(faint microphone hum)
Chair Bahorich: All right, Members, let's go ahead and get started.
And we have a student performance
that I'm going to call on
Ms. Sue Melton-Malone to introduce.
Member Melton-Malone: Well, good morning, everyone.
Happy Friday the 13th.
(audience laughing)
Friday the 13th and a full moon
is every teacher's nightmare, so.
(audience laughing)
Be in prayer for all the teachers today,
because they are going through a very difficult day today.
But we are so honored to have the Waco High Chamber Choir,
under the direction of Carrie Forehand and Brently Bartlett.
And this choir is comprised primarily
of juniors and seniors.
The students are the best of the best of Waco High,
and they make teaching every day a true joy.
The Choir's excited to share the following songs with you.
And I'm gonna make a stab at the first one.
"Hlonolofatsa",
"Unclouded Day",
"Earth Song",
and the National Anthem.
So please give the Waco High Chamber Choir
a big round of applause to say welcome.
(audience applauding)
Choir Director: If everyone will stand
for the singing of (speaking faintly).
("Star-Spangled Banner" by Waco High Chamber Choir)
♪ O say can you see ♪
♪ By the dawn's early light ♪
♪ What so proudly we hailed ♪
♪ At the twilight's last gleaming ♪
♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪
♪ Through the perilous fight ♪
♪ O'er the ramparts we watched ♪
♪ Were so gallantly streaming ♪
♪ And the rockets' red glare ♪
♪ The bombs bursting in air ♪
♪ Gave proof through the night ♪
♪ That our flag was still there ♪
♪ O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪
♪ O'er the land of the free ♪
♪ The land of the free ♪
♪ And the home of the brave ♪
♪ Ah ah ah ah ah ♪
(audience applauding)
Woman: Beautiful.
(woman cheering)
("Unclouded Day" by Waco High Chamber Choir)
♪ Oh, they tell me of a home far beyond the skies ♪
♪ They tell me of a home far away ♪
♪ And they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise ♪
♪ They tell me of an unclouded day ♪
♪ Oh, the land of cloudless day ♪
♪ Oh, the land of an unclouded sky ♪
♪ Oh, they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise ♪
♪ Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day ♪
♪ They tell me of a home ♪
♪ They tell me of a home where my friends have gone ♪
♪ They tell me of that land far away ♪
♪ Where the tree of life in eternal bloom ♪
♪ Sheds its fragrance through the unclouded day ♪
♪ Oh, the land of cloudless day ♪
♪ Oh, the land of an unclouded sky ♪
♪ Oh, they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise ♪
♪ Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day ♪
♪ They tell me of a King in His beauty there ♪
♪ And they tell me that mine eyes shall behold ♪
♪ Where He sits on the throne that is whiter than snow ♪
♪ In the city that is made of gold ♪
♪ Oh, the land of cloudless day ♪
♪ Oh, the land of an unclouded sky ♪
♪ Oh, they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise ♪
♪ Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day ♪
♪ Oh, the land of gold and sun ♪
♪ Oh, the land of cloudless day ♪
♪ Oh, the land of an unclouded sky ♪
♪ Oh, they tell me of a home where no storm clouds rise ♪
♪ Oh, they tell me of an unclouded day ♪
(audience applauding)
♪ See ♪
♪ Be ♪
♪ Live ♪
♪ See ♪
♪ This dark stormy hour ♪
♪ The wind, it stirs ♪
♪ The scorched earth ♪
♪ Cries out in vain ♪
♪ In vain ♪
♪ O war and power ♪
♪ You blind and blur ♪
♪ The torn heart ♪
♪ Cries out ♪
♪ In pain ♪
♪ But music and singing ♪
♪ Have been my refuge ♪
♪ And music and singing ♪
♪ Shall be my light ♪
♪ A light of song ♪
♪ Shining strong ♪
♪ Alleleujah ♪
♪ Through darkness, and pain, and strife ♪
♪ I'll sing ♪
♪ I'll be ♪
♪ I'll live ♪
♪ See ♪
♪ Peace ♪
("Hlonolofatsa" by Waco High Chamber Choir)
(student singing in foreign language)
(students singing in foreign language)
(drum beating)
(feet tapping)
(students clapping)
(audience applauding)
<v Member Melton-Malone>Thank you.
Carrie, if you and Brently and Larry Carpenter,
would make your way over here.
Come on.
(audience chuckling)
Thank you so much.
That was excellent.
I'm always excited when groups from my area get to come.
-: Yes.
Member Melton-Malone: I'm gonna brag a little bit and say,
I know y'all have good groups, but Waco has the best.
(audience laughing)
We have a certificate for you.
It says the State Board of Education Special Recognition
presented to the Chamber Choir Waco High School, Waco ISD,
under the direction of Carrie Forehand, Choir Director,
Brently Barlett, Choir Director.
In appreciation for the outstanding performance
at the State Board of Education General Meeting,
September 13th, 2019, Austin, Texas, Sue Melton-Malone.
-: Thank you so much.
Member Melton-Malone: Thank you so much for coming.
(audience applauding)
And I don't think I told you,
Larry is their Fine Arts Director.
Thank you again, we just loved it.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Y'all did an excellent job.
(audience applauding)
(people chattering faintly)
Member Melton-Malone: You want Donna in there?
Chair Bahorich: You guys did awesome.
Students: Thank you.
Photographer: All right, thank you.
-: Thank you so much.
Member Melton-Malone: Thank you so much for coming.
-: Thank you so much for inviting us.
(Sue speaking faintly)
Member Melton-Malone: You guys, you did fantastic.
Thank you all for coming.
(people chattering faintly)
-: We really enjoyed that.
Chair Bahorich: All right, Members,
I'd like to call on Pam Little to do our prayer and pledges.
Member Little: Please pray with me.
Father, we come to you with such thankful hearts.
Thankful for the freedoms of our country.
Thankful for all our bright young students.
We ask for your healing and comfort for our fellow Texans,
in El Paso, Midland, and Odessa.
We ask for wisdom in our deliberations for the future
of our young Texas students.
Please bless all those who are dedicated to education.
In thy name we pray.
Amen.
And now, if you will join me in the Pledge
to the Flag of the greatest Nation in the World.
All: I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
Member Little: And now to the Texas Flag,
the greatest State in our Nation.
All: Honor the Texas Flag.
I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas,
one state, under God, one and indivisible.
Chair Bahorich: Thank you, Member Little.
Ms. Ratcliffe, will you please do our roll call.
-: Ms. Perez? -: Present.
-: Mr. Cortez?
-: He's here.
-: Ms. Perez-Diaz? -: Here.
-: Mr. Allen? -: Present.
-: Mr. Mercer? -: Present.
-: Mrs. Bahorich? -: Here.
-: Dr. Robinson? -: Here.
-: Ms. Cargill? -: Here.
-: Dr. Ellis? -: Here.
-: Mr. Maynard? -: Here.
-: Ms. Hardy? -: Here.
-: Mrs. Little? -: Here.
-: Ms. Davis? -: Here.
-: Mrs. Melton-Malone?
We know she's here. <v ->Yes, she's here.
-: And Mr. Rowley? -: Here.
Chair Bahorich: And you got Mr. Cortez, right?
Okay.
All right, Members.
Is there any correction to the minutes
from the June 14th meeting, 2019?
Hearing none, minutes are approved as presented.
And now we'll do Resolutions and Presentations.
We have a resolution honoring our 2019 Heroes for Children.
And Ms. Perez, our Board Secretary will present those.
Member Perez: Thank you, good morning.
So today we're going to do something a little different,
new for us.
Just like our TEKS for reading and language arts,
our English and Spanish,
and our State is moving positively forward in dual language,
so will our presentation this morning be bilingual.
I'm going to start reading
the 2019 Heroes for Children Award.
Today the State Board of Education celebrates
the 25th year it has recognized school volunteers
as Heroes for Children.
A quarter of a century shows the Board's strong commitment
to this program.
But, some of the volunteers we will honor today
have been school volunteers even longer than that.
Their commitment to this state's children
is impressive and humbling.
There is no doubt that the 15 individuals
we will honor here today have changed the lives
of children and their communities.
Collectively they have devoted
more than 179 years of service to our public schools.
This is a large group, so will the winners
along with the State Board of Education Members
from Districts 1 through 7,
please come to the center of the circle.
(people speaking faintly)
(people chattering)
<v Member Perez1 through 7.
(people chattering) (people chuckling)
Member Perez: I would also like to point out
that today we're presenting resolutions
completely written, signed, and presented in Spanish,
and that is a first for the Texas State Board of Education.
When I call your name, if you would please step forward
while I tell the audience about your contributions,
and also to the family, friends, and guests
who are here with them today,
you're welcome to step up to the velvet ropes
and take your photos.
Maria Estevane from my district, District 1.
Senora Estevane has been a volunteer
at DD Hachar Elementary School in Laredo ISD for 12 years,
and last school year alone
volunteered more than 2,250 volunteer hours.
She has been recognized as the Laredo ISD parent volunteer
with the most service hours for two years in a row.
Mrs. Estevane's activities include chaperoning field trips,
covering cafeteria lunch duty, decorating bulletin boards,
and helping to develop a pool
of 150 active school volunteers.
Although her children have graduated from Hachar Elementary,
she says, this is my school, and I will never leave it.
Thank you, for caring for our schools.
(audience applauding)
Anita Garcia from La Joya ISD,
is our Hero for District number 2.
Mrs. Garcia is a parent leader
and a hands-on volunteer in La Joya ISD.
She voluntarily teaches a weekly theater arts class
at Enrique Camarena Elementary School
and also volunteers at Memorial Middle School.
She serves on numerous committees at her children's schools,
including the Site-Based Decision Making Committee,
the Superintendent's Parent Roundtable,
and the Parent Advisory Committee
of which she is the president.
Her nominator says,
Mrs. Garcia would add glitter to any decoration,
which reflects her own happy outlook on life.
Thank you for bringing all the sparkles to your school.
(audience applauding)
Julia Saenz from La Joya ISD is our Hero from District 3.
Sometimes a school district is split
between two SBOE districts.
That is the case with La Joya ISD, which is fortunate
to have two Heroes for Children Award recipients this year.
(speaking Spanish)
(audience applauding)
And for our bilingual participants,
Mrs. Saenz has been an active volunteer
at the elementary, middle, and high school levels
in La Joya for the past 18 years.
She is currently the president
of the District's School Health Advisory.
Mrs. Saenz is also involved
with the District Advisory Council,
the Language Proficiency Assessment Committee,
and the District Reading Club, Safe School Advisory Board,
and School and Community Safety Task Force.
She also finds time to prepare educational material
for the classroom instruction, special events,
and activities for teachers.
Thank you for all of your dedication, Mrs. Saenz.
(audience applauding)
Isn't it nice to do English and Spanish, I love it.
(audience chuckling)
Juan Sorto of Houston ISD is our Hero for District 4.
When North Forest ISD was consolidated
with Houston ISD in 2011, Juan Sorto decided
he wanted to help ease the transition for students
at Shadydale Elementary School.
He began working with a few English learners in 2012.
And by the last year, he was mentoring 115 students
at Shadydale and Hilliard Elementarys.
After Hurricane Harvey, Mr. Sorto organized a community fair
where students and their families could receive housing,
medicine, food, and educational assistance.
He also organized Thanksgiving meals
and Christmas and end-of-the-year parties for the campuses.
Thank you, Mr. Sorto, for especially looking out
for the most vulnerable among us.
(audience applauding)
Sheryl Westwick from Eanes ISD
is our Hero for District number 5.
Being a school volunteer is a family tradition
for Sheryl Westwick,
and so is winning the Heroes for Children award.
Her parents, Alfred and Carol Youens,
previously received this SBOE award
for their long-time service to Galena Park ISD.
This is the first time in the 25-year history
of this program that three family members have earned
the Heroes for Children award.
Mrs. Westwick's father received this award posthumously
in 2016, Mrs. Youens' received the award in 2017.
And Mrs. Youens, if you're here, would you please stand up.
(audience applauding)
Audience, let's give this devoted family
a round of applause, and thank you for your service.
(audience applauding)
Mrs. Westwick has volunteered her time
in both Eanes and Austin School Districts for 24 years.
She suffered a brain hemorrhage as a teenager,
and she credits a teacher and her mother
with helping her learn to read again.
She's now paying that assistance forward
by helping other children learn to read,
and helping in social and special education classrooms
in Eanes' ISN.
Thank you to this wonderful family
for their years of service.
(audience applauding)
Julie Hinaman is our Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
Hero for District 6.
Julie Hinaman's nominator says
Mrs. Hinaman personifies Cypress-Fairbanks' mission
of delivering opportunity for all.
Over her 12 years as a volunteer, she has worked
in the school library and mentored at-risk students.
Mrs. Hinaman served as a member and later chair
of the Community Leadership Committee.
Through that work, she helps educate
the Cy-Fair community and the Texas Legislature
about ways a strong school district can influence industry,
property values, and overall community health.
She also finds the time to be a Bus Buddy,
which means she rides the bus at the beginning of the year
and helps our young students get off the bus
at the correct location.
Thank you, Mrs. Hinaman,
for advocating for public education.
(audience applauding)
Brenda George of Brazosport ISD is our Hero for District 7.
During a six-week period in 2018,
Brazoria County experienced
14 attempted suicides among its children,
and three of those children ultimately died.
Brenda George decided it was time for that to stop.
And she formed Stop, Talk, Overcome the Pain, or STOP.
Her group formed a collaboration
with more than two dozen mental health organizations
and hosted large outdoor rallies.
STOP began participating in hour-long programs at schools.
These programs, STOP representatives talk to the students
about issues such as depression,
homelessness, and pregnancy.
The program has expanded and now includes teacher training
and a peer support group.
STOP will host its first college Mental Health Symposium
this month at Brazosport College.
Thank you, Mrs. George, for literally saving lives.
(audience applauding)
So, we're going to take a minute
for all of our Awardees to take your seats.
And now we will ask Districts 8 through 15
to come to the center with their Board Members.
And thank you all for your service.
(people chattering faintly)
Member Perez: Thank you, Dr. Robinson.
Family and Friends, you are also welcome
to step up to the velvet ropes to take your photographs.
Are we ready? -: Yeah.
-: Okay.
Linda Sparks of Conroe ISD is our Hero for District 8.
Linda Sparks says school is my happy place.
Me too.
Volunteering for her is a work of heart.
During more than seven years as a volunteer
at Conroe ISD's Bush Elementary,
she has helped with reading groups, math groups,
copying, laminating, cutting/pasting, bulletin boards,
field trips, and the library,
to name just some of her activities.
She's participated in the Bush Buddy Mentoring Program
in which she is paired with one or two children
for the school year.
She's become such an integral part of the school
that the Bush staff last year
presented her with the Friend of Education Award.
Thank you for all of your dedication, Mrs. Sparks.
(audience applauding)
Ashley Gibbs of Pleasant Grove ISD
is our Hero for District 9.
Ashley Gibbs, who is a graduate of Pleasant Grove ISD,
has volunteered more than 1,000 hours of service
to her district in the past seven years.
She's organized grandparents' breakfasts,
coordinated field trips,
led Teacher Appreciation Week activities,
and served as vice president of the development
for the Pleasant Grove Education Foundation.
The foundation hosts events such as Hawk Hustle,
a field day for elementary school students,
and over the past four years,
the foundation has raised $130,000.00 for the district.
