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The House Committee on Public Education met on February 28 to hear invited testimony from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas School Safety Center.

 

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 from Chair and introduction of committee staff

Texas Education Agency 

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath

  • Will walk through slide deck and provided copy of TEA annual report
  • Why we have Public education and most important things to concentrate on – North Star goal by 2030, 60% of Texans will have some sort of postsecondary credential
  • 4 key operating priorities at TEA: #1 Recruit, Support, Retain Teachers and Principals. #2 Build a Foundation of Reading and Math. #3 Connect High School to Career and College. #4 Improve Low-Performing Schools (calls this an equitable and moral commitment).
  • Slide deck shows where we rank with like student groups across the country
  • 60% of our kids are eligible for free and reduced lunch
  • Slide shows how Texas is accelerating kids above grade level, part of pursing “American Dream” but if have permanent underachieving group then hard to achieve that dream
    • Chart shows 3rd-8th grade STAAR level assessment to show grade level
  • Slide shows all in spending – total funding basis close to $72 billion around $13k per student, most goes to school systems but there is a small portion that goes to TEA and regional service centers
  • Portion of budget for TIMA (Technology, instructional materials) around $1 billion, decline during COVID was for multiple reasons including infusion of federal funds
  • Federal infusion of funds for laptops and hotspots, etc so appropriators need to answer if they want those items to be replaced and keep up with that replacement
  • Major driver of expenditures is how many students Texas has, NCES data and our enrollment predictions
    • NCES predicts downward trend of enrollment in Texas
    • Texas is largest educator of rural children
    • 61% children economically disadvantaged and 22% emergent bilingual
    • Texas Demographer is showing plateau of overall education population, downward trend predicted of enrollment growth
  • Slide 12 has school district projections, school districts still predicting some enrollment growth
  • Slide 13 the difference between school districts estimates and actual has been growing over time
  • If there is an overestimate you will budget but districts still get paid for students so this impacts the supplemental
  • Primary thing you spend money on is teachers, have roughly lowest student teacher ratio we have ever had
    • Low student teacher ratio is not necessarily class size, but could correlate
    • Have highest pay than ever before
    • Have highest attrition rate than before
    • We have more teachers than every before but high vacancy rate
  • Just published results of the Teacher Vacancy Task Force
  • Details on teacher pay research
    • Median salary is lowest in rural and charter schools
    • Teacher pay about $8k less in rural areas than everywhere else, have smallest class sizes in rural areas
    • Think it is worth committee to address this specific issue, ISDs with 5k or less students
    • Charters pay for building out of M&O so they have less funding to spend on teachers
  • Teacher pipeline chart; experienced teachers have radical impact on student early years
    • Texas is hiring 35k new teachers a year, need to do something to address new year teacher preparation
    • What can be done to improve quality of preparation, would be good policy
    • Work-life balance issue among core of teachers, regularly report working 60-70 hours per week so question is what resources are we providing teachers
    • Do teachers have to be lesson designer and lesson deliverer, don’t assume teachers will never design but the question is do they have a good set of resources or even a planning template with resources
    • Teachers report a high number of hours on lesson design
  • Compensation, training and support, and working conditions listed in Teacher Vacancy Task Force report
  • Have smallest teacher student ratio we have ever had like 14-1, vs California in 22-1 so if we had California ratio then teachers would be making $80k+ today
  • Legislature has told them to do a significant rewrite of STAAR test, almost significant enough it could have a new name
  • Now selecting reading passages covering content students should have seen previously, background knowledge will be reinforced in STAAR
  • Writing and reading related so STAAR will incorporate writing
  • STAAR test should be more reflective of good instructional practices; have hundreds of teachers weighing in to what test should do
  • Pilot work on formatting of test, like three smaller tests in the year
    • Doing this right now, three mini STAAR test over course of the year
    • In first year of trial so still a lot to learn
  • State Assessment is designed to reflect what kids are supposed to be taught, if kids are given rigorous instruction and meeting expectations then assessment should reflect that
  • Only 19% of assignments that kids complete while in school are on grade level, not intentional, its just happening and if this happens all week and then STAAR shows student not at grade level then people are confused and angry
  • STAAR redesign about improving alignment between taught and tested
  • Expands on harms of being taught below grade level
  • Bar chart on how Texas is doing with high school seniors, reviews CCMR (college, career and military readiness)
    • College readiness is trending both down and up
    • Next step is to look at what careers/certifications are needed
    • Most popular career is Microsoft Word credential but that is coming off list because employers don’t see need for that
    • It’s more expensive for school to do plumbing, electrical, etc so setting up incentive for districts to do this
  • King – rural districts think new plan will ding them on accountability and make them loose a letter grade
    • HB 22 in 2017 made several policy shifts in A-F, one of the things was introducing CCMR
    • Commissioner was suppose to raise cut points in that environment, pre HB 22 which caused confusion among Trustees and parents
    • Decision in HB 22 was to keep system static for 5 years at a stretch
    • Now getting ready to make a large increase in cut scores because they are required to
