WEEKLY EDUCATION REPORT
April 16, 2012
Early voting in Texas begins May 14th.Mark your calendars!
Texas PTA Legislative Action Chair Barbara Betowill testify on behalf of PTA this week at the House Redistricting Committee hearing. She will speak in favor of expanding the number of SBOE districts in order to improve representation by decrease the number of constituents in each district, currently approximately 1.7 million, and to reduce the geographic size of the rural SBOE districts.
Roughly 75% of Texas school districts have notified Texas Education Agency of their intent towaive the fifteen percent rulefor this school year. TEA has offered ISDs the option to waive for this year only the new requirement that students’ scores on End-of-Course exams in high school be calculated into their final averages at a weight of 15%. In order to defer, districts must send a simple email notifying TEA that they'll defer by May 1. Check this list to see if your ISD has notified TEA.
Texas Association of School Administrators announced last week that 250 school districts have adopted the resolution concerning high stakes, standardized testing of public school students.
The TexasState Board of Education(SBOE) meets this week, April 18-20, in Austin. Of particular interest, there will be a discussion among the members of the Committee on Instruction, on standardized testing in Texas. The committee will also discuss benchmark tests, designed to prepare students for state-administered assessments, administered by ISDs.
The SBOE is expected to adopt the Math Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). In January, the Board amended the proposed Math TEKS to include a requirement that allows the new standards to be implemented in the classroom only if the Board and the legislature have made new instructional materials available to teachers and students in 2014.The Board will also discuss the ramifications of the November 2011 passage of Proposition 6, the constitutional amendment that allows for increased distributions from the Permanent School Fund to support appropriations for public education. This week’s agenda is here.
Below are some general news items of interest to parents and teachers of Texas children and youth. The articles do not necessarily represent the positions of Texas PTA. The goal is to inform members of issues of relevance to children and youth in Texas so that members can form their own opinions.
Did Mega Million Jackpot Proceeds Help Texas Public Schools?
The record-breaking Mega Millions lottery jackpot last week drew in large numbers of players from across the country and state all hoping to be the lucky grand prize winner. Even though a Texan didn’t win the $640 million jackpot after Friday’s Mega Million drawing, Texas Lottery officials said Wednesday that $37.5 million in ticket sale proceeds will go toward the Texas Foundation School Program — the main source of funding for public schools in the state.
(View complete article here.)
PTAs are fighting to reverse membership declines
Parent Teacher Associations on the national, state and local level have experienced dwindling memberships in the past 10 years, but they are fighting to turn things back around.
(View complete article here.)
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Pre-k, Head Start Paying off
The time 3- and 4-year-olds spend in pre-kindergarten and Head Start classes in the Wichita Falls Independent School District makes them better thinkers, according to an annual study about the effects of early childhood education. The 2010 study focuses on WFISD students now in grades fifth through ninth who originally attended the first Head Start and pre-k classes offered by the district.
As those same students move through the higher grades and into high school, Early Childhood Facilitator Trish Dillmon is tracking their academic progress.
(View complete article here.)
Quarter of Texas children live in poverty, survey finds
Texas has the second-highest birth rate in the nation, and more than 25 percent of those children live in poverty, according to the annual Kids Count survey released Thursday. The number of children in Texas rose by nearly 1 million between 2000 and 2010, and they accounted for more than half of the U.S. child population growth.
(View complete article here.)
Districts target testing ‘overkill’
Three area school districts have joined more than 200 others in adopting a resolution urging state legislators to re-examine the public school accountability system.
(View complete article here.)
Editorial: Do schools have time to teach?
Our eighth-grade informant tells us that last week, while the seventh-graders in his school were taking the state's new end-of-course exams, he and the other eighth-graders just sat around, bored. Instead of leading classes, the eighth-grade teachers were proctoring the seventh-graders, or guarding bathrooms and hallways, maintaining a test-conducive hush and trying to prevent cheating.
(View complete article here.)
Bill Ratliff, free to speak his mind, tackles the budget
Watch what politicians say when they no longer have to watch what they say. Bill Ratliff, who was in office from 1989 to 2003, was never one to honor political dogma. But now he's talking about the state budget in particularly dire terms. He contends that the state has dug a hole that will make its next budget even worse than the terrible budget that's now in effect, that lawmakers have spent billions more than state revenue can cover and have obligated themselves to use future state income to cover current expenses. What's more, he said, accumulated public education cuts total more than $13 billion over the last four years.
(View complete article here.)
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Arizona bill could criminalize Internet bullying
Arizona is turning its sights on obnoxious Internet users (commonly called 'trolls'). A new update to the state's telecommunications harassment bill could make the practice of harassing people online illegal. Arizona House Bill 2549 has already passed both of the state's legislative bodies and is currently sitting on the desk of Governor Jan Brewer. While there's a lot in there that doesn't concern trolling, here's the line that has people worried:
It is unlawful for any person, with intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend, to use ANY ELECTRONIC OR DIGITAL DEVICE and use any obscene, lewd or profane language or suggest any lewd or lascivious act, or threaten to inflict physical harm to the person or property of any person.
(View complete article here.)
AISD freshmen felt prepared for STAAR
With the first two days of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) end-of-course tests completed, freshmen in Abilene Independent School District said they felt well prepared for the new rigorous state assessment exam.
(View complete article here.