Lone Star Schools

Addressing High School Drop Outs: Chavez High School, Houston, TX

2009-12-21T05:44:00.001-08:00

This is encouraging. The Chron reports that Chavez High School is holding credit recovery classes over the holiday break, and 800 kids showed up. It's exactly what schools need to be doing, in my opinion. Because of my consulting work in schools - because of what I see every day in high schools - I do a lot of thinking around this question: If we had a single minded focus on graduation, what would schools look like? What would we - we meaning the entirety of the community - do to ensure we would accomplish that one thing?

Schooling would look different for teenagers who are used to technology, a 24/7 connected world, and who have a myriad of things preventing them from succeeding in our traditional, paced, scheduled world of high school requirements. It would be startling for most people, including community leaders, to spend some time at a public high school and really dig into what's going on there with pregnancies, family members in jail, kids on probation, economic crises, etc. - the many very serious reasons kids are falling behind and in danger of dropping out of school.

In Texas, we've put a lot of energy behind a college bound culture, which is important. We need to continue to force ourselves to be creative and be single minded about the first step in that path: high school graduation.

If we took the attitude of "we are going to tackle this, and leave everything out on the field in the process," what would that look like? Would grownups be willing to go that for the children in our community?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments.

Texas Senate Poised to Confirm McLeroy?

2009-05-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

Remember when Rep. Mike Jackson, Chair of Senate Nominations, said he wouldn't bring the nomination of embattled right wing SBOE Chair McLeroy to the Senate floor if the votes weren't there to confirm?

Well something must have changed because Jackson called a Nominations meeting on Wednesday and they voted 4-2 to send McLeroy's nomination to the floor. Democratic Senator Kirk Watson (one of the two votes against sending it to the Senate) surmised that Jackson must know that a Democratic Senator or two were going to vote to confirm, because if all 12 Democrats stick together, McLeroy's confirmation is dead in the water.

That's because confirmation of this Perry appointee requires 2/3 of the Senate to vote in favor. It just takes 11 votes to block.

Democrats are pro-public education and the expectation is that they ALWAYS stand up for public schools. I'd be real curious who Jackson thinks is not going to be a real Democrat and is willing to continue McLeroy's reign of terror on school children. I think we need to find out.

Call your Senator today, or call all twelve Democratic Senators to find out how they intend to vote. The complete list of Senators identified by party is here, along with contact information.

What happens if McLeroy is not confirmed? Governor Perry gets to appoint someone else from the SBOE as Chair. He could certainly appoint someone who is equally as bad - Dunbar, Cargill, Mercer, Leo or Bradley. Or he could appoint a moderate Republican like Bob Craig, who has the best interests of Texas school children top of mind instead of a far religious right agenda.

Let that be Perry's political problem. Our task at hand is send a strong message to our Democrats in the Texas Senate that a vote to confirm McLeroy is a vote against Texas school children.

The vote is expected on Monday or Tuesday of next week.

TAKS Interrupted

2009-04-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

Houston ISD canceled all TAKS testing today due to heavy street flooding in Houston. HISD has a long list of schools that delayed start time due to the floods.

That combined with yesterday's HISD robocall to parents advising them to keep their kids home this week if they are exhibiting any signs of flu, and you have a huge TAKS makeup situation coming up in May.

This week's TAKS schedule:

Apr 28 (Tues):
Grades 3–4 Mathematics (English and Spanish)
Grade 6 Mathematics (English and Spanish)
Grade 7 Mathematics
Grade 10 Mathematics

April 29 (Wed):
Grade 4 Reading (English and Spanish)
Grade 6 Reading (English and Spanish)
Grade 7 Reading
Exit Level Mathematics

Apr 30 (Thurs)
Grade 5 Science (English and Spanish)
Grade 8 Science
Grade 9 Mathematics
Grade 10 Science
Exit Level Science

May 1 (Fri)
Grade 8 Social Studies
Grade 10 Social Studies
Exit Level Social Studies

Yes, the Great State really does pile up TAKS testing all in one week. If you are an 11th grader, you are taking three Exit tests week that are required for graduation. Eighth graders take three high stakes TAKS tests this week - have to pass these to promote to ninth grade. 4th, 6th and 10th graders take two.

I'm sure there is great rejoicing among students today, that one of their tests will be postponed. But, it adds to the high stress teachers and schools are already experiencing this week, knowing their accountability ratings rest on the backs of these tests. They were prepared for today and for this week. Now, that stress escalates for May.

UPDATE: According to the Houston Chronicle, HISD says TAKS tests to be given today will be moved to tomorrow. Wednesday's tests to Thursday, Thursday's test to Friday, Friday's tests to Monday.

TX SBOE Chair McLeroy Confirmation Hearing Today

2009-04-22T07:43:00.001-07:00

No time for blogging, but this is important. I'm going to contact the committee members before I head out the door. I got this (below) from TFN by email. Here's a link to more TFN info on the hearing.

Confirmation Hearing for State Board of Education Chair Don McLeroy on Wednesday

On Wednesday (April 22), the Senate Nominations Committee will hold a public hearing on the confirmation of Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, as SBOE chair. Gov. Rick Perry appointed McLeroy chairman in July 2007, after the last legislative session. So the Senate has never officially confirmed his appointment.

State lawmakers aren’t happy with a state board that has become increasingly dysfunctional (and embarrassing) since the Bryan dentist’s elevation to chairman. The board has disregarded established procedures, ignored state law, defied the Legislature and lurched from one “culture war” battle to the next. Most recently, of course, Chairman McLeroy led the board in opening the state’s science curriculum to creationist attacks on evolution, wildly declaring:

“I disagree with all these experts! Somebody has to stand up to these experts!”
-- Chairman Don McLeroy, SBOE Science Standards Hearing, March 27, 2009

Clearly, it's time for new leadership on the state board. By rejecting McLeory's nomination, the Senate would send a strong message to the state board that playing politics with our children's education -- and making Texas the laughingstock of the rest of the world -- is not acceptable.

