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The Texas Commission on Public School Finance met on February 22 to discuss teacher quality and early childhood education. Members from the Texas Education Agency, Universities, and ISDs, among other stakeholders, were invited to speak before the committee. The report below details discussions on these issues.

 

Opening remarks

  • Chair Brister gives overview of topics discussed over last meetings and reviews two subjects coming up for the meeting: teacher quality and early childhood education
  • Brister asked for another draft of the minutes which will be approved later on during the day
  • Draft of working groups was handed out, comprises and switches had to be made
  • 3 members on each working group and 2 members will double up
  • Revenue – Bettencourt (lead), King, Johnson, Reyna, Brister
  • Expenditures – Huberty (lead), West, Taylor, Ellis, Brister
  • Outcomes – Williams (lead), Bernal, Killian, Martin, Taylor
  • Brister – where real work, proposals of the commission will come from these groups
  • March 7th and March 19th will be next meeting, want to hear from various advocacy group as well as members of the public wish to speak
  • Can also send in comments via email schoolfinancecommission@tea.tx.gov
  • Brister said purpose of commission is how to improve school finance

 

Leo Lopez, Chief School Finance Officer, Texas Education Agency – Teacher Compensation Trends

  • Reviews slides: all funds showed for instruction $28 billion and total revenue approx. $58 billion which is near 48% of spending in public education
  • Function 13 reviewed – took total expenditures and divided by teachers and indexed to inflation to come up with totals
    • Spending a bit over $3k for professional development on teacher which is about $900 more than in 2006
  • Huberty – does the payroll include librarians? Points out librarians and counselors are people also engaged in classroom so does $3k include that?
    • Would like to provide comprehensive look
    • Huberty – wants to know dollars spent in the classroom, everything outside of services and admin cost at district level
  • Johnson – in regards to total revenue for all funds, can you break out all funds that you are legally prohibited from spending on teaching, or any other funds not left to discretionary purposes?
  • Will also break out $58 billion by function
  • In regards to turnover rates – rates are increasing
  • Rate looks at count of teachers not in there before, looks at number of teachers in preceding school year
  • Brister – so new hires are not in the number
    • Yes
  • Ellis – what happened when numbers look flat
    • Could be due to recession
  • Williams – This is not percentage of teachers leaving profession, could be change within district or going to another district actual number may be along 10% leaving the profession
  • Bernal – how much turnover, what is price associated with it? Thought turnover presents a certain cost to districts
    • Cost would vary from district to district but yet there would be a cost
  • Johnson – at one time estimated between $7k-$12k for teacher turnover covering things from training to consistency needed on student outcome so there are significant costs which is why retention efforts are so important to the district
  • Killian – numbers of teacher turnover would also include retirement
  • Huberty – in regards to Lopez slides showing new teachers, Huberty points out need for teachers in growing population
    • Lopez – chart is percentage of teachers so number may change but chart looks at relative percentage
    • Huberty – wants to look at it if its really a problem, if not putting in fact of needing new teachers in the classroom
    • Huberty – data is not meaningful unless we know what it equates with
  • Presented bar graph on teacher/staff to student ratios lines showing teachers make up half of staff

 

Eric Hanushek, Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow in Education, Hoover Institution, Stanford University – School Finance and School Outcomes The Role of Incentives

