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The Senate Committee on Education heard invited and public testimony regarding teacher compensation, classroom discipline mandates in code, and implementation of legislation passed in the 85th Legislative Session:

  • Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Senate Committee on Education passed by the 85th Legislature, relevant agencies, and programs under the committee’s jurisdiction. Make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, or complete implementation including:
  • A prohibition of a monitoring system performance indicator based solely on the number or percentage of students receiving special education services (SB 160). This will include testimony about the United States Department of Education special education monitoring letter and the Texas Education Agency’s proposed corrective action plan.

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

Mike Morath, TEA

  • Gave presentation
  • Special Education is Individualized support for those with disabilities
  • SB 160 required prohibition of monitoring requirement based solely on the number or percentage of students receiving special education services- and prevents it from being implemented again
  • Texas has significantly lower percentage of special education students
  • 80% of Texas students are “approaching” grade level knowledge, only 40% of SPED students are at that point

Penny Schwinn, TEA

  • Discussed TEA activities taken over last 6 major activities including
    • Child find reminder ARD process review
    • District follow-ups
    • PDMAS

 Mike Morath, TEA

  • Identified TEA deficiencies
    • Child Find- process to identify SPED Students
    • FAPE
    • Efforts to ensure IDEA compliance were lacking
  • Response
    • Strategic compliance plan needed to change special education in Texas
    • Corrective action response- responding to the federal requests
  • In comment phase on response plan to Federal Department of Education
    • Including online surveys and one-on-one interviews (over 10,000 responses)
  • Taylor- concerns over testing every child included in strategic plan, address that?
    • In some cases, it looks like standard testing but in many cases it does not, but that refers to assessment
    • Includes students that should have been evaluated years ago and need to be evaluated now
  • Taylor- concern with over identifying, address that?
    • If the system is function correctly that shouldn’t be an issue
  • Taylor- addressing graph shown in written testimony, what are the reasons states have such different identification numbers?
    • Standards for identification including being able to take medical diagnoses into account
  • Taylor- shouldn’t we be taking a doctor’s opinion into account?
    • That is a policy decision for the state but would significantly affect the outcomes of ARD meetings
  • Taylor- how do we handle dyslexia?
    • Considering the comments received which most regard dyslexia and a discrepancy across the state with identification of dyslexia
    • Not every student identified with dyslexia is getting special education
    • Better information/technical assistance from TEA is required and will be implemented within the next year
  • Morath- the size of the Texas system effects the response to this issue and much more clear guidance from TEA is needed, part of the Strategic plan to implement that
  • Lucio- years ago, students referred to as EMR were significantly misidentified. When looking at assessment we need to consider all health issues including minor issues including issues like hearing issues.
  • Campbell- is identification testing for special needs standardized?
    • Schwinn- there are a number of tests based on the suspected disability
    • After the initial evaluation there are additional assessments that are taken from that point
    • Morath- one thing to consider is the practical side, assessments require time and money
  • Campbell- in speaking about a doctor’s opinion, why wouldn’t that automatically be considered? Especially if the identification assessment already paid for.
    • Schwinn- that is a huge policy question relating to an identification
    • Schwinn- one consideration is that it could take some of the decision-making ability out of the ARD committee
  • Campbell- do not see the negative side of allowing that to be used in the assessment and identification process
    • Morath- could draw a distinction between automatic admission from doctor’s input or guaranteed consideration
  • Taylor- policy-wise, the district should have to prove that the student does not need those services as opposed to the other way around
    • Schwinn- there is also the determination between identification and educational needs
  • Campbell- what is the plan for the bottleneck in identification that was spoken to?
    • Schwinn- in the strategic plan, there is a $10 million investment for additional capacity or staff
  • Campbell- where did the $10 million come from?
    • From the IDEA discretionary funds
    • almost the entire plan comes from federal dollars
  • Rodriguez- has indicator 10 been removed from PDMAS?
    • That is correct it has been removed
  • Rodrigues- have schools started to identify more?
    • They have by a small margin but yes, there has been a slight uptick
  • Rodriguez- is our goal to be closer to the national average?
    • Don’t think we should be comparing to an average because it is such a specialized process
    • The nature of the strategic plan is to have an aggressive approach to identifying those who need the services
  • Rodriguez- said we need to be more consistent in providing guidance to districts, are there any benchmarks we have to ensure that?
    • We have evolved to disproportionality framework
    • Schwinn- we have received a lot of feedback regarding small district identification but there still needs to be continuity in guidance
    • Schwinn- The strategic timeline has five years to provide enriched guidance to districts
  • Rodriguez- what is the recovery process and how does it work?
    • Going to attempt to provide surge capacity to help identify students with needs
    • The supports are going to be made more robust to make up for lost time
    • Need to think about school finance implications: if schools had identified earlier they would have received addition state aide
  • Rodriguez- the corrective action plan states funding will be up to state and federal legislators, TEA does not provide an estimate of the necessary funding to fully implement the corrective action plan, why is there not an estimate?
    • Nature of response plan is in two areas: local and state funds
    • Do not have precise information today for the local funding levels
  • Campbell- do you consider behavioral diagnosticians available for considerations based upon their assessment?
    • They absolutely should be considered in the ARD meeting discussions
  • Taylor- need to be sure that we do not miss opportunities to serve the students that need these services

