while the other three experts – all professors at state universities in Texas – were appointed by the remaining Republicans and Democrats on the 15-member board.
Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit group that has battled social conservatives on education issues, questioned the academic credentials of Barton and Marshall, and said their negative comments on Chávez are just the start of a “blacklist” of historical figures considered objectionable by social conservatives.
“It is what we expected from unqualified political activists put on this so-called panel of experts,” said Dan Quinn of the freedom network. “This is yet another step toward politicizing our children’s education.”
[...]
Barton, a former vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party, said that because the U.S. is a republic rather than a democracy, the proper adjective for identifying U.S. values and processes should be “republican” rather than “democratic.” That means social studies books should discuss “republican” values in the U.S., his report said.
Vince at Capitol Annex recently chronicled some of the machinations of the Barton’s actions regarding the panel, ( “Expert Panel” Reviewing Texas Social Studies Curriculum Not All Experts, Barton’s Review Of Social Studies Standards Lacks Much To Be Desired (Including Actual Facts), and More David Barton: A Closer Look At His Analysis Of The Texas Social Studies TEKS). From those posts it’s obvious that Barton is using falsehoods and misquotes from history to try and justify teaching history with a religious bent. Here’s what the WallBuilders are about.
As the saying goes, “History is written by the victors.” Or In this case rewritten, and right now the far right of the Texas GOP is winning. As with science the far right radicals on the SBOE will attempt to give social studies a religious “conservative” bent in Texas.
As we move forward into the 2010 elections we all must remember that it’s these kinds of offices that the extreme members of the Texas GOP have done so well in taking over, many times under the radar. That’s why it is so important for Democrats, all over the state, to offer candidates that better represent Texas’ views in many of these races. Many of these people were also appointed by the governor, or a Perry appointee, which is another reason why who wins the governor’s race in 2010 is so important.
Kuff has more, The SBOE’s assault on history, on this topic as well as good links to the latest on Cynthia Dunbar to head the SBOE – which would be another radical move by Perry. Also read Phillip Martin posted on Perry’s fundraising numbers which explains why Perry’s failure to govern is exactly what the GOP donors want. And as today’s poll shows the further to the extreme right he goes, failure for the public, the better his poll numbers get in the primary, success for GOP.
All of this is why it is so important to have a strong Democrat at the top of the ticket next year that will point out the GOP’s failings in Texas relentlessly.
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04.30.09
Posted in 81st Legislature, Around The State, Education, Public Schools, Uncategorized at 10:38 am by wcnews
At least one good thing came out of the dueling bills that were passed yesterday by the Texas House and Senate. The stain of then Gov. George W. Bush’s “reforms” have been washed away, via the AAS, House, Senate ease school accountability standards:
Crafted by the education leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives, the bills aim to reduce the role of standardized tests, give schools more flexibility to help struggling students and focus education on readying students for college or the workplace.
Gone are many of the school reforms ushered in by then-Gov. George W. Bush, such as a prohibition on promoting a student to the next grade if he or she failed to pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
That promotion decision will now be left to the school and parents.
[House Public Education Committee Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands] said the overhaul will end the one-size-fits-all approach of the current system and allow for schools to be judged on more than just performance on a single test.
Here’s some “big picture” analysis on these two bills as provided by the Texas AFT:
The Texas House and Senate today passed broadly similar rewrites of the state system of testing and test-based school accountability. The next several hotlines will discuss in detail what these bills, HB 3 and SB 3, would do. Today we will share with you the big picture and report on some of the significant floor amendments adopted in each chamber.
The big picture: Both bills reduce the emphasis on state tests as the basis for promotion decisions in primary and middle school, relying more on the professional judgment of a student’s teachers and on other locally determined criteria. However, the bills would over time add a new standard of “college readiness” in math and English, yet to be defined, as a basis for school accountability ratings. As a result, schools would face at least ten more accountability “tripwires” that could trigger a low-performing rating and start the clock running on potential sanctions including reconstitution and school closure. Eventually, ten more “college readiness” tripwires would be added as standards are developed for social studies and science.
Though originally advertised as an effort to shift the accountability system toward the use of “more carrot than stick,” these companion bills both leave substantially intact the current system of punitive sanctions for schools rated low-performing. The only major easing in this area was the addition of one year to the time available to turn around a low-performing campus before it can be closed, “repurposed,” or contracted out to an “alternative manager.” The bills ended up passing unanimously in both chambers, but not before debates on amendments that illustrated major differences among lawmakers over the future of the accountability system
[...]
Though majorities in both chambers are not yet ready to make a decisive break from excessively test-driven accountability, lawmakers more and more are coming to see the inadequacy of the state’s standardized tests as the primary basis for assessing students, teachers, and schools.
Essentially a step in the right direction but there’s still a long way to go.
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04.23.09
Posted in 81st Legislature, Around The State, Education, Public Schools, SBOE, Uncategorized at 8:13 am by wcnews
Yesterday State Board of Education (SBOE) Chairman Don McLeroy finally went before the Senate for his confirmation. McLeroy has been serving in an “interim” capacity since he was appointed after the previous legislative session, via UT’s Texas Politics – Executive Branch Appointments:
If a vacancy occurs while the Legislature is not in session (and it regularly meets for less than six months every two years), appointees can serve in the position until the Senate convenes and takes up confirmations. So a governor may make an interim appointment even knowing the nominee will later be rejected. The nominee gets to serve for a limited period of time and perhaps can even use the opportunity to convince enough senators that he or she should keep the post.
(Quick note. This is a process that should be fixed – we shouldn’t let people serve for up to up to 18 months without Senate confirmation. Not that we need another Constitutional Amendment in Texas, but this certainly needs an adjustment. It certainly seems possible that the Texas Senate could do confirmation hearings in the interim.)
I recommend checking out the liveblog of the hearing from the Texas Freedom Network. They also have a wrap up of the post that asks the question, Is McLeroy’s Confirmation in Trouble? It takes two-thirds of the Senate to confirm an appointee, and even this GOP Senate can’t change that rule, at least not yet.
It looks like Sen. Eliot Shapliegh (D-El Paso) and Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) did most of the grilling of McLeroy. Shapleigh, after the hearing, sent out a press release [.pdf] that stated:
“Right now, Texas needs strong education leadership, particularly in math and science to make us competitive in the 21st Century… Don McLeroy is not qualified to serve as chairman of such an important board as the State Board of Education (SBOE). His views on creationism do not square with science; his views on reading do not square with evidence; his views on the future of education in Texas do not square with a diverse state seeking education excellence.”
The press release includes some of McLeroy’s more striking statements on how he views the future of education curriculum in Texas. It would be best for public education in Texas if there was different leadership at the SBOE.
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