    • When started Texas was just around 45% in CCRM and now over 60%, now need to address cut scores
    • Data clearly shows there are certain indicators that are very popular and others that are less popular
  • King – when you change the cut score, is there a way to address
    • Texas needs to continue to set higher goals for students, getting better and better results for students
    • If you raise cut scores then rankings will go down
    • Analyzed this and see less impact on rural schools than urban and suburban areas
  • Hinojosa – Hearing Superintendents were told they would see performance going up but ratings going down
    • Always true, because when they set cut scores higher then ratings will go down
    • Decision for policy makers, would you rather increase cut scores a little each year or would you rather do it over 5 year
    • Should set scores to ensure Texas is national leader for postsecondary success, must set success scores to ensure elimination of gap
    • Hinojosa argues raising cut scores does not mean we will be a national leader, ask about logic of conclusion
    • If you set cut scores too high they are irrational, create a breakdown but if set too low then not meeting the statutory standards
    • Nothing in statutory standards say make them low to keep them reasonable
    • Hinojosa again notes concern of Morath’s interpretation of statute
  • Before leaving industry certification, districts interested in offering most rigorous pathways but there are notable cost in those pathways
  • Per pupil allocation of funding to support these programs will differ by geography, so much like when considering teacher pay then when considering CCMR suggest also considering addressing rural need that will be different
  • Accountability is fair system, have been told by educators one of the fairest ratings state has ever had
    • Rating based on best of two grades
  • Special education seeing large increase as a result of policies and resource infusion
    • Turnaround story in evaluating students with possible disabilities, inspection down on possible disability
    • Purple bar shows evaluations declined during COVID
    • Today students are “funded on where they sit, not what they get”
    • Some think special education is about a place not a service
    • Illustration on what this means practically for special education students
  • Allen -asked about teacher salary average
    • Reviewed earlier statistics
    • Each districts controls staffing patterns, ie could have classroom leads, could use TIA
    • In TIA teachers can make more than $58k, seeing a 4x increase in six figures but still a long way to go
    • $58k avg salary does not include benefits, this is actual pay
  • Allen – Houston ISD question, is TEA taking over the district
    • Have not announced final action, Supreme Court has yet to formalize opinion
    • Allen hearing announcement will be made March 6th
    • Still waiting to evaluate Supreme Court ruling which has not yet been finalized, sees it as a mandatory action not discretionary action will occur
    •  Clarifies different portions that would be mandatory vs discretionary
  • Allen-ask about minority populations
    • Task Force talked about professional development, mentor development allotment
    • Recommends expanding mentor development allotment
    • Have new teacher residency programs and wisdom in expanding those
    • Big fan of investing in teachers both in compensation and professional development
    • Job embedded coaching almost always better
  • Allen – downward trend projections in enrollment
    • Notes there are nuances, ie demographer saying not as many children in school age
    • Birth rates have declined since the Great Recession
    • Will put out survey to schools, trying to get better understanding of what districts are seeing
  • Allen – are there enough private schools to service all kids who want to attend and would transportation be provided with vouchers
    • Does not think they have an accurate list of number of private schools, generally don’t regulate private schools
    • Not sure what policies legislature will adopt about transportation
  • Allen – aware of amount of vouchers
    • Does not know
    • Ultimately its what body decides
  • Talarico – teachers paid more than ever on chart, but seeing when account for inflation that teachers are paid less
    • Its plausible
    • Notes living in Austin more expensive than living in Amarillo, would have to do inflationary analysis to see impact of dollar across Texas
    • Joined several task force conversations, members advocated for large numbers but they were not faced with trade offs on those
  • Talarico – would like data on teacher turnover in first 5 years; numbers on teachers working a second job
    • Will send that to them, turnover is much higher in 5 years
    • No, not something they collect
  • Talarico – asked about what would be ideal pay for teacher salaries
    • Dollar will be variable answer but structure would be illustrated by graph provided to committee
    • Teachers have massive jump in efficacy first 5 years, similar compensation curve in other industries
    • Significant pay increases quickly, performance based and then there is a plateau
    • Pacing of pay increases needs to be different than now, districts all competing with each other to hire and then only able to small raises from there
    • Fundamentally different compensation curve in that scenario than what we have today
    • Notes volume matters, need to ask question if better off with more teacher vs less teachers with more coverage
    • Provided a math teacher vs band room example, apprentice under band teacher in a team teacher environment while in math go into classroom with 20 kids and that is it – all part of compensation story
    • There are different organizational models that allow for job satisfaction and higher level of pay
  • Talarico – payment for teachers is flat, growth in funding comes from local property tax payers
    • District budget is budget, where it comes from is matter of policy makers
    • Not in charge of property taxes, legislature controls this framework
  • Morath and Talarico discuss school funding overall
    • If out of school factors that impact achievement, then state is trying to remove effects of poverty on a student
    • National research shows more money does not address outcome
    • Texas beating New York in outcomes, so Texas system vastly more effective and cheaper