After a bond issue failed twice,
Mrs. Gibbs became co-chair of a committee
that successfully won voter approval
for a $19.9 million bond election in 2018.
Winning 70% of the vote, thank you,
for making the long term impact on your hometown.
(audience applauding)
Kathi Walrath of Salado ISD is our Hero for District 10.
Kathi Walrath began as a room mother
in her son's kindergarten class in Salado ISD.
However, her volunteer activities quickly expanded.
She has since served as the Parent Teacher Organization
Volunteer Coordinator for about five years,
and PTO president for about seven years.
Her activities have included organizing school holidays,
chaperoning field trips, photographing school activities,
chairing the Spring Fling, working with concession stands,
and organizing numerous fundraisers.
Most recently she served
on Salado's Long-Range Facilities Planning Committee,
which culminated with the calling of a bond election.
She then became treasurer
of the Vote Yes for Salado ISD Committee.
She campaigned vigorously for the bond election,
even making calls form her hospital bed
as she battled breast cancer.
Her work paid off,
with an almost two-to-one victory at the polls.
Thank you, Mrs. Walrath for your unwavering commitment
to Salado ISD.
(audience applauding)
The late Roger Grizzard of Weatherford ISD
is our Hero for District 11.
He is represented here today by his wife, Jeanine Grizzard.
The late Roger Grizzard served Weatherford ISD
for 21 years as a social studies teacher.
When he opened The Pizza Place restaurant,
his passion for ensuring student success continued.
He gave many students jobs at the restaurant.
He hosted election night watch parties
and political discussion groups
for students at his restaurant.
He served on the Weatherford ISD
Education Foundation Board of Directors.
Mr. Grizzard also sponsored fundraisers,
donated food for concession stands,
and attended numerous student events
such as athletic events, theater productions,
and band, choir, and drill team performances.
In 2014, he became the first recipient
of the Weatherford's True Blue Kangaroo Fan award.
What a big heart he had for children.
We are thankful for his service and dedication.
And thank you, Mrs. Grizzard, for being here
to accept the award on his behalf.
(audience applauding)
Katie Walsh of Frisco ISD is our Hero for District 12.
Katie Walsh has been an active member
of the Parent Teacher Association
at Frisco ISD's Taylor Elementary School,
having served as president, vice president of programs,
room parent chair, and book fair chair.
Mrs. Walsh organized the school's Walk-A-Thon for four years
and served as the mistress of ceremonies
for each event each year.
Mrs. Walsh has organized special events
at the school such as Bring the Dallas Zoo to You,
family reading night,
and an event called High Touch High Tech.
Frisco families know they can depend on her
for creativity, support, and enthusiasm.
Thank you, Mrs. Walsh.
(audience applauding)
Loretta Burns of Fort Worth ISD is our Hero for District 13.
Loretta Burns founded the AB Christian Learning Center,
which provides academic enrichment programs.
As an outgrowth of this work,
Mrs. Burns started the Freedom School in 2014.
This is a free six-week program
that focuses on summer reading
and cultural enrichment activities
for disadvantaged students.
Instruction in this program is delivered
by trained college interns.
Participating students receive a free book each week.
Ms. Burns is also a member of the executive council
for Read Fort Worth, which is a coalition of community
and business leaders who partnered with Fort Worth ISD
as it works towards the goal
of having 100% of third-grade students
reading at or above grade level by 2025.
Thank you for giving children the gift of reading.
(audience applauding)
Edith Natividad of Copperas Cove ISD
is our Hero for District 14.
As a military spouse, Edith Natividad began volunteering
to help her children adjust to new schools.
Her volunteer work has now continued for three decades.
She began by helping struggling third-grade readers
in Copperas Cove ISD.
She soon served as vice president of the PTA
and was involved in various activities such as family nights
that focused on different core subjects.
She launched a Multicultural Family Night
that now involves a fashion show and food tastings.
She also started an after-school hula dance club
for kindergarten through second-grade students.
(audience chuckling)
The children not only learn basic hula moves,
but learn to tell their right hand from their left hand
while having fun.
I could use some of that.
(audience chuckling)
Additionally, Mrs. Natividad works with youth
who have been selected as city ambassadors and involves them
in more than 5,000 hours of service annually.
(speaking Tagalog)
Thank you very much, Mrs. Natividad.
(audience applauding)
And for those of you who do not speak Tagalog,
which is what our friends in the Philippines speak,
that was Tagalog.
If you would try that for me again, Lenny. (laughing)
Trilingualism, we're all working on it.
Roddy "Bud" Allred of Vega ISD
is our Hero for District 15.
Roddy "Bud" Allred, is a retired farmer,
who has shared his knowledge of mechanical,
electrical, and hydraulic process
with Vega ISD's Ag Mechanics program
and FFA program for more than 15 years.
He has taught students welding and fabrication skills,
and helped high school students on their Senior Project,
even when it meant staying at school until 1:00 a.m.
(audience chuckling)
Mr. Allred has donated his time and money
by transporting the students' projects
to the San Antonio and Houston Ag Mechanics shows.
When it has been necessary for the Ag Mechanic teacher
to be out for extended periods of time
due to family or personal illness,
Mr. Allred has also stepped up,
and helped students plan and work on their projects
so that they remained on track.
Thank you for sharing all of this knowledge, Mr. Allred.
(audience applauding)
Board Members, I now move that we adopt
the Heroes for Children Resolution that is before you.
Chair Bahorich: Is there any objection?
Of course not.
(audience laughing)
Member Perez: I can't imagine that there would be.
Chair Bahorich: We are all for our heroes.
Absolutely.
Hearing none, congratulations to all of you.
Thank you so much.
(audience applauding)
(people chattering)
Chair Bahorich: Audience, I hope that sharing these stories
have inspired you, and that you will return
to your local public schools who will love to have you join
their legion of school volunteers.
I also ask our heroes to gather together in the lobby
for a group photo.
And as our heroes are exiting,
let's give them another round of applause,
and thank them for their remarkable service.
(audience applauding)
(woman cheering)
Chair Bahorich: As is our custom, we are blessed to have
the Commissioner of Education in the house,
and so, Commissioner, could you share with us an update.
Commissioner Morath: Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair, thank you, Members.
As always, thank you for your service.
For those watching at home,
the State Board of Education Members are paid
exactly what School Board Members are paid,
which is a giant bupkis.
So, I appreciate your service to the students of Texas.
And certainly your feedback
on all of our agency initiatives.
I wanted to give an update on Reading Academies.
Before I get into that, just a quick acknowledgement.
I know that the Committee on School Initiatives,
did I get that right?
Met yesterday or the day before yesterday.
Talked a little bit about instructional materials portal.
And there was a recommendation from that Committee
that our approach to rules
for how materials go through evaluation be tweaked
so that it requires a majority vote of the SBOE
as opposed to an individual member.
So that makes sense to us.
The rule-making process has closed,
the Commissioner rule-making process is closed,
so what we'll do is we'll reopen that up,
and we'll put that rule through a change
in formal rule-making on our end.
So just wanted to let y'all know
that the recommendation made sense to us,
so we'll make that change.
So, then back to the topic at hand.
So Reading Academies.
I don't know if we can get it up on screen,
there we go.
I wanted to give an update on where we are
in Reading Academies, especially because
it has significant impact on LEAs moving forward
given what happened with House Bill 3.
And you'll notice there's a little logo
on the bottom of this thing, it says House Bill 3 in 30.
We should be sending you guys our notices
related to House Bill 3 in 30 videos.
Each week we do a deep dive on a specific topic
related to the bill.
I think June 24th was the first deep dive.
The last deep dive is scheduled for November 21st.
That just gives a, what, it's five months of deep dives,
weekly deep dives on a bill,
that's how expansive this bill is.
So just for my own benefit,
are y'all aware of the House Bill 3 in 30 series?
Raise your hand, yes, no?
Yes, okay, I just want to make sure
we're communicating with y'all about that.
If you have any feedback or suggestions please let us know.
We're just trying to help the field understand
all the implementation challenges associated with the bill.
But the bill has significant impacts
because the bill requires every K through 3 teacher
to go through Reading Academies in the next three years
and really for the end of time.
So I wanted to talk about where we are
on Reading Academies currently.
So the screen you see shows the model
of our current iteration of the Reading Academies.
It is a very intensive professional development series.
Think of it as sort of a year long fellowship
where you start in sort of summer before instruction
with five days of professional development.
Then there are three separate two day sessions of PD
throughout the school year, and then three days of PD
after the end of the school year
to sort of reflect on the practices.
And then throughout the year
there are significant instructional coaching interactions
with all of the program participants.
This has been designed based around
all of our best knowledge on sort of adult learning theory,
and how to drive behavior change.
It's been based upon all of the best science
that we have on reading practices.
When you think about K through 3 Reading Academies
in particular, that is a very significant dive in phonics,
phonological awareness, phonemic awareness,
the sort of core foundational skills.
Very tightly aligned with the TEKS.
The academies this year involved 1,800 participants.
Four different cities, three weeks, 30 days,
five Reading Academies.
They are still in process, this is just what has happened.
Because if you think about the five days in the summer
that have already happened, we have not hit yet
the first two day seminar in the fall,
but the instructional coaching has already begun.
And this gives you an overview of where those occurred.
And then I wanted to give you some data
from the Reading Academies as they have unfolded so far.
So, how was the rigor of today's session?
How was the pace of today's session?
Just right, too slow, or too fast?
So you can see, this is sort of our initial feedback
on the nature of the professional development
in the Reading Academies.
And what you see on the right is sort of a word map.
We asked our participants to reflect on
what they heard the most, what was sort of most focused,
and center field on that of course is the TEKS
because the Reading Academies are built
in very, very tight alignment
to support effective instruction with the new ELAR TEKS.
So it's really one of the more effective ways
that we can support implementation around this in the state.
So, this isn't quite right,
hopefully this is the right deck.
Additionally we asked the question,
overall the Reading Academy
is a high-quality professional development experience.
The Reading Academy positively impacts
my instructional practices,
or to principals, my teachers' instructional practices.
I would recommend attending the Reading Academies
to a colleague.
So you can see the strongly agree and agree
is very, very high on these things.
These have just been very intensely designed
to help support actual practice improvement
in reading instruction.
We don't just ask people their opinions.
We quiz them on their knowledge,
'cause this is about growth in knowledge and skills.
So there were dramatic increase
between pre- and post- tests.
Results in several key topic areas.
So you can see the biggest areas of green
were the biggest jumps.
I'll focus in on Roman numeral three there,
which is phonological awareness and phonemic awareness.
So the percentage of teachers that could accurately identify
and respond to questions in that was pretty low
at the beginning of the Reading Academies,
and it jumps to above 50% as a result
of the first five day dive.
What we use this information for is continuous improvement.
We want to iterate on the Reading Academies
so that the next cycle of participants, it's better.
So, there's no such thing as a static Reading Academy.
We're constantly iterating and tweaking
to make sure that what we're delivering to teachers
is the most effective experience possible.
So this was the K-2 pre- and post- test results
from just the five days, by the way.
And then here's 3-5s.
So you can see less significant huge jumps.
But still improvement across the board.
One of the conclusions that I draw
from these two different data sts
is that the Legislature's focus on making the availability
of K-3 Reading Academies ubiquitous
was probably the right call,
because when we think about the foundational reading skills
that you need in K-1, 2,
and the sort of foundational skill building is especially,
what in myself I call the phonics strand,
but it's that foundation strand in ELAR.
There's pretty clear reason for us
to invest pretty heavily in our teachers
in the skill sets in those areas.
Now let's transition to on a go-forward basis.
We run into significant challenges
when scaling the Reading Academies
for the entirety of Texas as required under House Bill 3.
I think I mentioned to you last time that we were together
that we thought there were roughly 80,000 people
that would likely need to go through the Reading Academies
in the next three years.
It's actually 121,000 based upon
a specific run of data out of PEIMS.
So that's a lot.
And we think as a result we likely need to make
some adjustments to the delivery model.
So if you look at this as where we are today
with the Reading Academies,
we're gonna slim it down a little bit,
just for the sheer necessity of dealing with that volume.
But we're also gonna create sort of a bifurcated pathway.
And if you think about this as the comprehensive model,
there's also, we will be launching a blended model
which will be competency based.
It will require the teachers to submit artifacts
of demonstrating proficiency in certain areas.
But effectively this will allow
at least some subset of teachers in the State of Texas
to test out of the Reading Academies,
and another subset of teachers in Texas to,
if the district deems that their proficiency
is sufficiently high, the district can craft
a sort of customized version of the Reading Academies,
as long as they can demonstrate proficiency
in the science teaching reading competencies
that have been aligned with what we're focusing on
with the Reading Academies.
And we think this is likely the only way we can,
not the only way, but this kind of change is necessary
given the scale of Reading Academies.
And clearly, not every teacher in Texas
needs the Reading Academies,
we've got a lot of very skilled reading teachers,
and making them go through
the Reading Academies again is not necessary.
But there are a lot, especially brand new,
and if they went through an educator prep program
that didn't have a strong foundation skill set,
a focus in terms of the phonics and that strand in ELAR,
then this is gonna be a very big win
for kids and for teachers in Texas,
but it's just a lot of work.
So, one of the ways
that we're gonna deal with the scale
is we're gonna let districts
do the Reading Academies themselves.
We'll set up a framework so that service centers,
universities, nonprofits that focus in this space,
as well as districts themselves,
can become authorized providers of the Reading Academies.
We'll have some mechanisms
to maintain quality control on that,
but when you think a lot of the districts
have an existing focus on this,
they have an existing instructional coaching infrastructure,
so we're gonna use their existing infrastructure
so they don't have to pay out-of-pocket fees
to some vendor to do the Reading Academies.
They can just implement it themselves.
We would be providing them
with the curriculum scope and sequence
the sort of way the Reading Academies should be structured,
they'd just implement it.
And there are many districts around the state
that I know from experience that will do this very well.
I think of the strength of instructional systems in Conroe,
the strength of instructional systems in Cy-Fair,
the strength of instructional systems in Pearland,
the strength of instructional systems in so many districts.
So we've got a lot of feedback from superintendents
that are trying to think through the logistics of this,
and we're just trying to make sure that this is doable,
because this is a lot of work that has to happen.
So if you have to use a third party,
we've tried to make some estimates
of how much labor is really involved.
So you think you've got five days of PD, or that's now four,
and then three, and then three individual PD sessions,
plus the instructional coaching.
And then separately, with the sort of blended system
you have to have inter-rater-reliability and mechanisms
to verify the artifacts reach the right threshold.
So this is our current estimates.
This is not actual pricing.
We're just trying to give people some guidance
on what we think this might cost.
We will know by the end of this academic year.
This academic year we're essentially building
the logistics and the engineering system
to support this at scale.
So we'll have all these things fully answered
by the end of the year.
But in order to try to scale up
the existing Reading Academies, it just took a lot of work.
and this is our best estimate
for what the likely cost would be out-of-pocket
if a district's not doing it themselves.
Of course if a district is doing it themselves,
it's mostly going to be free.
Not entirely, there'll be probably a small cost
to deal with the sort of blended learning system.
But we're working to try to provide
this kind of guidance to our LEAs.
Every Thursday is when
our House Bill 3 in 30 video series drops.
This one dropped yesterday.
So I would definitely recommend that everybody watch that.
All the SBOE members watch that.
We think that it's wise for superintendents, CFOs,
chief academic officers, chief of school officers,
all of them watch it.
