Archives for category: Texas
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The Washington Post Is Wrong About Texas

By dianeravitch
April 9, 2013 //
22

The Washington Post has a great education blog, Valerie Strauss’s The Answer Sheet.

I wish the editorial board would read The Answer Sheet.
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Instead, they wrote this absurd editorial, chastising Texas for backing away from test mania.

At present, Texas spends more on testing–$100 million yearly to Pearson –than any other state.

Students in Texas are expected to pass 15 end-of-course tests to graduate from high school. This is more testing than in any other state.

The outcry from parents was so loud that even the Legislature heard it, and Texas plans to cut back on its testing mania.

The Washington Post thinks this is terrible, just terrible.

Please, editorial board, read The Answer Sheet and learn about the folly of high-stakes testing.

Or read the report of the National Research Council on “Incentives and Test-Based Accountability.”

Categories Accountability, Testing, Texas

A Dallas School Board Member Joins the Honor Roll

By dianeravitch
April 8, 2013 //
8

When I went to Austin for the Save Texas Schools rally, I also participated in a panel discussion about school reform at the LBJ School of Public Policy at the University of Texas. There I met Carla Ranger, a member of the Dallas school board.

As I listened to her speak, I was overwhelmed with admiration for this independent, smart, wise, courageous, and principled supporter of public education and children. At some point in the discussion, I said out loud, “Carla Ranger, I just met you and I love you..”

Dallas has a Broad-trained superintendent, who put a young TFA alum in charge of human resources. The superintendent is ex-military and is big on setting goals and giving orders. Carla has her hands full.

Today I add her to our honor roll. Please visit her website.

Categories Broad Foundation, Dallas, Honor Roll, Texas

More: Texas Legislature Turns Down Vouchers

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2013 //
1

Read here for first summary.

Will post again when new stories available.

Categories Texas, Vouchers

Breaking News: Vouchers Fail in Texas!

By dianeravitch
April 4, 2013 //
11

Wayne Slater, senior political writer for the Dallas Morning News, tweeted this:

@WayneSlater Put a fork in school vouchers in Texas — ban on taxpayer money for private schools passes overwhelming in conservative TX House

I bet the rural Republicans balked at destroying their communities’ public schools.

Categories Texas, Vouchers

Texas Leads the Nation in Testing, But Not in Education

By dianeravitch
April 2, 2013 //
3

A great post here by Carolyn Heinrich of the University of Texas.

She explains that Texas spends more than any other state in the nation on testing, but is seeing no returns on its heavy investment.

The cost is not just in dollars, but in the amount of time that students spend preparing for tests and taking tests, not to mention the distortion of the purpose and content of education.

This is a great analysis of how a well-meaning state can make disastrous decisions that hurt the quality of education.

Categories Education Reform, Testing, Texas

In Texas, It is “Bidness As Usual”

By dianeravitch
March 30, 2013 //
6

One of the most adamant critics of the Texas legislation to reduce the number of tests that students must take to graduate happens to own franchises for Sylvan Learning Centers, which offer test preparation and tutoring.

Was it a conflict of interest? No, he said, everybody votes on things that affect their self-interest.

He was just concerned about keeping standards high.

In Texas, that is known as “bidness as usual.”

Categories Testing, Texas

Beware of Self-promotion When Your Stats Are Bad

By dianeravitch
March 29, 2013 //
13

Julian Vasquez Heilig is one of the bloggers I enjoy enormously because he has the statistical smarts and energy to vet dubious claims. Follow his blog. He always has smart insights, with the data to back them up. It is called cloakinginequity.com.

The other day I put up a post about an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that asserted that Texas needs many, many, many standardized tests because students don’t know the classics. Presumably, the more Pearson bubble tests they take, the more they will know about Shakespeare, Milton, Melville, and the Founding Fathers. They went on to tout their own charter schools, which presumably were succeeding at all these tests while turning children into philosopher kings.

