THE EDUCATION FRONT

State Education Commissioner Robert Scott said Tuesday that the next generation of student tests in Texas will be called STAAR - or the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. Scott announced the change from TAKS to STAAR at an annual conference of school administrators in Austin, saying students will first take the new exams in the 2011-12 school year.

The STAAR will include the 12 new end-of-course exams for high school students that will be launched with freshmen entering school in the fall of 2011. Students will take three end-of-course tests in each of four core subject areas - English, math, science and social studies. To get a diploma, students will have to get a passing average in each subject area as well as pass their classes.

Testing in grades 3-8 also will be modified as the STAAR is introduced into schools and results from grade to grade will be evaluated against performance standards for the English III and Algebra II exams administered to high school students. Scott said the new tests will be more rigorous than the TAKS exams, which have been around since 2003 and which were used in deciding whether to promote students in grades 3, 5 and 8. In addition, Scott said the new performance rating system for schools - based on STAAR results - will debut in 2013.

State Board of Education members Friday narrowly approved a change in proposed U.S. history standards that calls on students to be taught about leading conservative groups from the 1980s and 1990s - with no similar requirement for liberal groups. Pushed by board member Don McLeroy, R-College Station, the provision says students should learn about "key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s" including Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly.

The amendment was approved on a 7-6 vote, with the social conservative bloc on the board providing all but one of the affirmative voters. McLeroy explained that the history standards already were "rife with leftist political periods and events - the populists, the progressives, the New Deal and the Great Society. Including material about the conservative resurgence...provides some political balance to the document." Among the conservative groups that will be covered in history are the National Rifle Association, Moral Majority, Heritage Foundation and Contract with America.

Board members, who began consideration of social studies standards on Wednesday, continued their deliberations on Thursday, adopting scores of amendments - with McLeroy offering the bulk of the changes. Among the proposals that divided board members was one to add the late Sen. Edward Kennedy to a list of important historical figures that students should learn about. Republicans voted down the board's five Democrats on that amendment and also rejected a second proposal to include the Kennedy family in the standards.

About those national standards that Texas proudly refuses to adopt...

Today the Texas Education Agency issued a "See, I told you so" press release with the headline, "State's curriculum standards earn 'A' in national report."

Education Week's annual "Quality Counts" report gave Texas top marks for its standards, testing and accountability system, TEA's release notes. Texas also earned a B for its early childhood education and college readiness programs, the TEA says.

Yet TEA makes no mention of Texas' overall grade — a C+ — or grades in other categories, like the C for K-12 achievement, the C for teaching or that pesky D+ for school finance.

State Board of Education members were urged by dozens of witnesses to rewrite various sections of proposed curriculum standards for social studies Wednesday as the board prepared to vote for the first time on new requirements for U.S. history, government and other social studies courses. Among the diverse recommendations from witnesses were calls for more coverage of Sikhism - the world's fifth largest religion - and inclusion of material on Texas naval history.

There also was testimony from groups and individuals who supported the standards written last year by writing teams - made up of teachers and academics - appointed by the education board. Dallas members of the National Council of Jewish Women, for example, said the proposed standards avoid promotion of any existing religions - a tenet they want to see preserved by the board. The "culture wars" over religion and other controversial topics "are distracting the State Board of Education and our schools from making sure our children get a sound education," said Joani Cohan of Dallas, representing the group.

There were signs Wednesday that the board will be divided over how much to emphasize religion in U.S. history classes. Board member Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, noted there is no mention of the principle of separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution and he pointed out that the constitutions of all 50 states refer to God. Mercer and other social conservatives on the board believe religion has not been given enough coverage in the proposed standards and are expected to push several amendments on Thursday. The public hearing on Wednesday was expected to run several hours with the first board votes on the standards scheduled for Thursday.

State Education Commissioner Robert Scott, following in the footsteps of the man who appointed him - Gov. Rick Perry - has sent a letter to the Texas congressional delegation objecting to efforts by the U.S. Department of Education to develop national curriculum standards and a national achievement test. Earlier this year, Texas was one of the few states to decide not to participate in drafting a national curriculum for core subjects.

"This effort can be seen as a step toward a federal takeover of the nation's public schools," Scott wrote in the letter. "Texas has consistently maintained that states should retain their authority to determine the curriculum and testing requirements for their students." The commissioner estimated that joining the national standards and testing movement would require Texas to "respend" at least $3 billion already expended on the state's current standards and testing program.

The letter seems to indicate that Texas has just about given up on getting a piece of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top federal grant program for schools because of its stance against national standards. "It appears that the USDE is placing its desire for a federal takeover of public education above the interests of the 4.7 million schoolchildren in the State of Texas by setting two different starting lines - one for nearly every other state in the country and one for Texas," Scott wrote. Texas' decision to forgo national standards deprives the state of at least 40 of the possible 500 points in the application process for the federal money.

