Volume 18, Issue 5
January, 2010
MCALLEN AFT NEWS
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
NATIONAL AND STATE UPDATE
Social Security
During our school visits in McAllen, we asked those who visited with us to sign a petition to have Congress open the loop hole for Social Security Fairness. We faxed all of our petitions to Texas Senators Cornyn and Hutchison.
In a letter to McAllen AFT, Cornyn and Hutchison responded that they are not interested in opening the loop hole for social security. It is obvious that neither have any interest in public school employees.
We need to look for strong candidates and vote these disinterested people out of office. We will work hard to find interested candidates.
Arne Duncan
Arne Duncan was named U.S. Secretary of Education last year.
Since then he has been pushing states to put more emphasis on standardized achievement-test scores in evaluating schools and teachers. He often cited as a model his recent efforts as head of the Chicago public schools to promote charter schools and “performance pay” for teachers.
Just lately, though, the success of that Chicago model has been called into serious question. It turns out Chicago schools during his watch were outperformed by other major urban school districts around the country where there was less emphasis on test-driven evaluation. A couple of recent studies by independent education analysts in his home town also have cast doubt on claims of student advancement during the Duncan years in Chicago’s public schools.
In defense of his record, Secretary Duncan has made a remarkable acknowledgment of the difference between test scores and real educational results. Duncan was quoted in the Washington Post a few days ago, “Obviously, you always want to get better faster. I was focused on outcomes—improving graduation rates, making sure that students who graduated had a chance to pursue higher ed. You can have the best test scores in the world, but if kids aren’t going that next step, you’re not changing their lives.” That’s a sensible statement, putting test scores and test-driven evaluation of educational performance in their proper, secondary place.
2010 Election Season
In a noteworthy development Linda Chavez-Thompson of San Antonio has filed for the lieutenant governor’s post, which over the years has evolved into one of the most powerful positions in state government with a direct agenda-setting role presiding over the Texas Senate. Chavez-Thompson has a long history of helping Texas working folks. She would bring an unaccustomed pro-employee orientation to the state policy-making if elected.
Bill White (former mayor of Houston) has filed to run for Governor. He brings good experience to the job.
The deadline for registering to vote in the March 2 primary of your choice is February 1. Voting actually will begin less than 40 days from now. Early voting in person starts February 16 and runs through February 26, 2010. You should be sure you are registered to vote.
Mismeasuring School Performance
Readers of our newsletters already know all about the frequent contradictions that occur between the state and federal school accountability systems. A campus rated favorably under the state system simultaneously may be identified as failing to make AYP under the federal scheme. A campus that meets the federal AYP standard nonetheless may be tagged as “Academically Unacceptable” under the state’s rating system.
But the ratings confusion and contradictions don’t stop there. Consider the list of public schools, published in December, 2009 by the Texas Education Agency, that will be required under state law to offer transfer options next school year to their students because of deficiencies in school performance recorded within the past three years. Some media reports immediately characterized this list as a roster of “failing schools”—despite the fact that quite a few of the schools received positive ratings for their current-year performance under both of the main state and federal accountability systems. The list includes any campuses that were rated “Academically Unacceptable” at any point in the past three years.
Since the PEG (Public Education Grants) law was originally enacted, many state lawmakers have come to see it as a crude, backward-looking measure that does not give a true picture of what’s going on at a particular campus. But this law remains on the books, and even schools that have risen to “Exemplary” status, with passing rates of 90% or more, are on the PEG list for 2010-2011 because of their students’ performance on state achievement tests in 2007. Next year (2011) the legislature, as part of its unfinished agenda of reforms in school accountability, needs to consider whether it makes any sense to continue this dysfunctional PEG rating system.
Texas Education News, January 4, 2010
Superintendents—average base salary is $117,372; in current job for four years; employee plus family health insurance; allowance of$1,182 for cell phone and/or Internet service. This survey data is based on responses from 826 (80%) of the 1,030 Texas school districts
