The State Board of Education met on August 31, 2022, and heard from Texas Public Education Commissioner Mike Morath. A video archive of the hearing can be found here.

This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.

 

Mike Morath, Commissioner

  • A-F update, reviews how TEKS would be seen in STAAR questions
  • “What’s inspected is respected” says Morath regarding the accountability system
  • Public rating system causes adults to behave differently, monitoring performance with school ratings has been shown to have long term benefits for students
  • Argues design of system reflects a commitment to recognize high student achievement and recognize the impact of highly effective educators, while maintaining focus on the students most in need
  • In 2022, 8,451 campuses were rated
  • From 2019 to 2022, 33% of campuses improved their letter grave and 15% declined
  • 1,006 campuses went from a B, C, D, or F in 2019 to an A in 2022
  • Provision of statute is to keep goal posts the same which is different from the way accountability used to occur in Texas
  • Stability in the model allows for year over year comparison
  • A-F ratings issued using a new 5-year methodology will occur next year Aug 2023
  • Ratings use 40% of STAAR and other factors such as college ready and career and military ready, Morath pointed out the section industry-based certifications (IBCs)
  • Programs of student and TEKS based courses are established by the state, instructional materials and coursework and course-embedded assessments are created or procured by local decision culminating in IBCs summative assessments created by certifying entities
  • There are formal rules for adopting IBCs, process is explained
  • List version 1 had 74 IBCs, today there are 256 IBCs
  • It takes a while to stand up a CTE program
  • Of note there were 873 IBCs referred for evaluation, they reviewed for those recognized or valued which brought the list to 579 recommended for further evaluation and the total was 256 IBCs met all 6 parts of the evaluation curriculum.
  • Microsoft Office Specialist Word credential is coming off the list and have a few years to make a transition to another credential program
  • OSHA training credentials do not meet criteria, TEA will be working to add this to a TEKS aligned course
  • Little – express thanks to students who work hard to raise the scores
  • Johnson – have goals and aspirations been met of the Commissioner and comparison of us to other states?
    • Wanted kids to read, write and do math and at high levels and pursue the American dream
    • Want every kid to be prepared for success
  • Davis – districts want to pay teachers for reading academies, any models out there?
    • $800 a million a year in early learning allotment, covers several things but more than enough to fund reading academies statewide
    • Have effective implementation models they will share
  • Hardy – thanked Commissioner for IBCs update, exciting to see number of available IBCs. Been told by people who attended “science meetings” they were introduced to rubric for TRR and it is more reflective of NGSS than state TEKS and would like him to further review
    • Will need to get to the bottom of it, will review quality control procedures, needs to be reflective of TEKS
  • Maynard – CTE conversation has provided an impetus for industry to engage in conversations, would like an update on school safety
    • Set of actions required before school started which included additional training, checking every exterior door, new operational procedure for exterior door sweep, verification process, TEA follow up for required actions if there are shortfalls
    • Third party audit checking on an unannounced basis
    • Getting feedback from districts on cost estimates to additionally improve level of safety
    • Have a chief of school safety and security they are in final discussions on and will provide an update soon
  • Robinson – felt like “stubbed toe” on social studies framework, any comments on how to improve the next time around and would like to provide more education to the stakeholders. Felt the holdup was the framework they couldn’t get passed.
    • Leave it to them at the SBOE as the policy makers, would defer to leadership of SBOE body
  • Hickman – asked if Ds and Fs return in A-F, was it easier/harder to get an A or B this year?
    • Yes, this year A-C ratings and then A-F
    • Goal post was the same, academic growth was highest area of achievement and notes last year there was low proficiency so it is possible it factored into academic growth
  • Bell-Metereau – scores correlate to income level of parents, is there a way to control for that measurement (a handicap to the score)
    • Confirmed if it was A-F, Bell-Metereau referred to the Dallas Morning News Article
    • Overall ratings were .3 in R squared and it was not a strong correlation, it is true there are very few D and F rated campuses in areas with no poverty and vice versa but differences are not reflected of poverty but what the students have learned
    • Notes A-F also is about eliminating achievement gaps and improving outcomes, tons of evidence-based interventions supporting around the state
    • Points to evidenced based literacy practices, trained teachers aligned to the standards and instructional materials support
    • Tutoring is another example, there are national studies saying right structure can get a 5 month learning gain, last year state made investment state wide
  • Allen – in conversations that discussed funding will not be available this year, wants to dig deep on a school that got an A rating
    • gov tell me more explains the methodology, 30 day lag in publication of some of the data
    • HB 3 gave a significant infusion of state funds, some iterative funding increases will happen automatically
    • There were one time ESSER funds given to districts, there is more time for districts to use those federal resources and create a glide path…tutoring in specific
    • Notes districts only needed about $74 million for tutoring
    • Allen – Notes one district he is visiting is having to use fund balance, found it unusual and maybe a management issues
    • On the Texasschools.gov can see total funding for each student
  • Perez-Diaz – asked about tutoring dollars that were over-projected, where were additional dollars provided?
    • All the funding was given to school districts, confirmed it was already allocated
    • Perez-Diaz – How much has agency paid out in bonuses?
    • There are two costs authorized, CCMR is IBCs/College enrollment and military readiness and its around $200 million, well get that data to her
  • Perez-Diaz – certifications were once offered that didn’t meet industry needs, now concerned about alignment of high wage and high demand
    • High wage/high demand not part of framework
    • Tri-agency meeting and work across agencies on assessments for IBCs
  • Perez – it was not left to Commissioner to determine platform for Social Studies, SBOE decided they were not moving forward and cannot put that blame on others
  • Morath – noted there were evidenced based practices to help, train every teacher on science of reading in reading academies which is a significant investment in teachers and required schools use instructional materials that are aligned.. all things state policy requires, they do and has significant impact in low-income communities/at risk kids
  • Morath – new law that requires if kids are below grade level they need tutoring, new state policy to address tutoring which also has an impact to kids in low-income communities
  • Bell-Metereau – students do better when they see themselves reflected in the curriculum, asked Morath is he has looked at that practice?
    • Rigor of instructional materials is a clear factor is students are learning, if reading material and there is not a lexical complexity then students will not learn new words so level of complexity/rigor is important
  • Ellis – Instructional material process designed by statue is bi-furcated, and Hardy noted a rubric not aligned, curious about process alignment
    • Favor a unified process, like role SBOE had as a vetting process for instructional material as a whole