What You Can Do

Testify at the Hearing -- The Nominations Committee will meet at 1:00 p.m. or 30 minutes after the Senate adjourns for the day on Wednesday. The hearing, which will include testimony on other nominations as well, will be in the Senate chamber at the Capitol. Those who want to testify should e-mail Judie at TFN or call 512-322-0545 for details.
Contact the Committee Members -- Want to share your opinion about Chairman McLeroy with the committee but can’t come to Austin to testify? Click here for the committee’s Web page. Then click on each member’s name for contact information.

43% of Texas Teachers Eligible to Retire in Next 10 Years

2009-04-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

A teacher retirement "tsunami" may be about to hit the U.S., with over half the nation's teachers eligible to retire within the next 10 years.

This will exacerbate the problem we already have of schools having too few experienced teachers to mentor the new teachers. The accountability system in Texas - with all of it's emphasis on test scores and resulting pressure on administrators and teachers - drives good, experienced teachers to retirement at their earliest opportunities.

This USA Today article points out something that I've talked about before on Lone Star Schools - there are enough new teachers coming out of universities and alternative certification programs, but too many leave within five years, so we are pouring water into a bucket with a pretty big hole in the bottom, so the bucket never gets to the fill level.

And, yes, the recession will send unemployed folks to the teaching ranks, but it's a temporary fix to the teacher shortage, and probably not one that will solve the massive retirement problem we'll see in the next 10 years. It certainly does not stop the problem we have, which will get worse, of there being not anywhere near enough experienced mentors for these teachers.

We have advance warning, now what to do about it?

Quotable Quotes from the Texas SBOE March Meeting

2009-03-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the quotes I tweeted while at last week's Texas SBOE meeting:

"Somebody has got to stand up to these experts," McLeroy said. "Why does evolution have this lofty status? It's all about ideology." (McLeroy is the chair, and a creationist)

“Science has regained its luster.” (again, McLeroy. Apparently, science is like a metal and is shiny.)

"Evolution is not vital to understanding the biological sciences." (Yes, McLeroy again, showing off his creationism bonafides)

"Some of you are not listening and I am not going over this again." (One of my two favorite quotes from the meeting - from Pat Hardy, a rock star, in my opinion. She was trying to introduce an amendment on allowing a conceptual Chemistry class. Motion failed, which was a real shame. Guarantee: more dropouts due to the new Chem class having too much advanced math required.)

"I disagree with the experts." and "I want to stand up to the experts." (Our fabulous chair, dentist McLeroy beating his chest.)

"Is there any more amendments to grade 4?" (McLeroy is not science literate or even just plain literate. Subject verb disagreement - what would the experts say?)

"We should have seen these changes yesterday." (I don't remember who freaked out and said this on Friday, but several creationists were peeved that a board member dared to try and suggest changes to the science TEKS that dealt with something besides creationism. I mean, darn, we spent all day Wed. and Thurs. trying to get the Bible inserted into the science TEKS, but we couldn't spend an hour making sure the non-evolution TEKS were scientifically accurate?)

"examine all sides of science" (This is the new "strengths and weaknesses." If someone can give me an example of how science has sides, please jump in here. And, I'm not asking this of creationists; it's clear what you mean. I'm asking the science community.)

"We want to send a clear message to textbook publishers that we expect them to present BOTH sides." (This is my SBOE member, Cynthia Dunbar, revealing what "all sides of science" really means. It means "science" as one side, "creationism" as the other side. She totally slipped up here and corrected herself, "I mean 'all sides'". Yeah, right.)

"unguided natural processes" (Sigh. This was McLeroy's suggested substitution for the scientific term "natural selection". How blatant can you be that your whole intention is to insert creationism into the science TEKS?)

"scientific theories of cosmetology." (This was from Terri Leo. Honestly, making science a course about make up would be more scientific than making all of them Bible courses.)

"just to add that humility." (Barbara Cargill must have used the word "humilty" 20 times over the course of two days. What in the heck humility has to do with science, I have no idea, but she was insistent - over and over again - that we needed to add "humility" to the science standards. This was embarrassing and silly.)

"beefin' up on my Bloom's taxonomy." (Agan, Cargill. Not only did she drop her "g's", but she continually used Bloom's as well as legitimate language in the science TEKS to somehow make a persuasive argument to insert creationist language into the standards. It was something to watch - how she got reasonable people on board with her nonsense.)

"I want to broaden theories students will have to learn. This is the humility I am talkin' about." (yes, the dropped g and the use of "humilty" lets you know this was Cargill. Here is where she defines "humility." Humility = inserting creationism into the science standards.)

"I got lost in your explanation." (This was Pat Hardy to McLeroy. If I could have advised the 8 friendly SBOE members on one thing, it would have been "if it doesn't make sense, it's a creationist argument and vote against it.")

"I vote that we reinsert balls. Kids have been playing with balls their whole lives." (Geraldine Miller - another rock star! - delivers my favorite line of the whole meeting. She unintenionally made a funny and provided the audience much needed relief from the craziness in that room. This had to do with something in the elementary science TEKS. Tincy Miller, you are one awesome fighter for public education in Texas!)

"We ask the questions." (This was McLeroy being extremely disrespecful of Eugenie Scott, Director of the National Center for Science Education. Dunbar was asking idiotic questions of Scott during the invited testimoy on Wednesday, so Scott asked one back to clarify what in the world Dunbar was talking about. McLeroy had to act like the big man on board - BMOB - and let Scott know who was boss.)

I don't have the exact quote, but Mrs. Texas, Austen Williams, tells the Board she learned about intelligent design in a college archeology class. Turns out that was at Southwestern Seminary, a Baptist college. Of course, she didn't say that; we had to dig that up afterwards.)

"Who will rid us of these meddlesome state board of education members?" (one of the speakers at the Texas Freedom Network's press conference on Wed., just prior to the start of the SBOE meeting. TFN has my undying thanks for all they did in thier efforts to stand up for science.)