State Education Commissioner Robert Scott announced Tuesday that he is partially lifting the current cap on the number of charter school campuses in Texas - but only for high-performing charter school operators. That means charter schools that are rated either "recognized" or "exemplary" may establish additional campuses without state approval.

"This is for the higher performing charter schools, those that have a very good track record and promise to continue that track record," Scott said during a speech to Austin business leaders. "They can continue to expand as long their campuses remain recognized or exemplary."

The commissioner also said he may have authority under an informal opinion from the attorney general to issue more state charters than the current 215 limit set by the Legislature several years ago. But he plans to work with lawmakers in their next session in 2011 before there is any move to lift that cap. A bill to increase the number of charter schools failed during the legislative session earlier this year. Charter school critics say the number should not be increased until recurring problems at many campuses are resolved.

The Texas Education Agency announced last week that significantly more Texas students earned higher scores on their Advanced Placement tests in the 2008-2009 school year than over the previous year. Citing College Board data, TEA says that scores of 3 or higher on the tests went up by nine percent for Texas' public school students. (Three, four and five are the top scores on AP exams.)

The data also was good for minority students in Texas' public schools. The percentage of African-Americans scoring three or higher went up 17.3 percent. The percentage of Latinos hitting that mark went up 16 percent.

Educators also look at how many students take AP tests and how many AP tests actually are given. (Students can take AP classes in more than one subject.) That data is one more sign of a school's focus on college readiness, or the lack thereof.

Here, too, there were encouraging signs. According to the TEA, the number of Texas students taking AP tests went up 8 percent and the number of exams given went up 6.4 percent.

AP courses are supposed to be more rigorous and designed to get students ready for college, so this data is one more indication that at least some Texas kids are both aiming for and preparing for college.

I say "at least" because we've talked here before how the state has plenty to worry about when it comes to getting kids ready for college. Either too many kids need remedial work when they get to college, or too few high schoolers are scoring high enough on the annual TAKS test to show they have mastered their subjects.

TEA chief Robert Scott was very candid about this duality in a telephone interview last week. I touch upon what so much conflicting data means in this column about keeping our eyes on the big picture.

The way I see it, Texas schools are both advancing and stalling at the same time. That may be like life, but that can't become our excuse. We need to keep getting more kids ready for college or community college, so they have a shot at good jobs.

I'll stop here and not start sermonizing. Let's celebrate the AP results -- and push for more next year.

A huge number of school districts and campuses are appealing their state ratings. And as Tawnell Hobbs reported Sunday, it's mostly tied to new state rules that classify more kids as dropouts. Schools want a break, saying they were slapped with a lower rating because they had a few too many dropouts.

Tawnell described how schools pound the pavement to find these kids:

At Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas ISD, principal Edward Conger and his staff located four students who affected their school's rating - one was in prison, another had transferred to a different school district, and two were in other schools.

Conger refers to his roster of missing students as "the V.I.P. list" because of the importance of locating them.

If Thomas Jefferson is typical, you've got to wonder who really benefits: the kids or the grownups? Those four kids are likely getting no more or less an education after being located. Surely in some cases, schools do get kids back in class. But how often is this just a big accounting exercise?

It reminds me of a scene from "The Wire" when ex-con Cutty applies for a custodial job at a middle school but it's really a truancy officer job:

Out on his truancy rounds, Cutty learns what his job is really about. The school is only interested in having the kids show up for one day a month in September and October - the minimum attendance that assures each school will be funded for the fullest enrollment. Cutty is incredulous. "Naw, naw man. School is school," he says to deaf ears. "Which one of y'all still needs your September day?" his round-up partner asks the kids in an abandoned lot.

I'm working on a story about commended rates on the TAKS. That's right, I said commended, not passing. So much focus goes on the latter — school and district ratings depend almost entirely on how many kids pass the TAKS. Commended rates don't matter, even though they show actual mastery of a subject.

So, here's what I'm wondering. Do Texas parents, teachers and policymakers pay enough attention to the commended rates? What can — and can't — they tell us? It seems like emphasizing pass rates just encourages schools to concentrate on the "bubble" kids and not those at higher achievement levels.

Just an example of passing vs. commended: Pretty much every school district rocked the eighth-grade reading TAKS this year, with pass rates in the 90s and even some 100 percents. Commended is another story — it ranged from 33 percent in Lancaster up to 84 percent in Highland Park.

Holly Hacker's story Sunday about Texas high schoolers not being ready for college once they're admitted was certainly a depressing tale. But it is not a new one to college deans, professors and parents. Remedial education has become commonplace. And it's something that goes on across all sorts of demographic profiles, as Holly's story indicates.

