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The Committee met on July 11, 2023 to hear invited testimony on the following items:

  • Ensuring all Texas youths enjoy equal educational opportunity and the freedom to obtain a quality education, regardless of circumstance
  • Improving outcomes for Texas public school students and meaningfully supporting educators and educational institutions
  • Modernizing assessment and accountability measures for Texas schools educating K-12 students

Click here for a copy of the: hearing notice, minutes, and witness list. TEA handout can be found here.

 This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight 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.

Questions of panel may be embedded in individual testimony depending on how questions were asked and answered.

 

Opening Remarks

Buckley- Began with a moment of silence for Tamoria Jones

Gervin-Hawkins- All of us have responsibility to ensure that this opportunity transforms education in the state of Texas. We need to move forward to a new innovative way of addressing education. I want to leave with a report that makes us proud

 

Panel 1

Mike Meyer- TEA Deputy Commissioner of Finance

  • Reviewed slide deck provided to the members
  • Appropriations to TEA of $64 billion for current biennium including $47.8 billion for foundation school program
  • Combining HB 1 and SB 30 from the regular session, appropriations for the 24, 25 biennium are close to $65 billion including $48.7 billion for foundation school program
  • State funds for K-12 education will increase to $18.4 billion (or 29%) over actual 2022-23 biennial spending
  • Entitlement funding to school systems will increase as a result of HB 3 (Safety Allotment), HB 1605 (SBOE-Approved Materials), and HB 1 (Golden Penny Yield)
  • Approximate $306 per student in attendance increase in 2024 across all districts and $357 in 2025
  • Increase is greatest in rural areas because the increase in the Golden Penny Yield has a larger effect there
  • Showed slide comparing HB 100 if it had passed

 

John Scott- TEA Chief of School Safety and Security

  • HB 3 increase to $10 per ADA from $9.72 and added $15k per campus for every district
  • Total funds allocated to school safety is $1.5 billion

 

Justin Porter- TEA Special Populations Programs and Policy Associate Commissioner

  • Reviews Special Education Funding Recommendations, some were in legislation that was proposed but did NOT pass with new funding of roughly $390 million
  • 12 recommendations made
    • Transition to service intensity based formula is the first one
    • Offset for special-needs evaluations for students
    • Spotlights the remainder
    • Ask for attention on 11 which would increase capacity and available options of nonpublic day program
  • Recommendation to fund pilot non-public day programs to support rural districts
  • Buckley- Can you give me more details about those programs
    • A student with significant behavioral needs may need services at an offsite day program
    • Those are frequently provided by non-public entity
    • The non-public school provides behavioral support and education so that they can return to their public school at some point
  • Buckley- What is the accreditation process?
    • TEA has oversight as to whether or not schools can use their TEA funding to pay for those
    • If we approve a contract for a non-public entity, other schools can send their students there
  • Hinojosa- Are charter schools a public option for these students?
    • A charter school could provide these services, but that is not the same thing
  • Hinojosa- what is the difference?
    • Students enroll in charters based on parent choice
  • Hinojosa- Are there a shortage of these services, and how might we expand these options?
    • Our recommendation is to find ways to expand these options. That is what recommendation 11 proposes
    • The problem tends to be in rural areas, we have tried to find creative funding options
  • Hinojosa- one option would be to grow the number of charter schools? Could expanding charter schools solve this problem?
    • Yes, that could be a solution
    • These contracts can be very expensive, $25k to $50k for non-residential
  • Hinojosa- Are there waitlists?
    • Not necessarily a waitlist, if a committee determines that sending a student to one of these institutions is necessary, they are obligated to provide that service
    • However, lack of options may change the decision making process
  • Talarico- If a student goes to a non-public school, what rights do they give up?
    • None
  • Talarico- if we allowed students to transfer to a private school, would they give up those rights?
    • Students not enrolled in a public school do not have any of those rights
    • They no longer are entitled to a free and appropriate public education
  • Talarico- Would parents be notified of what rights they are giving up if they take advantage of school vouchers?
    • I don’t know in this situation, but it could be required by legislation
  • Talarico- if a student is living in a public school district but goes to a private school and they want to be evaluated for special ed, does that burden fall on the public school?
    • It does under IDEA
    • The private school would help the parents contact the public school, and the public school would gather information to determine whether they want to test the child or not
  • Talarico- can you walk us through what that looks like on the public school side?
    • There isn’t much of a differentiation between public and private students in this scenario
    • School would get as much data as they could
    • Evaluation and testing are not the same thing; evaluation means looking at the data and determining whether you will test the child or not, and testing is determining what condition the child has
    • There probably won’t be as much data available, so they tend to err on the side of caution and do testing
    • Most common scenarios are speech and dyslexia
  • Talarico- Having a student tested for a learning disability would place a financial burden on schools to see if they qualify for an education savings account
    • Recommendation 2 would solve that by providing funding for that problem

 

Emily Garcia, TEA Associate Commissioner at Texas Education Agency

  • Teacher Vacancy Task Force Established in Spring ‘22
  • Comprehensive set of recommendations: compensation, training and support, and working conditions
  • HB 100 included $570 million related to the recommendations of the task force
  • HB 100, which did not pass, established new teacher residency program
  • HB 100 would have addressed compensation, training and support, and increase in support of working conditions
  • The items in HB 100 addressed nearly all of the TVTF recommendations

 

Iris Tian, TEA Associate Commissioner at Texas Education Agency

  • It is important to measure public education in order to improve it, that is why we have accountability
  • Redesign of STAAR was implemented this year, based on feedback from hundreds of educators and students
  • Through Year Pilot began this year, different than just one STAAR test. Also relied heavily on stakeholder feedback and this was the first year
  • Transfers in school districts, charter schools, and virtual schools allow students to pursue educational options
  • STAAR provides parent reports

 

Marian Schutte, Executive Director of Authorizing at TEA

  • Here to discuss current educational opportunities
    • Starts with those within the public school system such as transfers
    • Charter schools allow opportunities outside of district
    • Virtual and Hybrid schools
    • Private and home schools are paid for by families on their own

 

