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The House Committee on Public Education met on July 25, 2022, to hear invited and public testimony over several topics, including the implementation of several bills passed during the 86th and 87th Legislative Sessions, the effects of COVID-19 on K-12 learning loss, and the causes of chronic absenteeism. A video recording 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.

 

Opening remarks

  • Dutton notes there are many critical issues to address including mental health
  • VanDeaver discusses districts not able to offer courses if they don’t have a teacher, wonders what resources can be offered to districts to address the “crisis of teacher shortage”
  • Dutton agrees with concerns but not sure what can be done in the committee
  • Huberty – Large amount of resignations as a result of burdens placed on teachers, example 4545
  • Huberty need to address teacher workload in particular in HB 4545, and notes there was certain concerns around teacher preparation

 

Invited Testimony on HB 3/HB 1525

Elizabeth Fagen, Superintendent Humble ISD

  • Fast growth district and appreciates work legislature did in HB 3
  • Will be dropping property tax rate by 4.6 cents
  • Attitude of families has changed regarding going to school ill
  • Request considering continuing virtual ed and community accountability
  • Number of special education students are growing
  • Ask committee to consider things that are special for teachers and working on doing a nationwide salary like: childcare incentives and college tuition incentives
  • Also makes recommendations for addressing safety
  • Dutton – you mentioned you are reducing the tax rate, will it reduce the tax on citizens or will valuations eat up the reduction?
    • As long as entities raise valuations then tax relief being provided will not be seen
    • School districts not getting all the money and spends a lot of time sharing that message
  • Huberty – asked about reading academies and STAAR scores
    • Integrated reading academies with a local assessment, used the opportunity to teach teachers how to use assessment and what to do when students are not performing well
    • Teachers felt overwhelmed with reading academies and worked to make the training useful

 

Kyle Lynch, Superintendent Seminole ISD

  • Rising cost of living has eaten up teacher salary increase in HB 3 from just three years ago
  • HB 3 simplified things but need further assistance to help with costs like formula transition grant and transportation to address rising cost of gas
  • Many districts are heading for a fiscal cliff once grants expire
  • Not only will districts not see increase to address inflation, but will see a cut and at the same time federal funding is set to expire
  • Schools don’t see an increase in M&O revenue as property valuations climb and once it hits a floor then resulting revenue increases go to recapture
  • Recapture continues to grow – exceeded $3 billion this past year and without relief it will continue to climb
  • A solution to address all these issues will be to increase basic allotment and at least 30% of any increase goes to teacher salaries and help us reduce recapture – if increases BA to match inflation would be around $600 increase
  • Every $100 added to BA means $100million reduction statewide
  • Texas Public Schools need a legislative solution to recruit and retain quality teachers that will help us meet academic and social/emotional needs of students
  • King – curious about recommended solutions
    • Reinstitute teeth on filing on both parents and students
    • Need kids in classroom and need teeth to bring it back
    • ATPE survey shows additional regulations and burdens putting on teachers and many of those are around STAAR
  • King – losing teachers who have already been trained in the classroom and only profession that is limited salary
    • Many teachers move to administration to make more money
    • Solutions to address require more money

 

Brian Woods, Superintendent Northside ISD

  • School safety and teacher shortage are issues to address
  • HB 3 issues to discuss teacher incentive allotment, full day pre-k, CCMR outcome bonus
  • Regarding teacher incentive allotment, takes several years to stand up and no inflation adjustment
  • Full day pre-k – his district has spent around $29 million and received less than $10 million to address reading academies and full day pre-k
  • There are facility needs to address full day pre-K such as lower desks and cubby’s as well as close restrooms
  • Do believe investment in pre-K will show results long term
  • Reading academies are high quality learning but requirements to complete in time it was rolled out was challenging
  • Encourage a thoughtful review before assigning increase to STAAR scores to reading academies and HB 4545 given they have not been implemented very long and waivers to fully implement HB 4545
  • Notes districts are struggling with teachers and staffing, points out would be helpful to bring in retirees
  • King – had a lot of retire rehire back in his day and argument was it was taking space away from new teachers and maybe need to go back with it
    • A solution worth considering
    • Perhaps look at groups in last 4-5 years who retired
  • Labor shortage is not restricted to teachers
  • King – thinks need to know what problems at the time were retire rehire rules changed
  • Teachers and others are being recruited out of schools and hired in other industries and being paid more than in education
  • Huberty – thought about indexing basic allotment when they started it, it was a mistake and should have indexed it to keep up with inflation and agrees at a minimum indexing the basic allotment or increasing basic allotment is needed
    • Perhaps could index to 2019 and then if increase is greater than x, providing an increase
    • This would also help address teacher pay if BA had gone up
  • Huberty – districts also not taking advantage of TIA and there is a bucket of money sitting there
  • Bernal – challenges they had to indexing BA was not from the House
  • Bernal – districts feeling compelled to implement HB 4545 to letter of law
    • Told staff to do best they can but don’t run people out of profession for HB 4545
    • Doubt they can meet the letter of the law in the coming year
    • Implementation puts additional burden on teachers
  • Bernal – after all the educational challenges for COVID, points to disconnect of the testimony he is hearing and private conversations of why teachers are saying they are leaving the profession
  • Bernal – can you have a conversation of why teachers are leaving, does the conversation by the lawmakers impact teacher workforce such as historical curriculum, teachers carrying and removing books from library
    • There will not be a silver bullet that fixes it all
    • The toxicity of discussion around public school (from libraries to social studies) is contributing to driving people out along with their ability to get good pay elsewhere
    • It would be dangerous to ignore how some politicians (current committee excluded) criticize schools and in some cases make stuff up – it is more than not helpful, it is hurtful
    • Conger – says for him it’s a longer day for teachers and there is more stress on teachers, there are many things, money does play a part
    • Lynch – when you put an A-F on a school, they all want to do the best they can and thinks they overemphasize STAAR scores
  • Points to recent TRS study compared to other states, encourages members to review that information
  • Gonzalez – what specifically would he point to in TRS?
    • Once retired, the annuity is set and there is no cost of living or indexing to inflation
    • Rule of 80 and rule of 90, a 40-year commitment before being fully eligible to retire
  • Allen – says retired teachers for the most part don’t want to come back, so that would be a small pool
  • CCMR outcome bonus at this point represents about 50% of what used to be called the HS allotment, there are COVID related challenges for this bonus
  • Compensatory education, adjustment to neighborhood poverty has helped
  • Only recovered from cuts in 2011 with HB 3
  • Bell – your current tax rate is about 9 cents, ask others about the rate of compression
    • Yes for I&S, will reduce tax rate by 6 pennies
  • Dutton – what percentage of teaching profession is male and female, to what extent does that impact workforce
    • Vast majority is female
  • Things to consider: resource campuses, discusses funding for CTE courses and notes expanding CTE to 7th and 8th grade has been good and an outstanding provision of HB 1525
  • Talarico – ask about delivery of instruction in reading academies and time to complete
    • Feedback is being given to TEA and time to complete is an issue
    • Need to offer more during the summer and compensate teachers for their time
  • Bernal – thinks they will be dealing with learning loss for a while, is extended year or longer school helpful
    • Lynch & Conger – getting hung up on technicality but would be good to extend year
    • Agree that ADSY is a good thing but challenge is in implementing it
  • Innovative scheduling can be seen at K-5 level where they can move students to remediation group or an enrichment if remediation is not needed but part of challenge is group size required in HB 4545
  • In secondary schools focused on enrichment calendars not focused so much on HB 4545
  • Buckley – asked about removing surcharge of bringing people back
    • Agree that needs to be done but also cautions there is not enough in the retirement pool to address the complete need