  • The way you hand out and collect money is policy
  • Need to focus on student achievement, linking finance to achievement is important ingredient in school finance
  • Outcomes (education he says) is economically important
  • Teacher and administrator effectiveness is key
  • Cannot regulate way to better outcomes
  • How money is spent is more important than how much is spent
  • Texas had done well historically regarding performance: more local decision making, strong accountability, less regulation, lower union impediments but argues Texas has slipped some in recent years
  • Economic gains from improvement are very large
  • Will provide details to help those who may have underestimated importance of quality schools to Texas
  • Economic growth follows good schools according to slide presented
  • Bettencourt – explain conditional score, basically have an algorithm which brings together testing and economic impact, etc
    • Yes
  • Argues Texas has room to improve when looking at NAEP tests for 8th grade math
  • Killian – in regards to slide comparing MA to TX he asked for details on MA
    • Does not think it useful to compare entirely to MA but they do spend noticeably more, have strong unions, strong accountability but in Tx has better regulations and has more room to use its structure than MA but MA shows what happens when you have 20 year focus on students
    • Killian – what is student population in MA
    • Smaller and slightly more homogenous but did not give exact numbers
  • Believes next slide makes aggregate point of how money is spent is more important than how much is spent
    • New York State has added 3x more funding per pupil but gains have been identical to Texas
    • Florida has not spent a dime more but has the third largest improvement rate partly on accountability and teacher evaluation
  • Ellis – when looking at test scores gains what method is being looked at
    • Growth in NAEP over a specific time period
  • Bettencourt – asked about more details on Florida
    • Had combination of things such as early and strong focus on student performance and accountability, teacher performance, accountability, strong choice programs all contributed
  • Bettencourt – Florida result is important and an outlier they want to follow
    • Yes, but hard to put any state in shoes of other state, chart shows how spending can yield different results
  • Johnson – what does expenditure growth include? How does Florida score?
    • Does not include capital expenditures and all public schools
    • In 2015, Florida is still 15th or 12th from NAEP chart so did have much steeper challenge than Texas and agrees they were not at a good place, but not sure if it explains the picture
  • Killian – why not looking at current data
    • Because it takes a lot effort to put together but doesn’t think it will change the picture
    • Story is how you spend money is what counts and how much you have does not determine better performance
  • Killian – so doctor how do we spend the money
    • Will talk on parts of that – but not full picture
  • Research shows that teacher effectiveness is the most important factor of schools – notes teacher and principal effectiveness together
  • Believes there is substantial variation in teacher quality but there are other things teachers do than increase standardized test scores but it is one thing they do
  • Argues observable characteristics of teachers explain little
  • Believe salary and other factors affect teacher turnover but little linkage between salaries and teacher effectiveness
  • Huberty – asked about slides for more concrete examples, saying one bad teacher over 30 children costs all children over $800k in the workforce
    • Smaller percentage in higher grades but larger impacts in lower grades
    • Huberty – have a hard time understanding how this is significantly possible, how are these numbers arrived at
    • Did study of kids in Gary Indiana and saw, depending on classroom, students came out with one full year of learning vs less
    • Have to assume same quality teacher in calculations to get the estimates
    • Huberty – so thesis is that student would have a bad teacher every year and every class/point in time
    • To sum, yes so easier to think of primary school
    • Huberty – so not even in 4th grade because of teaching different subjects in some schools, ets
  • Moving 5-10 percent of the least effective teachers to average has dramatic effects
  • Bettencourt – upside case increase student income by over $200 year and cost about $400 a year and then cost out over 57 years
    • Thinks the numbers are low
    • Bettencourt – teachers in low percentage impacted downward effect on child’s future income more than those pushing up income
    • Yes, each teacher has a small but steady effect on each student, each student year
    • Bettencourt – reviews his calculations so amount is around $500 a year impact on student
    • Brister – getting down into weeds too much, have 10 speakers today and flight at 6pm; don’t want to get on specifics
  • Brister – point he is making if you take a student and move them 10pts in the SAT they will make more money in general, doesn’t think anyone disputes that
  • This all leads to – Dallas has radically revised evaluation and pay of personnel for teachers and principals they base on the evaluations
  • Dallas used ACE program, tried to adjust personnel in chronically underserved campuses which other districts are now modeling
  • Described the ACE incentive structure and pay
  • Reviews modeling that shows correlation between ACE schools and increased student performance
  • If done for the whole state could see Texas to top of nation and world
  • Conclusions: improvement of quality of schools has huge economic impact; key is effective principals and teachers; and cannot regulate effectiveness before they are in the classroom but once in the classroom can have a better idea on who are the best teachers vs worse teacher; and personnel responds to incentives
  • Brister – to summarize; one way to spend money is to give signing bonuses and annual stipends to most distinguished educators to take most neediest
    • Larger than that, provide incentives for effective teachers and not for ineffective
    • Dallas shows dramatic impacts with focus on neediest students
  • Brister – for example?
    • TEA has capacity to get initial estimates on effectiveness of teachers and where they fall in the distribution and could think of finance mechanism as proposed last session to give to districts who have higher effectiveness and commissioner could provide extra funds for those districts
  • Ellis – argues how much money is spent is equally as important with how it is spent
    • How much is potentially important as well but find disparities on spending across Texas for pupils which shows just providing money doesn’t do anything
  • Ellis – again notes having money is important, need it in the first place
    • Argues most districts in the state have money to provide a pretty good education and more money might lead to better education, he would expect it to but it must be linked to achievements
  • Ellis – believes we have higher expectation than a “pretty good” education
  • Bernal – are you saying we have enough funds, just need additional funds
    • Make no judgements on how you are spending enough or too little
  • Bernal – presentation seems to say opposite
    • Not said anything in regards to if current funding is enough
  • Bernal – NAEP scores dropped when we cut the education budget so trying to understand details
    • Cuts are different from expansion – a reduction in force with less funding, almost always start with youngest teachers so in effect cutting average teacher
    • Data suggests you could increase performance if you cut spending on districts but did it in a way that was related to the effectiveness of teachers
  • Bernal – are you saying the cut in billions in education and the correspondence in dropping of NAEP scores is a coincidence or districts didn’t cut the right way?
    • “Virtually certain I can say without a lot of evidence they didn’t cut in the right way” – the whole country got cuts at same time and very few did it on the effectiveness of teachers
  • Bernal – not sure cuts across country were the same versus budgets in general
  • Bernal – having a private conversation in email versus face to face exchange generates a robust exposure to ideas, would suggest do reading ahead of time so they could do a truncated version of presentation and have more dialogue
  • Bettencourt – believe cuts hit younger teachers that could have been high on performance but short on longevity and that a masters level teacher does not mean a teacher with a masters degree
    • Agrees
    • No correlation between advance degree and effectiveness in the classroom
  • Johnson – concurs how much is equally important, asked about level of bonus to change behavior and how to sustain it over time
    • Limited experience with differential bonus so unable to provide that detail
    • It is a dynamic process, need to make a guess and then evaluate it over time
  • Johnson – in his example would be spending good money after bad if not being strategic, would compel committee to think about effort needed to get desired results
    • Can’t help with precise amount, but there needs to be programs instituted to give you more details on teacher effectiveness
  • Killian – would say money matters if it is spent well, other than incentives or pre-K any other things that matter?
    • Broad question but frankly those are the two things to concentrate on now