 

Steve Aleman, Disability Rights Texas

  • Unfortunate that an investigation got us to this point, but it’s a positive that the state is putting attention on this subject now
  • Corrective action plan must do the following:
  • Budget in the plan is based on available dollars as opposed to need. Need to determine the full need of the plan
  • Will be on the legislature to provide the needed support in the upcoming session
  • Have had issues with misidentifying needs and need to be mindful of those issues when attempting to identify all children needing services
  • Should be using physician opinions relating to assessment

Kyle Piccola, The Arc of Texas

  • Acknowledged TEA’s public comment and input
  • Need more than a plan; requires far reaching solutions for issues
  • Cannot look at the cap in a silo, need to consider other factors when looking at the special education system as a whole
  • Action plan has bright spots but should also include: funding and TEA LAR process to fund the corrective action plan, monitoring process should include review of district and campus policies and procedures, ARD disputes should have elevated review, complaint process should be bolstered, use FTEs or network grants to provide support for those navigating the system
  • Wants the legislature and TEA to consider taking more time to create a well thought out and robust action plan
  • Rodriguez- have an estimate of costs to provide reviews and monitoring?
    • Do not have the estimate, but will be significantly dependent on details associated with monitoring
    • Aleman- staffing at TEA will need to be bolstered and that cost will need to be considered
  • Lucio- able to work with regional offices to address these issues and what to they have available to address these issues?
    • 20 ESCs across the state but they are not direct service providers with specific dedicated staff or the capacity to help districts with assessments and identification
  • Lucio- would be interested to compare ESCs ability to help districts
    • There will be a huge role for the ESCs in this process, but will need to be further developed in the action plan
  • Campbell-what does ARC stand for?
    • Is not an acronym
  • Taylor- do you have any guidance to come up with an LAR for the needs of the plan?
    • Only looking for a best guess for costs to school districts
  • Taylor- how do you explain the cap is below the average?
    • Referring to the guidance from TEA to school districts regarding percentage of special education students
    • Feds have described it as a cap as well

 

Kristin McGuire, Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education (TCASE)

  • Asks to prioritize, commit and fund
  • Prioritize: taken a good first step with removing the performance indicator, but need to take the opportunity to prioritize special education in Texas
  • Commit: requests there be a renewed commitment to be a leader in special education
  • Funding: the plan needs additional funding to turn into actionable change and does not include additional costs to districts
    • Additional evaluation staff and long-term services will be very expensive for districts
  • Taylor- discussed that there was a failure of oversight in creating this problem with many people and entities involved in the problem just like many people and entities responsible for solving this problem

