Print 🖨

The Senate Education Committee and Higher Education Committee met on March 29 to consider the following interim charges:

Monitor the ongoing implementation of HB 5 (83R), and examine current projections for preparation of Texas high school students for postsecondary education and workforce training. Examine best practices and recommend strategies to align the implementation with the 60x30TX higher education plan, including, but not limited to, dual credit, credit transferability, and fields of study.

Study teacher shortage and retention issues in Texas and evaluate educator preparation programs to determine if these programs are preparing educators for the rigors of the 21st century classroom. In particular, examine the shortages of ELL, special education, and STEM educators across the state and identify the issues creating a shortage. Make recommendations to improve educator preparation throughout the state and increase certification rates.

Panel One
Mike Morath, Commissioner, Texas Education Agency

  • Gave overview of HB 5
  • Opt in option so there is not much outcome data available
  • Dec 2015 Interim Evaluation Report completed
  • Pathways most likely to adopt were the easiest ones to adopt
  • 37% of districts have made Alg II requirement
  • 47% of 8th graders are at final level II standard
  • Picture of what students are choosing in endorsement pathways most popular is Multidisciplinary studies and least popular is arts and humanities
  • Increase relevancy of HS and it increases outcomes for students ie CTE progress – growth in CTE credits
  • Generally students with CTE coherent sequences have more success
  • Being on CTE pathway increases graduation rates and has positive effects on outcomes
  • Dual credits usage – growth in CTE courses and workforce related courses
  • Working on A-F deliverable
  • Next report in 2017
  • West – do all districts offer all endorsements – how many?
    • does not have answer but will get it back to the committee
  • West – would like breakdown by districts and correlate it with accountability ratings by senatorial districts (urban, suburban and rural)
  • West – how often does task force dealing with A-F meet?
    • Meet on ongoing basis and have multiple working group components
    • Gathering feedback for domain 4 is non STAAR based – attendance rates but looking into alternative metrics that may be appropriate to weave in
    • Some states have continues A-F and some have retracted but none he is aware of that are as comprehensive as Texas
  • West – Seamless pipeline K-12 have been discussed and still having problems after 20 years – what is the problem?
    • feels there is progress and much more alignment discussions – dual credit discussion is manifestation of improvement
  • West – problem is systems not talking to each other, waste of taxpayers’ money since we still don’t have a seamless system
  • Taylor – noted the Texas Next Gen has been looking at A-F system and notes they are doing good work on it and says there are some steps towards integration
  • West – He recognizes there are some successes but does not think it is sufficient
  • Taylor – fully engaged in the process
  • Rodriguez – with limited data does it show details on rural areas
    • the smaller the school the fewer the endorsement options to students
    • will have more specific information to district outcome and by size as follow up to the meeting
  • Rodriguez – can they get breakdown on endorsements by ethnicity, is there also a way to break out ELL by CTE and endorsements
    • Yes, will follow up with details
  • Bettencourt and West – Inquired on statistics
    • quantified delta to show CTE goes to higher education at 13 percentage point rate higher and 11 pt for college completion
    • Yes, could then also consider it a 13% reduction in drop-out rates
  • Most popular certification is IT related, portable skill
  • Bettencourt – communication concern, whether CTE pathway or dual credit is information getting out to students
    • agrees and action items is to develop robust tooling for counselors/students so they know their options
  • Bettencourt – anyway to move up the data collections deadline
    • have had conversation about speeding up data collection and it is complex but major goal of his administration to speed that up
  • Bettencourt – they will choose the Microsoft pathway but there is nothing wrong with the other items on the list
    • adding relevance to HS experience (HB 5 goal) is an improvement in the system but need to increase relevance while maintaining rigor and keep in mind how students are tracked in those options
    • need to work on tools available to help with the choices
    • Roscoe ISD and PSJA ISD system wide commitment one has gotten aggressive with dual credit pathway and 90% of graduates graduating with with diploma and assoc degree, etc
  • Perry – you need to look at the private sector that already has a product ready, don’t spend limited resources on product that already exists
  • Perry – would like an additional measure added – part of audit process and may make it more timely
  • Perry – unhappy with institutions not allowing credits transfer, whatever qualification is lacking needs to be addressed, Texas needs a credit program that truly impacts degree program and blames turf battle 
  • Campbell – goal to education children well and let them have economic success, supports 60×30 but still thinks 40% not in pathway discussing today – need to make sure all tools in tool box are being used and on the table, not talking about school choice today but do want to make the point can’t address all opportunities unless we empower parents to choose best education for their children
  • Campbell- a measurement of success not having children going through remedial, not spending funds on remedial programs
    •  41% students meet threshold of college readiness, focus on teachers in the classroom and complicated question with several variables
  • Menendez – What can we do on getting good counselors into high schools and thinks that would be good use of financial resources
    • Counselors have three functions – filling out applications, clerical (because like automation tool), traditional counseling (emotional/psychological support)
    • to adjust hiring and operational practices because it makes more sense to outsource portion dealing with getting to higher education. These require leadership on the ground and boots on the ground fixes.
  • Menendez – career counselor separate from psychological support but at legislative level make requirements to help address this issue
    • the question of articulation agreements, school districts need to be involved in these conversations
  • Seliger – supporter of dual credit in HS but need to be clear if they come out with dual credit in math – advance HS is not necessary advance workforce or college work
  • Seliger – what progress do you expect when talking about next generation of assessments
    • legislative framework has five domain of analysis and 3 of them are STAAR only and rep 55% of campus score and one includes a basket alternative of course college aligned/college assignments 35% and remaining 10% determined by local school boards
    • can see the threshold on scores assessment and what actually happens in college with those kids, part of R&D
  • Seliger – If we have a true indicator then we have accountability
  • Seliger –if arrive at pathway that says commonly taken test will get at accountability then expect the legislative body will be very receptive to that information
  • Lucio – speaks on concerns of teacher shortage, wants to ensure not one child falls through the cracks and reach at risk students  also speaks towards wanting to be a model of best practices to other states
  • Bettencourt – predictive behavior question
    • some reason to believe that Alg II is too low of a bar, but pre-calculus indications a much higher completion rate in higher education degree
  • Don’t have a fidelity of implementation in dual credit classrooms (in name only or higher education) so need to develop higher fidelity 