 

Michael Hinojosa, Superintendent, Dallas ISD – Achieving Improved Student Outcomes

  • Reviewed demographics of district and achievement
    • Despite generational poverty gap between their district and state from economic disadvantaged is the same
  • Reviewed student outcome goals, strategic initiatives and focus
  • TEI is both an evaluation system and a compensation system
  • Explained the compensation incentives
  • Terrified of how they will pay for it and other staff has not gotten an increase
  • Huberty – how are you going to pay for it and how much is it going to cost?
    • This has great success but it is unsustainable
    • Need to make adjustments on this path because they couldn’t afford promise them
    • No exceptional items, strategic initiatives first then cuts start
  • Huberty – need to think of revenues, maybe districts should be able to take it off their recapture bill if they are incentivizing teacher performance
  • Turnover rate dropped to 12% but the ones staying are effective
  • Best teachers hire around April, May and June
  • Failing our African kids, chronically underperforming at one point
  • Bettencourt – kept the best teachers, how long do you keep unsatisfactory teachers around
    • Have due process but in part of the conversations they will move on
    • Bettencourt – in regards to where will we find the money? Believes we keep unsatisfactory way too long
  • Ellis – finite number of teachers and how do you look at program from state leadership perspective
    • It is a dilemma and can’t be done everywhere
  • Meeting in two weeks to come up with legislative priorities as a group
  • West – would like to see recommendations in the categories of revenue, expenditure and outcome
  • West – cost to keep the structure
    • Need to come up with extra 2% a year, $12 million a year just on teacher salaries
    • Cutting other things to fund teacher salary
    • Grow students
  • Martin – how do you identify effective teachers?
    • Spot observations, survey every year in stratified random sampling
  • Johnson – is everyone on performance system, in out years are there other costs in regard to structure?
    • Not everyone gets a raise, teachers based upon effectiveness get a raise with targeted distribution
    • Could give some to principals but not all, no raise for any other support staff
    • Other things are having to be cut
    • Had TASB come up with guardrails, $1.5 billion annual operating costs
  • Reyna – are you loosing students to charters? Dual language question
    • Yes, 25% of their students are going to charters that could be going to them
    • Dual language because they want students to be literate
  • Reyna – why do you lose students to charter schools
    • Its political, goes into reasons parents may choose charters such as uniform or after school care
    • If can’t get beyond race and class will not enroll
  • West – is there an oversaturation of charters near public schools, etc
    • Absolutely
  • Williams – incredibly innovative things coming forward in DISD
  • Huberty – points out needed context in comparisons/need statistical relevant data, gives example of Finland