 

Marie Gonzales, Round Rock ISD

  • Biggest concern with component to reach out to every student currently in 504- that is thousands of students, would easily expect to be doubling the number of assessments
    • Associated funding and staffing cause for concern for ability to meet demand
  • Process of identifying is rigorous and includes not overidentifying and not considering other factors
  • Rodriguez- discussed the significance of the task of identifying all of the students. How to compare with other states and what are the best practices to take away from?
    • Cannot compare other states
    • Even differences with best practices within the state are huge and technical assistance networks may help with that
  • Huffines- what percent of students are evaluated for learning disabilities?
    • Hovering just under 10%
    • Conducted 8,000 initial evaluations last year out of 50,000 students
  • Hall- qualified assessors are a concern, what is the workforce availability?
    • That is a real concern within the district even if the plan was fully funded
    • would need to consider training for those people as well
  • notes that there are students with disabilities that will not need specialized assistance through o

 

Heather Sheffield, Decoding Dyslexia

  • Corrective action plan should expressly discuss dyslexia and needed exclusion for reading intervention
  • should be clearer about using the handbook
  • described needs of districts to get specialized dyslexia services
  • noting funding concerns but the return on investment is huge
    • discussed potential funding mechanisms like Medicaid for services
  • should reduce funding spent on high stakes standardized testing
  • Seliger- at what point were your kids identified?
    • One was identified in second grade and services were provided
    • Orton Gillingham based programs was most productive for children
  • Seliger- are there other programs available?
    • Many types based on that program
  • Hughes- clarify reverse inclusion?
    • That is being in general education with additional supports but for some classes should be on small group or one-on-one teaching
  • Huffines- the fiscal impact overall of evaluation and training on WAD?
    • Morath- the numbers get large quickly
    • Can assume a double basic allotment for each student added on an annual basis
    • Discussed potential and estimated costs
    • Roughly $1 billion
  • Hall- what is the availability of the workforce given the $1 billion influx?
    • Not immediately available, they are specialized functions and roles
    • Focus on this issue should increase capacity but it will not be a quickly solved issue

Teacher Compensation: Study current, local, state, and/or national compensation strategies for classroom teachers and make recommendations to elevate the teaching profession as well as comprehensive policies to attract, retain, and reward teachers.