I'll end with that. You can find my blow-by-blow, tweet-by-tweet, live tweeting at twitter.com. Do a search for #txsboe and you'll find all my live reports, plus responses from all over the world. I was the lone tweeter in the room, except for TEA who had a staffer at a computer tweeting procedural things. The whole #txsboe thread is worth reading. If you've heard that the SBOE is a travesty, just know it is worse than that.

If you are a glutton for punishment, the archived audio of the 3-day meeting is here.

KIPP a Success with ALL Disadvantaged Students?

2009-03-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

This is the big question: is there a school model that works for ALL kids, particularly all disadvantaged kids? The flush-with-money Gates Foundation has a goal to reform the on-life-support American high school. That's not going to be a quick fix, no matter how many bucks you throw at it. But, KIPP has astounding data showing its success with traditionally low performing students.

Slate's Sara Mosle reviewed Jay Matthews' book, Work Hard. Be Nice, which is about the success of KIPP. Mosle finds some holes in the argument that the KIPP model is possibly THE model for all disadvantaged, minority students. Her points:

KIPP has only 66 academies in 19 states. This averages out to three schools per state. It serves only a tiny fraction of the population in any school district.

Even though KIPP uses a lottery for admissions, better off or better educated parents put themselves into this pool. Parents have to sign a contract upon admission to adhere to the KIPP schedule and rules. This serves to eliminate less involved or less determined parents. KIPP families are self-selecting this particular school experience.

Teacher turnover is high in KIPP schools because of the 65 hour work weeks (school is 10 hours per day plus every other Saturday), and the requirement that teachers be on call to parents 24/7. Many excellent teachers won't or can't work at a KIPP academy because of family commitments.

Low performing KIPP students drop out or are kicked out. This skews the KIPP data towards higher grades. Where do these former KIPP students go? To low performing public schools near you.

The KIPP approach to discipline can seem unduly harsh and is not easily replicated. (An aside from me - Boot camp discipline just does not exist in a typical public school. Quite the opposite, usually)

The Slate author concludes that KIPP works with the right underprivileged population, but has not been proven to work with all student populations. She challenges KIPP to succeed in an entire community where all students are required to go through the program that has worked so well with a very, very small slice of the school population.

Letting Teenagers Sleep in on School Days

2009-03-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

Got a teenager at your house? If so, then, like me, you have probably wondered what genius thought it was a great idea to have them get up at 6 or 6:30 AM for a 7:30 AM school start time.

Because you've seen how that works. They get home at 3 PM and take a nap. Dead asleep for as long as you'll let them. They eat dinner, do homework, then stay up very late. Rarely do they get 8 hours of sleep.

A few schools in Britain are recognizing that reality and are holding school for 16-18 year old from 11 AM to 5 PM. Also:

In the United States, schools or entire districts in 19 states have pushed back their start times. More than 100 school districts in 17 more states are considering delaying their start times.

I think this is amusing:

But Horne worried that schools with later start times might also indulge teens. "It's possible this could be solved with better parental control," Horne said. "Is it really necessary for kids to stay up late every night chatting with their friends and in front of their computers?"

This Horne person either: a) does not have a teenager and/or b) has forgotten what it's like to be a teenager.

Seriously, dude. We get our kids to their rooms at a reasonable bedtime hour. We go to sleep early because we are exhausted and we fully realize our kids are in their rooms not sleeping. They are texting their friends. We have to deal in reality here. Teenagers are hard wired to stay up late. They aren't getting enough sleep, and if you spend some time in a high school, you'll see the afternoon classes are not going well. Kids are exhausted and it's not a pretty sight.

Cash for AP Classes

2009-03-12T04:16:00.001-07:00

Lee High School in Houston ISD, rated as unacceptable by the Texas Education Agency, is offering $300 to students if they make a 3, 4 or 5 on AP exams.

Lee students are expected to attempt at least 550 AP tests this May, an eight-fold increase from 2004.

To prepare, Lee students, almost all of whom are minorities from struggling families, excitedly cram during weekend and summer sessions. Calculus camp, for example, is one of the hottest tickets of the year.

“It’s really like Stand and Deliver, the movie,” said veteran AP teacher Robert Dennison. “It’s so emotional.”
[---]
Lee High is one of four Houston ISD campuses supported by a Dallas-based non-profit called AP Strategies, which provides bonuses and teacher training to 71 Texas schools.

About $30,000 in checks were issued to reward Lee teachers and students last year.

I found this interesting because I've been having this conversation with colleagues about high school reform - what happens if you pay cash for grades? I like this approach of rewarding success on AP exams. It's away to bring top students up to true college readiness. It's got to be done at the same time a school implements all sorts of strategies for under performing students. I like this quote from the Lee principal:

“My experience is that it’s about all boats rising,” he said. “A school only gets better if everybody is getting better.”

Can the struggling boats rise with cash for good grades? Is there data to support that as an avenue for student success? If so, I think it should be considered. I read an article in Vogue (the Michelle Obama issue) about Melinda Gates and how the Gates Foundation has set out to turn around the absolute total failure of the U.S. high school system.

I'm going to find some time to dig into this. The whole Chronicle article is worth a read.

HISD Wrongly Spending Money on Rodeo?

2009-03-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

For you out of towners, our Houston rodeo is big time. Real big time with real big donors, real big ticket prices and real big events. It lasts for days and days. Big name entertainers perform each night at the rodeo. People go to the rodeo for the concert each night, basically. The movers and shakers of the rodeo are moneyed folks.

So there's this in today's Houston Chronicle:

The Texas Education Agency is investigating whether some HISD principals and administrators wrongly tapped discretionary funds to spend as much as $100,000 on rodeo gala tickets since 2003.

The principals bought the tickets with profits from school vending machines that go into funds controlled by the school leaders, said George Garver, manager of campus audits in the Houston school district’s inspector general’s office. Tickets for the annual Black Heritage Western Gala were then given to teachers and administrators.

The discretionary funds are to be used to “promote the general welfare and the educational development and morale of students,” the HISD’s financial procedures manual says. “Any expenditures directly from this account must benefit the entire student body.”