It is one of the more information dense
House Bill 3 in 30 videos.
So in order for people to sort of grasp all of it,
they're probably gonna have to watch it a couple of times.
Now we have a little bit of stuff in there
on the science of teaching reading
and how reading skills are built,
because we think it's part of the process.
So we'd certainly encourage y'all to watch that.
But in there we talked about logistical considerations
that we think superintendents need to be mindful of,
even today before a lot of the things are answered.
So for example, if there's gonna be three
one day PD sessions, then you might want to,
when you're adopting your calendars, say this November,
you might want to think about that for in-service days
so you don't have substitute teacher budgets
that you've gotta deal with for this.
Anyways, that's a very high level overview
of the Reading Academies.
If you would like a deeper dive on it,
I would encourage you to visit TEA.Texas.gov/HB3,
and watch the House Bill 3 in 30 video
that came out yesterday on this topic.
Woman: About how long is it?
Commissioner Morath: House Bill 3 in 30 means we cover the topic
in 30 minutes or less, or your money back.
(people laughing)
So this one is like 29 minutes.
This one again is pretty intense as they go.
And we have, again, we have topics
in the House Bill 3 in 30 series on Pre-K requirements,
on tax reduction requirements,
on budgeting requirements related to new money
in terms of the raises for teachers.
There's topics on the CCMR funding that's in the bill.
There's topics on everything
that we know people have questions on.
I won't say that we have answered every single question
in the videos, but there's also a FAQ document online,
so you can, we try to basically answer
every single question that we get.
More on House Bill 3.
I wanted to give y'all just a heads-up on rules
that are relevant to you, as a body, for House Bill 3.
So there are, what is that, eight or so, rules.
There's SBEC rules that of course circle up to y'all
for ratification or veto,
and then there's SBOE rules.
So these are all rules that will be coming to you
for consideration and adoption
given rule-making requirements for the SBOE
that were built into House Bill 3.
There's a bunch of other rules that are required
for House Bill 3 that the Agency has to implement.
Some of them are part of existing rule-making cycles.
So you think the Student Attendance Accounting Handbook,
there's a lot of changes in that because of House Bill 3,
but that's just it's kind of normal rule-making cycle.
Then there's a few sort of new rules
that have to be stood up as well.
But I just wanted to make sure that y'all had this
so that you knew it was coming.
So that will be transition topics.
I believe this is the first time I have seen y'all
since this year's Accountability Ratings came out,
I believe.
So I wanted to give you a high level overview
of performance year to year.
So these bar charts are kind of an interesting way
to look at the entire system of schools across the state.
Given we have a tiered system of accountability
so you can see improvement at the A level,
at the B level, at the C level.
This is the district A through F rating comparison
year over year.
And the sort of gray line at the bottom,
that's the cut point, we want everybody above that line,
sort of over time.
So what you can see is good.
There are fewer F districts, fewer D districts.
There are more A and B districts.
This is a result of extraordinarily talented,
hard-working administrators, school board members,
teachers, all over the State of Texas,
driving positive change for their kids.
And this is based upon the way
the ratings system works for districts.
That is a very multi-measure system.
40% of it is college career, Military readiness,
and there's a bunch of different indicators there.
20% of it is graduation rate.
And then 40% of it is STAAR.
There is, when you think about that,
there is kind of an interesting phenomenon,
because 60% of the rating system for a district
is a combination of college career,
Military readiness, and graduation rate,
that means 60% of a district's rating
is based upon 12th graders alone,
because that's what you evaluate
for graduation rate and CCMR.
And then 40% is the rest of the kids in the district.
Now, when you're looking at campus ratings,
you don't have that degree of focus
on just one group of kids.
It's a balanced picture of all the kids
at each individual campus.
So, you still see improvement at the campus level ratings,
more As, more Bs, slightly fewer Ds and Fs.
But it's not as dramatic, which just means
that the biggest growth in the state is happening
in the CCMR and grad rate space for our kids
right at the end of the process.
But, again, it's still good news.
We're seeing progress in performance in the state.
We've committed to as much as is possible.
A five year window where these ratings are largely the same.
So the sort of underlying mechanics of the ratings
are largely the same, and that is generally true,
it's not precisely true.
So, for example, TELPAS was changed, and so we had to lower
the TELPAS cut scores in the accountability system
to make sure that it was an apples to apples
sort of cut score comparison.
There were some new CCMR indicators that are available.
Next year, since we're transitioning in CCMR
to do only industry credentials,
so that everything is sort of demonstrable
at the end of the process.
Then there's currently an evaluation
of successful seat time completion for coherent sequences.
And so that was planned to be phased out.
So next year it will be fully phased out.
So there is some change in this,
but it's not nearly what we used to do as a state,
where we changed lots of things every year.
There's very, very few changes.
And virtually every change this year only had the effect
of sort of slightly making it easier to go up.
Next year that won't necessarily be the same.
But again, they're all sort of minor changes.
We have surfaced feedback from the field
that there are probably some more significant changes
that would need to be made in the design of this.
But we're trying to be disciplined
so we only do significant changes,
like once every five years.
All that being said,
one of the nice things about having a system
that can concentrate on As, on high-performers,
is you can identify high-performers.
There are 296 very high-performing,
very high-poverty campuses in the State of Texas.
We think it's always useful to look at what is happening
in these campuses as a way to get good results,
even for kids from low-income background.
I will say that just about 1/2 of the schools
are all in the Rio Grande Valley,
which is pretty remarkable, and I have a variety of,
having visited the Rio Grande Valley now,
I don't know, 1/2 dozen, a dozen times
in the last three years,
I have some hypothesis as to why that is.
But clearly, strong instructional practices are happening
in campuses all over the State of Texas,
and getting extremely good results for low income kids.
Of course our challenge is to advertise the practices
that are happening in those campuses
so they don't become unusual.
We want this to be the norm in Texas.
Every time ratings come out there's always this conversation
about poverty and its impact on performance.
And we live in a world where if you had the choice
to choose rich parents, do that.
But, we also know that effective instruction
and instructional supports can get great results for kids
regardless of their background.
Just because you are low-income does not mean
that you can't read at high levels.
We know with certainty that poverty is not destiny.
But, I also try to look at the mathematics of this
just to make sure that we've created a system that is fair.
So the A through Fs system is based on three domains.
Student achievement, that's sort of what do they know,
what can they do, I don't care how much they grew,
I just want to know what they know, what they can do.
School progress is based really on growth.
It's how much better they got year over year,
or how much higher-performing they are
than similar campuses.
And then closing the gaps is looking
at individual groups of kids
with a mix of proficiency and growth.
And you can see there's strong correlations
between achievement and poverty,
but almost no correlation between progress and poverty.
And this balances out to sort of a low-moderate correlation
between poverty and ratings.
And when you look at the data in detail,
you will see significant spread, significant outliers,
and that's what I'm going to do for just a few minutes.
If you have not visited our Texas schools.gov website,
we are gonna all do it together now.
So, this the website, Texas schools.gov.
You can pull this up and access information
on any campus you like.
Is there anybody that wants to see a campus in particular?
Member Mercer: Wimberley.
Commissioner Morath: Wimberley, okay.
Elementary, Middle, High, the District?
Member Mercer: ISD.
Commissioner Morath: Did I spell it right?
Wim-B, oh, there we go.
Wimberley ISD.
So you've got year over year
performance information in here now
because this is really about continuous improve--
Chair Bahorich: It's not projecting.
Commissioner Morath: Oh that's a bummer.
I got it, I think I can work the, there we go.
So you have year over year
performance comparison information.
This is a new feature of the system,
because we have year over year data now.
So much of why we do A through F
is about giving performance information to school boards
so that they can support their administrative team
in building action plans.
And then also, giving parents very clear information
about their campuses.
So I'm going to spare you a detailed tour of the website,
because I think you saw some of this last year.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to show you
a couple of new features.
So if you go back to the school finder,
one of the new features that you have this year
is our browse feature is now map based.
So I can pull up a map of Texas.
I can type in an address.
Does anybody have a,
well, I'll type in our own address here,
so North Congress Ave., Austin, Texas,
and let's say I'm a parent of future kindergartners.
So we, apply filter, let's see, does this work.
Come on.
It's always nice doing a live presentation.
Why is this not cooperating for me?
Do the old refresh.
Okay, kindergarten, let's try one more time.
Okay, so the North Congress was throwing them off.
Okay, so here you've got a map.
I can sort of filter by distance.
And this gives me all the campuses nearby,
and I can check out any one of them.
Here is a K through 6, Lee Elementary.
I click on it, and it brings me
to that particular performance page.
So this is a very useful tool for parents.
I thought of my own process,
I have four very young children,
and in case you're curious to know, I'm still not sleeping.
(audience chuckling)
But I had to find a school in Austin ISD
that I thought was the best fit for my kids.
This tool didn't exist at the time.
So luckily I was Commissioner of education,
so I sort of compiled all this information together
so it would inform my process, but we want to make sure
that everybody has access to that kind of information.
So the map's a new feature.
We also have a new feature called Analyze.
And this is really, when I think about this,
this is a perfect tool for school board members
and superintendents, district administrators.
So we can pull up our, I'll show you one feature on here,
Correlates, and you can see comparisons
on just about any concept you can think of.
So I'm going to look at the relationship
between poverty, economically disadvantaged status,
and overall accountability scores at the district level.
And so, this is where you see
there is a mild correlation here,
but it's not a strong correlation.
The Y-axis is their accountability score,
so these are your perfect scoring campuses
in the State of Texas.
And these are the performances sort of low
in the State of Texas.
The X-axis is the percentage of poverty in that campus,
or I should say in that district
'cause this is a district level analysis.
And then you can mouse over and you can see, okay,
here's my district, and I can see where we are.
What are these districts in a similar poverty profile?
Who are they?
What's happening in those districts?
What's happening in those campuses?
So this is really designed
to help empower district data teams
to help inform action planning
so they can pick up the phone,
call, what's going on in those other similar campuses
and see if they can help build action plans from that.
I don't yet know how widely used this tool is.
It was made available on August 15th,
but we're going to be doing focus group work
with our administrators around the state
to try to add, upgrade, and improve this
as just part of our continuous improvement process.
So, I wanted to give you a sort of an overview--
(man speaking faintly)
Huh?
(man speaking faintly)
Yes, I will, that's a good suggestion.
Yes, I will do that, that's a good idea.
I know as a former school board member
I would have geeked out on this big time
and found it very, very helpful.
All right, so switching back, next topic.
Oh, that is, that was my last topic.
However, I want to show you one more tool that we've built.
We had talked about a tool that we were trying to launch
to help people better understand the TEKS.
And so we are in beta test mode on TEKSGuide.org.
So you guys can all visit this, it's TEKSGuide.org.
We would love, love, love your feedback on this.
Where you think it's weak and needs to be improved.
Where you think it's strong.
Design changes, content changes.
Give us as much feedback as possible.
Let me walk you through a quick view of it.
What we have loaded so far is ELAR and SLAR.
So we'll choose English Language Arts
because I can't read Spanish.
And then we'll do second grade.
My daughter will be able to
in two way dual language program, as is my son.
And hopefully they won't get Alzheimers either.
I don't know if you knew that,
bilingualism is positively correlated
with low rates of Alzheimers.
So for those of you who only speak English like me,
you better get yourself some Rosetta Stone
and be prepared for old age.
So--
Woman: Or you could just go through with TEKS
(chuckling)
Commissioner Morath: That's right, so back, I'm sorry,
let me get back to the topic at hand.
So what I've done is I've filtered first for ELAR
and then grade two.
I can narrow it by strand if I want, let me look,
I'm gonna look at the foundational skills strand,
sort of re-filters.
I can type in keywords, so let's say I wanted to type in,
I don't know, the verb develop, the verb write,
there's any number of things you can type in keywords.
And so let's click on one.
I probably should've figured out
which one I wanted to click on
before I came into this meeting.
Produce a series of rhyming words, I know what that means.
Okay, so I click on this, and you can see this.
So this is 2nd grade, 2.A.I, Roman numeral one.
The student is expected to demonstrate
phonological awareness, what does that mean?
So I mouse over it and it tells me, phonological awareness.
It's the ability to detect and manipulate sounds,
structures of spoken language, including, yada yada yada.
Producing a series of rhyming words.
What do we mean by rhyming words?
Identical or very similar recurring sounds in verse,
just in case.
This is for the strand, so our little TEKS talk.
So you can click on a video.
And here you get a two minute video review of what it,
I think the audio's not on, hold on, let me see if I can.
-: Of strands, the key part of developing
and sustaining foundation--
Commissioner Morath: Whoops, sorry, let me try that again.
(upbeat music)
The beginning reading and writing sub-strand is a key part
of developing and sustaining foundational language skills.
This sub-strand appears only in kindergarten through Grade 5
and focuses on the skills students need
to become proficient readers, spellers, and writers.
As with other strands--
Commissioner Morath: I'm gonna stop there.
You guys can watch the video.
You go down and,
looking at the standards without looking at
demonstration of the standards
is very difficult for people to conceptualize.
So for every single SE we want to try to give an example of
what does it mean when a student demonstrates proficiency?
How would you as a teacher discern
whether a student demonstrates proficiency on this?
So these are sort of diagnostics, assessments.
They can be performance tasks.
If we're talking about a STAAR grade and subject,
then it might actually be a STAAR sample item.
So that's on here.
You've got a glossary of all the terms.
We have alignment examples.
So, I'll click on alignment, give this a second.
And so we'll start with vertical alignment.
So you can see this is, of course the developing,
the foundational skills strand really stops at 5th grade,
and a lot of these really stop at 3rd grade.
So you can see how this particular strand has, or SE,
is tied to things both in earlier grades and later grades.
So there is a concept of a vertical alignment.
There's breakouts if it's a sort of multiple component SE,
focal points, I'll let you guys
sort of experience this on your own.
If we have resources related to the SE, we put it here.
In this one we don't have a specific resource.
So this will be stuff
that we're going to build out over time.
You can see we do have a lot of dyslexia resources
that we've been able to stand up,
but we'll be building more resources over time.
(man speaking faintly)
Yeah, if we have lessons that y'all have approved
for publication under lesson study,
they would be linked for this here.
(woman speaking faintly)
Man: All core subjects?
Commissioner Morath: This will eventually be every one of the TEKS.
Right now, so far all we have is ELAR, it's in beta.
What our goal is this year is to solicit
as much feedback from teachers, instructional coaches,
chief academic officers, the users of this, as possible.
Not just actually soliciting feedback,
but also soliciting content.
So think of a teacher
that has built an assessment for a particular SE,
would you be willing to share that with us.
We'll put it through kind of a quality review process,
and if it can survive the gauntlet, then we add it to this.
And what I think I'm most excited about
is we want to do an open call for student work samples.
This is the first year of the new ELAR standards
sort of being ubiquitous in K-8,
so we want our teachers to give us examples
of what they think a good demonstration of work is,
and what they think a lower rigor definition is,
because it's usually good for teachers to see a comparison
of like this is grade level rigor example,
this is like a below rigor example.
This is maybe an above rigor example.
And so we hope to get, I don't know, 100,000 submissions
over the course of this year and future years,
and sort of, again, put that through
a pretty critical review process
and then add this as a resource.
And when I talked to y'all about this three years ago,
it was, I heard feedback from y'all and from the field,
you create the student expectations, you create the TEKS.