 

Eddie Conger, Texas Charter School Association

  • Dual language discussion and request for adjustment
  • TIA is an incredible program, they were able to participate in the program but there is a new wrinkle in how it is administered

 

Kevin Brown, Texas Association of School Administrators

  • Areas of concern: over $600 million in TIMA was cut, reading academies which can be an important feature but cautions against onerous nature of the program
  • Cautions against doing something that leads to another fiscal cliff, public schools need to be sustainable
  • There is a general fatigue in the profession and at all levels, it’s a difficult time to be in public education
  • Look at funding based on enrollment instead of average daily attendance
  • Aim should be for average in per student spending across the nation
  • Looking at community-based accountability that lets community see what the school is doing around all their activities, not asking for anything legislatively but a big component to be more accountable
  • Lots of discussion about big overload, continue to ask educators to do more and more
  • Good ideas in HB 4545 but requirements in terms of 30 hours
  • Social media conversation has caused a teacher to retire, the way we talk about educators and public schools matter
  • People take it personally because it is a personal profession and when you take away that feeling or saying things negatively (not talking about the committee but larger discourse in public education) then it impacts those in education

 

Michael Lee, Texas Association of Rural Schools

  • Stress for those in the profession today are so much more than just a few years ago
  • There are more things coming onto districts because of Uvalde so continue to be aware of all those things that were already in place when latest needs were added
  • HB 3 addressing small and midsize allotment was helpful; leave special ed funding in small and midsize allotment
  • HB 1525 fast growth allotment concern
  • $40 million in hold harmless, encourage continuation in that
  • Need to get kids in CTE in summertime without roadblocks
  • Gonzalez – appreciate expansion in CTE
  • Also points out increase in Basic Allotment would help
  • Buckley – said language may keep some districts out of fast growth allotment, what is impact of not recognizing impact of smaller rural schools
    • Schools can double in size in about 5 years,

 

Bruce Gearing, Superintendent Leander ISD

  • Issue of concern on fast growth allotment is proration
  • Ask is to raise spending cap to $400 million to help avoid proration and sensitive to the fact that smaller districts be included but funds are available for current fast growth
  • Huberty – originally did a cap because did not know the cost; wouldn’t it be better to not have a cap
    • Ideally would not want a cap at all on Fast Growth Allotment
    • Huberty – encourages committee to make a recommendation to help address this concern

 

Ben Mackey, Interim Executive Director for Texas Impact Network

  • Teacher Incentive Allotment, 22 districts are fully approved which is a 2-4-year process
  • All total about 2/3 of students are in districts that have applied or moving to be applied
  • Seeing rural districts outpace in terms of take up of TIA
  • Outcome bonus funding and ADSY were other highlights
  • ADSY not always every day that a teacher is required to be in class and allows to rethink what the school day looks like
  • Texas CFO network started to bring CFO together to help them think strategically about their role in learning and be part of the conversation
  • Talarico – CCMR question, why are districts not taking advantage of the bonus? Hearing from some it’s about data collecting after students graduate and hearing Peace Corp or Ameri Corp is not counting as service
    • Getting to heart of problem is first hurdle, need to pull together all the data
    • There are struggles to get data once student leaves
    • Agrees service programs are not included like Peace Corp and Ameri Corp
  • Dutton – some of us get pushback from colleges where students are going to remedial programs in colleges from schools that got a CCMR bonus
    • Thinks it is still important for the school to get the bonus

 

