Policy Update: Texas: Greater Expectations

Vital Statistics
1,043	Public school districts
6,875	Public schools
3.9 million	K-12 enrollment
54.4%	Minority students
25%	Children in poverty
11.8%	Students with disabilities
$22.9 billion	Annual K-12 expenditures (all revenue sources)

Local districts, meanwhile, rewrote curricula and held professional-development sessions in preparation for the state's revised academic standards, which took effect last fall.

"It was a year of fine-tuning current policies and procedures in preparation for implementation," says Ann Smisko, the associate commissioner for curriculum, assessment, and technology for the state education department. "It was very, very busy, but without a lot of public debate."

And while 1998 was an off-year for the legislature, Gov. George W. Bush's successful re-election bid included a campaign promise to end social promotion, or the practice of advancing students to the next grade before they are academically ready.

Perhaps the biggest policy change during the 1997-98 school year was the implementation of the new state-designed teacher-evaluation program, called the Professional Development Appraisal System.

Even though districts can devise their own reviews, about 94 percent of school systems chose the state model.

While the PDAS evaluates teachers in eight areas, the section that scores them based on their schools' state ratings proved controversial. The ratings reflect student attendance, dropout rates, and scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, the basic-skills tests in grades 3-8 and 10. Teachers get the same score based on how their schools rate.

"We have no problem with teachers being held accountable for student performance," says Ignacio Salinas Jr., the president of the Texas State Teachers Association, the state affiliate of the National Education Association. "But we have a problem with using the TAAS. There are other ways to measure student performance."

Nolan Wood, who heads the unit in the state education department that drafted the policy, says it's too early to say how teachers are faring under the new system. But there are some positive signs, he maintains.

Wood says that teachers at all levels are collaborating and asking, for example, " 'Hey, what can we do in kindergarten to help reading in 3rd grade?' "

A similar model for principals' evaluations took effect in the current school year. A plan for superintendents is still a year away.

The Lone Star State's accountability crusade also has reached college teacher-certification programs. Under rules implemented last fall, programs are rated on their graduates' scores on certification exams. Low-performing programs will be visited by technical-assistance teams. While schools will receive credit for improved results, habitually low performers will lose their state accreditation.

Stephanie Korcheck, the director of policy and planning for the Texas State Board for Educator Certification, says some university leaders took action as soon as they realized the accountability system was for real. "They don't want to see headlines saying that their university doesn't prepare its teachers," she says.

For all the talk about teachers and administrators, the public still seems most interested in how students do on the TAAS. The results from the high-profile tests in reading, writing, and mathematics in grades 3-8 and 10 help determine everything from state ratings of schools to how $7.5 million in state cash awards are divvied up.

And as the TAAS goes, 1998 was a good year. Scores on the exam improved for the fourth year in a row. The overall passing rate, which was 55 percent in 1994 and 73 percent in 1997, rose to 77 percent in 1998.

Texas, which has focused on early reading intervention, saw the passing rate for 3rd grade reading rise to 86 percent last year, 5 percentage points above 1997's rate. And more reading improvements may lie ahead. Texas began enforcing a new law last fall that requires K-2 reading assessments. Districts can use state models or create their own systems.

"Through early intervention, we hope to have more students reading by 3rd grade," says Robin Gilchrist, the assistant state commissioner for reading initiatives.

The only drop on the 1998 TAAS came in 3rd grade math, for which the passing rate fell slightly, from 81 percent to 80 percent.

Minority students continued to close gaps in scores with their white peers. Seventy-nine percent of Hispanic and 77 percent of black students passed the 1998 tests, up from 75 percent and 71 percent, respectively, in 1997, for all grade levels and subjects tested. Meanwhile, the percentage of whites passing the tests rose from 91 percent to 92 percent last year.

A record number of Texas schools--1,048, or 16 percent of the state's schools--also earned "exemplary" ratings, the highest rating the state gives. In 1997, 683 schools earned that status. The total of 59 campuses deemed "low performing" in 1998 was seven fewer than in 1997 and a record low.

But the trend of rising scores may end. For the first time since the TAAS started in 1994, results from the Spanish version, and those of special education students, will be part of the 1999 school ratings.

"If this is carried out assiduously, you'll see a lowering of TAAS scores," predicts John Cole, the president of the Texas Federation of Teachers, the state affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers.

"The major problem will be to educate people that schools aren't doing a worse job, but that we are including a new set of students," Cole says.

At the same time, sentiment that the tests and the rating system should be tougher appears to be growing. And, late last year, state Commissioner of Education Mike Moses proposed expanding the exams. His plan would require legislative approval.

Besides, the state may have the perfect opportunity to make changes as it aligns the tests with its new academic standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or teks, which went into effect last fall.

"As more younger kids are meeting the challenges, I'm not sure that [the system] is that vigorous," says Rene Nu�ez, a state school board member.

In the meantime, the districts and the state spent much of last year offering staff development in the new standards, which educators say will inspire changes in classrooms this school year.

"We'll see more work on problem-solving and reading for understanding," Smisko, the associate education commissioner, declares. "There will be more emphasis on gaining meaning and making sense out of what kids are learning."

Henry Boening, the superintendent of the 10,000-student Galveston school system 50 miles south of Houston, says TEKS will make coursework between the K-12 grade levels more interconnected and consistent.

"I feel that what we are doing now won't be done and stuck on a shelf, but can really be used by the teachers," he says. "This is a pretty big chore."