We have a very rigorous process,
and if you're in those meetings with the teacher committees,
you come out with a very rich sense of what they mean.
But if you're not in there,
then it's a lot left for interpretation.
So we wanted to basically add this
as a companion resource to the TEKS
to help people actually make much better understanding
of what the expectations are for students
at the rigor level that y'all are expecting.
Anyways, I wanted y'all to know
that this is now available in beta format.
It's TEKSguide.org, and would love feedback from y'all.
Critical, we'll take congratulatory feedback as well.
But we want to make it better.
And of course, share this with districts in your region.
Get them to solicit and send feedback back into us.
We're still trying to figure out the logistics
of facilitating the student work sample,
because we can't just open up an email
and get 100,000 student work samples
and do anything with that, we have to figure out
how we're going to process that logistically
so that we end up with quality work samples,
both on rigor and off rigor examples.
So, anyways, I wanted to make sure
that y'all knew that this was done,
'cause we had been talking about doing this
for quite some time.
Woman: You might want to point out
that the that tab on the bottom right there--
Commissioner Morath: Oh yeah, on every single page you'll see
this little feedback thing right here.
So we want people to tell us, both that they are not a robot
and they have very specific hot sports opinions
on this thing, so to send that in to us.
The not a robot thing helps us cut down
on the offers we get from the Nigerian princes
about money change transfers.
(audience chuckling)
Member Maynard: What's the schedule for the other subjects?
Commissioner Morath: Monica, you probably know better than me.
Monica Martinez: So we're starting work on K-8 math now.
Our hope is to have content ready for mathematics,
I'm sorry, we're simultaneously going to do
high school English so that that's ready
in advance of implementation next year, math,
and then we'll follow shortly thereafter
with science and social studies.
Part of what we have been talking about is making sure
that we're aligning with your review schedule.
So any of the standards that you're going to be reviewing
short term, namely science,
we would want to time the development of this resource
to support implementation of the revised standards.
Commissioner Morath: I need to leave by 11:15, so.
Chair Bahorich: Okay, yes, Mr. Cortez, and Ms. Perez-Diaz.
Member Cortez: Thank you, Commissioner.
It would be helpful if you could send us
both of the links to the TEKS Guide,
just like an email that has just the link,
I don't need anything else, just the TEKS Guide--
Commissioner Morath: TEKS Guide link and the TXschools.gov?
Member Cortez: Yes.
Commissioner Morath: Okay, we'll do a quick email,
just these are the two links.
We'll get that out after this meeting,
Debbie could you take a--
Member Cortez: Like a copy of the link then send it onto me as text,
and use it on other mediums that--
Commissioner Morath: Well, we'll put a little one sentence summary
of what the resource is.
(inaudible)
Commissioner Morath: (laughing) If you would like it.
Member Cortez: And I did want to ask a couple of questions,
well let me ask first,
before I get into one of the House Bill 3 questions,
renewable energy, what are we doing?
Are we going to do anything on wind and solar?
Commissioner Morath: Like am I building windmills, I'm sorry?
Member Cortez: No, are we going to do anything
to create new strands on wind and solar here at the agency.
Commissioner Morath: I'm sorry, that one caught me off-guard.
You're talking about a renewable energy strand
in the science?
Member Cortez: Or CTE, I know we have some stuff in the Ag,
but we don't have any standalone strands on--
Commissioner Morath: I literally have no idea what we're doing on that,
so I'll have to get back to get you.
Let me try to get up to speed on where renewable energy
shows up in the TEKS and I'll come to you with it.
Member Cortez: Yeah, it shows up in very few places,
that's why I'm asking.
(woman speaking faintly)
Commissioner Morath: It's in world geography, okay.
(women speaking faintly)
Member Cortez: I know we have a lot more wind energy companies
in Texas, and if we can prepare our kids as we're--
Commissioner Morath: Absolutely, yeah, well there's actually an interesting,
there's a school in West Texas that's pioneered
a drone pilot credential to repair and monitor windmills.
Roscoe, and they're out in the wind fields.
Member Cortez: And then the other thing I wanted to ask is about HB 3.
Obviously there was a provision
that included money being paid to help cover school raises.
My understanding is there are some schools,
some teachers that are still waiting.
I don't know if you've heard any of this.
What are you doing to make sure, as an agency,
that the school systems are giving the portion of the money
that they're supposed to?
And I've heard some good stories.
There are some systems that are giving more,
which is exciting.
But is there some that haven't released?
And I'm just wondering what you're going to do
to monitor some of that?
That was one of the questions that I have.
Commissioner Morath: Great question.
Yeah, there's a provision in House Bill 3
that requires all the school systems in Texas
to report to the Legislature
what they've done on their raises.
Interestingly, it doesn't tell us to collect the data,
it tells the school district to tell the Legislature.
I don't know if they were just gonna write them
a handwritten letter and send it to all 181.
So what we're doing is we are in the process of building
a survey, basically, a data collection on this,
to facilitate doing that properly.
I think that survey is likely to hit
in like October or November of this year,
probably more like November than October.
And then we would give that information to the Legislature.
I know there'll be interim hearings
in both the House and Senate on that topic
to discern what course of action districts took.
Technically they have all year to do this.
They have to have done, used a third of their, roughly,
a third of their new money need to be spent
on their teachers, and they need to have done that
for the '19-'20 school year.
So I know that there's a number of districts
that there's so many moving parts
they don't actually know what that third is,
'cause they haven't figured out exactly
how much new money they're getting.
And so some districts have sort of staggered their raises.
They've done some now and they're planning on doing
a follow up later in the school year.
Some they haven't yet done it but they're planning to,
they're just waiting to make sure
they had a little bit more budget clarity.
So anyways, I think the most immediate answer
to your question is we're facilitating
a data collection on this,
and then we'll be presenting it to the Legislature.
Member Cortez: Okay, and it would be helpful
if you could share that with us.
I'd like to know who's holding back, who's not doing it.
I mean, obviously we have hardworking educators out there,
and every extra dollar they get helps.
And I wanted to just go back on one of the slides
that you talked about, about the new A through F rating.
And you talked about the correlation,
you talked about the economically disadvantaged,
and yes, Rio Grande Valley is doing very, very well.
I think we're the only region in Texas
that got an A B rating in the entire State.
Commissioner Morath: Yeah, I don't think there's a single,
I know there's no D and F districts,
there might not even be any C districts,
there might be a couple of C districts,
but, yeah, it's pretty amazing.
Member Cortez: Yeah, I think we were the only A B in the state.
But, as you talked about some of that,
some of the lowest scoring schools
are in high poverty areas, right?
Obviously we all know that those schools deserve better.
And one of the things that I was wondering is,
as you shared some of this information on this website,
what is the agency going to do to help those schools?
Outside of going in and trying to take them over,
which some of us aren't necessarily in agreement with,
what are you going to do, now that we have this data?
Commissioner Morath: I greatly prefer not to be forced by statute
to take over any school,
but we actually have a huge set
of technical assistance and supportive work
to help drive the school improvement process.
So we've recently rolled out something we call
the effective schools framework,
which is a sort of diagnostic framework
to help districts identify the most critical areas
that we know from research are tied
to the biggest instructional gains.
We've piloted that with a number of districts around,
I think I see HD in the audience,
Alief has been a very helpful thought partner
in building these resources out.
We've trained north of 350 people around the state
on facilitating that process
in developing action plans from it.
And then we use federal funds, Title one funds,
to provide dedicated sort of extra surge resources
for districts to execute their improvement plans
under that framework.
So the preliminary data that we have
would lead us to believe that
that is a very positive development
in helping improve instructional outcomes
for campuses that have some performance struggles to date.
So we're optimistic that as that becomes more widespread
in the State of Texas that will be supported.
But that has been a significant work in progress
that's a full three years in the making,
getting that out there.
So there's a significant investment in the agency
in capacity to support school improvement efforts.
Member Cortez: Okay, thank you.
Chair Bahorich: Ms. Perez-Diaz.
Member Perez-Diaz: Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good morning, Commissioner.
So I think first and foremost,
thank you so much for your work,
and for staff's work on the TEKS Guide.
I think this is really important work,
especially for newer educators coming into the classroom.
So I think for that piece, just one question is,
for feedback, is it simply a matter of using that link,
and then hitting that feedback gray marker,
that's all it entails?
Commissioner Morath: Yeah, right now, that's all you need to do.
Member Perez-Diaz: Okay, fantastic.
So as I share this information out with my districts
I will guide them, but if anything changes in the process,
and you have a different way of collecting feedback,
if you'll please share that with the Board,
that way we can then share with our districts.
Commissioner Morath: And I would say the more precise the feedback the better.
So for example, I don't agree with your definition
of the word structure, I think it should be this.
Or this page layout, it would be a little bit easier
for me to see if it was organized this first versus this.
Or if we had this extra resource here,
and maybe you could link to X Y and Z right now.
The more specific feedback we get I think the easier it is
for us to use that and iterate on the design of the system.
Member Perez-Diaz: Fantastic.
And then, Monica, thank you so much
for speaking to the alignment with our process,
because that was in one of my other questions
in terms of as we roll out our new TEKS,
whether or not this resource will be already up
and available prior to that implementation.
I guess from what I understand that would be the plan,
is that correct?
Monica Martinez: I think it depends.
So we'll put math up pretty quickly.
You don't have a review of math for several years.
Our thought with science was that we might wait
until you complete your revision.
So we'll want to be thoughtful about that,
and we talked with the Committee on Instruction
about a plan that we have to also realign existing resources
to ensure that they're completely appropriate
for the new standards,
we've gone through that process
for the K-8 reading, language arts already.
Commissioner Morath: And I think we might also want to talk about
as y'all are going through the standards review process
that teacher committees that come together and,
with a few tweaks they could actually produce
some extra documentation during that process
that would sort of be automatically loaded
in the TEKS Guide, as it were.
Member Perez-Diaz: Perfect, very good, thank you.
And then I want to shift a little bit.
I have some questions regarding the accountability
I think, first and foremost,
we're looking at student progress,
the student progress domain, or school progress domain.
Commissioner Morath: School progress, yep.
Member Perez-Diaz: And so I noted that it has two portions,
the academic growth and the relative performance.
And so what I'm looking at,
I had a chance to sit down with a couple of individuals
who oversee accountability in different school districts
and one concern that keeps coming up is the fact
that if an exam is taken in one language in one year,
and then a student takes it
the following year in a different language,
but they're scoring either at the same level,
or there is actual growth,
the school district is not getting any credit for,
I think they're progress measure credit?
Commissioner Morath: You actually get credit if you maintain.
So if you are meets grade level even in one language,
and your meets grade level in the next language
in the next year, that's a full point of growth.
And if your approaches, and you maintain at approaches,
it's only a half point of growth.
Member Perez-Diaz: And that's between two different tests--
Commissioner Morath: Even when you switch languages, yeah.
Member Perez-Diaz: Okay, that's good information to know,
because I've gotten it from several individuals who,
I think the exact question I received was
is there a way to give progress measure credit
for those that succeeded in a Spanish exam,
and the following year did it in an English exam.
Commissioner Morath: Did not in an English exam?
Member Perez-Diaz: Did it in an English exam.
Commissioner Morath: Did in an English, yeah.
Member Perez-Diaz: Mm hm, as well.
Commissioner Morath: As long as, well,
we look at growth longitudinally in two different ways.
One is a vertical scale score jump.
And the other is proficiency based.
So if you go from approaches to meets,
whether it was Spanish to English or whatever,
then that's a full point.
If you're approaches to approaches, it's a half point,
but if it's meets to meets it's a full point.
Member Perez-Diaz: Understood.
Commissioner Morath: We have a chart on that,
if you want I can share it with you.
I'm almost certain this is the way that it works,
but given this question, I'm gonna confirm with our team
that even on a language switch that's also true.
Member Perez-Diaz: And I think that's the concern,
it's just the type of exam change.
So from year to year, if it's a different exam
that they're not, that there's a concern that there isn't
progress measure credit that's being--
Commissioner Morath: Yeah, if for some reason I'm incorrect
on the language switch issue, I'll follow up with you,
and then we'll just change our process, 'cause we should be.
Member Perez-Diaz: Please do, thank you, I appreciate that.
And then my second question has to do with CCMR.
So I know that there's a lot of emphasis place on CCMR,
and from what I've seen it's helped some districts
in their ratings over the year,
but I do have some concern regarding how the calculation
is being assessed for the Military readiness piece.
And I don't know if there's a process in place with TEA
to, I guess, better assess whether or not students
are actually moving into the Military,
because I think that while,
I absolutely believe that CCMR is critical,
but for those individuals
who are meeting with their counselors
or whoever their academic person is on that campus,
and they're claiming that they're going
into Military readiness, from what I understand,
there isn't a standard form or a standard process
in place currently for districts to share with TEA
that this is actually happening.
And I think that's a disservice
for some of our students who sort of fall into that
and nowhere else on the CCMR scale.
So are you all doing something to address that?
Commissioner Morath: The short version is yes.
There are several indicators in the CCMR system
that are self-reported.
Military is one of them.
Industry based credentials in currently one of them.
This is an administrative burden on districts
who have to figure that out and then self report it.
And then it also allows for some squishy-ness.
And nobody's really interested
in either of those two things continuing.
So we've been in conversations
with the Defense Department for the last three years
to try to figure out if there's a way
that we can get a direct feed.
We believe that this Spring
we will probably have that stood up,
which will save the districts all this time
because they won't actually have to get
that information any more, we'll just get it directly,
and we'll know that everyone's operating
under the same standard, it's actually enlistment.
We are going to start working
with vendors of the industry credentials
to try to get direct feeds from them,
because we get that direct feed right now
on STAAR results, on SAT, on ACT,
it comes just directly from the testing vendor,
so the districts don't have a big lift logistically.
So we'll do that separately.
In the event that we suspect there may be some problems
in data submission, whether intentional or unintentional,
we have an investigative process
to get to the bottom of that.
If we find that people have been deliberate,
there are very serious consequences if that happens.
Member Perez-Diaz: Okay, very good.
As you all have progress in that,
and you all start to establish those sort of relationships
and processes for the districts,
will you also communicate that out to the Board,
so that we can communicate that to the districts?
Commissioner Morath: Yep.
Member Perez-Diaz: Thank you.
Chair Bahorich: Ms. Hardy, Mr. Rowley, and then Mr. Mercer.
Member Hardy: Thank you.
Chair Bahorich: We don't have too much time left,
and so one question, I'm gonna have to,
I know you guys got a bunch of questions, but let's just--
Member Hardy: No, I've just got one.
Chair Bahorich: Okay.
Member Hardy: Commissioner, HB 3906, the Advisory Committee.
Commissioner Morath: Mm hm.
Member Hardy: I know that the deadline has already been met.
Where are we with that?
Commissioner Morath: I think we'll announce this month,
this calendar month, all of the committees,
the four for House Bill 3, and the one for 3906,
I believe that's all being announced this month.
Member Hardy: And what do you anticipate on the 3906,
what the outcome, the goal?
Commissioner Morath: For the?
I know the bill, but just to clarify the question.
Member Hardy: It's one on the testing.
Commissioner Morath: Do you mean for the Advisory Committee,
or where the bill as a whole is going?
Member Hardy: Where the bill as a whole is going.
Commissioner Morath: Oh, well that's, so one thing the bill asked us to do
is to logistically stand up the concept
of having a little baby STAAR tests,
so if you logistically don't want to have one, say,
four hour chunk in your campus,
if you would like to over, say, a two week period,
do three 45 minutes chunks,
and try to integrate them into the classroom.
