State Board of Education September Meeting
The State Board of Education will next meet at the William B. Travis Building in Austin on September 17-19. While the specific agenda has not been released yet, the September meeting has traditionally included a public hearing on the instructional materials that will be considered for approval by the SBOE in November. Proclamation 2015 includes high school mathematics, K-12 social studies, and fine arts.
Items that will be considered for second reading include proposed revisions to the TEKS for Languages Other Than English (LOTE) and proposed revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 100, Charters, Subchapter A, Open-Enrollment Charter Schools.
Monitor the SBOE page on the TEA website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=25769814582 for the posting of the September agenda.
SSI Grades 5 and 8 STAAR Mathematics Requirement Suspended
Commissioner of Education Michael Williams has advised school districts and state charter schools that due to the transition to the revised statewide mathematics curriculum standards, the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) assessments for grades 5 and 8 mathematics will be administered only once in the 2014–2015 school year.
This decision means that the Student Success Initiative (SSI) requirement that fifth and eighth grade students must pass the STAAR mathematics assessment in order to be promoted to sixth and eighth grade, respectively, will be suspended only for the 2014-15 school year and only for mathematics. State law requiring fifth and eighth grade students to pass the STAAR reading exam in order to proceed to the next grade level will still be in effect.
Revised TEKS in mathematics were adopted by the State Board in April 2012. The revised TEKS for kindergarten through grade 8 will be implemented in classrooms and in the grades 3–8 assessment program in the 2014–2015 school year. New mathematics instructional materials for first through eighth grade will be in classrooms in the 2014-15 school year. School districts and state charter schools will review and select instructional materials for high school math courses this year, with those materials in classrooms for the 2015-16 school year. Commissioner Williams echoed the sentiments of many teachers and school leaders when he noted in a May 1 letter that Texas faces “substantial challenges associated with implementation of the revised mathematics statewide curriculum standards in the STAAR grades 3–8 assessments.” The Commissioner explained that districts will use other relevant academic information to make promotion or retention decisions for mathematics.
The State Board of Education has a regular cycle for the review and modification of the statewide curriculum standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). As TEKS revisions are made in the various subject areas, the state instructional materials review and adoption cycle follows. Subsequently, changes are made to the state assessment program to maintain the necessary link between the TEKS and statewide assessments.
Because performance standards for STAAR grades 3–8 mathematics will not be set until after the spring 2015 administration, retest opportunities for STAAR grades 5 and 8 mathematics will not be offered in May and June of 2015. This parallels the approach used for the first administration of STAAR in spring 2012.
More information about the STAAR mathematics may be found on TEA’s STAAR Mathematics Resources webpage at: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/math/.
STAAR Performance Standards Maintained for 2014-2015
Commissioner of Education Michael Williams notified districts and charters that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) will maintain initial academic performance standards (Phase-In 1) for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) program for the 2014–2015 school year.
In addition to maintaining current performance standards for 2014-2015, TEA will be proposing changes to the existing plan to phase in performance standards for the STAAR grades 3–8 and end-of-course (EOC) assessment programs. The existing plan will be adjusted from two steps to three steps to allow for smaller, incremental movements toward final performance standards.
The proposed three-step phase-in plan would include:
- The current phase-in 1 performance standards will be maintained for the 2014–2015 school year.
- The new phase-in 2 performance standards will be implemented beginning in the 2015–2016 school year.
- The new phase-in 3 performance standards will be implemented beginning in the 2018–2019 school year.
- The final recommended performance standards will be implemented in the 2021–2022 school year.
The standard in place when a student first takes an EOC assessment is the standard that will be maintained throughout the student’s school career.
More information about the STAAR academic performance standards is available on the TEA website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/performance-standards/.
TEA Releases TELL Survey Highlights
The Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning (TELL) Texas Survey is a statewide survey of school based licensed educators to determine if they have the supports necessary for effective teaching. The survey requirement was created by House Bill 2012 (83rd legislative Session). The online survey was administered in the spring of 2014 by TEA. The intent of the TELL survey was to provide additional data for school and district improvement. During the course of the two-month survey period, 83,103 (approximately 20%) of school-based licensed educators responded to the survey. Ninety-one percent of respondents were teachers.
Educators in Texas expressed concern that the survey would take a minimum of thirty minutes to complete and had to be completed in one session. The survey time frame, April 7–May 5, overlapped with STAAR testing dates, which was another significant issue for the education community. The TELL Texas survey did not ask the teacher how much time he or she spends delivering instruction to students, but rather focused on time spent on other tasks. This concern was shared with TEA by TASA but no changes were made in the TELL Texas survey content as a result of TASA’s efforts.
Among the teacher response highlights:
- 88% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: Teachers are encouraged to try new things to improve instruction.
- 63% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: Teachers are allowed to focus on educating students with minimal interruptions.
- 60% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: Teachers have sufficient instructional time to meet the needs of all students.
- 52% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: Efforts are made to minimize the amount of routine paperwork teachers are required to do.
For more information about the 2014 TELL Texas Survey, please visit http://www.telltexas.org