Kathy Rollo, Superintendent of Lubbock ISD

  • Thanks legislature for HB 3 and TIA
  • Classroom teacher is the single most powerful influence in student achievement that is within the control of the education system
  • Discusses design of TIA such as being provided in addition to pay scale
  • All but a handful of teachers will be able to apply to TIA which includes CTE, AP, Special Ed, etc
  • TIA teachers allotment brings over $2 million annually with 90% going to classroom/campus
  • Carefully worked through journey with design team which includes representatives from teacher organizations
  • Teachers and district reap rewards from the program
  • Percentage of those leaving the district are miniscule, and some are turning down admin positions in favor of continuing with TIA
  • Gonzalez – how did you all include special ed?
    • Will share details, they had special ed teachers on the design team and carefully walked through it
  • Buckley – would like to see a clearinghouse to help with best practices
    • Playbook is on website and goal is every designation of teacher be able to apply

 

Karla Smith, TIA Recipient

  • Discusses her personal story, that TIA centers around the role of what her profession is about and makes contribution to TEA home learning network
  • Classrooms have become battlegrounds and teachers are being called to the frontline and TIA helps with this
  • Talarico – asked about pushback and for more details
    • Surrounding districts asking for help, don’t want to make it about a competition but if you win then everyone wins
    • Rollo – takes time to educate on how a teacher could receive designation, uses state evaluation system and was concerned about inflation of rubric when they started – need to stick with TTESS evaluation with fidelity
    • Dallas allows for student voice to count for 15% on the rubric, Lubbock ISD does not

 

Raul Trevino, Asst. Superintendent Rio Hondo ISD

  • Application to PTECH
  • Also sought more funding, partnered with a rural CCMR accelerator program, rootEd Alliance, helped pay for 1:1 counseling for seniors and seeing nearly 100% completion/graduation
  • Brought in $1.8m in scholarships as a result
  • Applied for & received two JET grants
  • Bernal – How would the teacher allotment work in a district like ours with 1 school at each level?
    • To start looked at teachers with students at STAAR levels, then expanded
  • Bernal – Has it made a difference for economically disadvantaged funding year-to-year? Have very small group of students in a large geography, is it working the way it’s supposed to, do you feel the impact of the block funding?
    • We have felt a different, targeting areas with biggest bang for buck
    • Goal is that students leave with credentialing

 

Daniel King, Region 1 ESC

  • Open for questions
  • Dutton – wondered about efficiency of technology programs, perhaps having a regional service center run it
    • Many districts have invested quite a bit, many areas where they are currently run is probably the best way
    • Dutton says it bothered him having 1200 a/c programs across the state and wondered if there was tap ESCs
  • Some districts partner with area technical colleges

 

Lori Kuykendall, Beacon Health Education

  • Testimony will focus on SHAC and reviews changes in recent legislation
  • Legislation didn’t increase monitoring and enforcement
  • Schools have been overwhelmed with all the changes
  • Guidance from TEA was limited and came late in the year
  • Points out compliance issues across the state and requests committee to provide more direction and support
  • Ask for repeal of implementation time as schools need more time to comply
  • Talarico – asked about opt in provision and percent of response in districts
    • Specific to human sexuality and sex trafficking/child abuse
    • There is diversity across the district
    • Opt in elevated parent involvement piece but district needs to reflect community values and put-up something parents will opt in for
    • Districts are tracking return rate as well as opt in/opt out
  • Bell – appreciates seeing the checklist provided in the handouts
  • Gonzalez – asked about inclusivity/mental health?
    • Reviews several things in place with TEKS

 

Andrea Chevalier, ATPE

  • Conducts survey, read responses and writes reports on them
  • Report provided, Let us teach
  • Implementation of reading academy just poor timing – they find content value, but overall value hindered due to work time
  • Reviews results of survey
  • Survey reports time to take academies took longer than estimated
  • Those who took training in person enjoyed training more than those who took it online
  • Many said they had to take training on weekend or after hours and this became a breaking point for a lot of educators
  • 58% of completers said they were not paid for their time
  • Recommendations include greater flexibility, need to pay teachers for time if outside of school day
  • New teachers have so much on their plate so having to complete this training needs to be as efficient as possible
  • Face to face cost more so more funding needs to be provided
  • Consider providing a micro-credential
  • Gonzalez – what would compensation have cost state?
    • $250-$7k for completed training
    • Would look at avg number of hours it takes to complete and pay for that (like if it takes 60 hours at $30 per hour)

 

Mary Jane Bowman, Director of Literacy Grand Prairie ISD & Cicely Jones, Reading Academies Cohort Facilitator (resource witness)

  • Had over teachers initially enrolled in blended, and 96% teachers were able to complete the training
  • Personally tried to complete the training, meeting deadlines was challenging and the time commitment was strong but the learning opportunity is excellent
  • Each module has been well thought out
  • Allen – heard back from teachers on time it takes to complete the reading academy such as teachers who already had skills, and some said it takes almost as much time to complete a degree; do you think if they could get a certificate it would make a difference?
    • Yes, thinks there is value in the academies and opportunity by module to show mastery of skills then teacher should have the opportunity
    • Allen again reiterates it would be good to work with university to get these teachers credit
  • Bernal – were teachers compensated and did you notice if they did training online or in person?
    • Cicely Jones – provided specifics
    • Trying to find times that is built into school year
  • Allen – what percentage of trained teachers is staying with you? Or going?
    • About 300 will stay and losing about 50 and agrees it is a lot
  • Cicely Jones – points to training as powerful

 