Questions for Panel

  • Metcalf – asked about transfers and open enrollment
    • Schutte- If a school is not open-enrollment, they can choose which students they want from outside of their district
  • Shaheen- on the STAAR test, you said there are multiple tests throughout the year instead of one?
    • Tian- Yes
  • Shaheen- There is some type of summative calculation so that we can accommodate the federal and state reporting requirements?
    • Tian- The pilot is seeking to determine whether or not we can do that, yes
    • Tian- We have 121 districts who participated
  • Shaheen- when will the results be ready?
    • Tian- We are legislatively required to have a report done every even numbered year. We are hoping to have one done by the end of this year
  • Frank- is there anything we did to regulate discipline?
    • Garcia- In the final version of HB 100, there are teacher quality assistance grants that districts can apply for where they opt in for schoolwide culture and discipline management support
    • Garcia- HB 100 appropriates 3 million annually in the form of grants to help districts with school wide discipline statewide
    • Frank- I guess the answer would be no
  • Ashby- Is that a through pilot program on the STAAR test?
    • Tian- There is no end point, we know we will need multiple years of piloting. We are planning to expand the pilot to more content/subject areas
  • Ashby- are we planning to expand beyond 121 districts?
    • Tian- Yes, and it is around 20,000 students per test that are currently participating
  • Ashby- the purpose is to look at replacing STAAR with this different assessment tool?
    • Tian- That is correct
  • Ashby- You said you will give us a report after you analyze the first year of how those results look?
    • Tian- Yes, we are looking at how to take from all three tests to get a summative score
  • Ashby- to me that makes a lot of sense, looking at them across the year would take a lot of pressure off students. I hope it is something we continue to look at
  • Buckley – have we looked at impact of organizations in schools on classroom management and discipline on campus?
    • Garcia- I believe our safe and supportive schools team is deeply involved in that work. I don’t have that information but I can follow up
  • Buckley- The schools I have visited tout the ability of these organizations to create a safe and supportive environment for students going down wrong path, would be good to have details on other organizations working within the schools
  • Bell- There is not a summative score on the through year testing yet? No A-F rating
    • Tian- The school districts participating in the pilot still have to take the STAAR, that is where the ratings come from
  • Bell- So right now it is not a summative score?
    • Tian- We have some hypotheses on how we might be able to calculate that
    • Tian- The through year tests are not part of their accountability
    • Tian- We do not have a summative score
  • Bell- are you releasing the data? Want to know if schools can see them in a timely manner to help address interventions
    • Tian- We are releasing it to the school districts
    • Tian- HB 4545 is specifically about STAAR
  • Bell- So the questions on the through-year pilot are not out of the same list of questions that create the STAAR for that particular grade level?
    • Tian- the development is the same, so we are still going through the same field testing and approval
  • Bell- wants to know if through year and STAAR are the same in process, therefore the through year pilot could be released for interventions?
    • Tian- Yes, that’s correct
  • Gervin-Hawkins- Are these 121 districts teaching the same things at the same time as other district, are we comparing apples to apples?
    • Tian- They are not teaching the same thing at the same time
    • Tian- Important to district in a through year pilot, can not have same scope and sequence so we built a test to account for that
    • Tian- It is a full scope test, it covers the full standards because students learn different standards at different points of the year
  • Gervin-Hawkins- The goal is to see if this is a model we can adopt on through year testing, after y’all determine if there is an alignment with the outcomes of the students, what they are learning, and what that summative result would be?
    • Tian- Yes
  • Do you think that would work?
    • Tian- Pilot is to figure out if this is technically feasible and if it would be beneficial to students and teachers
    • Tian- students like having more opportunity to show what they know throughout the year
    • Tian- We are looking at different ways of calculating so is it feasible and better for teachers and student
  • Gervin-Hawkins- But what you have learned too is that uniformity is something districts are not interested in?
    • Tian- That is correct
  • Gervin-Hawkins- so each district would be unique in terms of their testing dates, their scope and sequence, but the goal would be to see where that leads us at the end of the school year in terms of that summative result?
    • Tian- Looking for help but not hurt model – taking better of three scores, looking at different ways they can calculate
  • Gervin-Hawkins- Has the TEA looked at alternative ways of measuring school performance to STAAR (add CCMR or character career readiness in elementary and middle school)
    • Tian- Have not looked at a character indicator
    • Tian- Know there was a bill that looked at extracurricular involvement and a parent and student survey but they did not pass
  • Buckley- Are these though year tests adaptive?
    • Tian- It is part of the pilot, doing multi-stage adaptative, not item-level adaptative
    • Tian- Challenge with adaptive is that you need more items and its more expensive
  • Buckley- Item-level is where we need to head if we want to do this?
    • Tian- Item-level adaptive would allow for a shorter test but would require a lot more money to implement
  • Buckley- to me, the goal is fewer assessments to serve multiple purposes. Is that the goal of the through-year model?
    • Tian- I think that the advantage is reduced pressure and catching students who are off track before they get too far off track
  • Buckley- Is there the need then that there would have to be other benchmarking, other tests given along the way? Can we do this in a way that doesn’t add pressure to students?
    • Tian- We required schools in our pilot not to do alternative benchmark testing
  • Hinojosa- Which standard is passing for STAAR?
    • Tian- Approaches grade level is the high school graduation requirement
    • Tian- But calculate meet, masters, approaches in Domain 1, etc
  • Hinojosa- we have too many criteria to know what our target should be. Have these standards been changed recently?
    • Tian- Not recently
  • Hinojosa- why was it changed from the original names?
    • Tian- Those four did exist, but we just changed the names
  • Hinojosa- What is the difference between approaches and meets grade level?
    • Tian- Meets grade level correlates to a 60% chance that a student will be successful in freshman classes
  • Hinojosa- So for 3rd grade reading if a student meets their grade level, that is predicting how they will do in high school?
    • Tian- The purpose of STAAR is to be predictive of post-secondary outcomes
  • Hinojosa- I remember people saying that STAAR was testing at a higher level than the TEKS. I had no idea that we were predicting high school success. That is concerning to me because it seems like a tenuous connection. Is the new STAAR harder than the first?
    • Tian- We did not make the test more rigorous, these changes were to make it more aligned with the classroom
    • Tian- We are prioritizing reading passages that cover things being taught
  • Hinojosa- So then we should not see a difference in performance?
    • Tian- There will not be a difference in results because of the STAAR redesign
  • Hinojosa- 2,400 campuses ratings decreased now with the what-if ratings, what accounts for that?
    • Tian- What-if ratings that were just released are not final
    • Tian- we updated cut-points for accountability system
    • Tian- A couple of closing the gaps changes
  • Hinojosa- Most districts will see a decrease in ratings?
    • Tian- One of the big changes we are doing in accountability is to make sure district rankings are more aligned with campus ratings
  • Hinojosa- I saw this report on extracurricular and cocurricular student activity. I was surprised by how strong the correlation was with success. Has TEA looked at that as a potential indicator?
    • Tian- Part of that report lays out what would need to happen to move forward. We learned from a couple of districts that were trying to do this already
  • Hinojosa- I want to address the committee: students who participated in 2 or more years of extracurricular activities double their likelihood of succeeding in post-secondary education. I think that is something that bears looking into
  • Metcalf- Did you say that STAAR predicts how well students will do in high school?
    • Tian- One of the big changes is that STAAR will be aligned with post-secondary success. Showing master level on an algebra EOC means success is predicted for freshman level college classes
  • Metcalf- what does a third grader’s result mean on STAAR?
    • Tian- We want to correlate how 3rd prepares for 4th and 4th for 5th
  • Metcalf- I always understood STAAR as seeing how a student did throughout the year
    • Tian- We are looking at how they do compared to state level standards not their own benchmarks
  • Metcalf- So this accountability test we are considering, what changes is that vs. STAAR?
    • Tian- The through-year test is to see if students can take three tests throughout the year instead of one big test at the end of the year
  • Metcalf- I do think there is some concern that young children are expected to have a career path when they are super young
  • Gervin-Hawkins- if we gave schools a choice between a norm reference test and STAAR, have you looked into that?
    • Tian- We are federally required that all students take the same test, so STAAR has to be the standard
  • Gervin-Hawkins- if a teacher came into a classroom, and the lesson plan is already done and they don’t have to prepare by themselves, would that be useful for retention?
    • Garcia- There was a great deal of interest in high quality instructional materials provided by the state. It would help young teachers be more successful and it helps teacher retention. HB 1605 did pass and will do this
  • Gervin-Hawkins- Have there been any studies that show why minority students perform poorly? One thing I’m looking for is how language affects them
    • Garcia- We do have data that students in high poverty schools are most likely to be taught by novice teachers. Preparing new teachers is a great way to close this gap.
  • Gervin-Hawkins- Does the data show we are closing the gap?
    • Tian- I don’t have that data right in front of me, but we do publish every year how well students are doing
    • Garcia- I think it is important to consider that at each grade level, different subjects are tested, so to answer that question so broadly misses that nuance that might be important in terms of areas where we are closing achievement gaps and where there is still work to do
  • Bell- If the schools in the pilot program don’t get to do the map testing, how do they get information to know what to do with the requirements we put in place with 4545?
    • Tian- They are getting the data from the pilot, I was making the point that the intervention requirements set by 4545 are not affected by the through year test results
  • VanDeaver- Who sets the STAAR performance levels?
    • Tian- Most years we just equate standards to make sure they are similar to the previous year
    • Tian- The standard setting process is pretty complex
    • Tian- A number of different folks make sure the performance standards are accurate
  • VanDeaver- Is this something that would typically go before the state board for approval?
    • Tian- No, it is also not the commissioner making the decision. We have a number of different people weighing in to make sure the state performance levels are accurate. The process is overseen by the TEA
  • VanDeaver- Is there a method in place to challenge these standards?
    • Tian- Not that I know of
  • Frank- Who are your stakeholders and how do you determine that?
    • Tian- For three a year assessment: parents, students, teachers, administrators and technical experts
    • Tian- The US Dept of Education has to peer review and accept our standards too
  • Frank- why do districts feel the need to pay for norm reference tests?
    • Tian- Norm reference tests measure something different from STAAR
    • Tian- I do think that one of the things you codified were STAAR interims, which districts are starting to implement instead
  • Hinojosa- When it comes to accountability, it feels like all this data is put into a black box. We need more transparency to inspire more trust. Districts do not want us to change cut scores retroactively. Can the agency provide what the results would be using last year’s cut scores to compare to the new standards?
    • Tian- There are a couple of challenges. We have changed the way we are measuring growth. We are moving away from our previous version and have limitations on how we could even calculate growth according to the old standards
  • Hinojosa- Whenever we move the goal posts, schools feel like they are being set up. I advise the agency to be careful
  • Talarico- if teachers are the single most important factor for student success, your first recommendation is to fund a significant increase in salaries. Do you have a range for what significant means? What number are we talking about?
    • Garcia- The committee was diverse on that opinion. There was a strong point of view that increasing salary, only, would not be effective in itself.
  • Talarico- if we don’t include the salary increase and do the rest of the proposal, that would not work?
    • Garcia- I do think that whatever decision we make we must pay teachers more
  • Talarico- so whatever combination of changes we make, we must significantly increase teacher’s salary?
    • Garcia- Yes
  • Talarico- Over the past ten years, what I have seen is that teachers’ salaries decline after adjusting for inflation, is that what you all have seen?
    • Garcia- I do not have that data with me
  • Talarico- did you come across how many Texas teachers have to work a second job to make ends meet?
    • Garcia- I did see that number, I cannot recall it but it was embarrassing
  • Talarico- Can we agree that a $2000 one time bonus is not significant
    • Garcia- Yes, taken in isolation that is not significant
    • Garcia- We still have an increase for teachers on the minimum salary schedule but we will need to do more
  • Buckley- I think Talarico’s comments are important; think we have a diverse group of districts competing in different markets
  • Buckley- STAAR 2.0 is all online?
    • Tian- That is the norm, but there are accommodations for some students
  • Buckley- will the results take into account the change in the format of the test?
    • Tian- That is taken into account when we developed the test.
  • Buckley- I think we need to keep in mind that the accountability system is for the adults, but we do that on the backs of kids. The stress level for students is real