Gosh darn, Julian checked the data. He discovered that their charter chain was underperforming the regular public schools on those tests that the authors touted.

Categories Charter Schools, Testing, Texas

Bad Bill Alert in Texas!

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2013 //
16

Raise Your Hand Texas ACTION ALERT
Bad Bill Alert!

Your Action Is Needed TODAY!

March 27, 2013

Let the Senate Education Committee Know You Oppose SB 1263!

SB 1263 by Senator Larry Taylor is the “Parent Trigger” bill.

The “Parent Trigger” Is About Destroying Public Schools, Not Saving Them

SB 1263 radically undermines efforts to turn around a struggling school and may be voted out of committee Thursday (tomorrow) if we don’t act now.

We already have a parent trigger.

Texas’ current parent trigger law operates only after the Commissioner has reconstituted the campus, developed an intervention plan, and the campus has remained academically unacceptable for three years. SB 1263 blows up a campus for two years of academically unacceptable performance before any of the proven methods of intervention have been tried.

Historically, interests outside our school districts and even our state are the ones pushing for parent triggers. This is no exception.

SB 1263 undermines the authority of elected school boards: SB 1263 undermines the authority of locally elected school boards. While the statute allows the school board to petition the Commissioner to take a different action, it only he says he “may” order the action requested by the elected school board.

SB 1263 is brought by well-heeled national advocacy organizations, not parents. Many of the same groups pushing for school vouchers and other means of privatization are pushing this legislation.

Let the Senate Education Committee know you oppose SB 1263 by Taylor today.

Contact these legislators:

Dan Patrick, Chairman
(512) 463-0107
Dan.patrick@senate.state.tx.us

Eddie Lucio, Jr, Vice-Chair
(512) 463-0127
Eddie.lucio@senate.state.tx.us

Donna Campbell
(512) 463-0125
Donna.campbell@senate.state.tx.us

Robert Duncan
(512) 463-0128
Robert.duncan@senate.state.tx.us

Ken Paxton
(512) 463-0108
Ken.paxton@senate.state.tx.us

Kel Seliger
(512) 463-0131
Kel.seliger@senate.state.tx.us

Larry Taylor
(512) 463-0111
Larry.taylor@senate.state.tx.us

Leticia Van de Putte
(512) 463-0126
Leticia.vandeputte@senate.state.tx.us

Royce West
(512) 463-0123
Royce.west@senate.state.tx.us

To learn more, please visit our website

David Anthony, CEO

RAISE YOUR HAND TEXAS

http://www.RaiseYourHandTexas.org

Categories Parent trigger, Privatization, Support for public schools, Texas

How Texas Legislators Debated Graduation Requirements

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2013 //
9

This is a good summary of the debate about high school graduation requirements in the Texas House of Representatives.

I couldn’t help but think back to my own experience in Texas public schools many years ago (to be exact, I graduated from San Jacinto High School in 1956). To the best of my knowledge, the Legislature set minimum requirements and left the details to educators.

These days, legislators in Congress and the states seem to think they must decide everything in education and tell educators what to do. When I was in North Carolina last week, the dean of the UNC education school told me that the legislature passed laws requiring that students learn cursive writing and memorize the multiplication tables.

It is a good thing the legislators are not telling doctors how to make their diagnoses and conduct surgical procedures.

Categories Testing, Texas

Breaking News! Texas Reins in High-Stakes Testing!

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2013 //
22

The Texas Legislature heard the voices of parents, students, teachers, and employers.

The Texas House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly, 145-2, to reduce high-stakes testing.

Under the legislation, the number of tests required for high school graduation would be reduced from 15 (the highest in the nation) to five.

The Texas Senate earlier passed a bill to cut back on testing,

As former Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott said last year, the testing industry in Texas turned into a vampire. Only weeks ago, at the mass Save Texas Schools rally in front of the State Capitol, he called testing “the flea that wags the tail that wags the dog.”

Legislators are talking about getting some flea powder.

Categories Testing, Texas
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