Invited Testimony on HB 4545

Alanna Phelan, VP of Tutoring, Amplify Education

  • Provides overview of Amplify Education, who serves over 10M students nationwide
  • Designated as 1 of 3 TEA approved tutoring providers, provided services to over 200 LEAS
  • Three models of tutoring:
    • Full service high impact – Amplify provides tutors, platform, and all services
    • High impact tutoring program support – Amplify provides tutors to implement LEAs plan
    • High impact tutoring consultancies – Amplify provides consulting services
  • Gains seen after 1 semester of high impact tutoring
  • Subsidizing programs ensures research backed tutoring is given to students
  • Some LEAs have been slower to launch services due to lack of capacity, including program capacity
  • Tutor staffing is a huge problem, many LEAs have reported staffing issues
  • Encourages the continuation of subsidizing tutoring services and materials
  • Dutton – Did your company exist before HB 4545?
    • Yes, since 2000
  • Dutton – What did HB 4545 change to do your acceptance or perception?
    • Prior to HB 4545, we were not specifically working on tutoring services in Texas, although we were providing elsewhere, but after HB 4545 we began to do the three models
  • Dutton – Are your tutoring services essentially free to the student?
    • Yes, this is different than traditional tutoring services, TEA has designated Amplify as subsidized provider, we license material to LEAs, and it is free for those students
  • Dutton – How do you measure success?
    • The actual academic gains, we look at M Class reading assessment scores, looked at well below benchmark students after participating in 1 semester in Amplify tutoring, Amplify made them more likely to make gap-closing gains
  • Dutton – Are you limited geographically?
    • We are available to anyone across the state
  • Dutton – Do you concentrate on any age group?
    • Specifically focused on K-5 students and specifically focused on literacy
  • Dutton – How many students have you impacted since HB 4545?
    • Materials have been provided to over 130,000 students in state, directly tutored over 1,600 students with Amplify tutors
  • Dutton – Do you have any specific data to show progress for students you tutor directly?
    • We look at students scoring well below benchmark after participating in 1 semester in Amplify tutoring, roughly 58% of students made an “outsized growth”
  • Bell – How many tutoring groups are authorized by TEA?
    • Providing materials and training, we are 1 of 3; for vendors providing full services tutoring, we are 1 of 20 vendors
  • Dutton – What have been the difficulty increasing number of students you see?
    • Many LEAs have been slower getting started, having staff to deliver tutoring has been a challenge, having program capacity or management capacity within central office of the LEA

 

Sharla Horton- Williams, North Texas Tutoring Corps

  • Working specifically in Dallas region to bring about academic recovery for students during COVID-19
  • Texas has failed at academic recovery, less than 5% of students not at grade level reach grade level the following year
  • Took a regional approach, partnered with 3 large districts in Dallas area
  • Saw stronger gains in reading than math, also stronger gains in elementary rather than secondary, tutoring secondary kids is “really hard”
  • Believes in essence of HB 4545, but need necessary revisions so it is actionable for more districts across the state, and also sustained
  • Believes in ratio, urges to maintain the current ratios while also providing flexibility for LEAs that do not compromise outcomes
  • Allow for greater flexibility for tutoring during the school day
  • Scope should be narrower to just math and reading, there are limited resources, and we need to focus on that, narrow scope to 3rd grade to 9th grade
  • Provide more clarity on HB 4545 implementation
  • Dutton – Why keep it until 9th grade?
    • Because the gains have been slower in secondary, we believe we need to continue at least through Algebra 1 and English 1 which is 9th grade
  • Buckley – When you look at upper grades, is it a crowding out for time during the school day? What are your policy recommendations?
    • Narrowing the scope to just reading and math, massive overwhelm of content, if you focus on reading other subject areas will improve as well
  • Buckley – You talked about maintain ratios, does your expertise provide us with other recommendations with flexibility?
    • Research out of Brown University is clear that lower ratios tends to accelerate learning the deepest and fastest, see stronger gains in shorter periods of time, not just flexibility without guidance, use data to make decisions about group size
  • Bernal – What were experiences like for districts without external tutoring opportunities?
    • The more we can simplify and bring high impact tutoring into more districts, the better it will be, making connections with other organizations across the state is helpful,
  • Bernal – High impact tutoring is a practice?
    • Yes, can be done with LEA staff or external staff, it is about the methods used
  • Dutton – Is the success based off time spent or practices?
    • We don’t provide actual tutoring, but districts with more of a compliance mindset (we just need to get the hours done) had lower success levels than districts that ensured they were following all practices of high impact tutoring
  • Dutton – Time?
    • Time does not always translate to success of student, really about the quality of services provided
  • Dutton – Allowing tutoring during school day?
    • Need to look at what can happen during school, not advocating for getting rid of PE, fine arts, or extra curriculars
  • Dutton – The mandate of 30 hours, that is one size fits all? How do you see us fixing?
    • There could be some benchmarks, we need to look at the data, LEAs need to use this data to determine what is best for their districts and students, but changing the mandate without providing direction or guardrails can also be problematic

 

Bryce Adams, VP of Policy, Texas Public Charter School Association

  • Entering a new world of staffing challenges
  • HB 4545 is necessary, we must figure out students who need support but also need to understand districts are dealing with staffing problems, HB 4545 is very staff heavy
  • Tutoring services pull away from regular instruction
  • HB 131 87(3) contained many good provisions:
    • Require an average of 30 hours for all students, instead of 30 hours per student
    • Loosen 3 to 1 ratio for supplemental instruction, more tutors is not always better, higher quality students can be better in the grand scheme, would open up possibility for districts to use their own teachers instead of vendors
    • Students that are retained, transportation for students, success-based funding to reward districts who catch the students up
    • HB 131 is a great template moving into next session
  • Dutton – You said you would change the 30 hours to 15 hours?
    • No, with a floor of 15 hours, but an average of 30 hours with all students
  • Dutton – You would tie it to the number of questions missed on STAAR exam?
    • Not necessarily, but that could be used as a designation over how many hours are needed
  • Bell – On the supplemental learning committees, what are your thoughts on eliminating?
    • There is benefit for having professionals advise parents on what is best for their kids
  • Bell – Is tutoring better during school day?
    • Depends, Dr. Horton Williams is better qualified to answer

 

Implementation of Senate Bill 1365 87(R)