So that's one of the things
that we'll be trying to stand up,
and that'll be sort of optional for districts,
so maybe if they just want to run it as a four hour chunk,
they just run all three little mini tests back to back,
all at once, or they can spread it out.
So that's something.
There is a work where we're trying
to sort of very methodically support more school systems
in doing online assessments.
The benefit of that is, in a lot of online,
if you did a lot more online assessments,
like as soon as a kid submits the button,
you could give the results back to the kid and the school,
in at least a subset of those, so faster response times
for teachers and parents to react to that information.
There is also a,
kind of an R and D process contemplated in the bill,
for us to see if there is a way for us to build
more formative assessment supports for districts,
so you could do kind of a October,
like six weeks kind of an exam,
and that's really just an R and D concept, it's not,
so we have to figure out, logistically,
is there a way to do that
where we don't intrude on the locals' ability
to control scope and sequences in this sort of thing.
And then, another one that I think is interesting
is that we have to build more non-multiple choice questions
on all the tests.
So no more than 75% of the questions
on any of the exams can be multiple choice.
So these are free response
or gradable response, or open answers.
And sure, the richer you make the assessment question,
then that should, theoretically, have an effect
on classroom instruction,
'cause when you're prepping for a test like that
you don't give kids multiple choice worksheets,
you give them sort of the richer assessment examples,
all still tightly aligned with the TEKS,
all still sort of assessing core,
did you master the knowledge or skill
or didn't you kind of thing.
Member Hardy: Would that committee be in a position
to estimate the difficulty of the reading level?
Commissioner Morath: I'm sorry?
Member Hardy: Would that question,
(people chattering faintly)
I'm sorry, that threw me off,
would that committee be in a position
to look at the reading level
or reading difficulty of the tests?
Commissioner Morath: We also have a study on the reading levels of the exam--
Member Hardy: Is that through that committee?
Commissioner Morath: No, that's through a university.
We had to sort of give it the university
and tell them to study it and come back to us,
but we will be asking the educatory advisor committees
and the technical advisory committees
to sort of give us feedback on a process
to how do we, for example, triangulate on building questions
in math, science, and social studies where the reading is
deliberately calibrated below grade level,
while the content is deliberately calibrated at grade level,
so we're sort of interested in going in that direction
with assessment development.
Member Hardy: Thank you.
Chair Bahorich: Mr. Mercer.
Member Mercer: Mr. Commissioner,
it's kind of an atta-boy moment we're caught at,
do you realize what an incredible difference
you're making, sir?
Commissioner Morath: Uh, well, thank you, go on.
No, uh uh, um. (chuckling) (laughing)
Member Mercer: Wimberly ISD, which had a devastating flood
a few years back, and you were there,
and you had over 150 people come to hear you
at the Chamber of Commerce at Wimberley,
and you were addressing HB 3, and very, very well-received,
and that's why I chose Wimberley,
I'm so happy, that this ISD who has suffered so much
had an A, not as a school, but as a district, A rating.
And the difference you're making.
And then a second part, and it's a one question,
but same, really, the difference you're making,
Schenck Elementary, I went there again,
and you just lit 'em up--
Commissioner Morath: Oh, in San Antonio, yeah.
Member Mercer: You went through the same presentation here,
and I literally walked in the school with Senator Flores,
and your staff had materials for me,
every state rep by area, what our districts were doing,
which is fantastic, it'd only been 24 or 48 hours, whatever,
you already had it prepared for us.
Commissioner Morath: It was a very busy 24 hours for us, yes.
Member Mercer: I hope you saw it.
It wasn't just the principal, it was the educators,
it was the IT staff, it was the nursing staff,
it was the librarian was just, you had 'em so excited, sir.
Commissioner Morath: It was a great, what he's talking about,
on August 15th we did events
at three very high performing,
very high poverty schools in Texas,
and I think it was Schenck Elementary
in San Antonio went from a--
Member Mercer: 77 to 92.
Commissioner Morath: Yeah, a C to an A in one year.
And we just wanted to pour some love on the staff.
So we were there.
A bunch of elected officials were there.
The Lieutenant-Governor was there.
Everybody was, it was a very positive, warm day
for all those educators.
Member Mercer: Well thank you for making a very positive difference, sir.
Commissioner Morath: Thank you.
Member Mercer: And someone who understands analysis paralysis,
I loved this.
Commissioner Morath: (chuckling) Thank you.
Chair Bahorich: All right, Dr. Robinson.
Member Dr. Robinson: Back to one of the slides on accountability,
that one that had like 290 something campuses?
Commissioner Morath: This one, yes sir.
Member Dr. Robinson: Yeah, yeah that one.
What I want to know is does this seem like a good way to get
some diagnostic stuff out of from the STAAR test.
If y'all can identify best practices in those places,
and then when it comes to the districts
that have hit rock bottom,
that are about to be or have been
basically taken over by the state,
school board dissolved, had the board of directors,
if y'all cannot just suggest,
but require those places to do these best practices,
is that something that legally you can do
or would you feel like you could do it?
Commissioner Morath: So we, you know, we're always sensitive to local control,
and then we function within the statutory framework.
There is an improvement planning requirement framework
set out in statute that we support.
So a district that has a a low performing campus
is subject to certain planning requirements.
It used to be that the planning process
was a sort of tabula rasa, do a needs assessment,
but you, yourself figure out the needs.
With our shift to a effective schools framework,
what we've done is, having identified the practices
in these high performing, high poverty campuses,
we've built a sort of diagnostic framework
based around those most effective practices
to try to help steer the campus administrators
in the most effective direction for their kids.
Clearly, we in Austin, we're not running these schools.
It's the local administrators,
the local teachers doing all the hard work.
We just want to make sure that we can give them
as much supportive resources as possible
to build these effective action plans.
There is a point in that process though
where they actually have to be actually approved by TEA.
So second year of an F status,
you're required to write a turnaround plan.
And if the Commissioner does not approve
your turnaround plan, bad things can happen.
So there is a point where we can be
a little bit more directive.
Again we try to to maintain a balance
because even if we wanted to be directive,
we're not on that campus every day, so we need to make sure
that we're helping the principals and staff there
execute action plans based upon what we believe to be,
and what the research has told us,
are the most effective instructional practices.
Chair Bahorich: Dr. Ellis.
Member Dr. Ellis: You mentioned that the assessment study,
you mentioned that the assessment study
has been handed out to an institute of higher education.
Can you speak to the timeline of that?
Can you speak to if the STAAR test from 2019
have been released yet, and if not,
will that study have the 2019 start data?
Commissioner Morath: So the study is due, I believe, December 1st.
And all the items for the 2019,
so the study has to look at the 2019 results.
We ran into some internal logistics problems
that have caused a delay
in the traditional release of the items.
That delay will be remedied within about the next 30 days.
But all the items have been released on texasassessment.com,
that's sort of a nontraditional way of getting them out.
So the answer to have the 2019 items been released,
sort of partially, yes,
and then they'll be completely released
in the traditional format pretty soon,
I think within the next 60 days or something like that.
Member Dr. Ellis: It hasn't been announced who's doing the study for the?
Commissioner Morath: It hasn't been, but I can tell you, it's UT.
Member Dr. Ellis: Okay.
Chair Bahorich: Mr. Allen, and that'll be our last question.
Member Allen: Last question.
Commissioner, 50% of my district
is in Houston Independent School District,
so I'm trying to get a response from you
of when we can anticipate hearing about your decision
in terms of whether we will have a board of managers
or the closing of Wheatley High School?
And exactly how that process is going,
because every time we move to one step,
I hear of a new increment or something else taking place,
some kind of an appeal or something that I'm not aware of.
So a lot of people are running for office for school board,
and just really want to know
how that process is going to play out.
Commissioner Morath: Yeah, well, let me address the last point first.
Regardless of what happens with regard to a board,
you want to have the best people possible
and encourage them to run for office,
because even if a board of managers is placed in a district,
we try to leave as quickly as possible.
So if you think about somebody
that's on a four year trustee term,
it's entirely likely that they would serve at some point.
So just on the point of who would be running for office.
That being said, no decision has been made yet in Houston
because we're waiting for the process to unfold.
Where we are is there's a investigation that's ongoing,
and that's in a preliminary report phase.
So that would need to be finalized, and then from that
any potential enforcement action could be taken.
And then secondarily, Wheatley of course is,
across the five F threshold, I think was actually seven Fs.
But they have appealed their rating.
So we have to process the appeal and discern whether or not
that is in fact going to continue to be an F.
We typically finish those appeals sort of early November.
And then after that we would need to make a decision
as to what would happen
if it does in fact sustain its rating.
We have a few documents online
that kind of describe an outline of this process.
So given your question, which is about the process,
what I'll try to do is we'll follow up with an email,
just showing you where these,
some of these process documents are linked,
just to help folks understand timelines.
Member Allen: Thank you.
Chair Bahorich: Commissioner, thank you very much.
We really appreciate your time today.
Commissioner Morath: Thank you, Members, thank you for your service.
Chair Bahorich: Absolutely.
All right, members, we have one more resolution.
And usually for the outgoing chair,
that's something that takes place after you're gone.
But we're gonna do (chuckling) the resolution now,
recognizing my service as Lord Chair.
I'm gonna call on Gina Perez and Barbara Cargill.
(men speaking faintly)
Member Cargill: I told her no crying.
(chuckling) Member Perez: I made no promises.
Member Cargill: She made no promises, zero promises, yeah.
So, this is an honor to be able to share reading
the resolution with our Secretary, so thank you.
Member Perez: You're welcome.
Member Cargill: For letting me say a few words.
Member Perez: A Few.
Member Cargill: A few, yeah, I'll stick to the script
because I could talk forever about Donna,
who is one of my dearest friends.
What a wonderful feeling to know that you're putting
the Chairmanship in excellent, excellent hands.
And you have proven that over and over again.
The resolution is, whereas Donna Bahorich
concludes four years of, four years plus,
of outstanding service as Chair
of the State Board of Education,
and whereas she built a reputation as an inclusive leader
who reached across the aisle
and across different stakeholder groups
to solicit input, guidance, and wisdom
from people in all walks of life,
and whereas she was always striving
to bring current and best practices to Texas,
such as the rotating TEKS Review Panel process
that allows more educators, business people,
and other citizens to be involved
in a standards revision than ever before,
and whereas Donna Bahorich created the Learning Roundtable,
an annual free conference
that attracts hundreds of attendees each year,
and whereas she worked to increase
the public's accessibility to instructional material
proposed for use in Texas public schools,
and whereas Donna Bahorich has been a strong supporter
of charter schools throughout her tenure on the board, and.
Member Perez: Thank you.
Whereas she has helped spearhead efforts
to create a new Long-Range Plan for Public Education
after gathering information from Texans across the state,
whereas Donna Bahorich coordinated a statewide effort
to gather public input about the State's
student assessment and accountability systems,
whereas under her leadership,
the board came together to create
the first State of Texas approved ethnic studies course,
and whereas Donna Bahorich forged strong ties
with the Texas Education Agency,
the Commissioner of Education, and the Texas Legislature,
now, therefore, be it resolved
that the Texas State Board of Education offers
its deepest gratitude for your tireless work
as the chair of this body.
Please witness our signatures
this 13th day of September, 2019, in Austin, Texas.
Thank you.
(audience applauding)
(man chuckling)
Member Cargill: Members, I would like to ask permission from the body,
we have a few people that would like to make some comments.
And if there's no objection to that,
may I call them forward.
We have Zeph Capo, the new President of Texas AFT,
and HD Chambers, Alief ISD Superintendent,
and Kevin Brown, Executive Director of TASA.
And so you may come all together, or you can?
Man: Go separately.
Member Perez: One at a time.
Member Cargill: One at a time, however you want to do it.
Member Perez: Madam Chair, can you tell them
the rules of where to sit and where to stand, and when to--
-: Yeah. <v ->Your last hurrah.
(chuckling)
Member Cargill: Identify yourself so (speaking faintly)
Zeph Capo: Thank you, Madam Secretary.
Good morning, my name is Zeph Capo.
I'm the President
of the Texas American Federation of Teachers.
And I am here today to honor our Chairwoman, Donna Bahorich.
Many of you may not know that I got to know Donna
over a period of time through our local chapter president
in Spring Branch.
I'll be honest, at first I wasn't sure what to expect,
but Donna was very open at listening to people,
at building those relationships.
And we did some work together very early on.
And one of those pieces of work was
she came to where I serve as a trustee
at the Houston Community College,
and we did some listening sessions.
And those went on around the State of Texas.
And they resulted in a survey
of thousands of Texans' voices about testing,
and when I saw the first survey results, I said, boy,
this is gonna give a couple of people some heartburn.
Are these survey results gonna see the light of day?
And true to her word, they were out for everybody.
They were out in public because they were the words
of our fellow Texans.
And regardless of ideology,
regardless of position on one side,
what Donna has proven to me is
that she truly is a representative
for the people that she's there for in SBOE 6,
that she lets the cards fall on the table as they may,
that she speaks the truth that she sees,
it's okay to have your opinion,
it's okay to have your own position,
but listen and work with others.
We know where we're not going to get along,
but we don't bother wasting time in those areas,
we spend our time where we know we can make a difference,
that we can focus and work together.
I appreciate you for that.
I thank you for your leadership.
And I look forward to continuing to work with you
back home in Houston.
Thank you very much.
I couldn't be up here at this dais
as well too without giving thanks
to my personal State Board of Education Member,
Mr. Lawrence Allen.
I appreciate you for being a support
to our sister back in Houston.
Thank you for y'all's time,
and I appreciate the opportunity to speak today.
Chair Bahorich: Thank you.
(audience applauding)
Member Perez: We'll let you go behind the ropes today.
(audience chuckling)
-: I wasn't expecting flowers, that's amazing.
(Zeph speaking faintly)
-: Okay, who's next?
HD Chambers: I didn't bring flowers, Donna.
(audience chuckling)
(chuckling) I'm not a flower guy.
My name's HD Chambers, and I'm Superintendent of Alief.
And I'm here for a couple of reasons.
One, I'm gonna represent the school districts
that are in the SBOE 6 District, there's several of us.
And for many of you that have been on the Board for a while,
if you've paid attention, there was a point in time
where superintendents and state board members
didn't really get along, as a body and individually.
And there were a lot of adversarial positions
that still come up, but I give Donna a lot of credit,
and I give Barbara credit as well,
as we were kind of transitioning
a graduation plan several years ago,
and there were very controversial topics
that were placed in this body's lap
to make decisions on in terms of rule-making.
And myself and a few others were very instrumental
in having these conversations.
And for the first time, at least in my career,
we saw a different side of the State Board of Education,
and think Donna and the way she approached things,
which many of you are aware of,
was instrumental in keeping us at the table
and actually getting things done
that was in the best interest of kids
across the State of Texas.
As a chairperson, I don't have very often
where people show up to a board meeting
and tell me how good a job I'm doing.
(audience chuckling)
That's one reason I'm here.
I drove from Houston to,
I think when people do good jobs, and they do things well,
they need to be commended for that.
And it's pretty simple.
I think as chair of anything, it's easy to manage a meeting,
it's easy to go through an agenda,
but it's really hard to lead.
And I think you've been a leader.
You've been a leader more than you've been a chairperson.
And for that we're grateful.