Robert Scott has gotten beat up since he suggested last week that employers shouldn't hire Texas dropouts. Texas' education commissioner wasn't asking for a state law to ban the practice, but rather for businesses to voluntarily stop the hirings.

Texas Association of Business president Bill Hammond, in so many words, told Scott to stay out of business's business. And others have gone after him for proposing an unenforceable system. (Our story on his proposal has already drawn more than 140 comments.)

Scott says he was merely trying to uphold the law. In a telephone conversation I had with him yesterday, he cited a federal law that says businesses can't hire someone under age 14 and a state law that says teens must be in school at ages 16 and 17.

On the technicalities, it's hard to argue against him. But, as much as I hate seeing kids drop out, there's a larger point here. And that is teens who drop out and who aren't under 14 deserve a chance to put food on their table. In reality, they could be putting food on their families' table. They couldn't do that if no one hires them. There's also this reality: A job could keep them off the street and the dole.

Scott, however, says he has another point to make, and this one makes sense.

He wants businesses to work with dropout employees to enroll them in a flex-time school. That could be done through either the school district or a charter school. And it could entail businesses developing a serious partnership with the local charters and district to employers simply putting information about school options at the time clock or somewhere that young dropouts can see the material.

According to Scott, Houston already has a program that educates employers about helping dropouts. Why don't chambers of commerce across the state start doing something like this? It sounds like a better option than trying to get employers to stop hiring dropouts.

On a very related note to Bill's last post...

I've been up to my eyeballs in state school ratings. The buzz this year is all about the "Texas Projection Measure," which is, depending upon whom you ask, either a great leveler of academic playing fields or a statistical trick to make schools look better than they really are.

(TPM 101: This year, schools can get credit for students who failed the TAKS but are predicted to pass in a future year. Thanks to TPM, about twice as many schools this year earned the top "exemplary" rating.)

About a month ago when I talked with Texas Education Agency officials, they said they wanted parents, teachers and others to understand the distinction.

"We're trying to develop a whole series of support materials to make sure it's very clear the difference between a student meeting the standard and a student not meeting the standard but being projected to pass in a subsequent grade," an associate commissioner told me.

So, I'm curious. Have you looked at reports for individual schools or students, and if so, is it easy to understand TPM and how it may have helped? Any ideas for improvement?

Here's the most important decision facing Texas that you've never heard of:

The call that Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott must make to determine how much a student must "grow" each year in a subject like reading or math. The state's employing a new way of measuring students, one that looks at how much value a school adds to a student's knowledge of a subject over a year's time. That growth will factor into the state's annual ranking of a school.

You already may have read about this new method, known as the Texas Projection Measure. The state used it this year, along with student scores on the annual TAKS test, to determine a school's ranking. As Holly Hacker reported earlier this week, quite a few schools saw a boost in their standing because of the growth they've added to a student's learning even though the student didn't pass the exam.

And there's the conundrum. It's a challenge for teachers to take some students each year who have little parental support, don't understand English or have minimal pre-school education. Factors like those can put any child behind at the start of a year. There's a certain logic to judging a teacher and his or her school by how far they get a child to progress over the next nine months.

But how much progress? That's the key issue. And that's the decision Scott has to get right.

Encouragingly, he said last week about the new projection measure:

" I know there has been some concern, and I share that concern. It is going to help schools in their ratings. But I don't want it to help too much, and I don't want to create a false impression of excellence when the performance is not there."

Amen.

We don't need fuzzy math, as has been said in the past about less-than-accurate federal deficit projections. The state needs a standard that judges considerable growth, not minimal growth. At some point, students need to pass the state's achievement exam. They won't be able to do that if they are only growing slightly each year. And if they can't pass the achievement exam, they can't make it out of high school. And if they can't make it out of high school, oh, well, you know the rest of that story, the one that ends up in kids being sunk -- and the state along with them.

Most of us haven't heard about Scott's impending decision because determining the right way to measure growth is complicated. But this part isn't complicated: Measuring growth can't become a substitute for kids becoming proficient in a subject.

The state is scheduled to release annual school and school district academic ratings at 1 p.m. today.

The Texas Education Agency rates campuses and school systems based mainly on TAKS scores.

This year, graduation rates are also figured into ratings, and could hurt high and middle school ratings. The state is also instituting a stricter way of counting dropouts. For instance, high school students could fail the TAKS exam and still graduate. Now they count as dropouts.

In 2007 and 2008, as the state phased in the tougher dropout measure, a low graduation rate could not hurt a school's ratings.

On the other hand, schools stand to benefit from the new "Texas Projection Measure." Students can fail the TAKS but count as passing if they are predicted to pass in a future year. Advocates say the system is fairer to struggling campuses and students, but critics say it waters down the meaning of coveted ratings such as "exemplary" and "recognized."

Once released, ratings for public school districts, schools and charters will be posted on the TEA Web site and with other school data on dallasnews.com.