Dee Carney, Education Consultant & Accountability Specialist

  • Provides overview of SB 1365
  • Meant to provide a “reprieve for districts coming out of hardship and to offer them grace”
  • TEA missed an opportunity to align implementation with intent
  • Agency chose to keep same scale scores, student group targets established pre-pandemic rather than use 2021 or 2022 STAAR test results to revise methodologies
  • 2023 Accountability reset; TEA has stated they will use COVID data
  • Recommends that when TEA adopts accountability manual, public process needs to be more transparent, maybe some oversight mechanism over legislators and the rulemaking process
  • The two provisions in SB 1365 were never intended to remove DFS campuses, intent was to allow districts to show their good work

 

Darryl Henson, Superintendent Marlin ISD

  • Decade of uncertainty in Marlin ISD, has been in some kind of state supervision
  • 331 students choose to leave district annually, state’s longest low performing district
  • Since 2020-2021, the Board of Managers has been kept, but the conservator was replaced with a new superintendent
  • Facilities at Marlin ISD are falling apart, contribute to poor performance
  • Supports SB 1365 and the conservator/BOM model, states that it has improved Marlin ISD
  • Need to put things in place that will entice children like extracurriculars and athletics, and use that to improve academics
  • Need to heavily track data of improvements of students
  • Conservators placed in multi-year districts must be a successful school district superintendent, administrators hired by conservators also need experience in low performing districts
  • State funding needs to be given to adequately staff schools and ensure facilities are places for learning
  • Dutton – You have been D and F for how many years?
    • Have been an F rated district for 10 years, right now our rating is projected to be a C for elementary, middle and high school
  • Bernal – We have made it harder to pass bonds, need to consider how this impacts districts like this who have facilities that are falling apart
  • King – Have you seen a reversal of poaching between small districts in relation to their accountability rating?
    • Yes, right now we are 37%, prior years we were at 45% students leaving, funding follows the child, recommends certain things to be put in place considering this
  • Dutton – We need to figure out a minimum level required for facilities, we cannot have schools with brown water, leaking roofs, we can do better

 

Implementation of Senate Bill 1716 (87(R)

Justin Porter, Associate Commissioner and Director SPED, TEA

  • Provides overview of SB 1716, which codified supplemental special education program at TEA and broadened eligibility of this program and the $1,500 grants
  • Number of SSES applications continues to grow, end of July there have been 99,456 applications in the system
  • 1% satisfaction rate from participating parents
  • 8% of people are buying goods with money, 1% of people are buying services, technology is the largest chunk
  • $79-118M more estimated to not have a waitlist next year
  • 9,100 families currently on the waitlist, no remedy unless increase of funding
  • Currently, SSES grants are one-time awards, Legislature could change to be a rolling basis, the supplemental funding we requested, $45M a year would take care of this
  • Talarico – That $45M on an ongoing basis, that would be enough to cover what?
    • $79-118M would take care of waitlist, $45M would allow for more applicants
  • Gonzalez – How is TEA evaluating economies of scale?
    • Have not done that type of analysis

 

Steven Aleman, Disability Rights Texas

  • This program is not serving low income equitably, and not students of color equitably, how it is structured as an online application program
  • What needs to be considered is cost per service, device, etc., need to be as strategic as possible with our resources
  • Good concept, but we do not have enough resources to meet everyone’s needs
  • Recommendations:
    • Addition of a trigger requirement when Texas leave federal supervision of special education
    • Transform into a direct transfer program, families really like technology, direct transfer of technology
    • Program needs to be focused fundamentally on SPED in public school, not focused on children at home, that is work of HHSC and other agencies
  • Dutton – One problem is this program not having a focus on low-income families?
    • From our anecdotal experience with families, this is a middle-income white Anglo oriented program, children of color do not participate at the levels they are in SPED
  • Dutton – Not mentioned in your recommendations
    • The direct transfer technology program could be beneficial for low-income families, easier to navigate the application process
  • Gonzalez – How much did we increase the weight in HB 3?
    • Adjustment to mainstream weight from 1.15 from 1.1, accounted for $85 million allotted to SPED resources
  • Gonzalez – The current formulas for SPED are not adequate?
    • Yes
  • Gonzalez – Do you have a recommendation for what to do? Increase weight or add more money to this program?
    • Shortages of staff and resources will still be felt for next few years, we are in such a crisis mode right now we need to take care of basic needs, need to recruit SPED teachers and staff, this program is useless without staff
  • Gonzalez – We are still under federal supervision? Updates?
    • Department of Education determined Texas was not in compliance with federal law several years ago, intervention that began years ago has continued, we have not fixed the issues
  • Dutton – What percentage of participants are economically disadvantaged?
    • Porter – 70.3% receiving grants qualify for free and reduced lunch, prioritization is a requirement of SB 1716

 

Michael Barba, K-12 Policy Director, Texas Public Policy Foundation

  • Prioritized families that make under $48K a year for a household of 4
  • If 4-6K students keep applying every month, there will be a waitlist of 50K by next session
  • Technology has a high upfront cost but low continued cost, so families are able to invest with money given in grants
  • Recommends keeping program as is, going well and popular
  • Recommends allowing funds to roll over, continued funds would allow families to receive more services, take longer to get approved

 

Invited Testimony on COVID-19 Related Learning Loss

Jan Bryan, Renaissance

  • Will be discussing their data and state STAAR summative exam, notes data is remarkably similar
  • Will focus on K-2 and 9-12 space
  • Reading in K-2 has them deeply concerned and saw a continue drop in reading
  • Similar concerns in math but not to depth of reading
  • Find encouraging data in 10-11 in reading
  • When looking at Recovery using information from Center of Assessment, shapes
  • A V shape did not happen, currently in a U shape
  • The Focus Skills Resource Center made available to everyone and is an open resource
    • Discusses the various aspects of the resources available
  • Tells Dutton it is possible to be a good reader and not be a good speller
  • Buckley – when discussing focused skills and trip steps, asked how hard to parse out focus skills that are missing
    • Focus skills are instrumental in moving a student forward
    • A focus skill that is also a trip step is identifying vowel sound