And so, on behalf of all the superintendents across Texas,
and all the folks which we represent, the 5.4 million kids,
we appreciate the effort and energy you put into it.
One thing I will tell you that Alief has had the pleasure,
she kind of calls on me and Alief a lot.
(audience chuckling)
So a lot of our fingerprints are on things,
and a lot of it's my personal opinion
and my professional opinion.
But on behalf of my staff, Earl Snyder, our Elementary,
when we went through the elementary math standard
several years ago, Cathy Jahn and the ELA standards,
I mean, I've got individuals on our team
that respect you gratefully, they're grateful, tremendously,
And they appreciate your asking their opinion.
And then actually using what they have to tell you.
So on behalf of everyone, thank you, Donna.
I appreciate it.
I know you're not leaving the board,
but in terms of your leadership,
good luck to the next chair, they got big shoes to fill.
Woman: Absolutely.
HD Chambers: All right, thank you, thank you.
(audience applauding)
Kevin Brown: Good morning.
My name's Kevin Brown.
I'm Executive Director
for the Texas Association of School Administrators.
I am here to honor our chair
of the State Board of Education, Donna Bahorich,
for her incredible work that she's done,
and the legacy that she's leaving
on the State Board of Education.
I'm gonna echo some of the things
that were said previous to me.
But it's my 29th year in education,
28 years in public schools and one year
at the Texas Association of School Administrators,
and I think that one of the things
that Donna brought the most, that I appreciate the most,
is providing educators a voice at the table.
We don't always have to agree on everything,
in fact nobody has all the right answers
about how we educate 5.4 million children.
But educators have a place at the table,
whether you're teachers, principals, superintendents,
board members, community members, parents.
And I think Donna has done a great job
of being an excellent listener.
She reaches out all the time and asks questions.
She seeks input.
I think she has a lot of grace and professionalism.
Integrity in everything that she does,
which I think is really, really important.
She's always had a listening ear.
She's been a trusted person in the Education community.
She's collaborative and she's collegial.
And I think that goes a long way.
She also led the Long Range Planning with the State Board,
and I think worked with my predecessor, Johnny Veselka,
in getting some funding from the Meadows Foundation,
and Dawson Orr, I think Marty Rowley helped get that funding
and I think the TASA visioning document was used
as one of the examples of the kind of ways
that you can set goals and think long term and visionary
for our children in the state.
And we appreciate that and I want to honor Johnny and Marty
as well as Donna in being able to put that together.
The SBOE Roundtables I think were really important.
And we were able to work with Donna
at the TASA Midwinter Conference.
I think you had at least three of them there,
and over 700 people signed up for one of them,
that must been a fun meeting.
(audience chuckling)
But the fact that you're seeking input,
and listening, and being collaborative,
to me is a really big deal.
Re-writing the ELAR standards is no easy task.
But she sought input from educators.
And we were able to invite certain people
that were experts in the field.
And I think when you go through a process like that,
we ought to have teachers in there
that know what they're doing,
and curriculum folks that know what they're doing,
and hearing from a variety of voices,
and so we really appreciate that very much.
Her desire to protect the Permanent School Fund,
and be thoughtful and intentional about that,
was really important.
And we talked many times about that,
one of which I think was a day or two
after she had knee replacement,
and she was still, she did not appear
to be under the influence of any narcotic,
but I've had five knee surgeries, and I don't know,
I don't know how she did that,
but I was like, what are you doing calling me about this?
But I think that goes to the fact
that she cares a great deal.
And she wants to serve.
I have not found her to have a strong ego in the work
that she does, but I think the strongest leaders
are those who build capacity in others around them,
and listen and are able to lift them up,
and lift their voices up.
And so I appreciate all the phone calls
and the listening ears, and the collaboration,
and having a voice at the table.
And so on behalf of 1,024 superintendents in the state,
and a whole lot of central office folks,
and our educator friends, we just want to say,
thanks for being a great model
of leadership and collaboration.
And I know that this board will continue
to operate in that way and in that spirit.
So thank you, appreciate you very much.
(audience applauding)
Member Rowley: Well members, we need to adopt the resolution.
I've been reminded by our parliamentarian,
so all in favor of the resolution
that was presented with regard to Chairman Bahorich,
signify by saying aye.
All: Aye.
Member Rowley: It's unanimous.
-: Okay, a moment for a hug, hold on a second.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you so much.
-: Absolutely, thank you.
-: Thank you for your leadership, appreciate it.
-: 'Til next time. -: It's not over.
-: You betcha.
Zeph, thank you.
(Zeph speaking faintly)
(women speaking faintly)
-: Oh, she'll be here.
-: Yeah, I will be.
-: We're gonna do awesome.
Chair Bahorich: All right, Members.
Now, let's get to this agenda
because I know some folks have to catch a plane.
Member Perez: Well, would you like your resolution?
Chair Bahorich: Yes, I would like my resolution. (laughing)
(audience laughing)
Thank you.
Member Perez: We're trying to give it to you.
Chair Bahorich: Thank you, thank you, that was great.
Okay Members, we're gonna look first at the Consent Agenda,
which is on page, what page is that in the book?
You guys have that?
Page 27 in the book.
And the first item on the Consent Agenda
is Procedures for Selecting Nominees
for appointment to the School Land Board.
Item two, Planning for the Annual Meeting between
the State Board of Education and the School Land Board.
Number three was pulled from the Consent Agenda
and will be discussed later.
Number four, Ratification of the Purchases and Sales
of the Investment Portfolio of the Permanent School Fund
for the Months of May, June, and July, 2019.
Number five, Determination as to whether
Transfers may be made from the Permanent School Fund
to the Available School Fund.
Number six, Proposed Amendments
to the Investment Procedures Manual.
Number seven, Review
of the Permanent School Fund Liquid Account.
Number eight, Per Capita Apportionment Rate
for 2019-2020 School Year.
Number nine, Recommendation for Appointment
to the Boys Ranch Independent School District
Board of Trustees.
Is there any,
we'll just go ahead and approve the Consent Agenda.
All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say no.
The Consent Agenda is approved as read.
And item number three is what we're gonna pull up
because we've got a flight I think
that also has to take place,
so it's the Ad Hoc Committee Recommendations,
we're gonna move to that one next,
Related to Instructional Materials Quality Evaluation.
And that was Committee of the Full Board.
And Mr. Rowley, why don't you go ahead and start
with that one, and then we'll go through the agenda.
Member Rowley: Okay.
Sorry, I had the other one pulled up.
Ah, there we go.
Okay, we're on page two
of the Committee of the Full Board Minutes.
(woman speaking faintly)
Page two, action item, it's item three, I believe,
on the Committee of the Full Board, is that where we are.
Chair Bahorich: That's where we are.
Member Rowley: Okay, and we'll just take these recommendations
one at a time without reading them in total, if that's okay.
Okay, so it's recommended that the State Board of Education
adopt recommendation number one
of the Texas Resource Review Ad Hoc Committee
as set out in attachment A.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say no.
Chair Bahorich: The ayes have it.
Member Rowley: Okay, it's recommended
that the State Board of Education adopt recommendation two
of the Texas Resource Review Ad Hoc Committee
as set out in attachment A.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say no.
Ayes have it.
Member Rowley: It's recommended that the State Board of Education
adopt recommendation number three
of the Texas Resource Review Ad Hoc Committee
as set out in attachment A.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say no.
The ayes have it.
Member Rowley: It's recommended that the State Board of Education
adopt recommendation four
of the Texas Resource Review Ad Hoc Committee
as set out in attachment A.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say nay.
The ayes have it.
Member Rowley: Okay, it's recommended that the State Board of Education
amend its operating rules in section 4.4
so that a State Board of Education member
shall not nominate instructional materials for submittal
to the Texas Resource Review without a majority vote
of the board endorsing said nomination.
Chair Bahorich: We'll do a show of hands.
And I hope it caught everyone's attention
that the Commissioner has already decided
he's gonna go back in and adjust that in the rules anyway,
in his rules.
Member Rowley: Can I speak to this--
Chair Bahorich: Yes, please.
Member Rowley: Motion and recommendation?
Chair Bahorich: Mr. Rowley.
Member Rowley: I'm very much appreciative.
I texted the Commissioner after we voted.
But in the interim time, the rule as written
would be in effect, unless we take this action.
And so I think it's great
that the Commissioner's going to do that,
but I'm gonna speak in favor of the motion still.
Chair Bahorich: Terrific.
So in that case, all those in favor of the motion,
raise your hand.
'Kay, keep them up there for a minute there.
Just to be sure.
All those opposed, raise your hand.
So that is amended by that two-thirds vote.
Thank you very much.
Member Rowley: We ready to move on then?
Chair Bahorich: Mm hm, ready to move on.
Member Rowley: Okay, this is on page three.
It's item five on your Committee of the Full Board Minutes.
It's recommended that the State Board of Education
approve Proclamation 2021 Questions and Answers.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: Oh, this one actually I need a show of hands on this one,
actually, I apologize.
All those in favor please raise your hand.
Kind of keep those up so Monica can check.
All those not in favor raise your hand.
Okay, that's everyone, all right.
Chair Bahorich: Is there another?
Member Rowley: Well, item six, I'm gonna ask Ms. Crews,
so do we need to recommend
the suspension of the Board Operating Rules first?
Kay: No, it's all in a single motion.
Member Rowley: Oh, okay, all right.
And so that is going to be on the bottom of page five,
I believe, this is item six, bottom of page five.
It's recommended that the State Board of Education
suspend the Board Operation Procedures
in accordance with Section 5.2.a,
to allow consideration at first reading
and filing authorization,
and approve for first reading and filing authorization
proposed revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 66,
State Adoption and Distribution of Instructional Materials,
Subchapter B, State Adoption of Instructional Materials,
as amended.
Chair Bahorich: Members, I just want to make you aware of something
I caught in the notes,
that we'll fix in the notes when we publish them.
But I want to make sure I read the right.
Monica Martinez: It's page four, the second motion invoked.
Chair Bahorich: Page four? Monica Martinez: Yes, ma'am.
Chair Bahorich: Okay, great.
If you'll go to page four,
I just want to point this out to you here,
that the second motion and vote, you see on page four,
does everybody see that?
It should not say publishers of instructional content
accessed electronically through the internet,
it's just accessed electronically, period,
not just through the internet.
Any electronics resource would need to be submitted
for public review.
Does that make sense to everyone?
And that's the way we had amended it,
and it just didn't show up in the notes right.
So I just wanted to point that out to you.
It's just any electronic resource.
Okay?
Okay, all right.
Now we're back to the, there's no change there,
we're just gonna fix the notes
because that's what we did during the Committee.
All those in favor raise your hands.
All those not in favor raise your hand.
Okay, two-thirds vote, and so those rules are adopted.
All right, now.
Member Rowley: I believe there's an item nine on page eight
of the Committee of the Full Board,
after the consent matters.
Chair Bahorich: Item nine.
Member Rowley: Item nine, bottom of page eight
of the Committee of the Full Board minutes, correct?
Chair Bahorich: Okay, update on the, yes.
Member Rowley: Right.
Okay, it's recommended that the State Board of Education
approve the TEKS and Instructional Materials Review
and Adoption Schedule, and Projected Adoption Cycle,
September, 2019, as set out in attachment B.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say nay.
Ayes have it, all right, next.
Member Rowley: Madam Chair, I believe that's all the items
off of the Committee of the Full Board.
Chair Bahorich: That's it for the Committee of the Full Board,
that's great.
Committee on Instruction, so Ms. Melton-Malone,
I believe that's you.
<v Member Melton-Malone>Thank you, Madam Chair.
If you would look on your minutes
for the Committee on Instruction,
number one is the one we pulled off the Consent Agenda.
And you also have a handout that you were given earlier
to list the lessons that we were looking at,
the ELAR lessons that we were looking at.
And I would, I want to make the motion, and then--
Chair Bahorich: Ms. Melton-Malone,
which page is it on, on the notes?
<v Member Melton-Malone>It's on page one. -: Okay.
Chair Bahorich: Okay, okay.
<v Member Melton-Malone>On behalf of the Committee on Instruction,
I move the State Board of Education ratify
the third set of TXLS, Texas Lesson Study Resources,
presented in attachment A,
with the exception of the resource titled,
"The Adventures of Trixie and Knuffle Bunny."
Chair Bahorich: Would you like to speak to that?
<v Member Melton-Malone>I would, thank you, Madam Chair.
If you would look at the handout that you were given,
under the TEKS, everything is aligned
to our current ELAR TEKS with the exception of that one,
and it has no direct alignment to the new TEKS.
So we felt like we would like to pull that out
since it is not aligned to the current TEKS
that we're working with.
Chair Bahorich: Is there any objection to that?
Oh yes, Ms. Perez.
Member Perez: I'm not raising my hand in objection
to pulling this lesson off of the TLS,
I'm raising my hand to speak,
not only in agreement to pulling that,
but against the ratification of this overall.
First I wanted to thank Member Little for recognizing
that these TEKS were not in alignment,
and because it has gone through so many levels of review
and there were still items that were questionable,
not only with this one, and thank you Ms. Little for that.
But Member Davis also found a few issues
with the science lessons that are there,
and I want to correct my statement, not our lessons,
with the lessons that are listed there.
And I'll go back to my original objection,
which is focused on the TRR,
which is formerly known as the IMQE.
And my objection to this remains the same.
We're going very far down the slippery slope
of telling districts which materials to use,
and now we're telling districts which lessons to use,
and it appears to me that where CSCOPE failed,
we're taking another bite at the apple
to see if we can accomplish the goal of state censorship,
and far too much control in the classroom.
And so I'm speaking against the ratification of TLS.
Thank you.
Chair Bahorich: Yes, Ms. Davis and Mr. Rowley.
Member Davis: I also had some major issues
with some of the lessons that were uploaded.
My biggest thing is that it's only aligned to TEKS
and no College and Career Readiness Standards whatsoever.
So you have very, very basic information,
and I know that teachers put in a lot of work
to produce these lessons,
but I think it's some problems with the expectations
that were given to them from the agency.
So you have lessons that are supposed to help
new teachers or struggling teachers
be able to reach their students,
but this doesn't quite offer enough information
so that they can thoroughly teach their students.
And as Member Perez pointed out,
because this is available from the State,
it's kind of like, okay, well this is all I need to do
and this is sufficient.
I've talked about this several times to several people
in the agency and they're hoping that in the future
they'll get more submissions so they'll have more choices.
But as of right now if you look at the lessons in there,
they would not sufficiently and fully teach a student
how to apply whatever it is they are learning.
And so that's my problem with the lessons
that are available now.
Monica Martinez: Madam Chair, I just wanted
to make one correction to that statement,
and just remind everyone that you have embedded
the College and Career Readiness Standards
in your Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.
There are alignment charts that you had to adopt into rule
and that are available on the website.
So we don't separately call out
the College and Career Readiness Standards
because you've already shown that alignment
in your Essential Knowledge and Skills
in all of the four foundation subjects.
Member Davis: Thank you.
I did specifically ask about that yesterday,
and it was only brought to us that it was just TEKS aligned,
and it wasn't any emphasis on that,
or the other skills that would be--
Monica Martinez: I'm sorry, Ms. Davis, I don't know who you asked
that question of, but you have embedded
the CCRS in your Essential Knowledge and Skills.
Chair Bahorich: That's good to have that clarification,
'cause that is true, we went through,
over the last few years we've gone through
meetings where we've had to approve alignments,
because we needed to align.