Raymund Paredes, Commissioner Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board 

  • Too early to measure how HB 5 has impacted college readiness
  • TSI measure shows students 90% prior to HB 5 were college ready but standards to low, Texas trails other states on national college readiness assessments
  • If we were to test all students, the current low statistic would be even lower
  • TSI requirements and assessments should be better aligned with college readiness
    • 40% of A students are placed in developmental education when they get to college
  • Need to be careful how we expand dual credit programs – if we exempt students from demonstrating college readiness may be problematic
  • Need to do longitudinal study of dual credit courses in high schools
  • Worry about increasing number of high school teachers teaching dual credit courses
  • Preliminary data may reflect it is fine but he wants the data and concern about expansion  
  • Morath – local districts with community college determine dual credit course worthy
  • Taylor asked Morath about the process
    • TEA signs off on application process, but does not see follow up analysis
    • Maybe analysis on dual credit performance with performance in higher education
    • Ongoing feedback loops are slow and clunky and need to invest in the feedback loop
  • Taylor says just because a student gets a college credit in math does not mean they are good in writing/reading
    • Need to make sure whatever course the student takes they can perform in that course
  • 20 of 100 Texas 8th graders complete a postsecondary credential within 11 years the number continues to reduce with various demographics
  • Alec Ross book on A.I. will displace workers unless adjustments are made and education system reformed and made more rigorous
  • Thinks there would be fewer complaints on the testing we do if we did better on the test
  • All students needs first class education
  • He has read before that students drop out of college because courses were not interesting or rigorous enough 
  • Perry – not advocating of easier courses, just if they are available then they need to transfer; why are the courses taking off?
    • Cost of education
    • Perry – agreed, it is a symptom
  • Perry – do all endorsements lead to higher education?
    • No
    • Perry – maybe some of the % of students talking about would never go to higher ed
  • Looking at making assessments available and affordable in every part of the state
  • Taylor – In regards to seamless education, how does community college courses transfers
    • Aspiring towards goal of having community college credits transfer
    • Different having open enrollment with selective enrollment, different admission standards and level of rigor makes the transfer process difficult
    • Working on studying this issue, looking at relationship btw Blinn and A&M etc and others where transfer ability has been resolved
    • Majors change in fields and each time there is a change, it will change the nature of the articulation agreement
  • Lucio – need more counselors and they are overwhelmed, how many students start at higher education and then finish?  Want to see better results. Considers the current state to be “very bleak.” How do we expect students to sign up and borrow money and get loans but then unable to pay for them
  • Lucio – cutting public education funds in 2011 did not help
  • West – details on articulation agreements, wants to know which institutions don’t have them and why not
    • Yes, most community colleges have articulation agreements with universities in which they feed students
    • Cannot give details on why not
    • Will get report back to committee on most by September
  • West – is there a requirement to make sure students are provided information on what universities will take the dual credit courses
    • Does not think so, students who aggressively look they could possible find out
    • Agrees they should access to the information
  • West – vertical alignment went into place in 2006 and it would seem to him that much information would already be available
  • Morath – unaware of data sets available on articulation but imagines there is something and making something available for students and counselors
  • West – Inquired about 60X30 stats, 8th grade cohort numbers are from 2004 and there have been five sessions since then – still dismal results and wants to know what THECB can provide
    • Doubling number of graduates, various improvements listed and thinks they can accelerate those improvements such as funding based on outcomes
    • Suggests put more funding toward success points
  • West – if used an 8th grade cohort from 1994 would there be improvement shown
    • Yes but agrees there is a long way to go
  • Rodriguez – continues dialogue on college readiness and articulation agreements and finds it “alarming” that some students are not prepared to go to college especially if we want to retain rigor and readiness
    • STEM endorsements and others do not ensure college readiness
    • Need to make sure that endorsements have rigor
  • College readiness is determined by faculty and first year college courses