Now, I'm all about rewarding teachers for the tireless work they put in that largely goes unrecognized. But, that's no the reason given for purchasing the tickets:

School Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said principals and administrators had appropriately used the funds because purchasing tickets works to cement a fruitful partnership between HISD and the rodeo. The rodeo, he said, awards more than $1 million in college scholarships to HISD students annually.

OK, wait a minute. I think the rodeo should be giving away $1 million dollars to school kids (HISD is all Title 1 and majority Hispanic) without having some sort of quid pro quo of "I'll give you a cool million if you buy some gala tickets". And, my guess is that's exactly what the million dollar scholarships are about - generously giving back to the community.

There's a lot about this that doesn't make sense, so I sorta suspect there is another side to the story. Although, I don't know because another HISD official had this to say:

Moore said HISD employees do not attend the event to wine and dine, but to take part in honoring guests of honor who have made significant contributions to the area.

The event promotes a legitimate educational purpose — a portion of ticket funds go into college scholarship funds, Moore said. The rodeo, he said, awarded $1.3 million in scholarships to HISD students in 2007 and $1.4 million last year.

He's saying it's professional development? My suggestion is to spend that $100,000 on getting teachers up to speed on ELL strategies. Just a thought. And, the argument that part of the $100K goes back into the pot where the rodeo scholarships comes from sounds like, well a non-argument.

What y'all say about this cowboys and cowgirls?!

Education Stimulus: Strings Attached

2009-03-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

Arne Duncan had this to say about the $100 billion in federal stimulus funds for education (that's out of the $787 billion in total stimulus):

"This is really a chance to avert an educational catastrophe and to save a generation of kids," Duncan said.

$44 billion will be released to states in the next 30-45 days. Education officials are hoping this will be enough to prevent hundreds of thousands of layoffs nationwide and massive program cuts.

An additional $49 billion will be distributed within the next six months. The money will go towards three broad categories:

1. Title 1 - for economically disadvantaged
2. special education
3. state fiscal stabilization funds

The Washington Post articl e makes it clear that states will use the money to reverse big budget cuts already slated for education in some states such as Virginia and Maryland.

Some of the early release money can be received by states without them having to file new paperwork. To receive other, later funds, states have to commit to:

raising academic standards
testing students of all demographic groups
tracking progress over time and sharing those results
improving teacher effectiveness and distributing qualified teachers equitably
intervening in poorly performing schools

Duncan says:

"I want to be really clear," he said. "Simply trying to keep the status quo is not good enough. We have to push to get dramatically better."

It actually sounds to me like a chunk of the education stimulus will be used to keep the status quo, and another chunk will be used to improve schools. If most of the first part is to prevent layoffs and program cuts, then certainly the stimulus, in part, serves to keep education exactly where it already is.

I'll be curious to see how Texas spins its application for the improvement part of the stimulus. What does "dramatically better" look like to the Lege and TEA? We have some clue from the hodge podge of ideas from the Lege about changing the accountability system.

I'm hoping Duncan has some real smart people on board ready to put time and attention to data driven solutions as they are doling out the cash. The last thing we need is more stabs in the dark and random dart throws at the dart board as we try to "avert an educational catastrophe".

Education Stimulus: Strings Attached

2009-03-07T12:35:00.001-08:00

Education Week has links to education stimulus documents and the requirements for receiving and using the funds. Here's some of what I learned:

States are supposed to spend funds quickly to stimulate the economy.

Funds should be used to improve student achievement.

Four areas identified to improve student achievement through school improvement and reform:

1.Making progress toward rigorous college‐ and career‐ready standards and high‐quality assessments that are valid and reliable for all students, including English language learners and students with disabilities;

2.Establishing pre‐K‐to college and career data systems that track progress and foster continuous improvement;

3.Making improvements in teacher effectiveness and in the equitable distribution of qualified teachers for all students, particularly students who are most in need;

4. Providing intensive support and effective interventions for the lowest‐performing schools.

Because of the large amounts of money and importance of the investment, more rigorous reporting is required than with other grants.

The funds are expected to be temporary. The funds will only be available for 2-3 years. Funds should be invested in such a way that programs are sustainable after funding expires.

Some funds are available at the end of March (as in three weeks!). Some funds available in fall 2009, including the Title 1 grants, educational technology grants, teacher incentive funds and teacher quality enhancement fund and statewide data systems.

There will be a $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" competitive fund for states. Texas, will you be able to race to the top? $650 billion will be set aside for districts AND non-profits with a srong track record of results. Non-profits, start your engines! There will two rounds of Race to the Top grants - fall 09 and spring 10.

The report concludes with:

It represents a historic opportunity to restore America’s global leadership in education.

Texas Education Agency is on Twitter

2009-03-06T19:07:00.000-08:00

Right here: @teainfo.

Some recent TEA tweets:

The list of teachers serving on the Social Studies TEKS review committees has been posted at http://tinyurl.com/cpgte2

School accreditation ratings will be released at 1:00 on March 10.

We posted a new web page with info about the stimulus money at http://tinyurl.com/clunzq

And I gotta say, this is much more interesting to me than John Culbertson's rantings, or hearing about how someone is eating an ice cream cone or is tucking their kids into bed.

Oh, yeah, and I'm @lonestarschools on twitter and I'm trying to find more people talking about education to follow!

No Harris County Teachers On Social Studies TEKS Review Committee?

2009-03-06T18:33:00.001-08:00

It sure doesn't look like it. Now how is that supposed to work? There are 880,000 K-12 public education students in Harris County out of the 4,317,000 statewide. That's a little over 20%.

If I missed Harris County teachers on the list, please let me know. I do see all of those Conroe ISD teachers on the list. You'd have to be blind not to see those.

State Board of Education members recommended teachers in their districts to the committee. I am curious if no Harris County social studies teachers asked to be on the committee, or if their board members neglected to turn in names, or just what happened?

These teachers will make revisions to the current social studies TEKS and then present them as recommendations to the SBOE for adoption. This process is now in motion and Harris County is left out.