So yeah, absolutely.
Mr. Rowley.
Member Rowley: Yeah, and with all due respect to Member Davis
and Member Perez, I appreciate their perspective on this.
And we had a full and robust conversation about it
yesterday in committee.
I would also invite, if the court would, court, excuse me,
if the Chair, (audience laughing)
I've been in court too often.
Maybe Ms. Claussen, Blair might be able to come forward,
she's the kind of the project coordinator behind this,
and I'll make a comment and then maybe turn it over to her.
And that is, what we were asked to do,
and what we're voting on right now, is to approve a set of,
I think it's a third set of lessons
that have been developed through this Gateway project.
The Gateway project, as I understand it,
is classroom teachers putting together lessons
that are filtered, screened, critiqued, scrutinized,
in fact there's pre and post assessment
with regard to these lessons as to whether or not
the students have gained mastery and knowledge
of the particular TEKS that are being covered by that.
They're being provided strictly as a resource.
There's nothing mandated about it.
It's developed by teachers
and put out there for publication by TEA,
so it's really not TEA lesson plans, it's their program,
but nevertheless it's being done by classroom teachers.
These teachers have spent a lot of time,
effort and resources to develop these lesson plans,
and they seem to be utilized on a pretty wide basis.
Being from a predominantly rural district,
my SBOE district has 85% of our districts are rural,
I think it's very valuable,
and for those types of teachers to have access
to these materials if they choose to use them,
and they're tested, critiqued, and seem to be valid.
But anything more
that Ms. Claussen would want to add to that,
with the permission of the Board, I would invite that.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say no.
-: No. -: No.
Chair Bahorich: Ayes have it.
All right, thank you.
(audience laughing)
Chair Bahorich: Oh sorry, sorry, Blair, I forgot to have you speak.
But I, you know, I think we're done.
(laughing)
Woman: We are now.
Chair Bahorich: We are now done.
<v Member Melton-Malone>Well, as Mr. Rowley said,
we had a very lengthy discussion yesterday,
and so I think we have alerted staff to be on the lookout
for some things and to monitor some things,
and we'll be getting reports regularly on this.
Moving on, it's item number two.
It's on page two.
On behalf of the Committee on Instruction,
I move that the State Board of Education
approve for second reading and final adoption
the proposed amendment to 19 TAC Chapter 74,
Curriculum Requirements, Subchapter C, Other Provisions,
74.28, Students with Dyslexia and Related Disorders,
as amended and make an affirmative finding
that immediate adoption of the proposed amendment
to 19 TAC Chapter 74, Curriculum Requirements,
Subchapter C, Other Provisions, 74.28,
Students with Dyslexia and Related Disorders, is necessary
and shall have an effective date of 20 days after filing
as adopted with the Texas Register.
And Madam Chair? Chair Bahorich: Yes.
Member Melton-Malone: The language that we inserted is just above that,
the words that are underlined, that's the language
that we inserted into there.
Chair Bahorich: That's the amendments?
<v Member Melton-Malone>That's the amendments, yes, ma'am.
Chair Bahorich: That's the amendments, yeah, absolutely.
All those in favor raise your hands.
All those opposed raise your hand.
All right, the motion is adopted.
Member Melton-Malone: Item number three, on page three,
on behalf of the Committee on Instruction
I move that the State Board of Education
approve for second reading and filing adoption
the proposed and final adoption, excuse me,
the proposed amendment to 19 TAC Chapter 74,
Curriculum Requirements, Subchapter C, Other Provisions,
74.30, Identification of Honors Courses,
and make an affirmative finding that immediate adoption
of the proposed amendment to 19 TAC Chapter 74,
Curriculum Requirements, Subchapter C, Other Provisions,
74.30, Identification of Honors Courses, is necessary,
and shall have an effective date of 20 days after filing
as adopted with the Texas Register.
Chair Bahorich: All right, all those in favor raise your hands.
All those opposed raise your hands.
Okay, motion is adopted.
<v Member Melton-Malone>Item number four.
On behalf of the Committee on Instruction,
I move that the State Board of Education
approve for first reading and filing authorization
the proposed amendment to 19 TAC Chapter 74,
Curriculum Requirements, Subchapter C, Other Provisions,
74.27, Innovative Courses and Programs, as amended.
Chair Bahorich: Let me get, sorry, I'm not on the right page.
All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say nay.
Ayes have it, motion's adopted.
<v Member Melton-Malone>Let me see, all right, item number six.
It's on page four, the motion's on page four.
On behalf of the Committee on Instruction
I move that the State Board of Education postpone the vote
to approve the request from Eduspark Incorporated
to update, Ms. Perez, would you like to read the Spanish?
(chuckling)
Chair Bahorich: Oh wow, yeah.
<v Member Melton-Malone>Page four.
Member Perez: Yes, ma'am.
Okay, I'm gonna start over.
It was moved by Ms. Little and seconded by me,
and carried unanimously to recommend
that the State Board of Education postpone the vote
to approve the request from Eduspark Inc.
to include (speaking Spanish).
Adopted in November 2018 under Proclamation 2019.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor raise your hand, or sorry, say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed raise your hand, or, sorry (laughing)
I'm doing too many things at once here, sorry.
All those opposed say no.
Ayes have it, motion's adopted.
<v Member Melton-Malone>And Madam Chair, on the Discussion Items,
we did have a motion, and we will be bringing
the African American Studies, it's going to be placed
on the agenda of the Committee of the Full Board
for discussion at the November SBOE meeting,
and that a public hearing on the course
be placed on the November agenda.
Chair Bahorich: All right.
Member Perez: May we speak to this?
Chair Bahorich: Sure.
Member Perez: Thank you.
Chair Bahorich: No, wait a minute, I've got to see our parliamentarian.
Kay: There's not a motion on the floor.
Chair Bahorich: Oh, there's not a motion on the floor.
Member Perez: Well we're not asking for anybody to do anything.
Chair Bahorich: Did you want to make a quick comment?
Member Perez: Make a quick comment.
May I make a quick comment?
Chair Bahorich: Yes, a quick comment.
Member Perez: Thank you.
I'd want to just let everybody know
that the amount of work that was put into this course
is beyond what I think Ms. Davis and I even imagined,
and when we first started the development of this.
We have included universities across the State of Texas,
Dean's of African American studies, Black studies,
from many of our UT schools, UNT,
Prairie View, Lamar, et cetera.
There's just been an incredible amount
of outpouring of support.
We've had the innovative course online
for a couple of months for people to review.
Several comments have been received.
100% of them have been in support of.
There was only one comment that asked for an addition.
And I say all of that just to let you know
that in addition to the NAACP and LULAC support,
and all of the organizations that worked together
to bring this forward, not only are we very pleased
with what we have in front of us,
but we're also very excited to be on the path
to make Texas the third state in the Nation
to offer African American studies
to all high school students.
Thank you.
Chair Bahorich: Thank you, Ms. Perez.
Yes, Ms. Melton-Malone.
<v Member Melton-Malone>Madam Chair, I would like to thank Member Perez
and Member Davis and the staff for all of the work
and hours that they have put in on this.
I think you're going to be really pleasantly surprised
when you see this course roll out at the November meeting,
and there's been a lot of work and effort and collaboration
and everything that you need to bring a course together.
And this course will allow us
to be able to further have additional courses down the road
because we'll be able to use this course as a guideline
for how it needs to be done.
So thank you, to everyone who worked so diligently on this
to get it ready.
-: Thank you. Chair Bahorich: Absolutely.
Thank you for your report.
Mr. Maynard, I believe you are up next.
Woman: Well we have item eight.
Chair Bahorich: I think that's it.
(woman speaking faintly)
Yeah, I think that's it.
Member Maynard: Madam Chair, I'll just, we do have a few action items,
and then let me give the Board just a few updates.
Remember, you always get two sets of minutes,
and we're gonna start with the School Finance Items.
And you can see that motion on the bottom of page one.
Madam Chair, I move that the State Board of Education
approve for first reading and filing authorization
the proposed amendment to 19 TAC Chapter 129,
Student Attendance, Subchapter B,
Student Attendance Accounting,
129.21, Requirements for Student Attendance Accounting
for State funding purposes.
Chair Bahorich: You've heard the motion, all those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say no.
Member Maynard: Madam Chair, just a--
Chair Bahorich: The ayes have it, the motion's been adopted.
Member Maynard: And then just so everybody understands what that is,
and what change is being made in that,
is currently school districts are required
to take attendance either on
the second or fifth hour of the day,
and this will give school districts some flexibility
in terms of when they take roll.
So it's just a little bit more local control.
Okay, all right, I believe, let's see,
I think that that is all,
everything else went onto the Consent Agenda.
Just briefly, Board, because we haven't had the opportunity
to discuss at one of the big discussions
which is related to the Liquid Fund.
And of course that is legislation that addressed
what we called the cash drag on the School Land Board.
The School Land Board voted on August the 29th
to move $3.9 billion into the Liquid Fund
to be managed by the State Board of Education.
Understand that it is going to take some time
to deploy three-point, nearly $4 billion in cash.
And so that will be a process
that will take place over time.
The other thing that I think is worth noting, June,
we're going to undertake another analysis
of our allocation and our asset classes.
And in the course of doing that
we're going to take a few, really some serious deep dives,
on several of those asset classes,
starting with the hedge funds.
We're going to look at that in November.
And the reason for that is is that understand
that there are certain asset classes
that are intended to be kind of downside protection.
The question is, is it actually doing that?
I think there are several of us on that committee
that have a concern when you look at that,
and it's highly correlated to our domestic equities,
which means is that, well I don't know
how much downside protection it's actually going to give us.
And by the way, the hedge funds are extremely expensive.
That's 90% of our fees come out of that,
that one asset class.
And so I think that it's incumbent on us
as a committee and as a board to take a serious look at that
and make sure that it's doing what it needs to do.
That is all.
Chair Bahorich: Thank you, Chairman Maynard.
Members, I've been asked
to take just a quick necessary break,
so let's literally just be gone for five minutes.
I know folks are trying to get out of here.
So let's be gone for five minutes and be back at 12:05.
Chair Bahorich: Your committee is the next on the hot seat.
Member Cargill: All right, so Members, we are on page three
of the Committee on School Initiatives handout.
Chair Bahorich: Page three?
Member Cargill: Yeah.
Chair Bahorich: Let me get to the right.
Member Cargill: At the bottom.
Chair Bahorich: Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, I--
Member Cargill: And it said the recommendation is
that the State Board of Education take no action
on the proposed revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 230,
Professional Educator Preparation and Certification,
Subchapter A, General Provisions, Definitions, Subchapter C,
Assessment of Educators, Section 230.21,
Educator Assessment, Subchapter D,
Types and Classes of Certificates Issues,
Section 230.36, Intern Certificates,
and Section 230.37, Probationary Certificates,
and Subchapter G, Certificate Issuance Procedures,
Section 230.101, Schedule of Fees
for Certification Services.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say no.
Ayes have it.
Yes.
Member Perez-Diaz: I'm trying to speak really quickly to the item.
Just a quick heads-up for the Board,
so item number five, Section 230.36,
so the bilingual education certification
and ESL certifications
are no longer mentioned in the rule text as a requirement
prior to being hired as teacher of record
in bilingual education and ESL.
And so that was something that was brought to my attention
by several organizations.
And so this was a discussion in the committee hearing
because special education certifications are still mentioned
and are still a requirement prior to being hired
as teacher of record,
in fact they're needed prior to becoming an intern.
So this was something that I asked staff to look into,
and they've already taken note of this.
It'll come before SBEC in October.
So it's still up for discussion.
And then I asked that staff come back
and report to the board what those changes look like,
or if there's any changes to be made.
Chair Bahorich: Thank you for that information.
All right, members, go ahead, Ms. Cargill.
Member Cargill: Just because I like to spice things up,
we're going to go backwards.
Chair Bahorich: We're gonna go backwards, yep.
Member Cargill: Yeah, we'll go back to page two,
which I have highlighted very boldly, and just blew over.
(chuckling)
Chair Bahorich: No problem.
Member Cargill: All right, so it's recommended
that the State Board of Education approve
for second reading and final adoption the proposed amendment
to 19 TAC Chapter 157, Hearings and Appeals, Subchapter D,
Independent Hearing Examiners, Section 157.41,
Certification Criteria for Independent Hearing Examiners,
and make an affirmative finding that immediate adoption
of the proposed amendments to 19 TAC Chapter 157,
Hearings and Appeals, Subchapter D,
Independent Hearing Examiners, Section 157.41,
Certification Criteria for Independent Hearing Examiners,
is necessary and shall have an effective date
of 20 days after filing as adopted by the Texas Register.
Chair Bahorich: Absolutely, okay, Members, this is a show of hands.
So all those in favor raise your hand.
Hold them up there, make sure staff gets it.
All those opposed, raise your hands.
Motion's adopted, all right, you've got one more I think.
Member Cargill: Same page, it is recommended
that the State Board of Education take no action
on the proposed revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 231,
Requirements for Public School Personnel Assignments.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say nay.
Ayes have it, all right, do you have any more?
Member Cargill: I think I have one more on page four.
Chair Bahorich: One more, okay.
Member Cargill: Okay, so the Committee also recommends
that the State Board of Education take no action
on the proposed revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 228,
Requirements for Educator Preparation Programs.
Chair Bahorich: All those in favor say aye.
All: Aye.
Chair Bahorich: All those opposed say no.
and ayes have that, that motion is adopted.
Member Cargill: If I could mention just one thing.
Chair Bahorich: Yes, please.
Member Cargill: We also discussed the charter school applications.
And for those of you who like to plan way ahead,
it looks like the applicant interview week will be the week,
and they don't have the dates exactly pinned down,
but July 27th to July 31st, 2020.
So July 27th through July 31st just somewhere in that time
depending on how many make it through that far.
Member Dr. Robinson: That's a lot further out than this year's.
Woman: A lot further out.
Member Perez: Yeah, because the last one was on May 21st.
-: Uh huh. -: Yep.
Chair Bahorich: So it's the end of July?
Member Cargill: Yep, this is correct?
There are no charter school people here,
yeah, there you are.
Woman: I'm not opposed to it.
Member Cargill: No, you're not charter.
(laughing)
Member Cargill: Well you want to be, you don't want to be, okay.
They're all shaking their heads now.
All right, well that's what's on
my little fancy thingy here, so.
Chair Bahorich: Okay, gotcha.
Member Cargill: I'll talk to Heather and maybe get them
to send out these dates.
Chair Bahorich: Yeah, that would be great.
And Debbie, did we send out the dates of the meetings
for 2020 again yet?
(inaudible response)
Chair Bahorich: Yeah, only because it came up
that one of the members said
they didn't know what the dates were,
and I wanted to make sure
we'd just get another email about it.
And then I'm sending you,
because I failed to do so a couple of days ago,
the sample, I just wanted to remind folks
that we need more, particularly educators,
to help us with the review
for health and PE curriculum standards,
they're really looking for people.
So please copy and paste so that you don't have to worry
about the links or any of that,
because that's all included in the email.
All right.
And okay, I think that concludes our business.
And we need to catch up on everybody.
Monica Martinez: Madam Chair?
Chair Bahorich: Yes?
Monica Martinez: If we could, because we think it was probably helpful
to you, for health and PE, we'd like to give you a deadline
of November 1st, to identify your science content advisors.