  • Campbell – testimony reinforces her earlier comments, need to address gap in remedial education, has TEA ever revoked dual credit applications
    • Dual credit is entirely local decision and TEA has no involvement
    • Campbell – maybe TEA should further look into it
  • Campbell – would like to see foreign language introduced in first grade and appreciated Paredes point about non-European language
  • Kolkhorst – is there the number of high school teachers vs community colleges that teach dual credit courses? Would like to send out to those in the program to get the details
    • No
  • Kolkhorst – is dual credit the rigor courses or at what point do we not need a high school anymore? Is there a study that shows the maturity of the mind and the courses we are asking students to take? But need to question what we are doing in high school – where are longitudinal studies?
    • Paredes – passage of success points for colleges has focused on completion, things can be done for university to incentive success
    • Kolkhorst – are we incentivizing to move students through pipeline
    • Would be able to detect and institutions are protective of recommendations
  • Kolkhorst – it is about the teacher in the classroom that inspires the students 
  • Garcia – dual credit courses vs college readiness, how do we make sure students are prepared and can Texas learn from other benchmarks other states are doing
    • Paredes – There has been success in articulation expectations through pipeline of P16 councils
    • Paredes – there are a lot of things we can learn, need to look at teaching standards in Texas and that we are producing high quality teachers students need, students leave profession because they don’t feel prepared so better preparation programs are needed
    • Morath – majority of teachers prepared in alternative certification
  • Garcia – how do we accomplish students being college ready before taking a dual credit course?
    • Making tests available
    • Like TSI because it was developed for Texas and can identify specific areas in which students are not prepared
    • TSI paid for by student $25 or more
    • Typically administered before students enter community college
  • Campbell – what is the dollar amount for remedial education?
    • Morath – has not seen those numbers in K-12 and not even sure if they could produce that answer to satisfaction
    • Paredes – $180 million is the number they use
    • Morath – he thinks those numbers are a fraction of the cost
  • Bettencourt – how many community college students involved in earning industry certifications?
    • Need to develop more
    • Asst Commissioner testified it was 24,500 attempt licensure certification and about 22k passed
    • Registered nursing, EMT, LPNs, Criminal Justice and police science were the most popular
  • Bettencourt – there are wild variations on scores to pass to get certification and should rigor be reviewed in certifications, with 20pt spread he has concerns
    • Those exams will vary in rigor and standards are not necessarily set by institutions but by industry
  • Bettencourt asked about Texas State technical colleges
    • 88% overall pass rates – no difference between technical college and overall
  • Bettencourt – why does it take so long to get the data?
    • 2014-15 data is very current and courses completed at end of spring
    • Bettencourt – but why 2013 data
    • Not sure but they will get committee more details
  • Bettencourt – caution against futurists predictions in regards to Ross novel
  • Bettencourt – before rules adopted in regards to dual language by the THECB the committee would like to see details they have been asking for and not even sure if measure yet that could identify a student is college ready
  • Menendez – very productive hearing appreciates both commissioners present, refers to slide that shows low number of 8th grade cohort getting college credentials and students should be prepared for college – maybe convo between TEA and THECB and what needs to happen for students to be ready
  • Menendez would like to see recommendations and measurements ties to funding provided
  • Menendez need to show teachers they are valued with what they are being paid
  • Lucio – in regards to students changing their minds on the endorsements and what is the result of making those changes, concern students are being pushed into a career too early
    • Look at portable skill set, right way of doing something and wrong way and Texas may be doing a little of both
    • Still too early to have data – guessing number would mirror that of students changing college major
  • Lucio – remedial need, 40% wind up in need of remedial training, how do we compare to other states
    • That is national figure – it applies to the whole country
    • Grade inflation is endemic and must be addressed, grades are not a good indicator of post-secondary performance
  • Perry – accommodating those that will succeed and then putting resources on those that may not
  • Perry – will fail miserably if the system is designed with limiting students taking remediation – some kids just learn different, remediation not always a bad thing   