 

Kate Rogers, Executive Vice President, Holdsworth Center – HC Differentiated Compensation

  • Launched about a year ago and are currently working with 7 school districts across TX
  • Butt is investing about $100 million in the program and another $140 million in the construction of the campus
  • The name for the Holdsworth Center was derived from his mother, who was a school teacher in the hill country
  • Holdsworth has a focus on campus leadership since research shows that campus leaders are the second most important lever
  • They offer three comprehensive programs to districts, which she explains through the Core Programs slide
  • The center takes a long-term view when it comes to improving districts and values their point of view
  • Presented the center’s objectives through the “Holdsworth House” model
  • One of their end goals is to attract more of the best & brightest teachers to public schools
  • If you were to differentiate pay among teachers, then (referencing slide on teacher compensation) these are items you could move the needle on
  • Distinguished between differentiated pay and merit pay and explained how differentiated compensation is better for their system and how to implement it
  • Johnson – The state once offered the Date Grant opportunity, can you explain to me the differences between Date and how it was implemented versus what you’re describing here?
    • Believes the state would have to set out some guidelines in terms of what these pilots would look like
    • You would have to figure out how you’re going to put parameters around it so you don’t get gaming of the grant system
  • Ellis – Does your system look at compensating teachers better, differently in terms of how we recruit and retain teachers from a state perspective?
    • There’s a competitive nature between districts when it comes to this, but we think of talent as a closed system in that they’ll remain in Texas but not necessarily in districts
  • Huberty – Referencing slides 6 & 7 on eight priorities to education all developed and you’re implementing at your center to improve the quality – how many school districts are you working with throughout the state or is just individuals?
    • Currently have 7 school districts from all over TX that are all very diverse
    • They work with them for 5 years as a whole district
    • Huberty – On page 7, can you better explain differentiated versus merit pay so we can understand that in terms of what you’re advocating for?
    • We’re looking at multiple metrics and how we’ll evaluate strong teaching methods
    • They believe by offering a clear progression in the state versus spot bonuses they’ll have better quality of teachers
  • Bettencourt – Believes it’s a very important point as she mentioned to not underestimate the culture change – give us some culture change timelines like with the Tennessee example
    • Tennessee and North Carolina are good examples in the U.S. and there is a 5-10 year play to really create change
    • Some districts will advance quickly and other will take longer depending on the districts
  • Taylor – Referencing slide 7, we also need to recognize that merit pay helps with retention and rewards excellence, so we shouldn’t shortchange that
    • Agrees and most teachers are leaving for reasons other than pay
    • Taylor – Did you say the smallest you’re working with is 13,000 despite saying y’all work with small rural districts?
    • Correct
  • West – How is the approach you’re taking different from ones in the past?
    • Doesn’t think the approaches in the past have looked at things holistically
    • West – Don’t you find that amazing after spending millions of dollars on this subject over the years that those particular elements have not been thought of before?
    • From a personal lens, yes

 

Member Todd Williams, Commit Partnership

  • Dallas ISD has grown 11% over a five year period and has really accelerated since 2015
  • Recommends their evaluations style program, which helped with this DISD growth
  • 42% of students who are low income are meeting state standards across all grades and standards, but as you get lower on the spectrum it gets worse along with teacher turnover
  • Presents graphs on DISD’s progress and deficiencies over the past 5 years

 

Berhl Robertson, Superintendent, Damon McCall, Principal, O.L. Slaton Middle School, Nikki Beaty, Teacher, O.L. Slaton Middle School – Lubbock ISD e3 Award