Texas Legislature Considering Changing School Accountability System

2009-03-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

I read this and I have questions. A lot of questions.

First of all, what are we going to do to improve schools that are low performing in a big way? I mean, really, really low TAKS scores is an indication of a huge problem. Kids can't read, do math that has to do with algebra or above, and kids are dropping out like flies and will continue to drop out. School is boring and is not meeting the needs of students where they are at in 2009.

I agree there needs to be a change now to stop jeopardizing schools that have one subgroup making them miss AYP or recommended or whatever.

Also, finally, someone makes it very clear that some school districts are assessed on 30 factors, while others on only 12.

I'm VERY sure that the system we have now is set up to create failure and frustration. I'm REAL clear that TAKS is driving good teachers out of school.

I'm VERY concerned that these proposed changes are based on wishful thinking and not on any data driven, research-based evidence. This seems to be the way education decisions are always made - very reactive, very cyclical (what's in vogue goes out of vogue, then comes back in vogue), and extremely political.

It Costs $99K Per Year To Lock Up A Youth In Texas

2009-03-04T04:07:00.000-08:00

We are spending $99,000 per year per incarcerated youth in Texas. It's a 66% jump since 2006 although the juvenile inmate population has decreased by almost half in two years.

How much does it cost Texas per year to educate these same youth if they are in public school? I don't know, but I'll try to find out.

In February 2008, there were 4100 employees per 2400 incarcerated youths. In 2007, there were 4600 employees per 4100 incarcerated youths.

Texas spends $17,337 per each incarcerated adult. (2008 figures)

This seems to be the right response:

"It's ridiculous," said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and an author of the 2007 reforms that were prompted by the abuse scandal. "They've got twice as many correctional officers as they need. ... They've got a big, expensive central office staff they don't need. ... And they're just trying to protect their turf and bureaucracy."

In the 2007 Legislative Session, TYC reforms were passed because of an abuse scandal. It looks like there needs to be reforms this year to bring the bureaucracy under control.

UPDATE: A friend at TSTA sent this to me: Last year Texas spent $7,978 (45th in the nation) per pupil on instruction.

9th Grade Reading TAKS Update: Reading Passages Revealed

2009-03-03T15:57:00.000-08:00

The 9th grade daughter is home and I have a report on what was on the 9th grade Reading TAKS and how it went. This is a follow-up to my morning post on the test.

Remember, my daughter predicted that the two reading passages would fall under one of several categories:

They are always about an animal, someone who does something extraordinary that is uninteresting or mud huts and how to make 50 mud huts.

So, drum roll . . . wait . . .wait . . . this year's passages were about:

1. a 5th grader who excelled academically, but wanted to also excel in a sport. So, she picked marbles! In the story, it is revealed that she had to strengthen her shooting thumb. One of my daughter's friends said the story was familiar to her and she was pretty sure they read it before. In second grade.

2. A boy from Africa who came to the United States and became a runner. And, about how people accepted him even though he could not speak English.

I think both of these may fall under the category of "someone who does something extraordinary that is uninteresting." (at least, let's face it - uninteresting to 14 and 15 year olds) I actually had a moment of concern posting the info about the second story. Will Republican legislators get up in arms over an immigrant story on TAKS?

My daughter started her test at 8 AM and was finished by 9 AM. There were 33 questions. She slept most of the rest of the day. Her testing room was very cold. Some kids took the entire day, from 8 AM until 2:45 and I would suggest that those students probably aren't reading on grade level. That's a wild guess on my part.

And, tomorrow my daughter takes a test called a "DAC" - some sort of district assessment on something. It's testing season in Texas public schools, boys and girls!

Today Is 9th Grade Reading TAKS Day In Texas!

2009-03-03T04:21:00.000-08:00

Today is 9th grade Readings TAKS day. All Texas 9th graders are in "lock down" mode, in one class all day, some not even allowed to read or sleep after the test. They brought their lunches and will eat in their classrooms. According to my own 9th grader, they were told 12 times yesterday about keeping their electronics off, rules for test taking and how the schedule will run.

So, are you smarter than a 9th grader? On the Texas Education Agency website, you can find the 2006 released 9th grade TAKS. The reading selections include inspiring fiction and non-fiction for teens entitled, "A Horse for Matthew" (about a horse and a boy) and "Hello, Old Paint" (a confusing and uninteresting story about selling - or not selling - a horse. I'm not clear on this because I couldn't make myself finish it). Obviously, 2006 was a very good TAKS year for the horsey set.

Part of the 9th grade test is the dreaded OER - open ended response. This is what we called "short answer" in the olden days, when we walked to school in the snow and had two channels on our black and white TVs. Here are the OERs from 2006:

In “A Horse for Matthew,” what do Matthew and Sundance have in common? Explain your answer and support it with evidence from the selection.

What did the author of “Hello, Old Paint” learn from her experience? Explain your answer and support it with evidence from the selection.

How is the bond between humans and animals important in both “A Horse for Matthew” and “Hello, Old Paint”? Support your answer with evidence from both selections.

A hint: IF YOU WRITE OUTSIDE THE BOX PROVIDED FOR YOUR ANSWER, YOU GET SCORED MUSH LOWER ON THAT RESPONSE. Said loudly with emphasis to whole classes of 15 year olds. (I learned this is because the answer sheets are scanned into a computer for scoring, so anything outside the box is not seen by the scorer, making the answer nonsensical.)

Also, BONUS! if you awkwardly refer back to the text, like this: "In the story, "Hello, Old Paint", blah, blah, blah, "exact quote from text", you will score higher. Seriously, that's the way you are supposed to answer.

A real live 9th grader speaks about OER: "They are always boring and about an animal, someone who does something extraordinary that is uninteresting or mud huts and how to make 50 mud huts. There are only two passages to read which is better than in the past grades where we had something like 30 boring short passages to read."

Anyway, good luck ninth graders! A lot is riding on your scores. For the rest of us this is Be Glad You Are Not A Ninth Grader Day.