Mike Morath, TEA

  • Began with 3 key takeaways; good teachers should be paid significantly more, there are processes to define good teachers, a policy framework will require a long-term commitment
  • Reviewed four key components of strategic plan, will focus on the one regarding teachers
  • In order to see system wide improvement will need to address all portions of pipeline
  • Recruitment Challenges
    • Notes only 23% of new teachers in US come from top 1/3 of their graduating classes
    • Says part of issues is due to compensation and working conditions
    • Compensation is the number one factor affecting recruitment
  • Retention Challenges
    • Today most likely teacher you will run into is in their 1 year of teacher, etc by year 7 a good number of people who chose profession are no longer in it, argues part of reason is salary
  • Teacher Compensation Strategy Examples
    • Examples from Dallas ISD, Lubbock ISD, and Austin ISD are provided as well as six other districts around the state
  • S. Compensation strategies – examples of statewide reform provided
  • International Compensation strategies – Singapore example
    • System sends message if you want to increase in salary get as far away from children as possible
  • Lessons on Merit Pay
    • It can or can’t work – some can be effective and some ineffective
    • Distilled key lessons: size matters, clarity matters, calibration matters, eligibility/the more the better, permanence matters, a comprehensive design is better, focus on the need
  • Taylor – could always tell who top teacher on campus was but everyone was paid the same, can imagine that one would want to be rewarded for their efforts, need schools to step up and do it
  • Taylor – we have got to have better teachers in the classroom and way to do it is to pay them appropriately
  • Campbell – what about behavior in the classroom contributing to teacher burnout? Didn’t see that as a priority of teachers staying with the profession
    • Always two issues at play, pay and working conditions
    • Number one factor on retention is working conditions
    • Need to be sensitive to both working conditions and pay
  • Hall – student most important in education system and relationship between good teachers – students most important issue we have – teachers are most important employee in the system
  • Huffines – Looks like 50% of employees in district are teachers, how do we close the pay gap?
    • Looked at several options including student teacher ratio, could increase pay with larger class sizes
    • Need policy framework that changes retention
  • Huffines – starting pay is competitive but thinks retention is the challenge, what about best practice on ratio between admin/assistant’s vs classroom teacher
    • There is a decent amount of investment in leadership structure
    • Differentiated structure would allow for everyone to be teaching, teaching in some way
    • Morath – Principal term is for principal teacher or principal instructor
    • Taylor – if you did that could just hire someone in business to come run the organization
    • Taylor – points to charters and number of districts bi-furcating their leadership structure
  • Taylor – status of teachers higher in other places but we don’t need bad teachers in the classroom
    • Provides example of boot camp training, rigorous training
    • Teaching needs rigorous training and it is a skill that must be developed and refined over time
    • “Don’t want to water down the entrance into the profession,” you water down the entrance and kids don’t learn
  • Campbell – what is Superintendent’s salary, some are really high so how is that monitored or capped? Is that just through the discretion of the school board?
    • Entirely up to the school board
    • Campbell – if we have Superintendents that are outside of what our teachers make, we should really look at it and need to look at all tools in the tool box
    • Campbell – have Superintendents that get raises based on the favor of the school board
  • Taylor – Superintendents are very important, and a good Principal makes a huge difference, really need good people and not for capping salaries but performance based
  • Hughes – regarding to factors for retention, how much of a factor is amount spent and concentration of administration over classroom? Does that make teacher want to go somewhere else?
    • Not addressed in this presentation, have not looked at that data in some time
    • If try to run a correlation analysis, have never found a relationship between those variables

Dr. Jeannie Stone, Richardson ISD

  • Will implements ACE model
  • Has a declining fund balance
  • Request focus on neediest children and implore them to use allocation of resources for programs like ACE
  • ACE program will cost around $3.2 million, and there will be a lot of intentional resources going into 4 schools and they will become models for whole district
  • Campbell – what happens to classroom that teacher left?
    • Focusing resources on those most needy campuses and strongest most effective teacher at those campuses and then can focus on next tier
    • Really need program at about 10 campuses
    • Because of turnover rate, many are 1st year teachers and not equipped with skull set to work with those in high poverty needs
  • Campbell – teachers are not coming out with skills from college? Do we need to back up and look at training there?
    • 1st year teacher needs to be in a school where challenges are not as great, skill set needed in working with those in poverty
    • Morath – ACE model will not take more than 2 teachers from any campus and the high performing teacher is created from the campus
  • Huffines – exciting to see innovation coming from Dallas area, how is this helping with recruitment overall?
    • High interest from best and brightest because of compensation and because of focus on innovation
    • Morath – would not be too complicated for agency to adopt some incentive component for campuses adopting this model which would impact recruitment statewide
  • Hall –one size fit all solutions will not work for rural districts and smaller districts will truly suffer for need of quality teachers
    • Further explains how he would see ACE working in rural setting
  • Taylor – ask about incentive further

 

Laura Garza, Dallas ISD

  • Have really transformed the community
  • Think about strategically hiring teachers
  • Seliger- going from IR-5, speak to the fundamental things or best practices?
    • Focus on growing teachers, able to build capacity amongst teachers
    • Data driven instruction
  • Seliger- what is the strategy to make a teacher a high performing teacher?
    • Building relationships with the teacher and helping them gaining confidence in the classroom, using resources in the class room, and gaining confidence to jump in and teach
  • Seliger- speaking toward class room management, do teachers understand what that looks like?
    • We help them understand that
  • Taylor- in looking at turnaround plans, timing is such an important factor, how does that play in?
    • It requires teachers to fine-tune practices and lessons
  • Taylor- discussed amount of time allotted for turnaround and the ability it provides for opportunities to change and improve turnaround plans
  • Taylor- discussed 3 years of turnaround improvements as shown in the presentation
  • Campbell- noted that the discipline referrals dramatically reduced and the correlation between improved engagement and reduced disciplinary issues
  • Campbell- who pays for the school uniforms?
    • The district does for certain students