Panel Two
Elijah Granger, Lancaster ISD

  • Gave overview of program – use a STEM pipeline & AVID
  • In order to roll out HB 5 with fidelity, provide training for counselors
  • Constantly audit four year plans
  • Recommendations include: there is an alignment issue (start at different time, vacation different, different master schedules), more guidance on student transfers (crosswalk between endorsements/credits), and because of demands in HB 5 there is a need for more counselors and explore option of funding for more counselors at high school level, there is an issue of spacing in regards to early college high school
  • Seliger – asked about discussions to address alignment concerns
    • Working with community college and they are moving and accommodating Cedar Valley College and they are working hard with them as well
  • Perry – private sector business (HB 19) offering up space and they see that as a pipeline for recruitment 

Steve Thomas, PhD, President, Midland College

  • Discussion on transferability of students
    • Baylor bound – Baylor will become part of advising staff and will have dialogue with other systems as a result to mirror this program
    • High school on the college campus and by law cannot charge tuition but community started scholarship and feels the program has been highly successful
  • Perry – Roscoe doesn’t have college next door but has adjunct coming to teach but what is mission critical is the community bought into the program
  • Bettencourt – would this work for HUB area, geographic area
    • Worked out good for them
  • Perry – Texas Tech is working with Roscoe and proud of the fact they are working with others   

Stephen Head, PhD, Chancellor, Lone Star College

  • Provided handouts to committees and reviewed detail
  • They have an academic pathway and workforce pathway
  • Require every student to go through pathway and go through success course and work very closely with ISDs and Universities
  • Infrastructure work is required to make students successful
  • Would like to see common course numbering among universities and community colleges
  • Data and how to measure the data is very important  
  • Use PSAT as indicator of college readiness and if the students are not ready then they will reach out with ISD to help get students ready
  • Seliger – asked question about transferability
    • Work on articulation agreements so not big program but because they have good relationships
    • Problem is with some of the workforce programs they have
  • Bettencourt – in regards to dual credit, 82% making A, B and Cs – what do you attribute that to?
    • Students that get into dual credit are college ready and know they plan to go to college
    • They waive tuition so it is affordable
  • Garcia – challenges to workforce, are there any other challenges in regards to preparedness
    • Press for national certifications in the workforce program
    • Not facing challenges with them being job ready
  • The more advisors up front help and what the workforce commission is doing with funding but thinks there needs to be another discussion on common course numbering 

Joe Arnold, Governmental Affairs Manager, BASF Corporation

  • Chemical industry has over $45 billion in expansion – at Freepoint site had 20 positions but only filled 13 of those positions because there were not enough qualified candidates
  • Business donating to programs in the area to have courses taught in fields that are needed
  • Sometimes do not have skills just because they have certificates and that will not change if they are not table discussing needs
  • Have seen positive steps being made in regards to HB 5
  • Taylor – is not having enough candidates for position just education or also drug testing
    • Yes drug testing also impacts
  • Taylor – silos have been in place in education with very little communication and finds the discussions reviewed today helping with breaking down those silos
  • Taylor – not every student will fit in the traditional model 

H.D. Chambers, Superintendent, Alief ISD

  • HB 5 was never intended to be solely a career and technology bill, was addressing students who were not planning on going to college
  • People who complain testing, not just those who students are not passing, it is about testing itself
  • Have 11 & 12 graders graduating under 4×4 and the other grades graduating with foundation plan with endorsements be request committee to be patient and support
  • Now partnering with Harvard on path that leads to prosperity
  • Important to have the conversation about dual credits to happen with students and families
  • Best vehicle to move into seamless travel is the early college high school model
  • Most schools are TSI testing centers and test so students can start dual credit as soon as possible and they also do remediation with their students
  • Endorsement idea was never about having 13 year old declare lifelong goal but wanted to make school courses more relevant – more and more parent involvement in selecting an endorsement
  • Best practices: college course prep development course in HB 5 so that they could get some remedial preparation before they get to college
  • Suggestions: to make endorsements meaningful if higher ed entities reward or incentive students as part of admission process in order to legitimize the endorsement
  • Seliger – are you satisfied are prepared to inform just about every child about what they need to do to move on towards college?
    • No. They are intellectually. But time and student population will impact
  • Seliger asked for input on SB 149 (individual graduation committees)
    • Does not have a metric, approx 195 seniors who were eligible to be considered and about 80% met the requirements and were allowed to graduate
    • Working with Houston Community College on tracking students who graduated under SB 149 and how are students who took prep courses doing
  • Bettencourt would like to see more details on vertical integration with dual credit courses
  • Rodriguez – concerned parents not being notified of endorsement options, concerned of students losing out if they are not ready at the get go
    • Does hear of this occurring throughout the state, it will take some time to get the information out and some school districts to lead the way for those who may not have resources, etc.
  • Rodriguez – concerned it is like when he was in school and minority, special populations missing out or getting hidden
    • Feels this is different, there are no “closets” to move students to and forget about them
    • Between course work and check and balances does not have the concern that was maybe there a few decades ago
    • 55-53% of districts are offering all endorsements  
  • West – thoughts on what policy makers need to be doing to “move the ball” on student improvement
    • Anything that can be done to have school districts and community colleges to seek out business first to decide what type of curriculum they will build
    • Additional funding for counselors or advisors that districts can use to decrease ratio of advisors to students
    • Community colleges need to be able to help with teacher shortage
    • Sen. West says universities should be given first opportunity to deal with work force need
    • We need to look at master scheduling because right now we are operating on college and university timeline and the district timeline which are different – we need to be more aligned with our calendars
    • There should not be a lapse in start dates for students taking dual credit courses
  • Taylor says there should be more dual credit opportunities because it shows many students they can do college
  • Kolkhorst – how many students actually go to a college campus for dual credit
    • Most are done in high schools, but there are about 400 at HCC
  • West – we need to set hard dates when we expect to accomplish different goals and actually aim for these goals as opposed to just talking about it
  • Kolkhorst said she things Blinn leads the way in articulation agreements 