 

John Feinstein, Texas State Director of The Education Trust

  • How do we focus on long term recovery while closing the gaps?
  • Please guard against complacency and refuse to accept pre-pandemic reality as the bar
  • Points to Dallas ISD with 82% of students feeling more prepared and 84% point to positive interactions
  • Uses TIA as example, students struggling need most effective high-quality teachers
  • Ratios matter in classroom
  • Strong relationships with students is important, leverage partnerships that have strong relationships with students
  • Dutton – you gave numbers of low success in reading
    • Thinks avg may be 50-60% of college ready but compare that to CCMR framework of if students are actually ready, different measurements in early grades and later

 

Yasmin Bhatia, District Charter Alliance

  • Discussed teacher workforce shortage
  • They start school next week and still have 150 teaching vacancies to fill
  • Aggressively hiring in secondary math and offering this year a $6k signing bonus just to try to get all math positions filled and a $4k signing bonus for SPED teachers
  • Appreciates TIA and sees it as a great way to recognize high quality talent
  • So many additional demands on teacher time, if increase of Basic Allotment were to occur they could pay ancillary staff more to help teachers
  • Seeing new behavioral challenges and a top reason they are seeing teachers leave
  • High impact tutoring did take a lot of time to put in place – Uplift spends $3-4 million on this
  • Focus needs to be on retaining experienced teachers, teachers are having so much asked of them such as being skilled in relationships/class management, etc

 

Jonikka Charlton, Associate Provost for Student Success and Dean of University College at UT Rio Grande

  • Important to think about higher education community in this pipeline who are not meeting college readiness standards – 15% jump over COVID period
  • Students who need academic support may not be the ones who take advantage of it so built a peer-collaborative learning schedule
  • Provided more details on how this program works and faculty interaction with students

 

Derek Little, Deputy Chief Academic Officer of Dallas ISD

  • Targeted almost 2/3 of ESSER to student services with the rest going to teachers and leaders
  • Looking at various levels of effort such as district vs targeted
  • Partnering with TEA to expand Amplify and saw almost 7% difference in STAAR achievement
  • Reading academies implemented over 3-year period and schools with most need went earlier and those that had less need went later
  • Reading academies schools are closing gaps, Reading Academies can service as an individual and school wide lever
  • Have 46 schools doing an extended school year, there are technicalities in HB 3 so only 3 get funding from bill and the rest are self-funded
  • Saw 10% difference in STAAR achievement for students who had intervention and a 30% gain on MAP, reading interventionists are bringing real impact
  • Adding 40 mental health clinicians
  • If could get away from 180-day requirement from ADSY

 

Millard House, Superintendent Houston ISD

  • Discusses grow your own programs and partnerships needed
  • Feedback from community on what is needed for a 5-year plan
  • 6 things they are working on: building trust, providing equitable opportunities and resources, ensuring great schools and programs in every community, high quality teaching and learning, special educated students, and cultivating world class talent at all levels
  • Using Cambridge, Amplify, etc. will help and they are focused on underperforming schools this year
  • Emphasizing high dose tutoring, safety, wrap around services, has created a ESSER dashboard with full transparency on how money is being spent
  • 21-22 school year consisted of 400+ teacher vacancies
  • Dutton – Thanks House for his work
  • Allen – Thanks House for his work

 

Merl Brandon, Superintendent Stanton ISD

  • Cannot close gaps caused by COVID without partnerships
  • Priority was to keep face-to-face instruction
  • Quality leadership must be strong, tier 1 individuals must be leaders in the classroom
  • On site COVID testing to immediately find out if positive, to begin quarantine ASAP or to ensure safety in the classroom, telehealth available to staff as well, partnership with local hospital
  • Individual targeted instruction is key, kids are more engaged and excited about programs like MindPlay, can develop personalized programs for children based on reading levels

 

Ty Duncan, Partner Development, MindPlay

  • Provides overview of MindPlay and tutoring services in the subject of reading
  • Stanton ISD exponentially increased their reading scores, many other districts as well, Tier 2 education is the best out there
  • The 3 to 1 ratio in HB 4545 is difficult for districts, open up the ratio and allow for some flexibility, understands 3 to 1 is scientifically proven to be best but must consider reality
  • Once kids reach their reading grade level, they should be able to screen out and opt out of HB 4545, allow some flexibility for kids, not every kid needs 30 hours of tutoring
  • Bell – How do districts pay for your services? ESSER?
    • Many districts use ESSER 3 funds, but last week we were approved on the TEA tutoring vendor site so districts can use TCLAS funds
  • Bell – Does it not meet the criteria for instructional materials allotment?
    • It does, ESSER 3 funds must be used for learning loss so that is why districts prefer

 

Christopher Downs, Executive Director of Government Affairs, Instructure

  • Provides background on Instructure, who serves hundreds of thousands of Texas students
  • Formative student assessments are primary factor to determine learning loss, goal is to provide ongoing feedback to students and target areas that need work
  • Focus on qualitative feedback rather than scores
  • In order to combat learning loss, must shift to a well-balanced approach of student testing that informs students and can provide good data to students
  • Data is key, tells teachers what students need and how to best tailor tutoring to students
  • Recommends the continuation of investment in education through regional service centers
  • Recommends a standard evaluation process for formative student assessments, TFAR (Texas Formative Assessment Resource) is right course
  • Bell – IMA could be used for this?
    • Not 100% sure, will follow up
  • Bell – Your product is aligned with TEKS?
    • Yes

 

