Sounds good, but so what?
In what may soon prove to be hollow applause, state Education Commissioner Robert Scott was patting Texas on the back today for being the only state to implement all key college and career readiness policies identified by Achieve, a bipartisan, nonprofit education reform organization.
These policies include curriculum standards, graduation requirements, assessments, data systems and accountability systems.
The accountability standard was key for Texas because it was the only state that achieved all four accountability criteria – reporting school performance information annually and publicly, setting state performance goals, providing schoollevel incentives and employing measurements heavily weighted towards college and career readiness.
For several years now, the Texas Legislature has been very good at setting accountability standards – including House Bill 3 during the 2009 session – for everyone involved in the public schools – students, teachers, administrators. Everyone but, of course, the Legislature itself.
During the entire “accountability” buzzword era, the Legislature has not once adequately funded Texas’ public schools. Another recent, national survey – Education Week’s annual “Quality Counts” report gave Texas an “F” on school finance.
And now, lawmakers are threatening to slash important educational programs, including important classsize restrictions, and lay off untold numbers of teachers instead of gutting up and making themselves accountable for adequate, equitable school funding.
Achieve’s report may sound good, but so far it’s a stack of paper.