Panel Three
Ryan Franklin, Associate Commissioner, Educator Leadership and Quality, Texas Education Agency

  • 342k thousand teachers in Texas and teacher demographics do not necessarily match student demographics
  • Over 1/3 have been in the classroom for 5 years or less and that number has been largely consistent for the last 20 years
  • Teacher attrition has stayed relatively constant (not the same measurement as district turn-over)
  • However, districts are having to constantly hire
  • Hiring is handled locally and need to use proxies to guess at teacher shortage area such as employment rate, etc
  • Bilingual and ESL, Special Ed, CTE, Math and Science and computer tech have been areas that have shortages
  • 142 entities in the state that have educator preparation programs
  • Average 5 year retention rate is 68%
  • School district teaching permit will have impact on CTE
  • HB 218 provides some flexibility on bilingual and ESL
  • Rodriguez – concern with shortage of Bilingual and ESL teachers and what is issue on teachers teaching outside the subject area
    • Providing better preparation materials
    • There is a federal loan forgiveness, state funding could be considered
    • District flexibility from last session legislation
    • Creating complication with the data when teachers are teaching outside subject areas 

Michael Marder, PhD, Executive Director, UTeach, The University of Texas at Austin

  • Alternative certification – during the period that it was growing Texas received many successes
  • Problems that need to be addressed
    • STEM teacher shortage has persisted, production is falling, retention is falling
    • Pressure on school districts to offer subjects has gone away – pressures on 4×4 were intense and has now been reduced which means it should be monitored
    • Data and reports are going away and feels agencies do not have resources to manage and distribute
    • Documented persistent teacher shortage of STEM and Math, biology similar numbers
    • Retention chart given to committee and for STEM teachers it is falling and alternative certification program
    • State of Texas producing fewer STEM teachers than it was a few years ago
    • Alternative certification courses are much more susceptible market forces
  • Have vast quantities of detailed regulations but no question on quantity and quality and state need
  • Taylor – asked for more detail about the handouts
    • Computer science teachers coming in are small compared to the standard set forth by HB 5
    • Taylor asked if Kahn academy can address teacher shortage
    • Through onramp program think they can hook students up with teachers
    • Ultimately answer is having teachers in classroom
  • Taylor – market forces so if we have more need for a teacher should we pay more for the teacher
    • Providing proper information can be helpful but also think all sort of financial benefits could be offered
  • Rodriguez – asked about language “combative relationship with the state”, is state investing enough in teacher development?
    • State auditors felt UT out of compliance and thought they should make changes or be shut down and have been dealing with very lengthy hearing process
    • Universities have good program but what is missing is encouragement from legislators saying the programs are of value 
  • Bettencourt – are we creating too many generalists and need to encourage them to be in STEM field
    • STEM are math and science and so it is not easy to move from generalists to STEM
    • Need incentives
  • Alternative certified teachers are still in the field which is different from training in a different field
  • Bettencourt – try to match up resources with need, what other alternative market practices have we not explored and what are other market alternatives – what are we missing??
    • UT is viewed as best practices in the country
    • There is room to grow
    • Insist on not allowing line to go any lower on qualifications
  • Bettencourt – is practice closing manpower loops such as working with engineers?
    • They are working with those groups and working on classroom skills
    • But will not work through all that coming into workforce and be dismissed like what happened in 2011
  • Taylor – why would teacher shortage fields be the ones given pink slips
    • Just saying what has happened
    • Witness is saying fall off was in the new applicants, chilling effect from layoffs in 2011 

Tim Letzring, EdD, JD, Dean, College of Education and Human Services, Texas A&M University-Commerce

  • His data matched TEA data
  • Overall retention rate is 70% – but lost 400k teachers and many left after the first two years
  • Fifth largest producer of teachers in the state – and number one producer of teachers by percentage of enrollment
  • Starting salaries range from $28,000 to $60,000 in the DFW area – large gap
  • Parents and students do not see the same ROI on education because of rising tuition levels
  • Taylor –  how soon they get students of education into the classroom and if that affects retention rate – students should have early exposure to the classroom to see if this is for them
    • We have “Early Filled Experience” and they go into the classroom their junior year after completing their core credits