Superintendent Perks

2009-03-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

Some facts about from the Houston Chronicle:

$225,000 is the typical superintendent salary for Houston's largest school districts
When HISD's Abe Saavedra leaves this year of next, he pockets $540,000 for unused sick, personal and vacation days accrued over his entire 40-year career. (regular school employees can only cash in a MUCH, much smaller portion of their unused leave. An example is Aldine ISD's 60 days.)
cell phone allowances: Clear Creek's Greg Smith gets a $960/yr allowance, while Dallas ISD's Michael Hinojosa gets $5400/year.
Austin ISD Superintendent Pat Forgione gets private luncheonn and health club memberships.
Aldine ISD's Wanda Bamberg gets an annual annuity contribution of $25K.
Fort Bend ISD has a $70,000 incentive bonus plan for Superintendent Timothy Jenney.
Cy-Fair's David Anthony gets a one-time bonus check of $50,000 if he stays on the job for five years.
Alief's Louis Stoerer gets a $6000 car allowance and half of his contribution to the Teacher Retirement system paid for.

A couple of things: taking on the leadership of a tough school district requires a special person who is willing to give 365/24/7 to the job. It also requires a strong, talented team, so perks distributed down the food chain are appropriate. And, if teacher bonuses are going to be tied to performance, then certainly superindent bonuses should be performance based. I think Cy-Fair's idea to try and keep their guy on the job for five years is a good one. It's a hard job and one that eats people up and spits them out.

Lack Of Quality Education Main Cause Of Latino Underachievement

2009-02-28T11:28:00.000-08:00

I have to say, this resonated with me:

Learning English may be a challenge for some Latinos, but it's not the main educational problem for most of them, argue Patricia Gandara and Frances Contreras in a new book, The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies. They point out that millions of Latino students speak only English but have really low academic achievement.
[---]
Gandara and Contreras argue that a lack of quality of education overall is the main cause for underachievement among Latinos. But at the same time, the authors spend a great deal of time in a chapter, "Is Language the Problem?," discussing how many schools have failed to effectively help English-language learners acquire English. (Keep in mind that 45 percent of Latino students are ELLs, though Gandara and Contreras don't mention this statistic in that chapter.) They imply that many schools have not been as effective as possible by teaching them only in English, and not using native-language instruction.

In addition, they argue that it may not be helpful for educators to consider a student to be either an English-learner or a fluent English speaker. "In reality..." they write, "most Latino students' English skills fall somewhere on a continuum between these two extremes: from speaking English as their first or primary language and being exposed to Spanish in the home or community, to speaking no English and living in a linguistically segregated, Spanish-only setting." They say that most Latino children probably need some kind of extra intervention to achieve the same language proficiency as their native-English peers.

It's not one or the other - improve the quality of education overall OR focus on language. This is a two sides of the same coin situation. My experience is that quality teaching with a focus on language objectives for all students, boosts achievement for everyone. I spend a lot of time thinking about this, and helping science teachers put it into practice.

We need good teachers in the classroom, period. We don't have enough of it and if we don't want to lose a generation of children, it needs to be our number one priority.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan Is For Teacher Incentives

2009-02-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

He's also for getting rid of teacher s who are underperforming in the classroom:

Duncan also suggested giving incentives to teachers whose students perform well, an unpopular idea with teachers' unions. And he said school systems may need to make tough decisions about teachers who don't perform at par.
"If teachers aren't making it, we want to support them and help them develop, but ultimately if it's not working, our children deserve the best," Duncan said. "They probably need to find something else to do."

I do a lot of work with new teachers and many of them are in tough schools with very little support. I think schools could do a lot better job of providing talented mentors to new teachers. There's not a huge pool of folks out there who are clamoring to teach in inner city schools, minority students and kids who are lagging behind. So, bringing teachers up to speed with lots of support is what I would recommend in terms of where we put dollars and human resources.

That being said, some people are really not cut out to be an educator and we have no time to waste. And Duncan is right on the money with this:

Duncan said he feels "a real sense of urgency" to implement national education reform.

"Our children in this country have one chance at education. One chance. We can't wait. We can't wait seven or eight years. We'll lose a generation of kids," Duncan said. "And so we have to get better; we have to get better now."

I often think my own kids are lost in the shuffle at their nationally ranked public school, and I am extremely concerned about kids who are spending year after year at underperforming schools with underperforming teachers.

Is A Longer School Year A Good Thing?

2009-02-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

Our new Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, says yes:

"It doesn't matter how poor, how tough the family background, socioeconomic challenges," Duncan said. "Where students have longer days, longer weeks, longer years -- that's making a difference."

He goes on to say that 30% of high school students drop out, with the dropout number for Hispanics and Blacks being 50%.

I'd like to see the data on "where students have longer days, longer weeks, longer years - that's making a difference."

I do some consulting in an urban high school that has kids there from 7:30 AM to 4 PM every day. Guess which period teachers are having the most problems? 8th period with is the last period of the day. Think about that. At that point in the day, kids have been to seven other classes. They woke up at probably 6 AM and school lets out 10 hours later.

From a faculty perspective, what's happening is that most teachers don't live anywhere close to the school. Many have an hour drive each way. They aren't leaving school until 5 PM, get home at 6, go to bed early at 9 or 10PM and get up at 5 the next morning so they can leave their house by 6:15 AM. There's very little down time, so it's gets to be pretty grueling.

I'll be interested to find out more about how a long day boosts student achievement. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I would like to see the ROI on this.

House Bill 1 Fails School Children

2008-05-06T05:48:00.000-07:00

Spring Branch ISD is the latest school district to raise the alarm about the school funding crisis.

The Spring Branch school district is facing insolvency in four to seven years if the current school funding system remains in place, district officials warned.

The funding issue reared its head again as the board prepares to adopt the its 2008-09 budget, which has a $10 million deficit and includes a projected $19 million payment to the state to help fund poorer school districts under the school funding formula.

The district on April 28 held the first of two public hearings about the budget, which drew no response from the public.