  • Robertson – Presented their district’s guiding principles and explained their program design assumptions/structure
  • McCall – Explained how he and his staff improved their school’s all around quality with LISD’s program
  • Beaty – Explained her personal experiences with the other teachers and how they all came together to implement the program
  • West – What is the discipline like?
    • McCall – They had 1,169 office referrals last year and at Christmas time this year they had 698
    • For discipline incidents they have had over 2,000 cases surrounding class disruption, disrespect for authority, and inappropriate language
    • They’re looking to see a reduction in discipline problems as time goes on
    • West – Do you see an overrepresentation of African Americans when disciplining?
    • McCall – It’s more of their Hispanic students than others
    • West – Inaudible question (1:00)
    • They’ve only had to ask one teacher not to come back at Christmas so far compared to 13 last year
    • West – You indicated that you’re using money from your general fund in order to fund this, how much longer will you fund it and will you continue to use money from the general fund to fund it?
    • Robertson – They’ll have to modify and adjust what they use because they are running out
    • They figure that have to reduce the amount and target it towards certain schools instead of the whole district
    • West – In terms of sustaining these types of programs, any recommendations?
    • Robertson – Their program is very local to what they do, so in terms of statewide implementation he doesn’t see that working
    • West – If we have schools that are IR and are taken over by the state, then the state has to find funds for them correct?
    • Commissioner Morath – The state doesn’t actually take over schools, there’s an intervention that is imposed at the district level, but it doesn’t result in additional state funding
    • There is some federal funding that Title I schools can receive, but it’s based on performance identification
  • Taylor – Ms. Beaty, how long have you been teaching?
    • Beaty – This is her 9th year and she’s in her 2nd year at O.L. Slaton
    • Taylor – Where did you receive your education?
    • At TX Tech University
    • Taylor – Where would you say the credit from the success of your teaching comes from?
    • Would give all credit to Mr. McCall and the math coach he brought with him Ms. Cruz
    • Did not feel adequately prepared coming straight out of college
    • Taylor – So you picked up most of your skills on the job, which also points to the problem we have where our teachers are not trained enough in college
    • Taylor – How does the bonus affect your motivations?
    • Believes she was already motivated to teach how she teaches, but the incentives check is helpful, in keeping her at O.L Slaton since it is a tough school
  • Bernal – You mentioned this is unsustainable across the entirety of TX, did you find that the majority of IR schools were schools that had the kind of generational poverty that the principal mentioned when he first encountered his school?
    • Robertson – Yes, 100%
    • Bernal – Can you talk about the challenges of retaining teachers at those schools?
    • The main driver for motivation is the leader, so their main motivation is obtaining quality and motivating leaders for the struggling campuses
  • Johnson – Can you share the resource decisions you had to make to fund the program?
    • Robertson – They spent about $1.2 million which is about 1% of their overall teacher pay budget
    • It becomes more and more difficult to fund this each year, but they’ve kept it at this number
  • Bettencourt – This is your turnaround team right?
    • Robertson – Yes, it’s two of them
    • Bettencourt – Since there’s not much traffic out your way, you can move your turnaround team from campus to campus if you have to, right?
    • Robertson – Certainly
    • Bettencourt – McCall, you said you got rid of 22 teachers, where did they go?
    • McCall – They resigned and possibly went to other districts

 

Don Rogers, Texas Rural Educators Association – Rural School View

  • Top two concerns their people have expressed: teacher recruitment and teacher retention

 

Cody Newcomb, Superintendent, Centerpoint ISD

  • Concerns scan across the spectrum and number one concern is teacher shortage
  • Sometimes just to keep teachers, they need to invest in growing them
  • Offer certain perks
  • 6 more extra days for a total of 11 days off for teachers
  • Attendance incentives
  • Annual retention bonus
  • Academic stipends for hard to fill positions
  • Stipends for doctoral degree
  • Lists various benefits they provides: health, life, child care, etc
  • Has competitive pay scale – from 0 to 35 years of experience only get a $20k raise

 

Brian Stroman, Superintendent, Bloomburg ISD

  • Longevity bonuses go a long way for smaller district especially when larger district can pay more
  • Discussed various initiatives such as looking at generational training and also spoke to limited amount of teachers for certain programs
  • Taylor – in regards to teacher shortage, do you all have broadband access
  • Yes, have the best fiber optics and paying lowest rate of $250 a month after e-rate for 1 gig of service and phone company is installing a wi-fi tower that will provide free access to all students
  • Taylor – access to internet is great equalizer, listed resources that could be access such as KHAN academy – there may just be a teacher shortage and internet could help
  • King – correct on Taylor point which is why they created virtual opportunities in last legislative session but still a lot of work to do to make sure kids have equal access
  • Taylor – agrees would like everyone to have broadband everywhere but at least we have it at school
  • King – sure in a perfect world but would like to see us expand opportunities for access at home
  • Brister – how online learning works and how it can be improved
    • Newcomb – Its out there and we are taking advantage of it
  • Math and science teachers are hard to get, with new training program have not had same amount of turnover
    • Killian – why don’t you just teach through TxVSN,
    • avg course is about $325 and start adding up to $80-90k so could go get a teacher but where is works good is offering classes through UT Permian Basin
    • Newcomb – need to have paraprofessional with students working remotely so there is a trade off, it can be offered but believes it will not replace teacher
  • West – being able to find teachers in Math in certain courses seems to be an issue
    • Newcomb – yes, and applauds committee for changing the conversation
  • West – what recommendations do you have?
    • Newcomb – teacher needs option to advance their career
    • Stroman – spoke on success of mentor program, grow your own approach
  • King – spoke on suggestion of the state paying for a 1/3 to help “grow your own”
    • Newcomb – to give teacher additional funding without having them leave the classroom, need to come up with some framework where teachers can advance in the classroom become like a “master teacher”
    • Stroman – have 3 master teachers, having this level of personnel is helpful and will be your best principal
  • King – Texas VSN, part of legislation provided for partnership opportunities with bigger schools; has your district taken advantage of it or did you know about it
    • Newcomb – logistically it is a challenge and have not taken advantage of it