    • Provides example of doubling budget for reading proficiency may not impact outcomes
    • Talarico notes his research says its both practice and funding, role of legislature is to provide resources
  • Harris – breakdown on rural and small mid size
    • Will get him breakdown
  • Harris – asked for details about purchasing instructional material, one district tells him when TEA allows them to purchase the math book will be over 13 years old
    • Understand why they believe it to be true but points out there are certain factors in play in this scenario
    • Allocations are limited
    • Need to consider what they are doing policy wise to address
  • Buckely – what contributes to some resources being not on grade level
    • Not intentional
    • Question is how well have teachers been trained to analyze rigor
    • Example of AP training, when they come back from training they are “on fire” for rigor
  • Buckley – what about providing resources to new teachers to keep them in the profession
    • Concepts happen in early September but spiral back to them and expound on them in the year but if you don’t know when you hit content when you start then it causes issues
    • Teachers need well designed lessons when they start, first year teachers will find this life changing
    • Example of binder in experienced teachers classroom with all of resources and learning from that experience
    • If because of staffing needs, switching grades and subjects then teachers may not even be able to accumulate binder
  • Buckley – hearing hesitancy using STAAR for TIA, so districts have MAPP and interim testing trying to gather information, does 3 year pilot have potential to play different roles like provide feedback to the teacher and make decisions about teacher incentive, etc
    • It could, a bunch a design decision that could impact those policy outcomes
    • Best way to ensure legitimate feedback is to create a customized journey for each kid
    • Feedback is promising
  • Hinojosa – talks about frustration and feeling disrespected like in HB 4545 example, state did not fund reading academies
    • Funding for early learning which was for pre-K and academies
    • Some districts told teachers they were on there own since they didn’t get funding which is not accurate as they got $800k r it but funds were give to districts and not teachers
  • Hinojosa – what are other states doing to address rigor, brings up Morath presentation to business groups
    • State vetting process and buy off that list
    • Question is right incentive to increase rigor in classroom
  • Hinojosa – we create standards that are reviewed by SBOE, is that CSCOPE
    • Prior to 2011 did have a state vetting process which probably served students and teachers better than last decade
    • Not CSCOPE
    • Talk to groups all the time
  • Hinojosa – increasing cut scores, discussion on districts aware of this change; for last 5 years have known goal but this is first time in 5 years where districts don’t know goal
    • Published Jan 1 based on graduates from last year
    • Yes, first time to raise cut scores in 5 years
  • Hinojosa – concern on being ranked without knowing score, does hold harmless make sense in this case
    • Trying to get real time CCMR data and they are told to set cut scores for year it is happening
    • Legislature told him year after COVID returning to normal, will continue in direction the legislature gave him
    • Law tells him cut scores have to be raised to reach goals of system
  • Hinojosa and Morath continue discussion on hold harmless
  • TPRS report and snapshot data discussion
    • Working to get snapshot data back up by August
  • Hinojosa and Morath discussion on New York performance vs Texas performance
  • Hinojosa – NAEP data demonstrates ranking nationally by different groups
    • Any number of ways to do analysis
  • Hinojosa – used to performance evaluations of students, is NAEP way to evaluate TEA or legislature
    • Yes
    • Could provide more data based on what Hinojosa wants to see
  • Hinojosa – wants to discuss special education funding, $2 billion delta on what district spends in special education vs what state provides
    • State and federal government
    • $2.46 billion spent more on special education
    • Hinojosa – where are they getting the funding?
    • From basic allotment
    • Regardless of where you get the review you must spend so districts will pull from other buckets to provide services they must provide under federal law
    • It is worthy for body to consider total increases in special education
  • Hinojosa – worry that state is disincentivizing serving kids in special education
  • Hinojosa – seeing increase in funding for charter schools, charters get more for students
    • That number looks at just M&O, charter schools don’t have I&S so they have less operating cost
    • Depends on district if you want to compare to what charter schools
    • Hinojosa – sees $1100 more per student
    • Charter would get small and mid-size but they don’t have access to I&S, there is not one answer to the question
  • Harrison – inquired more about 60X30 goal, how was it developed and where we are in the process
  • Harrison – points out how much he supports his district but wants to look at NAEP data which shows across state concerns, ask about differences between STAAR and NAEP
    • Different tests, designed to test different things and designed with different proficiency bars
  • Harrison and Morath continue discussion from Perkins to curriculum
  • Harrison – explosion teachers time to prepare lesson plans, etc may be result of needing to addressing curriculum, would advise to return to SBOE role in 2011
    • Maybe not exact but agrees need for discussion
  • Schaefer – hearing there is not printed text books, not uniform use of materials
    • Much more common to see things printed out, like a homework packet
  • Schaefer – data on using digital vs print
    • Seems to be lower level of cognition when reading online vs books, not necessarily same thing by math but things there are some things to review
    • Schaefer – cautions against deploying Ipads for everything
    • Technology is not harmful necessarily but if unintentionally deployed will be harmful
    • If kids can take home books, then they can extend learning in that fashion
    • Would agree there needs to be intentional and thoughtful implementation of technology (ie using a smart board as a chalkboard does not increase learning)