 

Panel 2

Josh Sanderson, Equity Center

  • Requests that the committee does not walk back any of the progress made in school finance
  • We want to create a system that is significantly more equitable
  • Recommendation is simple: push as much money as possible towards increasing teacher salaries
  • Push all the committee’s funding into the Basic Allotment
  • We want to deliver a meaningful pay raise to educators and provide flexibility to local school districts
  • We are opposed to hold harmless funding because it creates disparities. It is not a reliable funding source
  • A larger number of districts are outside of the confidence interval were given state values causing them to lose revenue
  • Bell- I am unsure about the math behind your numbers for increasing teacher pay
    • The point we were trying to make is that putting all the money in the basic allotment is the right decision to make
  • Bell- everyone understands the importance of putting money into the BA
  • Bell- There is no correlation between your location and tax revenue today. If you get more money than what you need we require you to take send that back in recapture
    • If there is a gap between valuations and collections, districts can lose out on money if their collection rate is lower than the valuation
    • We need to base on collections and not values
  • Bell- The current system is punitive to the local school districts.
  • Harris- How many ISD’s are outside the 5%
    • 150
  • Harris- How many are small to midsize schools?
    • A large amount
  • Harris- 7 out of 8 of my ISD’s are outside the 5%
  • Ashby- The current system in my opinion is broken. I don’t believe that the state is better at determining what local appraisal values should be
  • Talarico- We are talking about peanuts, but if we are sitting on $12 billion of tax relief and not using it for helping are students, that seems wrong to me. How much money should we be spending?
    • We need at least a $1000 dollar per student increase, that would just get us back to where we were 4 years ago
    • It would cost us roughly $9 billion dollars more a year
  • Talarico- we shouldn’t be messing with any education savings account or any other pet projects until we have a $1000 BA increase

 

Greg Smith, Fast Growth School Coalition

  • Consider reciprocal accountability in state policy, need to be willing to put in the resources to be in the top
  • Hold harmless request as transitioning into new accountability ratings, notes the goal posts are moving and this would help the district catch up
  • Concerned about 3rd grade reading, look for inter or intra transfer for child that failed including transportation
  • Consider other accountability measures that do not rely solely on STAAR, refers to Raise Your Hand Texas (RYHT) document that has details on “measure what matters”
  • Support increase in basic allotment, $1k minimum needs to be considered
    • Districts considering what positions need to be cut to provide a raise, or VATRE in order to provide a raise
    • Property tax reduction may be superseded by a tax rate election just to make ends meet
  • Districts are in bond selling mode right now, may not be enough funding in hold harmless ($22 billion sold in May 23)
    • Districts can’t go above 50 cents and may not be able to get projects done

Dr. Heath Morrison, Montgomery ISD

  • One of first school districts to go back from COVID, 95% of kids in class by October
  • Did not experience learning gaps, worked with community to create strategic plan and aligned to the state
  • Several financial challenges including Golden penny, inflation, fast growth, disparity in ESSER dollars
  • Property taxes have gone up over 65% but district budget not gone up over 17%
  • Consider increase to basic allotment, inflation to allotment, rise in cap for Fast Growth (would like something like HB 100 materialize)
  • Consider providing golden penny that was lost
  • Not opposed to competition but it needs to be competition on level playing field (like requirement to take every student)
  • Would like to see accountability in vouchers if they are going to do ESAs, etc
  • Everything has to be with and for teachers, students in middle and every one else after, teaching crisis is real
  • 29% of new teachers last year were emergency certification, need to do better than that
  • Focus on main things, focus on teachers and put great teachers in front of most vulnerable students
  • Frank – confirms total funds they get for each student, $12k total funds for each student; wants to know total funds including buildings
    • Will get that
  • Talarico – if state continues to decline in share of funding, who makes up the difference
    • You hope the state does and if not, then need to make hard choices