 

Gary Godsey, Executive Director, Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE) –  ATPE Testimony (PDF)

  • Commissioner staff told him not to focus on additional revenue but what can be done current revenue
  • Provided a brief background on the organization
  • Talks about teacher frustration regarding teaching to the test and unable to do the job
  • Morath came to recent board meeting and asked them why are teachers leaving profession, number one trigger was workplace environment
  • Agree that pipeline needs to be strengthen
    • Recruitment and preparation – need to shore up programs authorized and teachers have adequate training and experience
    • Induction and mentoring
    • Ongoing support – requirements on professional learning can be impediment on working environment
    • Compensation – minimum salary scheduled is concern, believes if didn’t have this schedule that some districts would pay less because of various financial pressures recommend state law that affords flexibility and members said min salary schedule is too low, too flat, doesn’t account for regional factors and needs more steps
      • Compensation – not again differentiating, but question is if program is sustainable over time, different ways to differentiate
    • Retention – see too many leaving workforce in first five years and estimated cost is that Texas is losing $500million a year in regards to turnover
    • Other helpful initiatives – include gathering input, study high-performing outliers, modify weights to focus resources, have done a study
  • Bernal – regarding a best practices for teacher report in regards for what makes a good mentorship program, curious how they arrived at $500 million in loss
    • Monty Exter – that funding is old, but utilized data from the Comptroller
    • Bernal – what is cost when replacing teacher
    • Exter – marketing for position but most cost is induction, professional development for teacher
  • Huberty – merit pay vs performance pay, such as merit pay tied to standardized testing
    • Exter – look at all of the above approach but what emphasis you put on which parts and it should be more than standardized testing
  • Huberty – Dallas ISD program is an example that it is herald as a great program but no funding on a go forward basis
    • Sustainability of a program is so important
  • Exter – Members are in support of class size caps and thinks a reason is the don’t want to see flexibilities being used as funding reasons vs educational reasons
    • Over time this becomes a working conditions issue for them
  • Exter – Support differentiation based on needs

 

Jacquie Porter, Director of Early Learning, Texas Education Agency – Prekindergarten in Texas

  • Provided an overview of the Pre-K program in Texas
  • Huberty – why is eligibility not be putting out there?
    • Districts know they can partner but it is a bit of a lift
    • Grant put out this year to help TEA broker partnership
  • West – in regards to PPPs there are only 500 enrolled?
    • In the grant
  • Pre-K attendance leads to long term outcomes according to slide
  • Taylor – in regards to Pre-K gives you a 2% reduction of drop out, thinks there should be more significance, why not?
    • Need all grades to carry student through
    • “All things being equal” they have an advantage they would not have before
    • Taylor – other studies go farther, these are disappointing numbers would have expected huge gains
  • Williams – a lot of progress is negated in Pre-K if you don’t have enough in the system so it would require teacher in grades 1-2 to catch all up & that Superintendents put more experienced teachers at tested grades so combination would account for lower gains
  • Huberty – agrees with Taylor and sees spread as insignificant
  • Williams – need whole system aligned
  • Bernal – do you mean half day or full day Pre-K? would like to see data broken out as they work on determining which system works best
  • Johnson – have found in their practice there are significant cost avoidance in investment in full day Pre-K
  • Pre-K enrollment is strongest predictor for success when looking at Kinder Readiness
  • Quality matters in Pre-K, need quality preschool programs and there needs to be alignment
    • West – full or half day Pre-K
    • Both
  • Bettencourt – asked about aligned curriculum
  • Looked at benchmarks for quality Pre-K, HB 4 has many of the benchmarks
    • Want every program to be quality
  • Why not move to expand TEKS down to Pre-K?
    • Don’t think they are in statute that way
    • Pre-K guidelines contain pre-req skills for what is on the TEKS and works to make sure the alignment continues
  • HB 2039 – helped with certification for early childhood teachers
  • Austin ISD Pre-K discussion – went to AISD to talk about 3 year olds in Pre-K and found a donor to help with start-up cost
  • Desire is to work with child care facilities, reviewed partnerships
  • Ellis – went to look back at gains through Pre-K and how much has curriculum changed, etc
    • Pre-k has changed drastically and Kinder has changed drastically in last 18 years
  • Killian – what is current cost and what would that be for full day funding?
    • Projected $537-540 million in Pre-k program
    • Huberty – additional $900 million a year
    • Lopez – about $1.4 billion – $1.5 billion for the biennium, $700 million a year
  • Killian – referred to early comments made about Denmark Pre-K but noted 90% go to childcare center
  • Reyna – why not switch funding from seniors to Pre-K
    • More we can invest in early childhood the better