A second public hearing is scheduled for May 21, after which the board is expected to adopt the budget.

The district's budget is projected to be $269 million next year, with revenues are projected at $259.3 million.

It means the district will have to dip into reserve funds or raise taxes, neither of which is palatable to the district or the board, nor in the case of reserve funding, sustainable.

School districts all over the state are poised to go bankrupt by the 2011 legislative session. Why? House Bill 1, the "solution" to the threat of Texas Supreme Court action, froze payments to school districts at 2006 levels.

There was no provision for inflation. School districts are getting hit hard with the rising costs of fuel, electricity, insurance, and of course the need to increase personnel and salaries.

District officials and trustees blame the current school funding system for the fiscal crisis they say school districts around the state are facing.

The state's share of funding for school districts was set at the 2006-07 rate under House Bill 1 and does not allow for inflationary costs.

To continue to cover rising costs, districts will be forced to raise taxes or dip into reserve funds.

"This is definitely a result of (Texas) House Bill 1," said Mike Falick, board president.

"We and every other school district in the state, if the legislature doesn't address inflation, face an unsustainable deficit."

Klussmann has called it "a train wreck on the horizon."

Both Klussmann and Falick hope the legislature will address school funding in the next session in January 2009.

It's imperative we elect legislators who understand this is the number one priority of the next legislative session.

Can't Pass TAKS? Go Out of State to Graduate

2008-05-05T04:53:00.000-07:00

That's what some Texas seniors are doing. All Texas juniors have to pass Exit TAKS in their core subjects - Math, Science, English and Social Studies - in order to graduate. If they don't pass on the first try, they have multiple opportunities to retake them.

The Houston Chronicle reports that some students, after multiple Exit TAKS failures, choose to finish up the end of their senior year at a private school, at a high school out of state where no exit test is require, or as a homeschooler:

Texas is among about 20 states with high-stakes graduation exams. While researchers focus their efforts on identifying students who drop out because of these exams, no one collects statistics on the hundreds of other students who quietly exit Texas public schools to receive diplomas elsewhere. With just months or weeks left in their senior years, struggling students enroll in private schools or out-of-state campuses to skirt the TAKS. Others seek general equivalency diplomas or opt to be home-schooled down the final stretch.

As of March, 40,500 Texas high school seniors still needed to pass at least one portion of the four-part TAKS. Some of the students may have already dropped out, returned to their home country or moved out of state for issues unrelated to the TAKS, officials said. The majority, however, won't sport caps and gowns in June unless they passed the exam on their fifth attempt last week.

One thing not emphasized in the article is how students really should be able to pass Exit TAKS after five tries. I have my own eleventh grader at my home and he was more than a little astonished that students would have to resort to moving out of state at the end of their senior year because of failing a test that he considers easy.

But, TAKS is not easy for all students. There are language and cultural barriers, learning difficulties, poor classroom teaching, high text anxiety - all which can be factors in TAKS failure.

Things are changing:

TEA officials aren't sure whether switching to end-of-course exams, which will be phased in for Texas high schoolers in 2011-12, could mean fewer students will face these types of tough decisions so late in their senior years.

In theory, students should do better on say, an end-or-course Biology exam rather than waiting until the end of their junior year to be tested on Biology TEKS. In theory.

Better Science Through More English Language Arts

2008-05-05T04:46:00.000-07:00

During the 08-09 school year, Waco ISD seventh graders will double up on English Language Arts classes. This strategy is being implemented in order to strengthen the writing and reading skills of students so that they are more successful in other classes such as science and social studies. Other school districts have been doing this for years - Fort Bend ISD, for example, where all 6th through 8th graders go to two periods of English Language Arts every day.

Middle school students in low-performing schools are, in general, woefully lacking in their ability to comprehend what they read (for example, picking out key words and using context clues) and to explain what they know about concepts through writing.

One solution the Legislature came up with last session was to require all 6th-8th grade teachers participate in professional development on reading. All sixth grade teachers will receive training this summer.

The problem needs to be dealt with at the elementary level. Students don't necessarily use a lot of textbook material in elementary schools, yet they get to sixth grade and much instruction (unfortunately) and homework is textbook based.

Are You Dumber Than An Eighth Grader?

2008-04-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

The 2006 eighth grade Science TAKS test is online. Go ahead. Test yourself. Let me know in the comments how you scored. Or, if you had the patience to finish it.

If you were an actual 8th grader taking the test today, you would have all day to take the test. You would most likely finish early. And then, if the school allowed it, you would sleep. You would not read a book when you finished - not allowed by the state of Texas. No writing, no nothing. No going to lunch - bring a lunch to eat in the testing room. Seven to eight hours trapped in a room with nothing to do after plowing through the test, checking and rechecking your answers (because you have been trained to do that, as well as underlining key words in the questions).

Oh, and if you were a real 8th grader, you took this 2006 test as a "benchmark" so that your school could predict whether you were going to pass or fail the 2008 test, and deal with you accordingly (think: TAKS tutorials, TAKS pull-outs, special TAKS classes, TAKS packets . . . . )

But, seriously, are you dumber than an 8th grader?

1 in 4 Texas 8th Graders Fail Math TAKS

2008-04-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

25% of the eighth graders in Texas head into the May 1st Science TAKS - and Social Studies TAKS the following day - knowing they failed the Math TAKS that was administered in early April. One in three HISD 8th graders failed Math TAKS. There get two retakes, the first one being May 13th.

The good news is that only 8% of these 8th graders statewide failed their Reading TAKS.

The bad news is that they have to pass both Math and Reading to promote to the ninth grade. This is the first year for that particular accountability standard.

The eighth grader who is near and dear to me got Commended on her Reading TAKS, missing only one question. It bugs her that she can't find out which question it was.

There's a large group of kids who are obviously going to pass every TAKS test they take. Is it a waste of an education to make them suffer through test prep and long, boring test days? This week for sure is wasted for them. How many other days depends on the quality of the written and taught curriculum.