So we will need to know who your content advisors are
before you come back.
Chair Bahorich: A little concern that I have, I will be honest,
on the science advisors, is I want to make sure
we have enough of variety, and not like all biology,
or like all chemistry, or all physics.
You have to kind of think about that,
having a mix, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
Monica Martinez: And I believe, because that's a foundation subject,
we would also be reaching out to Higher Ed--
Chair Bahorich: Yeah, we will.
Monica Martinez: To identify some additional advisors
so it would probably be good for us to try and coordinate
some of that with you to the extent that we can.
Chair Bahorich: Yeah, I think that's great.
All right, so just kind of be thinking about that when you,
and again, two members would agree
on an advisor that would be brought forward.
Okay, Members, let's catch up on Personal.
(Debbie speaking faintly)
Okay, I'm sorry.
Debbie Ratcliffe: We did have one person sign up to testify.
We're not sure they're still here,
but could you call them please.
Chair Bahorich: Yes, we did have one other person.
Are you going to call?
Monica Martinez: Josh Nedson.
Chair Bahorich: Do you know what that person was speaking on,
do you happen to know?
Monica Martinez: It says social emotional learning technology.
Chair Bahorich: Oh, okay.
-: They're not here.
Okay, all right.
Okay, Members, got just a couple of things
that I was made aware of.
Pam Little has been nominated
for the Texas Federation of Republican Women
for the Kaye Bailey Hutchison Leadership Award.
-: Wow. -: Oh, wow.
Chair Bahorich: Which is impressive, congratulations.
(audience applauding)
Pat was selected--
Member Melton-Malone: No, just being nominated is cool.
Chair Bahorich: That is cool.
Pat was selected as the State Winner
for the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International's
Advocate for Education from the Alpha State,
from the Alpha State, what?
Member Hardy: I don't know.
(laughing)
Anyway, it was their state organization.
Chair Bahorich: It is State Educational Foundation, yes.
Congratulations.
(audience applauding)
Member Hardy: Why thank you.
Chair Bahorich: Did anybody else have any other awards
or honors or recognitions that we've missed out on?
Yes, Dr. Ellis?
Member Dr. Ellis: There's two things, and one of them is
because a staff member's spouse
is an interesting Twitter follower.
I did find out that one of our staff members
had an anniversary this week, Ms. Debbie Ratcliffe.
-: Well. (audience applauding)
Woman: What number, what is it?
Man: Thirty or?
Woman: 32 years of what?
Chair Bahorich: 32.
(audience laughing)
Debbie Ratcliffe: Of delightful marriage.
Chair Bahorich: Exactly, wedded bliss, right. (laughing)
-: 32 years working here.
-: There you go. -: There you go.
Member Dr. Ellis: And, am I correct that our Board Chair, is it today?
has birthday today?
Chair Bahorich: Tomorrow.
-: Tomorrow, tomorrow. -: Tomorrow.
Member Dr. Ellis: Close enough.
Chair Bahorich: Yeah, exactly.
-: So Happy Birthday.
Chair Bahorich: Thank you, thank you.
Member Dr. Ellis: Shall we sing?
Chair Bahorich: And I think Matt had just had his.
Member Dr. Ellis: Barbara's going to lead us in the song.
Woman: Who has the good voice?
Chair Bahorich: Matt's had his too.
Just had his.
Woman: Matt's birthday was last week.
Chair Bahorich: Yeah.
All: ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday Matt and Donna ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you. ♪
Chair Bahorich: Exactly, exactly. (laughing)
(audience applauding)
(woman speaking faintly)
Chair Bahorich: Yes, Ms. Perez-Diaz.
Member Perez-Diaz: Yes, ma'am, just wanted to share with the group
that at the end of October I will be joining
a panel discussion with MALDEF with UTSA
to discuss our historical decision
for Mexican-American studies
at the American Educational Association Studies
Conference in Baltimore.
Chair Bahorich: Oh, very cool.
Awesome, anybody else?
Have anything going on?
Yeah, we need to hear about grandkids and such like that.
Yes, Matt Robinson.
Member Dr. Robinson: I can talk about my children, but I won't do that.
Next Thursday I'll be at TASA talking to the,
addressing the TASA Executive Committee
on just SBOE matters and things.
Next Thursday in Dallas.
-: Okay. Chair Bahorich: That's terrific.
Dr. Ellis, I think I saw you,
you're gonna be at Texas Tribune Fest.
Member Dr. Ellis: Yes, Tribfest in two weeks, speaking on rural schools.
Representative Ken King and a couple of superintendents
from small schools.
Woman: That's great.
Chair Bahorich: Anybody else have any big events they're speaking at?
Kay: If I may?
Chair Bahorich: Yes.
Kay: Next month, speaking of rural schools,
next month I will be in Indianapolis
as a celebrity parliamentary procedure judge
for the National FFA.
-: Oo! -: Oh!
(faint microphone hum)
Kay: Good point.
I will also be going next week for my first meeting
as the new parliamentarian for the National PTA.
-: Wow. <v ->Congratulations.
(audience applauding)
Member Maynard: And, Kay, in addition to being a judge though,
but you're also the parliamentarian
for the National FFA Delegate Business Section as well.
Kay: Yes sir, I will be doing that with them too.
-: Well those guys know how to do it.
-: Right.
Chair Bahorich: Any, yes, Ms. Perez.
Member Perez: On October 5th, we will be welcoming
our Class of 2020 cohort to the third mentorship program,
which is my Education and Scholarship Foundation.
Every year we have more and more students
and more and more scholarships, and our Class of 2019
received almost $200,000.00 in scholarships.
So we hope to, of course, surpass that, and it is for all
of the graduating seniors in 2020
in El Paso area high schools.
And so very much looking forward to October 5th.
Chair Bahorich: Dr. Sandra West, I see you sitting back there,
why don't you introduce your folks
that you brought with you.
Dr. Sandra West: These are 7-12 My Science, so either have biology degrees,
and, their names, my goodness.
(chuckling)
This is Karissa Valaszuela.
She is in the 8th grade in (speaking faintly)
and (inaudible) who is in high school,
9th grade (speaking faintly).
Chair Bahorich: Welcome.
(audience applauding)
Thanks for coming.
(faint microphone hum)
Catch up we need to do.
Board, if y'all just,
I promise I won't hold you much longer,
but I want to just kind of go over
some of the stuff you heard mentioned today,
but I just wanted a couple of moments
to kind of talk about this last four years
because it's been pretty amazing for me.
There's so many thoughts and emotions
kind of running through my mind about this.
This is kind of bittersweet moment
'cause as I think about stepping away
from this role as the chair that I've been able to do
for the last four years and almost three months,
and I just wanted to reflect for just a minute
on a lot of the work that we've done.
It has been such a whirlwind of a time
because it seemed like it went so fast,
because our agendas were constantly full
and it was just this cascade of a lot of work for all of us.
Of course the thing that I'm most proud of
is our development of the 2018 Long Range Plan.
Just a reminder we had 12,000 folks, over 12,000 engaged,
in public meetings and the online server,
12,000 Texans were engaged in that process,
that's a significant process.
And I think we can be very proud of that work.
And I think it's something that's going to live on
past this particular board that has approved that.
And I've heard from a lot of folks in the State of Texas,
and from educators outside the State of Texas
that were clued into what we did there, about how visionary,
practical, and on target that plan is.
So I think that's gonna live and have some long shelf life,
and I think we can all be very proud of that work.
Those no-cost roundtables that were mentioned by Dr. Brown,
I think that was something that,
where we stepped up to talk about big topics,
and just as a reminder we had,
our first one was educating the digital generation,
we're right in that transition
between text books that were hard copy
to more technology use, and so we had that roundable
just as that transition was taking place.
And there were several things that came out of that
that were important.
Educating the children of poverty was our second one.
Recruiting, preparing, retaining top teachers
was the third roundtable, and building a stronger Texas,
acting on the long-range plan for public education.
I'm very proud of that work.
Appreciate all your participation in sending us folks
who would be great panelists, we had very engaging folks.
And the biggest comment that I got about our roundtables
was that they don't usually see people at that high level,
at both state and national experts and practitioners
without a significant fee involved.
And this was a no-cost resource,
and they really appreciated it.
And the fact that we archived that online,
and people could go back to it,
I heard from several people that they got
a lot of meaningful content out of those roundtables.
So I really appreciate your support behind that.
I know that was kind of out-of-the-box thing for us to do,
but I still think that was an important thing,
how we partnered with others to,
like the Texas Association of School Administrators,
to make that happen, it's high-quality work in my opinion.
And arguably, the most impactful decision
that we've made has been on the distribution
of about $3.8 billion to the classrooms
through the earnings of the Permanent School Fund.
That is a significant contribution
directly to the children of Texas,
and we want to continue that high quality work
as the Permanent School Fund fiduciaries.
And I know we'll continue to do that.
We greatly broadened and deepened
our ways of engaging with policymakers,
higher education, educators, and the public in general
in everything that we do.
We made significant changes to our major processes
to improve our approval processes
for both textbooks and instructional materials,
textbooks and curriculum standards.
And I think they're more robust,
I think they're more inviting than they've ever been before.
And I know this engagement will just continue to grow
in coming years.
For curriculum standards, it was mentioned earlier,
we partnered with Higher Education Coordinating Board
when we were doing our English Language Arts
and Reading revision, and Spanish Language Arts and Reading.
There was over 1,300 educators involved in that process,
'cause we had an online forum as you will recall,
with a moderator, that Texas Council of Teachers
of English Language Arts partnered with us on, and paid for.
That was a significant thing that we've never done
that I think was really part of the mindset of outreach
that we've had for the entire time
that I've been involved as the chair.
And fortunately built on what Ms. Cargill was able to start
with getting with all of the eight groups
for English language arts and reading,
she got us started with that.
That created framework, and then we built on top of that
with the Texas Council, as I said, with the online forum.
And though it wasn't required,
and it greatly added to the full schedule,
I know Ms. Martinez knows.
When we decided to go ahead voluntarily
and streamline science and our social studies standards
and get involved in those, that was a huge amount of work
that we took on because we knew
that our policymakers and educators ask for it.
And we voluntarily did that
rather than having some direction
from somebody else to say, you must do it.
We did it ourselves.
And that's because we are listening to the public,
and we're listening to our educators,
and we take on that kind of work
because it's important to them, it's important to us.
Of course, as was already mentioned in the resolution
about our Mexican American scholars, friends, and neighbors,
when they came out 100 plus strong
and in support for Mexican American studies,
the first in the nation, Mexican American studies,
ethnic studies course.
And we also set a pattern, of course,
for future adoption for African American studies,
as we talked about earlier.
Asian Pacific Islander studies, Native American studies,
and Latino studies.
And these courses, I believe, invite students
to engage and connect more in a way that is important
for the future of the country.
I think America is and always has been
a land of dreams and hopes,
where everyone has a vital part to play.
And so we can be both proud of our own story,
our own culture, our own heritage,
and yet hold close to our hearts
what it means to be deeply proud Americans as well.
And that's what I'm very happy about
with our ethnic study courses that we've been working on.
We became the first state in the country
to require textbook publishers
to use Texas specific digitized curriculum standards.
This was a big project that Monica and staff took on
in developing their instructional materials.
And though it's hard to really quantify what that means,
'cause it's all kind of technical to a lot of people,
this requirement will save and has, I'm sure,
as it's being implemented,
thousands of hours of time and frustration
because our digital textbooks will have to now have
a consistency from one platform to the next
when students and teachers are searching for content
to cover our required Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.
That is a big deal 'cause it's not different
from one publisher to another publisher.
And so that is an important accomplishment
that we changed in the textbook area.
And this series of community conversations
and that large online survey that we did
on accountability and state testing,
you know, 27,000 responders, just to remind you,
27,000 Texans responded to that online survey
on assessments and accountability.
I believe that that work and that report
was used in numerous testimonies before the office,
our office holders across the street in the pink building.
And I believe we ended up with several of these things
that came out of the voices of Texans from that survey
back in 2015, 2016, it's hard to believe
it's been that long ago that we did that extensive report.
And, you know I could just go on and on,
but these are just some of the highlights for me.
And I want to thank the Governor once again
for placing confidence in me to do this work.
Commissioner Morath has been
an incredible supportive partner
that I was blessed to serve alongside.
I'm incredibly grateful to the Texas Education staff,
particularly Monica Martinez and her team.
They make us all look good, all the time.
(audience chuckling)
And we're so, so grateful, Monica.
Look over here, thank you very much. (laughing)
She likes to stay in the background over there,
but we greatly appreciate it.
And Von Byer and Chris Maska
have always kept us out of any legal high water,
and we greatly appreciate that,
and I've been the benefit of that.
And Kay Crews, our parliamentarian,
always keep this moving forward professionally
when we get stuck, and we can get stuck sometimes,
so we greatly appreciate it.
And I know that you all agree
that they support us superbly in everything we do.
And Debbie Radcliffe and Lenny Sanchez in the SBOE office
have been my sounding boards,
and absolutely an irreplaceable support for me
and the entire board.
And I know that you are grateful for them everyday,
as they support all of us so well.
And so a thank you to them,
it's just not enough, Debbie and Lenny,
it's just not, you know, that's just inadequate,
but thank you very much.
And finally, I just want to thank each and every,
(clearing throat) dang it, I almost got through it.
Woman: She almost got through it.
Chair Bahorich: I almost got through it.
I want to thank each and every member around this table.
You've enriched my life greatly.
And I have tremendous respect for each one of you,
and I'm so incredibly proud to have served
as the chair of this State Board of Education.
And I hope you're as proud of all the work that we've done,
together, in collaboration and cooperation,
in support, with so many partners
for the 5.4 million students of Texas,
it's been a lot of work, and it's been good work.
And outside of raising my boys,
this is the best, most fulfilling job I've ever had.
Thank you.
(audience applauding)
Chair Bahorich: I'll be okay, Ms. Perez-Diaz.
Member Perez-Diaz: Yes, ma'am.
Before I hear the stage music rise,
'cause I know everybody's ready to go, I just want to say--
(Donna speaking faintly)
There isn't anything that hasn't been said
that I absolutely don't agree with, but what I will say,
if you're not sitting around this table
what you might not know is that on top of like, outward,
all the people that have worked with Donna outside of this,
she's extremely considerate and caring and listening.
I appreciate, personally, the fact that anytime
you've come to my district or you're visiting,
you give me a call, like, not everybody,
you don't have to do that and many people don't, and you do.
Thank you for that.
But what I also want people to know
that are not sitting around the table,
is that on top of the fact that she's very considered
in terms of emotion, she's also very, very considerate
of staff and of the agency and of people's tax dollars,
because I remember when she first became chair
she was going around to the different districts
just getting to know people and she would call you up
and ask if she could stay at your house (laughing)
(audience laughing)
'cause she did not-- (woman speaking faintly)
yes, because she doesn't want to spend,
she's just very, very responsible and very considerate
of not using funds where she doesn't have to,
and so, not very many people would do that either,
but I just thought that was really funny,
and one of the very first memories
I have of you being chair.
And so you're incredible, you've been a fantastic leader,
and though don't we don't see eye-to-eye on everything,
you are a beautiful person, so thank you.
-: That's true. (woman speaking faintly)
(faint microphone hum)
Chair Bahorich: For the last time.
-: But, for the very last time, absolutely.
The meeting is adjourned.
And thank you to each one of you.
You guys did great work this week.
(gavel knocking)