Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category
If they’re allowed to do whatever they want, then they didn’t break the law
January 19th, 2008
More on the Texas SBOE’s rejection of a third grade math book. Now the majority has voted to strike the minority reports from the official record of the board’s minutes. It seems that while our San Antonio representative couldn’t bring himself to vote on the original matter, he has joined the majority in censoring the minority.
“This is about the credibility of this board, and I will challenge anyone here who tries to challenge my credibility,” said Rick Agosto, a Democrat from San Antonio who had abstained in the November vote over whether to reject the math book.
If he didn’t vote, how could this be about his “credibility?” If he had bothered to vote for approving the textbook to begin with (which meets all state requirements) this wouldn’t be an issue at all, now would it? What’s the deal, he’s afraid the board wouldn’t elect him as an officer again? Does he really believe that the board has the right to reject textbooks based on personal beliefs even if they meet all state requirements? No wonder he’s worried about his credibility.
Start checking your kindergartner’s credit report
January 15th, 2008
A new database will be collecting kindergartner’s social security numbers.
The new database for kindergarten test scores also includes sections for children’s names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, gender, school identification numbers and parents’ names and addresses, educators say.
For some odd reason, some people are disturbed by this.
“As adults you don’t even put your Social Security card in your wallet,” said Mr. Lukert, an officer with the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association. “And yet here we are required to give that information out. It doesn’t make sense.”
Basically, TEA is telling everyone to just “trust us.”
“It’s quite amazing the security that OZ has in place for this information,” said Susan Landry, director of the UT group, known as the State Center for Early Childhood Development. “You are overemphasizing the Social Security number.”
So the Social Security number isn’t that big of a deal? Then why use it all?
Pearson Educational Measurement officials, who develop or administer standardized tests in Texas and 22 other states, say they use ID numbers to link students to their test data.
“I don’t think in the testing side of it that we ever encounter Social Security numbers,” said David Hakensen, vice president of public relations.
I suspect that parents aren’t required to provide Social Security numbers unless maybe they’re receiving some sort of direct federal aid such as free lunch. I could be totally wrong here.
However, I went to my local school district website to see what documents would be needed to enroll my child and it said:
Back To School : Northside Independent School District – San Antonio, TX 78238
Child’s Social Security Number (if available)
Furthermore, the TEA PEIMS Data Standards makes it sound like Social Security numbers aren’t required either.
Identification – the information necessary to identify the person. This information is Social Security number or state-approved alternative student ID and student name. It is requested for all students.
Notice, it says “requested.” So how many schools request the information and parents provide it assuming that it’s required?
While part of the issue is trust, another part is “why do you need the data?” Do they need it because they want to link it to other data that is based on social security data? Or do they want it just because it will be easier than generating their own id system? And if they can’t tell us, what does that do to the trust factor?
Technorati Tags: Texas Education, Social Security Numbers, TEA, Texas Education Agency, OZ Systems, State Center for Early Childhood Development, Susan Landry
If it’s good enough for George Bush…
January 10th, 2008
Star-Telegram.com: | 01/10/2008 | Report gives an average grade to Texas education
Texas gets a C for public education, according to Education Week’s 12th annual Quality Counts report.
Because Texas is interested in producing future presidents.
Technorati Tags: Texas Education, Education Week’s Quality Counts, Education rankings
Vouchers are about choice, not quality
November 13th, 2007
In recent weeks, community members have rallied and pleaded with trustees, begging them to spare West Campus, which has about 600 students. But faced with a heart versus head dilemma, trustees voted to close the campus, which has had chronic low enrollment for years, operates at a deficit and has an “academically unacceptable” rating from the Texas Education Agency.
Now what is the point of school vouchers again? A way for poor parents to escape a failing school system? But what if parents are fine with their local schools no matter what its academic rating?
Parents, many of whom have their own memories of school days at West Campus, haven’t taken the decision lying down. On Friday, they filed a request for a temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court to challenge the school district’s effort to keep the dispute from bubbling up during the evening’s football game.
The latest legal challenge came after district officials announced that they would not tolerate any save-the-school fundraising efforts at the game or allow audience members to wear shirts or carry signs emblazoned with defamatory messages.
Despite the fact that their children will go a better rated high school, these parents aren’t happy. So how can you expect vouchers to “save” the school system if parents aren’t going to behave as voucher proponents expect them to? Let’s face it, “vouchers” at the higher education level, (grants and loans) don’t guarantee that students attend only schools with high graduation rates or job placement. It does allow quite a bit more diversity in education choice but it doesn’t mean that poorer quality schools shut down.
Technorati Tags: Texas, higher education, vouchers, South San Antonio High School West Campus, education quality
McLeroy accepting the standard for teaching evolution?
September 5th, 2007
Interviews with 11 of the 15 members of the board – including seven Republicans and four Democrats – found little support for requiring that intelligent design be taught in biology and other science classes. Only one board member said she was open to the idea of placing the theory into the curriculum standards.
“Creationism and intelligent design don’t belong in our science classes,” said Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy, who described himself as a creationist. “Anything taught in science has to have consensus in the science community – and intelligent design does not.”
Mr. McLeroy, R-College Station, noted that the current curriculum requires that evolution be taught in high school biology classes, and he has no desire to change that standard.