Jim Nelson, JD, Chairman, Texas Teacher Preparation Collaborative

  • Have brought experts in to look at issues that have been brought up by the rest of this panel
  • The collaborative will look at what is happening and how we can do a better job as a state at all levels to make sure that every child has a qualified and excellent teacher in front of them every day
  • The poorer you and your school district are, the less chances you have of an excellent educator
  • Teachers need continued support from school district to continually help with professional development

Pedro Martinez, Superintendent of San Antonio ISD

  • More than half of children are very poor and qualify for Head Start program
  • Suppliers of teachers cannot fill the demand, so districts poach from each other
  • Even though we’ve made gains in proficiency and graduation rates, less than 5% of our students are college ready based on SAT
  • Only a single digit percentage of students are testing at advanced levels – we hope to get that to 30% within 5 years
    • Partnering with Trinity University at one school to train teachers in a resident teacher program
  • 40% of students are not meeting standard
    • Talking to an organization called Relay from New York to create a residency model where they take over a class over the course of a year
  • Kolkhorst – do we ever decide to pay a teacher more because of demand for a certain type of teacher like a STEM teacher because of supply and demand
    • Our issues are so much more fundamental in increasing quality over all that we have as much need for a third grade literacy teacher as a 9th grade STEM teacher
  • Bettencourt – what state did witness come from and what best practices he has seen elsewhere that he would recommend
    • He has worked in Nevada and Illinois
    • In Chicago, they recruited over 2,000 teachers per year, so they worked with city to create more housing for teachers to bring teachers from out of state
    • Texas has been ahead of Nevada in alternative education, but career Tech. in Nevada is some of the best in the nation

Panel 4
Jim Wussow, PhD, Assistant Superintendent for Academic Services, Plano ISD

  • About 30% of students Hispanic, 10% Asian, 10% black, and about 30% are economically disadvantaged
  • There are 105 languages spoken by parents and students in the district
  • Majority of ELL teachers are alternatively certified; we certify these teachers to ask what the district could do better to prepare them for the first days of their work experience
  • Teachers cannot be experts in all languages, but they need expertise in language acquisition skills
  • We have more difficulty to attract bilingual teachers for the upper elementary grades than the lower grades
    • Most students move out of ELL early, so the older grades have students who struggle more with language acquisition
  • We often have teachers who lack the English proficiency to move students forward rather than the other way around
  • Sen. Rodriguez says the legislature does not understand the need for bilingual education at the secondary level 
  • There is a shortage of special education teachers
  • Prior experience in the field is an important part of why people pick their career path, but people do not know anything about special education unless they have family members with disabilities
  • Special education is behind the scenes
  • All general education teachers should be trained in special education so they can determine and make a decision if special education is for them or not – it is not all that different from general education
  • 1/3 of special ed. teachers leave the profession within 3 years – we need quantity and quality of teachers to make sure they are prepared and stay in their jobs
  • Special education teachers are simply not trained well enough – they are supposed to be trained for any age and any special ed. area
  • Teachers need more specialized training in special ed. to be ready for their job
  • Garcia – any specialized training given through TEA
    • There are some post-certification training, but there is not usually enough money at schools
  • Garcia – any school districts provide stipends for special ed. Teachers
    • Some of Baylor’s graduates have received stipends
  • Rodriguez likes the idea of specializing education for special ed. teachers
    • There are a lot of well-intentioned special education teachers who lack the tools they need
  • Rodriguez asks if we are in federal compliance
    • We meet the legal requirements, but we should continue to growth

Diann Huber, EdD, President, iTeach

  • Nationally accredited teacher preparation program based in Denton
  • iTeach will recommend over 600 teachers for initial certification this year
  • The reason for shortages may change from year to year or program to program, but iTeach has some solutions that should help
  • iTeach recommends that it should be known how many teachers are prepared, how many actually go into the profession, how many are needed, and a comprehensive view of the needs of the work force
  • Every program is preparing the same percentage of teachers in high need areas
    • 13-15% of every program is special ed
    • 5-6% is math
    • 4-5% is science
  • With regards to STEM teachers, many come in with a lot of experience knowledge, but struggle to teach children this knowledge
  • iTeach recommends expanding number of observations by supervisors of teachers
  • Average applicant at iTeach is 35 years old – they are not entering profession for money, but we need to take their needs into account
  • Recommends that the committee considers requiring that all teacher preparation programs seek national accreditation
  • High stakes computer test are a barrier to entry
  • Alternative programs only exist because there is a need for an alternative route