 

Christopher Green, San Antonio ISD – Master Teacher

  • Grant supports master teacher recruitment and retention
  • Relayed personal story of student with discipline issues and master teacher program
  • Program helps teachers develop in a creative and contributive system helping all students have access to high-quality education
  • Rodriguez- you get additional development and training?
    • Allows for extended opportunities that are expected to use and share with other teachers
  • Rodriguez- is that made possible by the district?
    • Provided by the district
  • Taylor- it appears students are referring to master teachers with some deference, that’s important in terms

 

Priscilla Garza, Educate Texas

  • Discussed progression of incentive grants and alternative resources for teacher retention and development
  • Need to strengthen teacher preparation work
  • Taylor- why did you leave your teaching position?
    • Thought policy would allow to affect a larger group of people, but would like to return to the classroom at some point

 

Kate Kuhlmann, ATPE

  • Recommends that a teacher retention plan is funded and sustainable to be a long-lasting support mechanism
  • Needs to be built from an adequate base (teacher base salary schedule)
  • Fosters additional development
  • Needs to be based on valid data
  • Should be transparent to participants
  • Needs ongoing support through mentoring, etc. to be successful
  • Needs to consider non-salary compensation
  • Taylor- is there anything from the other plans you have heard that your members do not agree with?
    • Only would request there is the opportunity for determinations to be made at the local level due to such regional and individualized needs
    • Different incentive plans include valuable information for teacher assessment
    • Performance and work done should be considered for pay

 

Classroom Conduct and Teacher Support: Examine current student discipline mandates in code, study best practice models to reduce classroom discipline issues, and provide direct support for students and classroom teachers.

 

Morgan Craven, TX Appleseed

  • Chapter 37 discipline needs to be changed because it’s exclusionary and overly punitive and creates cycles of misbehavior
  • Homeless youth are being twice as punished as non-homeless students according to their study
  • Schools should not rely on punishing kids by pushing them out of class and they face academic and psychological costs
  • DISD reported a loss of $50,000 a year in 2015 due to exclusionary discipline that pushed students out of class
  • There need to be better systems available to track discipline data

 

Marc Levin, TPPF

  • Discussed disciplinary suspensions and expulsions
  • Research shows the behavior does not change after suspensions and expulsions
  • Recommends out of school suspension for drugs and alcohol
  • Recommends repealing suspensions and expulsion for truancy
  • Should include remediation and peer mentoring
  • Move toward in school suspension
  • There should be an appeal for out of school suspensions
  • Accountability system should incorporate discipline circumstances and outcomes
  • Lucio- described experience working with at-risk students. There is a need for outreach programs
  • Discussed screening for exposure to violence
  • Campbell- looking at at-risk students, are there faith-based interventions or other programs like that?
    • Mentoring is a huge aspect of solving this issue
  • Rodriguez- discussed measurable results in restorative justice programs and that it may not be stressed enough in Texas. At least there are alternatives to mandatory suspensions, etc.

 

Alyssa Rafa, Education Commission of the States

  • Suspension and expulsion at the national level show that students of color and disabilities are expelled at a higher rate than others
  • Discussed noted outcomes of students with ongoing behavioral problems
  • Texas study show that behavioral issues cause 4,000 grade level retentions each year
  • Several states have enacted policies to reinforce positive reinforcement
  • Lucio- would like information regarding what other states mandate
    • Will provide that information

 

Holly Eaton, Texas Classroom Teachers Association (TCTA)

