Joint Select Committee on Public School
Accountability Hearing
LAN Update - Archive 04/15/08
The Joint Select Committee on Public School Accountability met April 14 in San Antonio to hear invited and public testimony. Five panels of experts representing the business community, school districts, higher education, school boards and community organizations testified before the committee. Among the experts were Charles Miller, former chairman of the U.S. Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education, and former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff. Ratliff also leads Raise Your Hand Texas, an advocacy group that was instrumental in passing the legislation that created the committee.
The "school district" panel included representatives from the Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Kerrville, and Plano school districts. Their testimony focused on how their districts incorporate student achievement growth into their accountability systems using a form of value-added regression analysis to evaluate individual students, teachers, classes and campus progress. Generally, the systems rank the performance and progress of each area using TAKS scores, norm-referenced tests, end-of-course exams and other measures based on local needs. The goal is to identify students in need of individual attention, predict performance in specific areas and determine a course of study based on each student's experience.
The panel's testimony also shined a light on issues districts will face when implementing pay-for-performance programs for administrators and teachers. According to the panel, growth model analyses can help determine the "teacher quality effect" on student learning by taking into account aspects such as demographics, wealth levels and other student variables. The key is to have reliable data systems and develop the goals of the plan based on local needs. However, evaluating individual teachers using "growth models" is complicated and can be divisive and should be only a portion of the overall evaluation. Most of the districts also include test scores in absolute terms (number of students passing by campus) in their pay-for-performance programs. Such a competitive system can have an adverse effect on campus teamwork and overall working conditions, especially in smaller schools. Several witnesses stressed the importance of using multiple measures to determine student progress, including criterion or norm-referenced measures and computer adaptive testing.
The committee also heard from witnesses who called for incorporating college and workforce readiness standards into public education and making curriculum, assessments and accountability systems more rigorous in order to help Texas meet the demands of the global economy. Commissioner of Education Robert Scott responded by pointing out that Texas has done a good job of phasing in more difficult standards by meeting the system at its current level and increasing rigor and difficulty over time. According to Scott, that is what should be done with any future changes resulting from the committee's work.
Upcoming committee meetings:
May 12, Houston
June 16, Dallas
July 14, Brownsville
Aug 11, West Texas (Location TBD)
ATPE will continue to monitor the committee's activities as it travels around the state.
If you have any questions, please contact ATPE Governmental Relations at
(800) 777-ATPE or e-mail us at ATPE
Governmental Relations.
To find contact info for your legislators go to
http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us and enter your address.
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contracted for by Doug Rogers, Executive Director, Association of Texas
Professional Educators, 305 E. Huntland Dr., Suite 300, Austin, TX
78752-3792, representing ATPE.
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