 

Texas School Safety

John Scott, Chief School of Safety

  • Reviewed current efforts and bills addressing safety
  • Need for single oversight entity, clear and streamlined communication, need to expand mental health upgrades, minimum school safety standards, need to allow flexibility to fit individual size needs and need to expand security expertise and supports in the field
    • Believes details from TEA address school safety standards
    • Agrees in flexibility not one size fits all

Kathy Martinez-Prather, Director of Texas School Safety Center

  • Reviews what they have done and provides details on what is a safety audit
  • Reviews will occur on annual basis, this September will look at basic and also emergency weather and rail road track hazardous analysis
  • Established an developed evaluation checklist and training plans
  • Working closely with agency on control access, intruder detection audits intended to be collaborative approach so districts can address
  • 100% district coverage is aim and 75% of campuses for intruder detection is goal
  • Audits focus specifically on access control and only one part of security, they check the following:
    • Can we gain unauthorized access to campus
    • Make sure doors are locked and review policy if district has it
    • Every campus and district required to conduct weekly door sweeps
  • A little over 2800 campuses were reviews and 28% did have findings and were issued corrective action
  • Will produce a final end year report and hope to make available to public in June
  • To date have done 4600 campuses
  • King – SB 11 created details in plans but what is enforcement mechanism, worried too many districts are checking the box
    • They are not an enforcement entity
    • Perhaps Scott has idea to address but need to address collaboratively so work can be done with fidelity
    • Agree does not want checking the box, important districts have resources to get them where they need to be
    • Scott – agrees there needs to be an enforcement mechanism, needs to be more than just a piece of paper to turn in
  • King – most school districts are compliant but knows of some that are not, appreciates feedback

 