Linda Johnsrud, PhD, Interim Provost, University of Texas at Arlington

  • Commitment to P-16 pipeline success initiative
  • Long history of partnering with ISDs  
  • Need to go to middle school to get them excited about going to college before get them excited about going to teacher academies, etc.
  • Having access to teacher academies in the area helps
  • Initial partnerships are often with community colleges
  • They are working towards others knowing they are transfer friendly
  • Currently searching for new dean and goal is to double size of college by 2020

Public testimony
LeRoy Cavazos, VP Gov Affairs for San Antonio Hispanic Chamber 

  • Need teachers to teach STEM education
  • Gave committee study on ELL students and growing Latino population in the State

Recommends students reading by third grade
Christine Brohill, Parents of Advocate of Children with Special needs

  • 1/3 of Texas districts not meeting requirements under plan
  • Looking at special education shortage

Bryan Contreras, KIPP  

  • Recognize tension between 21st century college readiness and the goal of the bill – does not believe curriculum is challenging enough such as requiring pre-calculus
  • Misinformation about completing a foundation program without endorsements – not able to go straight to a 4 year college
  • Works with students to create a personal guidance plan – found counselors need to meet with students 1 on 1 for 30 min twice a year

Texas Latino Education Coalition 

  • Concerns over tracking minorities
  • Misalignment – under foundation program misalignment with required courses by 4 year institutions 
  • Lack of information to parents on endorsements
  • Policies – ensure high quality education, study quality of curriculum, study latest changes of course requirements, ensure counselor student ratios, ensure counselors are competent    

Q&A of Panel
Sen. Rodriguez – Focus area to hold high expectations for students from day one which goes back to his early statement in Ysleta where every student will be prepared to go to college

Michael Barba, Texas Public Policy Foundation

  • Current college readiness statistics in 2013 by SAT and ACT are low and drop-out rate 14-25%
  • Recommend making allotment funds portable to student 

Texas A&M University – Bush Institute

  • Study on representative sample across 26 districts on how schools implemented HB 5
  • School districts perceive concrete lack of details – confusion over terms of intent of bill
  • Cause students to adopt curriculum schemes that may or may not meet goal of HB 5
  • Texas colleges continue to state preferences for traditional 4×4 and those students going for endorsements under HB 5 are less competitive
  • Lack of local autonomy – but some local practices are detrimental
  • Recommend conversations between state and local actors continue

Holly Eaton, Texas Classroom Teacher Association

  • Teachers leave in mass amount in 3rd and 5th year of teacher
  • Enrollment in teaching programs are falling
  • Analysis points to changes in teacher evaluations and that teachers are being blamed for districts problems
  • Teacher retention strategies need to cover from beginning of pipeline until the end
  • Consider restoring funding for Teach for Texas loan program
  • Fund tuition aid education exemption program
  • Program needs to focus on keeping teacher – a statewide induction production
  • Salaries and working conditions determine teachers wanting to leave
  • Restore funding for survey of teaching conditions
  • Schools tend to front load salaries and compression of salaries result, consideration needs to be addressed to veteran treacheries 

Scott Fikes, ECAP

  • Statistics of ACPs on the state, EPP certified 62% of teachers employed and last year it was 49.6%
  • Legislation has done a lot to improve such as give military credit toward teacher certification
  • Recommends taking time to look at impact of the rules such as the 5 test ruling and include stakeholder in rule making process (school people)

Gina Gregory, Harmony Public Schools

  • Working conditions can influence teacher retention
  • Esure they have organization effectiveness
  • Additional bonus for STEM teachers
  • Options for professional development
  • Teachers have instruction coaches and STEM coaches
  • Tested subject teachers are awarded bonus on scores
  • Increased emphasis on academic learning
  • If commit to return to teach at STEM then scholarship
  • 60k student uploaded projects on you tube sight
  • Created a culture of STEM from the very beginning
  • Use STEM scopes curriculum
  • Computer coding taught as early as Kinder
  • Up to $5k stipends and but amount may vary based on details
    • Bettencourt said the stipend gets everyone’s attention
  • Rodriquez asked in what schools, which location?
    • In all Harmony schools

Leticia Gonzalez, Chicanos in Higher Education

  • Concerned with HB 5 implementation and lack of Alg II requirement
  • Only students taking distinguished are able to be in top 10%
  • Presented document to committee showing classes required to get into certain 4 year institutions

Sandra Guzman

  • Concerned HB 5 does not meet requirements for college education
  • ELL shortage – increase education aid program, set minimum requirements so students receive quality education, expand state investment that expands incentive to teachers

Doug Hamman, Texas Tech University

  • Teaches competency based program and most recently awarded a grant to replicate the model in other states
  • Use rubric must like the TTEST
  • Program formally partnered with 10 districts across the state
  • Recruit undergraduates in the local community, prepare them in the local community for the local community
  • Partners share data with them dictated by formal MOU
  • Shortages of data, disconnect, and time in classroom are addressed in meaningful ways
  • Need to look at how well they teach when leave the system – labor gathering data is significant