Leo Lopez, Moak Casey

  • In HB 100 from last session supported:
    • Basic allotment (BA) increase – $4 billion is not enough, need to get to $7250 to get to similar purchasing power as previously enjoyed
    • Need to add any additional funds to BA
    • Like inflation factor in HB 100, agree can be strategic about how to do that
    • Longer the wait to increase the BA, the more expensive it will be
    • Would like to see an increase to $1.75 on transportation allotment for special education
    • Increase of minimum salary schedule, improvements to TIA – support all of this
    • Give districts ability to go up to 6 pennies with a vote
    • Agree fast growth allotment provision should be removed, let formula deliver funds as intended
    • Increase comp ed weights is good
    • Provide funding for library bill in HB 900, etc
  • Property insurance for coastal bend districts are needed, their cost went up 9%
  • If district not in TRS active care (15%) represent about 44-45% of employees so they did not see the relief the other half of teachers did
  • Urge caution to move to local collections on property taxes
  • Property value study does ensure an important role, could have comptroller appoint Board of Managers to appraisal districts not doing its job similar to how the TEA interacts with districts installing a board of managers
  • Hinojosa – what increase is needed to BA?
    • Around $7,200, used Texas CPI index
  • Bell – thoughts on accountability on clawbacks that impact districts on property values/taxes
    • Thinks there should be repercussions for chief appraisers not doing their job
  • VanDeaver – what is required for appraisal board to me a majority of members of the district
    • Would have to learn more about the composition
  • Hinojosa – in Texas does funding follow student
    • Notes funding the district gets is based upon the student attending the campus/district

Panel 3

Latoya Jackson, Rise Academy

  • A public charter school
  • Over 80% low income, provides an overview of statistics of student population
  • Modular buildings being added, must stretch budget to cover security costs
  • Smaller charters usually have about 1k in enrollment and received about $900 less than public schools due to facility funding, etc
  • Why are some students worth more based on where they attend – charter vs public school?
  • Buckley – what could do with facility funding?
    • Want to take portables down and build one single site facility, but need to decide where to house students while doing this, there is also land available
    • Notice enrollment dropping off around middle school
    • Reviews student population demographics
  • Gervin-Hawkins – ask what are they doing, since they have an A rating
    • Focus heavily on phoenics, teacher and staff in every class so ratio 1-8 (small class size)
    • Do not have a lot of parental engagement in answer to Gervin-Hawkins question
    • Most students go there on word of mouth
    • Have taught before due to teacher shortage, have interventionist that serve older students
    • Every teacher knows every student
  • Gervin-Hawkins – wants to find best practices so all students have a quality education, what is your message?
    • Level of autonomy, need classroom specific plan over a district plan

 

Kurtis Indorf, Great Hearts Online Program

  • Serve about 12k kids across the state in brick and mortar and online
  • Created a virtual classical public school with relationship
  • Provides overview of demographics of student body
  • Do parent survey bi-weekly, over 95% satisfied
  • Hinojosa – pulled TEA TAPR SPED if .9%, at risk 3.2%, eco dis 3.9% thoughts on disparities for these vulnerable populations
    • Will need to look into it, will double check if this is snapshot data
    • Provide choices to all families and serve them as best they can
  • Hinojosa – what policy and practices in place that is really not serving all kids
    • Focusing on virtual program with testimony but will follow up on her question

 

Bryce Adams, Texas Charter School Association

  • Thanks for legislature putting an end to municipal discrimination against charter schools which saves public tax dollars
  • Charter schools are non profit public schools, difference is three strikes rule
  • Children are different and there is a need for a school system that meets all their needs
  • Charters overall serve a higher at-risk student population
  • Public schools receive $965 less than traditional public schools, the main difference is due to facility funding
  • Hinojosa – Represents a district that just has a monitor put in place for special education, see disparity in charters serving kids in special education
    • Driven by parent choice, can’t make a family enroll
  • Hinojosa – notice large disparities between ISD and charter operations, want to fund high quality opportunities, seeing 291% higher drop out rate in charters
    • Have not seen, it may come from populations
    • 12% of charters are dropout recovery schools
  • Hinojosa – hearing charters not taking all kids, would like data/details to help inform
  • Hinojosa – charters receiving $1k more for each student? Charters spend more in central administration?
    • That is only state aid, $965 less overall for charters when you look at I&S funding
    • Charters do more with less, but central administration may look larger because of scale due to small campuses
  • Gervin-Hawkins – wants to find best practices so all students have a quality education, what is your message?
    • Charters are public schools, local enrollment, are held accountable and can be closed down in a three strike role
  • Gervin-Hawkins – an allotment is provided to charters, do they get more money per pupil?
    • No, less overall when looking at all funding sources usually driven by facility funding
    • One size does not fit all
  • Hinojosa – IDEA spends about 13% of budget on central administration, KIPP spends 9.4% – compared to state average of about 6% so its not small charters increasing the amount of spend on central administration which is money not going to the classroom
    • Can’t response to the three schools, represents the association
    • Hinojosa – lots of things to consider before they can move forward on more facility funding

 

Andy Benscoter, Upbring, Trinity Charter

  • Have about 20k students and over 90% in foster care
  • Provides overview of foster care population
  • Curriculum is all TEKS aligned and SPED certified
  • Traditional classroom model was challenging so they moved to a self-paced program to allow students to learn at their own pace which has also increased relationship building
  • This model easily blended into virtual learning
  • The 10% enrollment cap based on ADA has negatively impacted them, left them with 40 seats for the entire year
    • Would like to see cap removed
  • Did personal testimonies of students at graduation, will be sharing one via email in the coming days
  • Virtual ed can open the door to student populations forgotten about
  • Hinojosa – thinks how and the population serving is what was envisioned when starting charters
  • Hinojosa – do you have a waiting list?
    • Project around 250 this coming year will in virtual program based on Governors statement a few months ago
    • Not all campuses are virtual, 400 students day to day
    • Believes getting around $7k
    • Salary paid for by Lutheran Social Services
  • Important to have virtual ed bill, important to have students working while obtaining high school degree

 