Invited Testimony on Chronic Absenteeism

Monica Martinez, Associate Commissioner of Standards & Support, TEA

  • California and Texas had chronic absenteeism rate of 12% in 2017, lower than Florida and New York, increased to 15% in 2020-2021
  • By 24-25 school year, real time data should be able to be collected, LEAs will be able to report data more frequently
  • State law requires LEAs to implement a truancy prevention policy to ensure they are taking steps to address truant students
  • Optional flexible school day program, works with students to allow them to participate in classes on the weekends or at night
  • Huberty – In 2021-2022, did you see a difference in increase of student count in the last two 6 weeks of year?
    • Will provide to you
  • Dutton – Is there any way for you to know reasons for absenteeism?
    • Districts have to report categories, know excused or unexcused absence, trying to get even more detail
  • Gonzalez – Did TEA offer support when we changed laws relating to truancy?
    • Don’t think there was anything specific offered

 

Hon. Martin Castillo, Justice of the Peace, Pct. 2, Hood County

  • Recommends detailed analysis of dropout and absenteeism rates for Legislators
  • Absenteeism is a civil matter but requires a county prosecutor to bring case, recommends modification of this law in some way
  • Recommends more funding for districts and JP courts to handle these cases
  • Supports truancy not being criminalized, but we need more funding and support for tools to prevent truancy
  • Dutton – When a student comes before your court, does the state need to appoint them an attorney?
    • It is a civil matter, so no, but if they plead not true the county attorney is involved and then they can determine if they want an attorney, but the state is not obligated to appoint one since it is a civil matter
  • Dutton – What if they don’t show up to court?
    • The law says we must reschedule, there is no limit for how many times to reschedule, could send to juvenile detention but they are so overwhelmed now
  • Dutton – I’m not sure how we enforce attendance without criminalization, we need to figure out the best way to address this issue
    • Agrees

 

Julia Grizzard, Executive Director, Bexar County Education Coalition (virtual)

  • BCEC represents 16 Bexar County ISDs, many different types of districts represented
  • San Antonio has one of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism across the country
  • BCEC has determined absenteeism is rarely the fault of the child, but caused by issues like housing, transportation, mental health, poverty
  • Rate of district’s chronic absent students heavily correlate with rate of economically disadvantaged students
  • Recommends ensuring every district has access to stable sources of funding, derive regular program allotment from average daily membership and not average daily attendance
  • Texas is one of the only states that still funds based off average daily attendance
  • Recommends adopting state level definition of chronic absenteeism, missed 10% of instructional time, recommends adding to at risk categories so able to track students better
  • Gonzalez – Absence of definition inhibits response from state and district, correct?
    • Yes, only recently have tracked chronic absenteeism, has not been required in statute to track in PEMS, definition will allow for more direct funding
  • Gonzalez – Not attached right now to at risk?
    • No

 

Vicky Luna Sullivan, J.D., E.D., Senior Staff Attorney, Education Justice Project, Texas Appleseed

  • In 2013, the Texas Legislature drastically reformed the truancy program in Texas and decriminalized the offence, approach resulted in record high attendance levels
  • Good relationship between the school and the student is key
  • Solutions must be personalized, because the cause is different for each student, individualized issue, not one single solution
  • Key elements: identify students in need and personalize action plan, specific needs assessment based on student attendance data, examining reasons using qualitative and quantitative data, understanding higher rates of absenteeism in poor students, understanding if school policies cause absenteeism
  • Dutton – Do you find students that are achieving in school end up with chronic absences?
    • Absolutely, there is a strong correlation between academic achievement and attendance, when students are in school they perform better
  • Dutton – One thing we could look at is improving school performance by improving school attendance
  • Gonzalez – Can you give us a systematic solution that could be a policy solution?
    • Visiting the communities, most families were with black and brown families
    • Sullivan provides multiple anecdotes where judges incorrectly decided cases by not following best practices or incorrectly quoted statute
    • There is no one simple solution, it is individualistic work, need to sit down with parent and student, find the reason for the absence, provide support services

 

Caroline Roberts, Associate Director of Policy & Staff Attorney, Children At Risk

  • Recommends defining chronic absenteeism in the Texas Education Code as a student missing 10% or more of school, this definition will make it easier for schools to support students
  • Require TEA to report chronic absenteeism in an easily accessible format
  • Chronic absenteeism increased by almost 8,000 during COVID-19
  • Contributing factors: illness, lack of engagement in school, behavior or mental health issues, bullying, involvement in criminal justice system, homelessness, trauma
  • Gonzalez – School districts have said this is overly burdensome, can you explain?
    • Schools are already collecting this data, but we are not able to see it to where we can make good public policy decisions, the data is already there

 

Kara Peck, Asst. Principal, Deerwood Elementary/Houston Food Bank

  • Experienced firsthand how partnerships between schools and nonprofits can be beneficial
  • Must meet students primary needs of food, water, and shelter before you can engage them in learning material
  • High food costs and supply chain issues caused by the pandemic have put added demand on schools to feed their students, families are struggling even more
  • Recommends supporting removal of the SNAP vehicle assets test
  • Recommends asking Texas Department of Agriculture to explore more options for partnerships between schools and community organizations
  • Recommends support for additional funding for the Surplus Agricultural Products Grant
  • Dutton – Thanks Houston Food Bank for contributions in his district

 

Chris Dickinson, Executive Director, Grad Solutions

  • First dropout recovery program, founded 10 years ago in Arizona, focus is creating a safety net for youth that had dropped out of high school
  • Arizona has chronic absenteeism defined in statute
  • Focuses on personalized instruction, individual mentoring, excellent curriculum, flexibility, and a progress-based program that does not require minimum attendance or seat time

 