Panel Q&A

  • King – asked about mental health services, TCHATT is a resource that is helpful to a small school with limited resources but very few schools that he talks to know about it or use it
    • Scott – seeing it is less know in rural districts
    • Scott – process to get signed up
    • Scott – mental health professionals are scare, TCHATT is a fantastic resource, not a complete answer but maybe part of the resource
  • King wants to know what can legislature do to get the information out
  • Buckley – as relationship develops can TEA and School Safety work together on all things or is it better to focus on direct threats, vaping on one side vs active shooters on the other, asked Scott if he sees his role expanded
    • Scott – need to be all encompassing, violent activity doesn’t start at the top, it grows
  • Buckley – want to know where dollars need to be directed and then grow as they go
    • Scott – grant is broken into two levels, above the line and below the line
    • Scott – below the line is enhancement and above the line is needed security
  • Allison – dealing with stress levels, SB 11 set up mental health resource system; continues questions on funding needs of security
  • Scott – funding done on grant level based on ADA, there are certain things schools will need to have to be secure no matter how many students they have
  • Scott – there are wide dispersion of schools and need
  • Schaefer – do you think every campus should have at least one person authorized as security
    • Scott – does believe this, but it gets complex when talking about what training
    • Scott – Law enforcement is tough to recruit
  • Schaefer – have mid and large size cities who can’t even staff force, but there are other programs like Marshalls and Guardian so is state at a point to tell districts to pick one
  • Schaefer – need to have a minimum requirement, at least one authorized trained person should be on every campus in Texas
  • Talarico – says there were over 300 trained personal on the campus at Uvalde, concerned about talking about turning schools into fortresses, wants to know why seeing a rise in school shootings
    • Martinez-Prather – not just one solution to address need physical and mental health, idea behind threat assessment is to identify individuals well before they get on a pathway to violence
    • Martinez-Prather – want to also make connections with interventions
  • Talarico – what threat are we facing, need to understand problem they are trying to solve
    • Martinez-Prather – Focusing on behaviors
  • Talarico – have kids changed, we have 57x more school shootings in Texas
    • Martinez-Prather – Seeing an increase in mental health needs, but not enough services to meet the demand
    • Scott – more common so more in fact now, not on top of peoples minds, maybe some don’t understand stress teenagers and social media
    • Talarico – thinks guns and rising number of accessing weapons may encroach upon area they need to address
  • Talarico – thinks hardening should be addressed but wants to understand hardening impacts on mental health, ie increased drills lead to anxiety and more law officials in schools could lead to school to prison pipeline
    • Scott – doesn’t think anyone wants to make school to look like a prison
    • Scott – essence of security is inconvenience and its meant to be that way, but need to final a balance because if you make it too inconvenient then people find way to circumvent
    • Martinez-Prather – don’t want to harden students, need to think about prevention and recovering when these events do happen
    • Martinez-Prather – need to look at from physical and mental
  • Talarico – balance between prevention and reactive, report read about identifying before they become tragedies
    • Martinez-Prather – want to work on preventing these things happening in the first place
    • Martinez-Prather – know from case studies, education for teachers and students on how to be change agents
    • Martinez-Prather – someone had active shooter on radar before in many of the cases, when people speak up and report and then something can be done it will be effective
    • Martinez-Prather – make sure students know they are a shared partner in this work
    • Talarico – said report discussed sustained focus when mental health issue is identified
  • Schaefer – do have a profile of school shooters, they are all males, feel that is missing from conversation and if want to focus on prevention then need to focus on young men living without purpose and seem to be drifting
  • Hinojosa – seeing a decrease of adults on campuses; discussion people as resource to help address
    • Martinez-Prather – person over safety and security has five other hats, and this ends up being additional duties as assigned; sometimes changes in leadership can have an impact
    • Martinez-Prather – question is infusing these items in other things, create a culture of preparedness early on before teachers get into the classroom
  • Hinojosa sees a disconnect on safety protocols practiced in school day and those being offered in after school programs, are you also addressing after school use of campus
    • Scott – procedures would apply anytime anyone is on campus
    • Martinez-Prather – many things need to be involved in MOU, schools need to be extra cautious when having others come on campus
  • Hinojosa – balance between getting school communities prepared for the worst and ensure kids feel safe
  • Buckley – believes agreement not wanting children to go to school in fear
    • Martinez-Prather – all schools should conduct drills with frequency, there is a difference in drill than in exercises; drill should not be putting in stressors
    • Martinez-Prather – active threat exercises or full scale exercises are intended to be multi-agency involvement
    • Martinez-Prather – they focus on drill, practicing protocol and district has not business doing exercise until they have mastered basics

Adjourned