Committee stands at ease for 15 minutes

Panel 4

Steven Aleman, Disability Rights Texas

  • Students with disabilities entitled to FAPE
  • Number of students with disabilities is growing and continues to grow
  • 702k is highest it has ever been, about 13% of our total enrolled population
  • Regarding shortfall, special education allotment is falling short about $2 billion annually leaving public education districts to pick up the tab
  • Top three recommendations, transition to a “service intensity model,” give support to districts for initial evaluation, invest in comprehensive staffing on those spending time with students with disability
  • Gervin -Hawkins – in “re-imaging” education, they have special education students but hearing private schools are not addressing needs so what is recommendation to address concern?
    • Even ADA doesn’t apply to religious schools, could see a scenario where students leaves public and finds out private religious school could not meet needs
    • Important to know private schools don’t play by same rules as private schools
  • Gervin-Hawkins – what would you ask private school to do? don’t want to leave people behind, so SPED student not a good fit for private school?
    • There are good and tailored schools that could meet the needs but few and far between
    • Legislature would need to say they have to play by same rules as public schools
    • State has done innovative grants to help public schools come up with solutions, need to be testing new concepts and approaches of what is already in the law
    • Also need to re-imagine special education on how they are funding as a state
  • Gervin-Hawkins – what is demographics?
    • Resemble Texas population in large but there is a bit more over representation of black student
  • Hinojosa – is there a national standard where Texas can evaluate how they fund as a state as well as perform?
    • Look at US Department of Education, performance data and other data points
    • Effectively State of Texas is getting a C rating
    • Data shows other states are doing better
  • Hinojosa – SSES grant, behind in evaluating kids on special education – is there any problem with expanding SSES grant on private evaluations at least until districts can catch up
    • SSES is relatively new program, provides money to parents through an account to help with additional services
    • Thinks evaluation being added to SSES be able to at least in part get additional evaluation data
    • Doesn’t see why this would be a bad idea
  • Buckley – is it not consistent that services don’t always provide instructions that match state standards in day program?
    • Yes, Commission did address day placements and capacity
    • Want it part of IEP, part of ARD, don’t want to separate student from classroom unnecessarily
    • Porters point in continual alternative placements are not robust, they would want this done very carefully

Andrea Chevalier, Texas Council of Administrators and Special Education

  • $2 billion per year shortfall, echoes recommendations from Aleman
  • Asked her task force on service delivery gaps and solutions to issues
    • Discipline and Behavior
    • Major limitations in rural (lack of medical/ Clinical setting)
    • List of recommendations in handout provided
  • Recommendations include: recruit/retain staff which impacts behavior and completing evaluations, increase choice in public school like open enrollment with transportation assistance, dyslexia charter option, expand service providers in grant program, autism/dyslexia grants set to expire September 1st
  • Gervin -Hawkins – in “re-imaging” education, they have special education students but hearing private schools are not addressing needs so what is recommendation to address concern?
    • In public school is right to ARD committee and right of least restrictive environment – those are not required in private school
    • Encourage to consider holding private schools to that standard
  • Frank – need to spend a lot of time on special education and recommendations on funding are very good, why would parent choose a private school if they are having needs met in public school?
    • She asked this of the task force
    • Private provider in classroom with child causes issues in public setting so that may be a reason why they choose private
    • In Florida there is a mechanism for private provider in school setting with certain guardrails
  • Frank – when we say students lose rights and they way to protect parents is not to give them choice…does not make sense to him
  • Hinojosa – there is frustration with a lack of services for kids who need special education in our public schools, this may lead to why parents are looking for something else and one way to address is to fully fund special education
  • Hinojosa – spends $82 million more on special education than what state provides, can’t pretend that is not happening and there is not a solution in place by choosing to provide funding
  • Hinojosa – does moving to enrollment based funding make sense for this population?
    • Yes, more accurate method of funding
    • Even though in compliance with federal law, still graded as needs assistance based on data districts submit
  • Buckley -teachers talk about level of documentation, have we created an environment, in part due to federal regulation, that is counterproductive in providing services?
    • Yes, so much of special education is compliance based
    • Some administrators are hiring staff to do all the ARD work, they plan to study this to provide the committee additional recommendations

Kim Kofron, Children at Risk

  • Need to address needs of youngest students in pre-K
  • Chronic absenteeism is an early warning sign that students may need help, 3 points increase between 2021 and 2022, need better data to address causes and define in the educational code
    • Add this to at-risk
    • Require TEA to annually aggregate and report to better target supports
  • Need plans with specifics, goals and metrics to find youth and get them back
  • Identify and eliminate disparities and negative impacts of outcome
  • Met with Sunset Commission, review components can be added to regular review
  • Gervin -Hawkins – are there any definitions for how to measure in chronic absenteeism
    • No definition in Texas, National is 10% of absences for any reasons
    • When student at school, they are not learning
  • Gervin-Hawkins – would you include highly mobile student or suspended student? Religious beliefs? So absenteeism could be attributed to other things
    • Need to find support systems and how to get them back into school
  • Gervin- Hawkins – Should district be held accountable if they have worked to get child back to school, looking for ways to be less punitive to schools, what type of stories are you hearing?
    • Parents may leave for work and not know child not going to school
    • By clearly defining and tracking, can come up with solutions and details
  • Frank – need to spend a lot of time on special education and recommendations on funding are very good, why would parent choose a private school if they are having needs met in public school?
  • Buckley – there are some parents who just don’t get kids to school, don’t want to re-criminalize it but are there any specific policy recommendations
    • Depends on district and what schools can do
    • There are pilot projects around the country
    • Teenagers may be making choice to sleep in but elementary kids may have different reason, need to focus on support for whole family
    • Buckley – says more about neighborhoods, don’t see truancy courts really addressing in the way they are discussing
    • Agree it needs to be a community effort, do neighborhoods know? Need to get data on this

 

Panel 5

Christy Rome, Texas School Coalition

  • Market defines cost and may need to pay more for higher quality equipment, cost in district controlled by market and inflation but revenues are not
  • Over 80% of budget in schools is personnel
  • In order to provide high quality educational opportunities, districts must have ability to pay staff more
  • This can be done by increasing the basic allotment in a meaningful way
  • Cost can vary greatly across Texas, used to have a cost of education index but it was stopped
  • Equal funding for students does not necessarily provide equal opportunities for students
  • Every district has its own circumstances and building in those differences into funding are impactful
  • Transitional grant is still needed by about 85 districts
  • Up to each community to decide what a high quality education looks like in the community, Trustees define it with the community
  • Include meaningful multi-pronged measures, etc.

 

Bobby Garcia, Principle of Manor Newtech

  • Provide adequate funding for public schools and meaningful accountability measures
  • Pioneer academies recognized by TEA, project based learning focus
  • Open enrollment in district 9-12th
  • Foremost objective should be providing equitable access
  • As school grows, school funding allocation not keeping pace with inflation
  • Propose increasing basic allotment to $8k which slightly exceeds inflation
  • Providing adequate compensation, etc are important to recruit and retain staff
  • Modernize assessments and accountability efforts, one size fits all is falling short, need a wholistic evaluation system

 

Adam Powell, Board President of Communities in Schools of Texas

  • Reviews supports and services they have provided
  • School based model, assist in improving outcomes
  • Goal is to keep students in school and increase graduation rate
  • Now they focus on academics, behavior and attendance
  • Quickly reviews some outcomes that were generated by TEA which includes 90% improving academically and 83% improving in behavior
  • Being on campus is what distinguishes them from other services
  • Relies on integrative referral process
  • Uses strength based approach to determine student needs, leads to reengagement of students who were disconnected with schools
  • For every dollar the state commits, they raise another 2 so avg cost per case is about $270

 