  • Hope that the committee will consider practical implications on the classroom teacher
  • Before taking away options for teachers a solution must be offered
  • Lack of administrative support on student discipline is cited as a common reason for leaving the profession
  • Can support teachers through intervention specialists to assist with high teacher turnover rate
  • In and out of school suspensions must still be options for teachers
  • Recommend gathering data regarding how students and teachers consider discipline issues in the classroom
  • Texas has used a climate survey for teachers in past, but funding has been cut off for survey, recommend reinstating this survey and expanding it for students
  • Hall- discussed the lack of administrative support for behavior issues, consider faith-based options for disciplinary issues
  • Campbell- is there a computer platform for in school suspensions?
    • There are some things like that for out of school suspensions but unaware of solutions like that for in school suspensions

 

Public Testimony

 

Special Education Charge

 

Jana McKelvey, Texans for Special Education Reform

  • Recommends working collaboratively with many stakeholders and solicit feedback during the process of reforming special education
  • Have not heard about legislative priorities regarding special education
  • Would like to use medical diagnoses in ARD meetings

 

Ben Becker, Self

  • Does not want faith-based education for his children and believes most other parents wouldn’t either
  • Local policies matter for each school district
  • Chairman Taylor – How long would you think local control take to fix that?
    • Something that the committee needs to look at is the test to determine how teachers and leaders are effective
    • Chairman Taylor – That’s off topic for today

 

Sarah Becker, Self

  • Conditions in HISD are dire
  • Appropriations from TEA are not enough to cover HISD never mind the rest of the state
  • TEA plan does not give local community a voice

 

Lisa Flores, Self

  • TEA strategic plan decision makers should have real world experience
  • Need to be thoughtfully staffing people who will be manning hotlines, etc.
    • Need bilingual speakers
  • Current funding numbers work out to about $50,000 per district
  • Need to have a standard way of accounting for special education lawyers for transparency
  • Amend the camera bill to be used as intended

 

Kristen Romero, Self

  • Relayed personal story regarding children with special needs
  • In higher education setting, teachers are only required to take 3 hours of course credit regarding all special needs, should have more training than that
  • Should be no gaps in child find
  • Lack of communication of services through higher education for special needs students
  • Lucio- what would the necessary funds be that you recommend? Who would know that exact dollar amount?
    • It will be astronomical, the current allotted funds are just not sufficient
    • Will try to provide that information to the committee

 

Amy Litzinger, Easterseals Central Texas

  • Recommends funding should not be a one-time scenario
  • Medical diagnoses should be recognized by schools
  • Support 4 pillars of corrective action plan
  • Should be a part of a larger goal to improve special education in Texas

 

Cynthia Peltier, TCASE

  • Discussed Child Find and qualifications for assessment as well as being costly
    • Basic assessment is over $1,000
    • Need guidance from TEA regarding who will qualify for evaluation
  • Anytime a physician sends in something it has to be taken into account by ARD
  • TEA needs clarity in its role in the strategic plan
  • Will need more than current funding level
  • Lucio- how should that funding take place?
    • Unsure
  • Lucio- will you be able to meet the workforce need?
    • Very unlikely that we would be able to get enough qualified assessors
  • Dyslexia Handbook needs to be updated and have some clarity and guidance across the states

 

Kelly Morrison, TCASE

  • TEA acknowledges traditional lack of support
  • Lack of consistency between monitoring and guidance
  • Plan is not specific enough
  • Seliger- you ignored that cap that was identified by Tea?
    • We were not concerned about going over the cap
  • Seliger- considering medical diagnoses, when would you not consider them?
    • Always considered and many require medical diagnoses
  • Seliger- how many evaluations are being requested for special education?
    • In Amarillo, in a typical year there are 500-550 initial evaluations, this year we have had over 700 already
  • Seliger- do you have a portion of federal allotment set aside?
    • Not any more but some school do, but it stays in special education
  • Campbell- do you use applied behavior analysists for autism?
    • Certainly, use input for treatment plans

 

Chris Masey, Coalition of Texans with Disabilities

  • Support using doctor diagnoses to streamline the process and save the school districts some money