Kate Coleman, Texas Professional Educators

  • ATPE active in teacher retention – it is about the pipeline
  • Loan forgiveness, competitive benefits, etc
  • Perception and prestige of profession needs to be improved
  • Need to have high standards for entering in the first place
  • Advocated for mentoring programs
  • Include a teacher quality measure in systems so districts are measured across campuses and districts
  • Progress toward an educator quality goal should be considered

Amy Litzinger, self

  • Brought with her testimony from father who could not be present
  • Testimony about child with autism
  • Still does not have language app
  • Teachers that were not trained and technology not available
  • Solutions to change exam to add competency of special education; increase continuing ed requirements, schools need to provide adequate funding and staffing
  • National avg. for identification with special education is 12.8% and state has gone down to avg. 8.5%

Doug Matthews, President of Teaching Point

  • Invited to speak from Seliger’s office
  • Provided handout to committee on his program in Florida
  • Program addresses issues discussed today
  • Key recommendation is funding – it is a 15 to 1 return on investment

Celina Moreno, Attorney with MALDEF

  • Concurs with member organizations  
  • Shared on the ground experiences of intent of HB 5 vs what families are experiencing
  • Examples: mother finally gets to speak with counselor and asked for Alg II class and was told not enough seats perhaps she should consider vocational course
    • Counselor would not discuss choices with mom
  • Many did know about graduation plans
  • ELL, urges state to continue and expand aid on
  • Taylor –examples are terrible but who is to blame, a local district run by local elected people
    • Counselors are overburdened
    • There is law and how it is being implemented could be address, wants legislature to monitor its implementation and fund schools so they can implement
    • Taylor said TEA needs to step up more side discussion off mic on how to address
  • Taylor – he wishes every student would take Alg II but back when this bill was up, testimony was that Alg II was a barrier to students completing HS so students did not see relevance – HB 5 was showing relevance to HS  

Alexis Newman, Rapoport Academy

  • College mindset starts in pre-k and continues as students progress through system
  • Finding staff to bridge gap of maturity levels is a challenge
  • Host most college classes on their own campuses
  • Find it hard to locate teachers who want to interact with HS students and teach college and make teacher wage
  • Use TSI to determine college readiness

Kyle Piccola, ARC of Texas

  • Advocates alongside of those with physical and intellectual disabilities
  • Provided example of autistic student that illustrates area where teachers lack – positive behavior support

American Federation of Teachers

  • Educational aid tuition exemption would help address teacher shortage
  • Program was funding at $30 million before cuts, then just $1.5 million was restored
  • Before program was cut it served over 45k individual awards

George Reyes, Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education

  • Misalignment is problematic
  • Students not adequately prepared in high school and growing demographic show Hispanic students will make up this percentage
  • Only 20% in need of 2 or more development courses will complete higher education

Remy Washington, Uplift Education Charter Schools

  • Outperforms many state avg. measurements in STAR, SAT/ACT
  • Driver for teacher shortage is lack of funding – in charters could be $1k less in student and funding and charters must pay for debt of facility funding out of same budget that could be used for teacher funding
  • Demand for high quality public school options is overwhelming and can only meet the need if they have teachers and facilities to meet that need

Hal Speed, Founder of Texas Alliance for Computer Science Education

  • Currently only have 656 teachers certified to teach over a million students
  • Only 14 new teachers entering this professional field which is up from 2 or 3 a year
  • Students need to enter college with some basic understanding in Computer Science
  • Taylor – could students get that training online? Not going to get enough teachers – need to introduce some of the concepts. Workaround will be needed.
    • Yes like online Kahn academy
    • Volunteer in classroom that later gets trained – TEALS k-12.org

 
Peggy Venable, Americans for Prosperity

  • Recommend to empower parents so they can make decision for their children where they will go to school
  • Allow dollars to follow the child where the parent chooses
  • Believe that education saving accounts would allow parents to direct monies to facility that will meet needs 
  • Try to attract best and brightest into classroom as teachers and this can be done when doing pay for performance

 
Jesse Romero, Texas Association for Bilingual Education

  • How to address need for bilingual teacher – to be certified must do everything teacher may do but also in another language
  • Education Aid exemption was excellent program – state reimbursed institutes for those in the classroom
  • When budget was cut then saw drop in the college offerings as well
  • Many are now being educated in community colleges – go have them teach in acute shortage area to have loan forgiven

Deans for Impact

  • Findings in study –  less than 1/3 of teaching academies have access to outcomes data (graduate survey, employer status, classroom observation, teacher evaluation, scores of graduates, some don’t even know where teachers go to teach)
  • Two policy recommendations
    • Need access to timely and fine grain data to help continuous improvement
    • States develop new outcome base certification process