Panel 5 Q&A

  • Gervin- Hawkins – Would you agree that street outreach and management needs to be looked into for the future?
    • Powell – Programs don’t change kids, relationships do
    • Absolutely
    • CIS staff is knocking on doors to look after students
  • Gervin-Hawkins – What is your budget?
    • Powell – As a state it is $110m
  • Gervin-Hawkins – What percentage of students in Texas?
    • Powell – A small amount
  • Gervin-Hawkins – The service is good but they can’t afford it; they need a similar model
  • Gervin-Hawkins – Can you become more efficient?
    • Powell – That is always the goal to become more efficient
  • Gervin-Hawkins – Do you have a case member ratio?
    • Powell – It is 100 to 1 and is dictated by TEA
  • Ashby – Is the number they cited for appropriations from the state static?
    • Powell – They received an increase in 2019 but otherwise has been static before and after
  • Hinojosa – Bobby Garcia and his team have been pioneers for new learning models; how do you know your early college model works?
    • Garcia – The scholars and teachers are important
    • Test scores are important but the staff are crucial
    • Their staff retention rate has been high
    • Giving teachers a set curriculum allows them more time to focus on the students
    • Looking for authentic and relevant connections to the real world is important and giving teachers the time to do this is important
    • For teachers that like planning autonomy then project based learning has made a big difference
  • Hinojosa – Has your work been impacted by the stagnant funding?
    • Garcia – Yes
    • They have to make very difficult decisions such as recently cutting the orchestra program
    • Retaining teachers and keeping teaching positions is becoming difficult
    • They have not been able to replace the teachers that they have lost
    • Manor ISD total teaching staff has had to bring in teachers from other countries making up 25% of their current staff
    • They are fantastic teachers but there is a very sharp learning curve in the cultural and community experience when it comes to connecting to the kids
  • Hinojosa – 25% of Manor ISD teachers are on J1 Visas and brought in from other countries is crazy
    • Garcia – In terms of recruiting teachers they have come up with a few programs that they cherry pick to come in as student teachers first
  • Hinojosa – Is there a barrier for becoming an early college highschool?
    • Garcia – 36 college credit hours are paid for currently
    • Once they get beyond those credit hours there are 24 that the district has to pay the cost for
  • Hinojosa – Are you able to do more for your students with the amount of growth that you have seen in your school?
    • Garcia – It is a double-edged sword because having more scholars is great but there is a need to expand for more programs that cost a significant amount of money
    • Teachers with CTE certifications can easily find significantly more pay outside of the district
  • Hinojosa – What other growth have you seen?
    • Garcia – They have started UIL programs and Fine arts programs
    • Scholarships have also been awarded to students
  • Chair Buckley – How does a kid get to go there?
    • Garcia – They have an application process, but it is a blind lottery
    • There are some weighted factors that give some kids priority but because of the demand the priority markers don’t give automatic enrollment
    • They had over 300 applicants for 150 freshman slots
  • Chair Buckley – So you will partner with ACC?
    • Garcia – They have offered dual credit with ACC since 2007 and they are now pioneering a new program with them in biotechnology
  • Frank – What is the priority marker for the kids?
    • Garcia – Rising from the 8th grade and they have a sibling in the school already so that they can keep families together
    • Attending Maynor Newtech middle school gives a priority marker to the high school as well
    • For staff and board members their children get a priority so that they can recruit more staff
  • Garcia – Gives credits to Powell as CIS has helped in Manor for a long time

 

Panel 6

Dr. Ana Rush, Del Valle ISD

  • Because of the lack of funding staff and services have had to be cut down
  • Cutting block schedule means that 2 hours of math and reading has been turned into 1 hour
  • 350 hours of math have been cut to 175
  • Accountability as it relates to the work force is important
  • Del Valle has many internship partnerships, but they don’t get any points for it in the accountability system
  • The proposed 2023 accountability system essentially lowers everyone’s rating
  • It impacts how the community views them but also how investors think about them
  • There is an investor that is waiting for their rating for the school year to decide if they are going to develop in their district; with the new system their rating will be damaged
  • The testing system needs to go back to the basics
  • Elementary schools did not finish until 6pm
  • Keep the assessments to 1 instead of 3 per year
  • Poverty in Texas is extremely impactful
  • They need food not vouchers to private schools
  • They need to access to livable wages and homes
  • Public schools are open as shelters due to the heat
  • They need to fix the double taxation system that only exists in the Rio Grande Valley

 

Mary Lynn Pruneda, Texas 2036

  • The end goal is not a good score in the accountability system
  • Their goal is to get every single student in Texas to graduate and have a future
  • Only 22% of Texas 8th graders get a post-secondary credential
  • 10% for African American men and 13% for Hispanic men
  • There is no point above 60% in any grade for student readiness
  • There is a readiness gap
  • Recommend considering making the 3-year assessment pilot program permanent
  • Recommend addressing the readiness gap by improving CCMR
  • A college prep course in the CCMR system is weighted the exact same as a full associates degree by a high school system
  • One class that is not a college course should not be weighted the same as an associates
  • Make sure that anything that is awarded credit in the CCMR program is tied to a job
  • There are 46,000 students taking floral design right now but only 41 jobs were available in that industry
  • Paying close attention to mathematics mastery is needed
  • Middle schoolers are not taking up mathematics the same as in other states or even districts
  • Asks them to maintain the exit exam requirement that exists in the accountability system

 

Kate Greer, Commit Partnership 

  • The state is set to lose $1 trillion dollars in learning loss if we do not change
  • Provide greater access to instructional time in the additional day program
  • The average school calendar in Texas is from 172 to 174 days
  • That makes bridging the gap is really difficult
  • If that is changed to 175 it becomes manageable
  • Making sure that teacher candidates have quality training and keeping them in the classroom through TIA
  • If students are not on grade level by the time, they are in third grade there is a 5% chance they catch up within two years
  • Waiting until third grade to find to find this out is too late
  • The commit partnership does not believe legislative changes are needed right now in the assessment system
  • The system was designed to make Texas nationally competitive, and we are not there yet
  • It is important that the focus stays on core academic skills
  • Local accountability systems in HB 22 creates a path for local communities to identify metrics to count for the state’s overall score
  • The through year assessment pilot is a promising opportunity to make sure that we are measuring Texas standards

 

Casey Sullivan, Excel In Ed

  • Effective early literacy policy has the power to activate key levers of change for every child to learn to read
  • A literacy law is an equity law
  • Ensuring safety nets and supports need to be in place to intervene as soon as possible
  • Supports for teachers such as training, coaching support, alignment with reading, parent notification, instructions and intervention, comprehensive early literacy laws
  • Over 30 states in the nation have adopted policies for early literacy
  • Legislatures in 9 states have opted to pass policies to prevent the 3 cueing
    • Florida passed an early literacy policy in 2002 and ranked 4th in the nation in 4th grade reading
    • Their Hispanic and black students scored in the top 10 in every category
    • North Carolina overhauled the literacy law in 2021 and they are seeing their data show that their students are all on track
    • Alabama showed growth in reading in early grades after passing the law
  • HB 2162 provided for policy and implementation such as universal reading screeners, parent notification, high quality instructional material, strengthening the alignment in pre-course work
  • Read at home resources for families are important

 