 

Derek Little, Assistant Superintendent for Early Learning, Dallas ISD – Early Childhood Outcomes and Funding in Dallas ISD

  • Believes Pre-K is the best investment the state can make, but it needs drastic improvement on quality
  • Presented their strategy and goals for what DISD is doing with Pre-K
  • They have added 1,000 kids each year to their Pre-K program
  • Their program has struggled with instructional support despite succeeding in other areas presented on his progress slide
  • Presented evidence of the positive impacts of Pre-K in Dallas
  • Their district has made a decade long commitment and they’re currently about 3 years in
  • Bettencourt – We have a high school allotment, but has noticed that no one is commenting on that since we’re mainly focused on early learning, do you have a comment on that?
    • Students do need a good high school experience, but there’s still not as much neural change in an adolescent as there is in a young kid, so we should recognize that
  • Martin – Believes we should definitely still spend money on high school students
    • Bettencourt – But if we had $1 to spend on either early or high school, where would you spend it?
    • Martin – In her opinion, favors the high school side, but understands the Pre-K side
  • West – In terms of national trends, what are we seeing in how different states are looking at this issue?
    • Across the country, many states are noting the importance of early education
    • Believes there’s more of a conversation taking place in other states, but TX has the ability to lead the way with this
    • West – Are there any longitudinal studies that show the benefit of this change in funding mechanism?
    • There are some hallmark studies on this such as the Chicago Parent Center’s program and research out of North Carolina and there are strong results there
  • Williams – Commissioner Morath’s presentation showed that 44% of kids statewide met the state’s standard in reading and we lose many kids after that point. We need to consider what our statewide goal is at that point in terms of spending.

 

Ellen Shimer, Director of Early Childhood, Humble ISD – Humble ISD Early Childhood 2018

  • Money matters
  • Huberty – when did Humble introduce full day Pre-K, data on performance?
    • In 3rd year – looked in comparison of previous year and sees growth when they made the jump from full day to half day
  • Huberty – asked about enrollment due to Harvey
    • Families seem to be stable
  • Huberty – you spent more money on Pre-K , didn’t fund high quality Pre-K, cut program in 16-17 it was $1.8 billion a biennium and this year $1.536 billion so almost $300million less than what we funded into Pre-K for the last biennium
  • Bettencourt – what happened to $400 million for transfer into high quality
    • Kara Belew – rider put in GA that required PSF funding be utilized for high quality programming
    • Taylor – cut the grant but put in for every school but they had to raise standards
    • Williams – no new money
    • Belew – rider 78 said of $1.6 billion spent that 15% had to be used to implement high quality pre-k
    • Huberty – so number a bit off but went to $1.580 billion in last biennium

 

Schronda McKnight, Early Childhood Coordinator, Bryan ISD – Bryan ISD PreK Presentation

  • District looked at alignment between Pre-K and K
  • Purchased and implemented a state adopted curriculum, created and scope and sequence, etc
  • Reads through entire slide covering student progress monitoring, teacher qualifications, and family engagement
  • No questions

 

Next meeting is March 7th to cover efficiencies in classroom at the district level

Please forward for preferences to hear from education group March 19th