What can I say, I don’t believe him for a moment. I don’t know what his plan is but given his public record, I believe that he would never miss an opportunity to promote “intelligent design” in the science classroom.
Technorati Tags: Don McLeroy, Texas SBOE, Texas, State Board of Education, evolution, intelligent design
No more dropping college courses
August 2nd, 2007
I don’t get it.
Legislation limits college courses that may be dropped
The 80th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 1231 limiting the number of courses an institution of higher learning may allow an undergraduate student to drop. SB 1231 will affect any student enrolled as a first-time freshman at Lamar University and all other Texas universities and colleges, beginning in the fall 2007 semester.
The bill requires the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to adopt and enforce new rules established in the bill. The coordinating board defines a “dropped course” as a course an undergraduate student at an institution of higher education has enrolled in for credit but did not complete.
The new rules prohibit an institution of higher education from allowing a student to drop more than six courses during their undergraduate program, including any courses a transfer student has dropped at another university.
Is the only consequence that the student get a failing grade? What’s the purpose? Force students to fail more classes, lowering their gpa so that they drop out and don’t use anymore state resources? Now I know that there are students that will drop a class to preserve a gpa so that they can get into graduate school but surely they must be a minority?
Don’t most students have to maintain a certain number of hours to keep their financial aid or full-time student status? I know one semester I dropped both government classes after the first day of class and added two English instead. Would that have counted?
Is this supposed to save the state money somehow?
Technorati Tags: Dropping college classes, Texas, SB 1231, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
Reprisals for Perry’s Community College Veto
July 12th, 2007
I’m not sure what they think they will accomplish.
MyWestTexas.com – Texas Democrats threaten retaliation for Perry’s veto
Meeting today in Washington, the Texas Democratic Congressional Delegation is so perturbed about Gov. Rick Perry’s veto of $154 million in community college funding that it may consider reprisals, spokesmen said.
The 12-member group sent an angry letter to Perry June 25 and will wait for an answer before deciding what to do, but Higher Education Act reauthorizations and federal grant funding are the obvious options, they said.
As far as I can tell, Republican members of the legislature aren’t happy with Perry’s veto. Why would he worry about what some Democrats think? They might cut funding to more college students? He’s already shown he doesn’t care.
Technorati Tags: Community Colleges, Rick Perry, health insurance, funding
Language immersion is only for Spanish speakers
July 9th, 2007
There is going to be a pilot program that teaches classes in both English and Spanish to those who only speak one or the other language. Never mind that
Research shows children who learn two languages at an early age outscore students in traditional monolingual classrooms, she said.
Representative Debbie Riddle of Tomball doesn’t think it’s a good idea.
Under the program, half of each class where possible would consist of English-speaking children.
Riddle said children should study foreign languages in a separate course and that schools should not force them to learn academic subjects in two languages.
She also believes Spanish-speaking children should learn English by being immersed in English. Some believe that English immersion is the most effective approach.
So if English immersion is effective for Spanish-speaking children, wouldn’t Spanish immersion be effective for English-speaking students rather than learning Spanish as a separate course?
Technorati Tags: Bilingual education, Texas, HB 2814, Debbie Riddle, Bob Eissler, dual language
Who knew board members were so sensitive?
June 28th, 2007
Public school teachers and employees concerned about operations at their school districts now have added protection to voice those issues with elected members of their school boards.
But this isn’t “good business practice” according to the Ingram School Board president. Excuse me? If your boss is cooking the books you should first report to your boss so that he can fire you before you have a chance to go any further up the “chain of command?”
And then there is the superintendent who is just trying to protect the board members.
Faust said board members may feel uncomfortable about listening to employees, and the change may require additional training. Contact information for board members is not available on the school district’s Web site, and Faust only provided contact information for Ingram board president Freddie Hawkins to respond to questions about this subject.
So why isn’t contact information available on the website? They are public officials who were voted into office by the public they serve, not the superintendent. If you don’t want voters to be able to contact you after you win office (and teachers are voters), then don’t run!
Given Faust’s attitude, it seems to me this law should have passed a long time ago.
Technorati Tags: Texas, school boards, senate bill 135, Jeff Wentworth, Harvey Hilderbran, Ingram ISD, Bruce Faust, Freddie Hawkins, teachers freedom of speech
Perry’s reasoning for vetoing the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) makes even less sense after reading the Express-News editorial.
The governor said he doesn’t want to create more top research institutions before a new commission on higher education and global competitiveness comes up with a plan for the most effective use of funds.
This isn’t a new school. The institute was established by the legislature in 2001. It has already received $6.5 million in funding. It may or may not be deserving of the requested $6 million. It was at least as deserving as UT Permian Basin that received over $16 million dollars.
I think what bothers me more than anything else is that “he” -Perry- “doesn’t want to create more top research institutions” makes it sound like he is the sole authority of how many “top” research institutions Texas gets to have. I get the impression that this institute could not possibly exist without Perry’s blessing. The fact that it was created by a previous legislature is irrelevant.
All things considered, the SALSI is probably better off if it can develop without relying on the whims of state government. It’s just Perry’s political arrogance bugs me. How convenient to use the commission as an excuse to justify a veto in this case. What commission does he use to justify the cases he didn’t veto?
Technorati Tags: San Antonio Life Sciences Institute, Texas, higher education, Rick Perry, line item veto