Panel 6 Q&A

  • VanDeaver – Have you collected any data for a 4-day school week?
    • Sullivan – They do not have access to Texas specific data, so they have had to look at news articles
    • Nationally there has been mixed results so they urge caution around it
    • It is only viable as a teacher retention strategy so long as no other districts around them are not doing it
    • Pruneda – People in 4-day environments specifically administrators report their students are doing well but after testing they are falling behind
  • Hinojosa – Asks for Rush to explain what she has achieved
    • Rush – They are 91% economically disadvantaged with around 12,000 students
    • In 2019 the district was rated as D
    • They wrote a curriculum to increase the rigor and they became a C district
    • After the pandemic they became a B
    • They are working towards achieving becoming an A district
    • They are concerned about the rating changes but the investments that have happened in the Valley are important to keep up with
    • Focused heavily on making sure that their students are good to go to the workforce
  • Hinojosa – Your progress has been interrupted because of lack of funding; what were the cuts you had to make?
    • Rush – This past year they cut the block schedule
    • They cut 3 hours of math and reading to 1 hour
    • Since the district is economically disadvantaged, they are struggling significantly to bring in teachers
    • They are trying to avoid going into deficit
    • Summer school programming has been scaled back
    • They offer summer camps for free to help enrich and look after kids during the summer, but they can’t do it without the funding
  • Hinojosa – Your success has been an economic driver for the region, but it has been hindered due to funding and the rating system could set them back even more with the changes?
    • Rush – Even developers looking at housing want to make sure that the schools are good before investing
    • The school could drop from being a B rank
    • Some manufacturing companies have specific programs that they want their workers to go through so the school district isn’t getting points in the regular system so that they can help the students be successful
    • The school districts don’t know because of lack of communication for where the work force needs people
  • Bell – What do you think about Rush’s worries about changing the accountability system?
    • Greer – A-F really drives behavior and school leadership
    • Set the goal but let everybody know what it is
    • The agency used to update standards annually
    • The language being changed to periodically instead of annually made it subjective
    • Changing the language to a set number of years could be a good resolution
    • CCMR is not just about being a letter but also the post-secondary success rates
    • We are importing more educated workers than cultivating locally
  • Bell – It is important to consider what percentage of our high school graduates are in the service sector
    • Greer – Agreed
  • Chair Buckley – No one is going to dig into the why of a school districts rank dropping with these changes; they will just see the drop and reconsider their investments
  • Chair Buckley – Do we know how many districts are still utilizing curriculum that relies upon balance literacy?
    • Sullivan – 50-60% of schools across the nation
    • Unfortunately, no Texas specific data
  • Chair Buckley – We need to have a serious conversation and reconsideration of how we are teaching reading in Texas
    • Sullivan – Agrees
    • We need to look at all of the kids and not just certain groups

 

Panel 7

Laura Colangelo, Texas Private Schools Association

  • Here to clarify assessment and accountability in private school
  • They are in no way criticizing public schools and consider themselves a partner in the effort of educating young students
  • Even if ESA enacted, public schools will still teach most of students in Texas
  • Two layers of accountability
    • Schools are accountable to parents and child in real and immediate way, they can leave
    • Accreditation, it is a robust and complete way to analyze every factor in providing education in comparison to public schools, one commissioner describe to her his wish this was scalable to public schools
  • STAAR test inappropriate for a number of reasons
    • The norm reference test is part of the wholistic education experience in the private school
    • The STAAR test would not be able to effectively replace the norm reference test
    • But there are metrics to know what score they would have gotten on the STAAR test after taking the norm reference test
    • There is a strong correlation between the tests leading to a high classification accuracy
    • There is no reason to require scholarship students to take a test while trying to become accustomed with their new surroundings, will point out who scholarship kids are the day the take the test
  • Ways they are accountable to special education students
    • IDEA is a federal law that says the needs of disabilities students are met in a public school but it is not applicable in a private context
    • Private schools operate under contract law, an agreement for private schools to accommodate their children between the school and the parent
    • Reasons to choose private school could be for smaller class sizes or teachers who have less burden to fill out all the paperwork
  • Gervin-Hawkins – STAAR follow up question
    • Its not that private schools have fear, or are scared of STAAR, some do it, its just not ETHOS of private school
    • Doesn’t seem fair to single out scholarship students to have them take MAP and then have them also take the STAAR
  • Talarico – based on statistics, wonders if private schools are really prepared to take on SPED students and if there is room
    • The statistics he refers to are national, Texas private schools serve more students with SPED
    • Problem with stats may also be looking for IEP which is not same tool in private schools, they are addressing needs in private schools but it is done differently
    • In Texas about 100k open seats, but not broken down by SPED seats but about 106 per school
  • Talarico – you argued for a special education voucher but don’t know the number of students
    • We are arguing for students to want another option to have an option
    • $9831 is median of tuition across the state, did median because there are outliers
  • Talarico – $19k is avg for private schools that serve special education, none of the vouchers would come close so how can families access this educational freedom
    • Same way we are doing it now, through scholarship funds
    • Talarico – would they make a commitment to raise the difference
  • Talarico – wants to know more about admission process and why some students not admitted?
    • Furgusen – Every private school can only serve a finite number of students, want to make sure student will succeed in the school and do they prescribe to the religious faith if religious school
    • Hansen – limited in resources so can’t take student they don’t have staff or equipment to support
  • Talarico – if public schools could only admit students that were going to be successful, they would not be having this conversation
    • Furgusen – no school is a panacea, why choice is needed
  • Talarico – can schools not enroll student based on any criteria? Based on behavior? Academic performance? Culture fit?
    • Could be based on behavior, academic and will ask parents to agree to basic tenets
  • Talarico – what happens if school fails a student, does not do a good job with that student
    • Child can pick another school
    • School can loose accreditation at any point
  • Talarico – do taxpayers have influence on how private school is measuring learning progress and a school loosing accreditation?
    • No unless something set up by ESA, parents can leave
    • Accountable by educated neighbors child the way they want
    • Talarico – private schools choose assessment and outcomes
    • Hansen – teachers don’t want behavior problem student either, but if we can find a better fit and find another option then why not have a choice
    • Talarico and panel discuss students with behavior problem, his concern is students with minor behavior problems are not taken at private schools
  • Frank – accountability system in public schools still provides funding even if they fail the student, doesn’t change the money
  • Frank – lets talk about accountability, type of testing they do in private
    • Norm reference testing
  • Frank – asked about accreditation, do they recognize transfer?
    • Yes, credits are transferred in 920 schools
    • Takes years to become an accredited school
    • Frank – said TEA recognizes accreditation and takes credits obtained in public schools
  • Frank – a parent/student can leave at any time, how much money do you get when that happens?
    • Zero
    • Frank – that doesn’t happen at a public school, there is still money left behind when students leave public school
    • Frank – Students get $14k on avg in the state on all funds
    • Frank – public money goes into private entities all over the country
  • Talarico – largest school district in state is being taken over regarding accountability and letter grade in accountability has huge impact in public schools
  • Talarico – if willing to pony up $10k from coffers for this program then lets do that for public schools; yes privatization has taken over higher education and health care and both those systems are unfordable and doesn’t want to see that happen to public education
  • Hinojosa – who says MAP and STAAR aligned? Wants to see this documentation from someone other than private schools
    • Sample that take both MAP and STAAR
    • MAP test does incorporate state standards
  • Hinojosa – doesn’t know where the access data, how would public hold these schools accountable with data on race, salaries, etc, where do they get information
    • Data provided to accreditation commission but it may not have all the details mentioned because it is private
  • Hinojosa – students who qualify for special education services, data not readily available, can public access reports to accreditation commission
    • There are questions on the report such as financial aid, teacher salary, etc and that is available to the public on TPSAC website
  • Hinojosa – found a school not accredited since the 1970’s, how many lost accreditation
    • It’s the original accreditation date, it would be the 5 year cycle
    • Members of public don’t know finding of accreditation but families do
    • System is accountable to families they are serving
    • About 5-6 lost accreditation, closed, etc
    • Will pull reports on how many lost accreditation and get back to the committee
  • Talarico – if giving public dollars to these schools should be able to allow public school to use MAP data, is there anything that requires this accreditation information to be available
    • Colangelo- Private school commission exists to show how many accredited private schools there are
    • Created out of TEA and TEA still monitors
  • Talarico – no transparency requirements, Texas Catholic Conference can do own accreditation
    • Not that she is aware of regarding transparency requirements
    • Texas Catholic conference of Bishops is an accreditation entity, one of nineteen and TAPSEC is the umbrella organization
    • Accreditation commission is meta, peer review process of 19 entities
    • Talarico – equivalent would be ISD deciding what assessment instrument to use and giving own ratings
    • They would have to have peer review
  • Talarico – thinks it’s important to dig into the details on how the two systems are different