TAKS Week, aka Middle School Hell Week

2008-04-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

Our Texas eighth graders are seemingly doing all TAKS, all week, this week. Not exactly, but close. This is the first class of kids who have spent their entire school career under the thumb of TAKS and the threat of non-promotion if they don't pass.

On the schedule is the 8th grade Science TAKS test on Thursday, May 1st. The next day, all 8th graders take the Social Studies TAKS test.

But, it gets a little more stressful for some 8th graders. If they didn't pass the Reading TAKS, they retake it this Wednesday, April 30th. So, three days of TAKS tests for our most vulnerable, stressed out 8th graders.

These same 8th graders just found out their Math TAKS scores last week. If they got the bad news that they failed, then they have to retake that on May 13th. Which means lots of Math tutorials after they finish this week's tests.

They have to pass Reading and Math in order to promote to 8th grade. You better believe they realize this. You hear a lot of "Science and Social Studies don't count" in the hallways of middle schools all over Texas. But, administrators are desperate to see improved scores in Science and Social Studies because those two tests count for accountability ratings.

To make this test-taking week even more ridiculous, 6th and 7th graders have TAKS tests on Tuesday and Wednesday. This puts middle schools on "lock-down" Tuesday-Friday, where all grades are forced to stay in one classroom all day - no class changes, no going to lunch (have to bring a sack lunch to school) - no matter if it is test day for them or not. The principals want a quiet testing environment, and who can blame them when the stakes are so high.

A certain 8th grader, near and dear to this writer had this to say: "This will be the most boring week of school ever."

"Religious belief is not science"

2008-04-24T04:50:00.000-07:00

The Higher Education Coordinating Board unanimously approved the recommendation by Commissioner Raymund Paredes that the Institute for Creation Science cannot offer a master's degree in science education.

The money quotes:

"What they are calling science education has as much to do with science as reality television has to do with reality," said Paul Murray, a geophysicist from Austin.

"They clearly stand at odds with the most basic works of science," Paredes said. "Evolution is such a fundamental principle of modern science, it's hard to imagine how you could" teach science without it.

"If this were a program in accounting, it would be an expectation that when a student finished, they would be qualified to be an accountant," he said. (Joe Stafford, assistant commissioner for academic affairs and research_

There's this:

The institute had been accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools in California, but the group isn't recognized in Texas. Approval from the Higher Education Coordinating Board is considered an interim step to give new programs time to gain accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools or a similar group. Morris said that 27 students are enrolled in the institute program.

An advisory council at the Higher Education Coordinating Board recommended approval in December, and a board vote was set for January. That was pushed back to April after Paredes asked the institute for more information and visited the program with scientists in January.

Looks like we dodged a bullet. the HECB did the right thing.

No Child Left Behind in the News Today

2008-04-22T05:12:00.000-07:00

Watch for the Bush Administration's announcement today about proposed changes to No Child Left Behind. Of note is a proposal to make all states follow a uniform graduation rate reporting system.

Congress was supposed to tackle changes to the law this past session, but couldn't come to an agreement on what those changes should be. One that was on the radar was to make science part of the Annual Yearly Progress federal accountability system. I'm very interested to see if that is part of the Bush announcement today.

SBOE and ELA

2008-04-22T04:34:00.000-07:00

That would be the State Board of Education and English Language Arts. Welcome to Lone Star Schools where I will be blogging about the state of schools in the Lone Star State of Texas (and elsewhere.) Lots of alarming and important material to talk about.

First up: the SBOE's insistence on bucking education experts' recommendations on English Language Arts TEKS revisions. Lisa Falkenberg, in a column for the Houston Chronicle, has about the best round-up of this issue that I've seen. She notes that the SBOE wants to abandon the process-oriented, contextual, comprehension approach in the current TEKS - and advocated by education research - and go back to the 1950's approach of drilling grammar, sentence structure and with little emphasis on comprehension.

It's amazing that what the SBOE members lack in education expertise, they make up in grandiose ego:

The two most vocal advocates of the new curriculum, SBOE chairman Don McLeroy, a Bryan dentist, and SBOE member David Bradley of Beaumont, neither of who have a background in education, don't seem interested in the research.

As Bradley explained to me, if you just provide the basic tools, the students will naturally put them together to create sentences and paragraphs and essays.

The idea of actually teaching students to comprehend what they read each year is "mushy" or "fuzzy," in his eyes. Even the essential skill of critical thinking, needed in any job, in nearly every facet of everyday life, doesn't need to be taught in schools because it's innate, Bradley says.

"I'm sorry," he told me. "This critical thinking stuff is gobbledygook."

He holds tight to the romantic view that what worked in the past is suitable for today's youth. But did yesterday's youth really speak such perfect English? As long as there has been language, haven't there been complaints that "kids today" can't speak it as well as previous generations?

And, as Falkenberg points out:

Proponents of the proposed reading standards cite statistics showing half of Texas college freshmen need remedial education, compared with only 28 percent nationally.
But they neglect to point out the promising statistics: This past year, Texas students earned higher average scale scores on a national eighth-grade writing exam than did their peers nationally.

That said, no one is disputing that many students are struggling with reading and writing. And coalition educators agree the current curriculum could be clarified.

But certain members of the state board fail to consider that perhaps it's not the lack of flashcards or a glut of reading comprehension instruction causing the problem.

Perhaps it also has to do with poverty, budget cuts, larger class sizes, the number of students who are learning English as a second language, special education students being mainstreamed into classrooms, veteran teachers fleeing the profession. And, just maybe, students' writing woes have something to do with the fact that educators pressured to teach to the test focus on the vital skill only in the four grade levels when it's tested.

But those complex problems require complex solutions.

Two things to leave you with:
1. There is an alternative to Bradley and that person is Laura Ewing, running against him this November.
2. The Science TEKS revisions are up next. Can you imagine what that is going to be like with these 1950's gurus on the SBOE leading that effort? Think: creationism, drill and practice, and wide, but not deep curriculum.

More on Ewing and the Science TEKS revision process in later posts.