Public Testimony

Courtney Litvak, Self

  • Survivor of sex trafficking, resident of Katy, TX, appointed member of the United States Advisory Council on Human Trafficking
  • Shares her story involving child pornography and child trafficking, which she states were caused by her inability to trust adults
  • Encourages collaboration between districts and law enforcement
  • Dutton – How did the school not know you were absent?
    • My trafficker came and picked me up on several occasions, but there was so much other crime and activities happening, my teachers were negligent, and I was not marked absent, teachers are facing so much these days and social media has contributed to this
  • Dutton – So you would go to school in the morning, and your trafficker would pick you up and then drop you off before school was over?
    • Yes, I was able to miss entire periods without fault or questioning from teachers
  • Dutton – Do you have policy suggestions for this Committee?
    • Need to have mandatory training and education for all faculty and staff
  • Dutton – Have you gotten law enforcement involved in your situation?
    • The law enforcement was complicit in my case, my high school sat on a county border and was difficult to involve law enforcement, decided to discredit my case and blame me as a “bad kid”

 

Robin White Mussa, NOLA Education

  • Experienced in working with at risk students, have not heard effective solutions for dealing with students for students who are behind in school
  • States these students need a different approach, need to be engaged with their hands and minds, and need to be taught with relevant approaches
  • Gonzalez – You said the work you are doing has allowed students to complete 2 academic years in 1, correct?
    • Yes, students work on a block schedule and are able to complete two in one
  • Gonzalez – And you are not in Texas?
    • We are not, not enough funding to do so
  • Gonzalez – Do you qualify for HB 4545?
    • Not currently
  • Bell – You talked about hands and curriculum, is this a CTE?
    • There is a CTE component approach, data shows CTE programs result in higher graduation rates, focused on career development

 

Mary Lynn Pruneda, Texas 2036

  • HB 3 is so good that it is being copied by other states, Tennessee for example
  • Reading academies have correlated to improvements and gains on STAAR tests this past year
  • Without HB 22 and the work done with A-F’s, Marlin ISD would not be as successful as it is today, another piece of good legislation that drove district performance up
  • Urges Legislature caution before adopting new things into accountability system, need to ensure they meet psychological benchmarks

 

Holly Clemons, Self

  • States that school board trustees and SBOE members have not been listening to her because she “is a Republican”
  • Urges Committee to not put things that are politically divisive in front of children, encourages more engagement with families

 

Jacquelyn Aluotto, No Trafficking Zone

  • Passed SB 1831 with Sen. Taylor last year to create no trafficking zones
  • Major issue is that officials and educators do not know how to identify sex trafficking
  • Dutton – Does this relate to chronic absenteeism?
    • Yes, this trend helps predators, kids are no longer marked absent for middle periods during the day and traffickers take their kids out of school without parent’s knowledge
  • Lozano – I am wondering what the DA’s do in these cases?
    • Every DA and county is different, human trafficking often involves fraud, collusion, lying to children to get them to do what you want, these are difficult to criminalize immediately because it is different from abducting someone

 

Mary Lo, Self

  • Unintended consequences from HB 4545, this bill seems to be rewarding based on seat time, not what education as intended to do
  • Amplify was immediately offered the no bid contract for HB 4545, not representative of the people, should have allowed other companies to bid

 

Amanda Kelly, Self

  • Learning loss has long been an issue before COVID, COVID is an easy excuse
  • Roughly 865K students are being required to attend tutoring due to falling behind according to a KXAN story, added requirement is burdensome on students and faculty
  • Recommends improving curriculum in the classroom, kids do not need longer days

 

Alexi Swerske, Self

  • Pediatric occupational therapist
  • Advocating for an increase in funding for SSES grants, SPED students should be able to pay for services with the grant, needs to be reformed to allow for more access to services
  • Chapter 313 does not need to come back, does not attract businesses to Texas and the tax is not fair
  • The “huge focus on teaching sex to children” is dangerous and a harm to our children

 

Tara Bula, Self

  • Claims there are “unclean, pornographic materials” being taught in our schools
  • Claims there is “rape” in our schools
  • Claims there is an “entire generation who cannot tell if they are boy or a girl”
  • Emphasizes that “education is useless without the Bible”

 

Bianca Ramirez, Self

  • COVID has really set a lot of SPED kids back, caused behavioral issues in her son, regresses every time there are breaks in school
  • Increase funding for extended school year programs, very needed for students with disabilities
  • Huberty – Did you take advantage of the SPED credit for parents?
    • Yes, I did

 

Sheila Hemphill, Texas Right to Know

  • Raises issue of stimulants being given to our children through Medicaid, states that the Uvalde shooter could have been on stimulants
  • Urges Committee to pass legislation requiring Medicaid to report medication they provide and to investigate other alternatives

 

Mary Castle, Texas Values

  • HB 1525, school health advisory councils, need to ensure these new requirements are being enforced
  • Concerned with about how Austin ISD is implementing transparency, open meetings for parents were held before sex education curriculum was even released
  • Emphasizes enforcement of laws with sex education

 

Rachel Hale, Texas Freedom Coalition

  • Agrees with the opt in provision in HB 1525
  • Advocates for the removal of the August 24th date in the opt in provision
  • Advocates for full removal of sex education from Texas curriculum, “Texas schools have been turned into labs, and our children are the guinea pigs”

 

Paula Hilliard, Self

  • Have observed districts working hard to find loopholes in laws, especially HB 1525
  • Problems with implementation of HB 1525, public meetings are buried on websites, no meeting agendas, advocating for the elimination of the expiration of opt in date

 

Solange Hall, Self

  • Concerned about all issues the Committee has discussed today
  • Advocating for higher teacher pay and less requirements on school curriculum and standardized testing

 

Misty Odenweller, Self

  • Agrees with the opt in provision in HB 1525
  • Advocates for the removal of the August 24th date in the opt in provision