 

Tracy Hansen, Oak Creek Academy

  • 98% of their students have some type of learning difference
  • Oak creek academy was meant to be a different educational environment for their students
  • Within the school they have multiple forms of therapy in a clinical setting in the building
  • The children’s needs are the priority
  • 81% of their students have autism
  • All they want is students to learn and grow
  • They do have accountability through the MAP assessment three times a school year, their norm referenced test
  • Students are all going to learn and grow differently
  • They do have accountability, MAP lets them know if students are learning and it also correlates to the STAAR test
  • They have IEPs and they have three IEP meetings a year; their goals can change midyear
  • Their tuition is $9,306 a school year
  • 97% of them pay that full tuition price
  • The other 3% have to make a difficult choice and these families should not have to make that choice
  • The teachers make between $38k and $42k a year, cap classes at 14 with teacher and para
  • They do not receive grants even though they have tried
  • Non-public day school needs to be approved through public school
  • VanDeaver – what is tuition?
    • $9360, they are year round
  • Gervin-Hawkins – why not be a special charter to serve the population do?
    • Started with that direction in mind but was told had to administer to STAAR, not supportive of high stakes testing
    • Her population may be potty training at 12 and have kids that have high anxiety
    • Believe in accountability but STAAR is what kept her from chartering
    • Agrees if not for STAAR would have considered a charter school
  • Gervin-Hawkins -STAAR follow up question
    • MAP is given several times to help design the curriculum, STAAR exam is at end of the year
    • Need to be able to give instruction that is needed before end of the year

 

Jay Furgusen, Grace Community School

  • Supports ESAs
  • Serving 1500 children ages 6 weeks old to senior year in high school
  • Operates with a distinct Christian mission and have been recognized by the US Department of Education
  • Their schools have exemplary accreditation
  • There are families that do not have the choice to send their kids to Grace schools, they support trying to give as many people that choice as possible
  • Would like to expand school to serve students with more needs and would like to bring intellectual capital and know how to be able to partner with other communities throughout Texas
  • They believe in school choice and parent empowerment
  • Educational equity requires us to offer parents the ability to provide students with what they need
  • Public schools will always serve vast majority of state students
  • Know there are challenges with ESA but confident leaders are smart and can figure it out
  • VanDeaver – what is tuition?
    • Varies from HS to K/4, avg around $13-14k
  • Gervin-Hawkins – why now do you want to be in the public space?
    • Its been said there are 32 states currently operating under some sort of school choice initiative
    • Wants to serve as many different kids as possible
    • Have been discussing school choice since 2008 with Private School Association
    • Gervin-Hawkins – so is religious part why you don’t become a charter
    • They have a distinctly religious mission that would permit them from trying to be a charter school, but has also been a supporter of ESAs for some time
    • Position is that God’s word and truth underline everything they do so the religious component is in all education
  • Gervin-Hawkins – what is position of separation of church and state?
    • Previous court cases have all held funds in school choice have followed children, not followed the school so there is not establishment cause issues
  • Gervin-Hawkins – what is the demographics of your school?
    • 25-30% people of color, rest white
    • 40% receive some form of financial aid
    • 25% of students have some sort of neurodiversity
  • Gervin-Hawkins – asked about accountability, IDEA, commonality for students who transfer back and forth, what is public getting for investment in ESA?
    • Monies used in manner in which they are given, there are audits to establish financial accountability
    • Academic accountability measures if student outcomes are improving and MAP test is what they give which gives a correlating score to STAAR
    • Also beholden to customers who can walk out door and accreditation bodies can take away accountability
  • Gervin-Hawkins – if norm reference test can be correlated then why not take STAAR?
    • Would separate out kids recipients of state funds unduly when MAP test already gives insight
    • Two separate test would create a schizophrenic scope and sequencing, gives schools ability to focus on academic decisions
    • Data on STAAR is already available in MAP, its an additional hoop to have to go through with STAAR
    • A lot of public schools use MAP test
    • Gervin-Hawkins – argues if public schools use MAP and STAAR then why not private
  • Buckley – why not reform public school requirement, instead of having private school administer STAAR why not have public school not have to administer STAAR
    • Agrees it is a great question, moving outside the box
    • MAP is a data rich assessment, encourages Chair to explore this testing measure as an accountability instrument
    • When hiring a public school teacher, so many say they don’t want to have to give the student
  • Gervin-Hawkins – what if all public schools took MAP, can there be a common school assessment
    • Yes
  • Buckley – when transforming and re-imaging educational system, highlights question of why doing testing they way they do it as a state
  • Bell – don’t see public dollars going into private without accountability and need to be fiscally responsible to taxpayers
  • Talarico – would support not high stakes test, $10k basic allotment, small class room sizes and agree instead of creating an escape hatch why not do this for public schools; have school choice in public schools and agrees needs to lean into it; supports competition but this is not competition
  • Talarico – maybe they should reform the strings, but there are strings attached to taxpayer dollars, not hearing from panel what strings they are open to
  • Talarico – ask if he understands testimony from public schools that they do have enough funding, objectively state is underfunding
    • Don’t dispute that
    • Talarico – that is the real harm they are worried about

 

Grant Coates, Miles Foundation

  • Operating at the crossroads of public and private they have a unique situation seeing a broad array of ideals, models, and diversification
  • As a private grant making organization with no boss other than their mission for their students, they see a diverse landscape of opportunity
  • They have been part of the philanthropic work for over a decade in certain communities
  • Aim to increase educational outcomes, they focus on starting early and identifying innovative approaches
  • One size does not fit all
  • ESAs provide opportunities for all, facilitate market place of best ideals rising to the top
  • ESAs break blockade between zip code and opportunities
  • 65% of jobs in Tarrant County require a post-secondary degree but those in poverty only 14% reach that degree obtainment

 

Questions and answers of the panel that took place after initial testimony may be embedded under individual speakers

 

Hearing adjourned