 

Elizabeth Jones, San Antonio ISD

  • Concerned about child find action in TEA action plan
    • Does not provide individualized plan
  • Committees should work with parents to determine which kids get evaluated
    • Not every student needs to be evaluated

 

Robbi Cooper, Decoding Dyslexia

  • Discussed dyslexia programming and the need to focus on this issue

 

Daphne Corder, Self

  • Discussed need for additional supports for dyslexic students
  • Discussed funding spent on lawyers involved in special education
  • Need more monitoring funding
  • Hughes- can you discuss what else the state can do to help lower income families?
    • There are support systems, but the process is so complicated it can be very difficult to navigate

 

Steve Swanson, Self

  • Need to take the time to rate the commissioner and TEA governance of education

 

Columba Wilson, Self

  • Described personal experience with assessment and identification of process with ARD committee

 

Linda Litzinger, Texas Parent to Parent

  • 2/3 of kids with IEPs are in inclusive plans and spend most of time with a teacher who has less than 6 hours of training on special education
  • TEA should hold public comment meeting in Laredo or the Valley
  • Should consider using doctor’s opinions and diagnoses

 

Christine Broughal, Texans for Special Education Reform

  • TEA had a failure to hold districts accountable to action plan monitoring

 

Teacher Compensation Charge

 

Angela Burke, Teacher Dallas ISD

  • Teacher pay should consider many other factors than years of experience
  • Should try to implement performance-based pay incentives

 

Jerry Lager, Ki Charter Schools

  • Described Ki Charters and benefits of teacher development within the school system

 

Molly Weiner, Texas Aspires

  • Should be options for additional funding for districts willing to try alternative pay structures

 

Emily Sass, TPPF

  • Current pay system encourages average performance
  • Research shows no correlation between performance and years of experience
  • Untether teacher evaluation and salary from longevity

 

Louis Malfaro, Texas American Federation of Teachers

  • Need to increase teacher base pay
  • Need to eliminate pay gap between teachers and other industries

 

Lisa Flores, Self

  • Need to create a market in Texas for teachers to learn many different types of teaching like universal design
  • Will aid in teacher retention

 

John Grey, Texas State Teachers Association

  • Wage competitiveness is vital to recruit and retain teachers
  • Should be paid a livable wage instead of an incentive-based method

 

Paige Williams, Texas Classroom Teachers Association

  • Minimum salary is good to provide a floor
  • Teacher pay compression needs to be reviewed, stunting teacher retention

 

Classroom Conduct Charge

 

Sara Freund, Self

  • Disciplinary issues often mean there is an unmet need
    • Need to teach kids to advocate for themselves in a productive way
  • Need trauma informed care

 

Dianne Ewing, Texans Care for Children

  • HB 674 was a good first step
  • Early grade out of school suspensions have been disproportionately used

 

Jolene Sanders, Easterseals Central Texas

  • Current discipline practices do not improve behavior and are shown to increase negative behavior
  • Need proper identification of students with special needs
  • District and campus level staff need to be aware of policies
  • Use of discipline practices must be reported including alternate disciplinary practices (sent to a calm down room, etc.)
  • Huffines- have you worked in a junior or high school that practices corporal punishment? Did it work?
    • Do not have data regarding that, have read that in most circumstances it is not effective
    • Can provide data and alternative methods

 

Lauren Rose, Texans Care for Children

  • Evidence based programs that improve the school climate should be supported to reduce the use of disciplinary actions
  • Need to implement more substance abuse prevention in schools
  • Policies moving forward should not include the use of school police to control classroom behavior

 

Steve Swanson, Self

  • Described personal experience working around schools in which adult behavior had a huge impact on student behavior – described as “restorative impact”

 

Columba Wilson, Self

  • Described personal experience with difficulty getting schools to address disciplinary problems in other ways than punishment
  • Led to bad outcomes for the child (in and out of jail) instead of helping to solve the behavioral issues or addressing the unmet needs of the student