Grading Texas

Often overlooked in the controversy over proposals to lift the 22student limit on class sizes in kindergarten through the fourth grade is the fact that school districts that can’t afford to meet the requirement already have an escape clause. All they have to do is ask the Texas Education Agency for waivers, which usually are granted.

So, why are some superintendents pressing the Legislature to lift the cap? Because the 221 limit is extremely popular with parents and other taxpayers, and superintendents don’t like the responsibility of removing such an important educational tool from their schools. They want the Legislature to take the blame instead, particularly since lawmakers are poised to slash the education budget next year.

A statewide survey conducted for TSTA last year showed that 77 percent of Texans consider smaller class sizes either extremely or very important to a quality education and improved student learning. The 221 limit has been on the books since 1984 because it works, and people know that it does. It keeps classes small enough to allow teachers in the primary grades to give our youngest students the individual attention they need.

Jason Embry notes today in his column in the Austin AmericanStatesman that 3,085 waivers have been granted and only five requests denied by TEA since 1984. Jason speculates correctly that superintendents dislike having to “tell parents they are requesting a waiver to make classes larger.”

If districts “routinely” circumvent the limit with waivers, Jason also wonders, what’s the point of having the limit? According to my math, though, the waivers aren’t routinely requested. They average out to only about 120 a year, meaning most of the state’s 1,100 school districts are complying with the cap, and that’s why it has been successful.

As I noted in a blog post a few months ago, there is evidence that class size waivers can result in lowering a school’s accountability rating. This is based on research conducted by the Texas Elementary Principals & Supervisors Association (TEPSA) in 20072008.

According to TEPSA, the number of class size waivers granted per campus that year was in direct inverse proportion to the state accountability rating of that campus. In other words, higher rated campuses received fewer waivers to the 221 cap. TEPSA derived its findings from the TEA Regional and District Level Report to the 2009 Legislature.

Philanthropy certainly has its place in education. Without it, many university classes would be conducted in tents and football games would be played in cow pastures. Givers are entitled to have their voices heard on policy as well as have their names inscribed on buildings. At what point, though, do the strings that billionaires attach to their contributions begin to impede real progress?

An Education Week article, linked below, raises that question again, noting that many individual philanthropists and foundations are horning in, apparently as never before, in the formulation of educational policy. Increasingly, it seems, people in power, including President Obama, are more eager to listen to the views that billionaires of varying degrees of expertise have to offer on education than what the education professionals have to say.

Why? Two reasons, mainly. The wealthy donors come bearing free (save for the strings), nontax money, and they have largely succeeded in convincing elected officials that the main problem with education is educators. Elected officials would much rather hear that than the truth, which, at least in the case of Texas, is an inadequately and inequitably funded school finance system.

Billionaire Bill Gates, through his foundation, has given millions of dollars to various educational causes, including assistance to states competing for federal Race to the Top grants. Much of the money, I am sure, has been wellspent. But Gates also is increasingly trying to impose his own views on educational policy and taking a slap at teachers in the process. He recently urged states, for example, to quit paying teachers extra money based on their experience and advanced degrees.

What makes Bill Gates think that is such a great idea? One of the major problems with teacher retention in Texas is that many promising educators quit after only a few years in the classroom because they know their chances for financial advancement are extremely limited. Experience is invaluable, and Gates insults teachers by suggesting otherwise.

Does he also propose that Microsoft stop paying its experienced, valuable employees more than its new hires? I don’t think so.

Gates obviously is a very successful businessman and knows a lot about software. He also is to be commended for wanting to share his wealth to help improve the public schools. He is entitled to his opinions about public education, but he isn’t an educational expert.

Who elected him? His money, the commodity that officeholders love.

Let him and his fellow philanthropists be heard, but don’t let them dictate.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/12/08/14philanthropy_ep.h30.html?tkn=QLMFkM769unoxq8uCbbM006pjepzzo%2B10sna&cmp=clpedweek

State Comptroller Susan Combs undoubtedly has some ideas worth exploring in her new public school efficiency report linked at the bottom of this post. The Legislature should start, perhaps, with her recommendation that increased administrative staffing levels in school districts be examined. And, as she suggests, some district purchasing practices and building construction procedures can be revised without hurting educational quality.

But Combs’ No. 1 recommendation – lifting the 22student limit on kindergarten through fourth grade classes – would be a huge step backward and, despite her promise of potential shortterm savings of onehalf billion dollars a year, would cost the taxpayers more than that in the nottoodistant future.

Combs is only the latest official to take aim at 221 as an alleged costsavings step in the face of the state’s looming revenue shortfall. Last week, the Senate Education Committee also proposed that the cap, which has been in place since 1984, be removed, and school superintendents are becoming increasingly vocal in favor of removing the cap for the sake of greater budgetary flexibility.

They all fail to point out that, under current law, a school district can get a waiver from the state if the cap poses too great a budgetary problem. They also are ignoring the fact that the 221 studentteacher ratio is an important contributor to a quality learning environment for Texas’ youngest students. That’s why the cap has withstood the test of time, at least so far.

The comptroller proposes that the 22 students per class limit be replaced with a 22student average for school class sizes. That would mean some classes could be considerably larger than 22, large enough for some teachers in the primary grades to have to spend most of their time corralling, rather than teaching, their charges.

Combs says the state could save onehalf billion dollars or more a year by making the change. The savings would come, of course, from lost teacher jobs. But the comptroller’s math ignores the longterm costs of larger classes. Larger classes would, in many cases, hamper the learning process, resulting in lower test scores and, more significantly, youngsters who are lessprepared for the academic challenges of the higher grades and, ultimately, the work force. Larger classes also could worsen the dropout problem among disadvantaged kids who fail to receive as much individual attention as they need in the primary grades. The more dropouts, the more costs – ultimately – to the criminal justice system and the state’s social and economic fabric.

The comptroller also recommends, in essence, replacing the current teacher salary schedule with performancebased pay. The main problem with that idea, as always, is that performance would be based largely on student test scores. The best teachers do more than teach their students how to score high marks on tests. Combs also proposes that the Legislature make it easier for school districts to dismiss ineffective teachers.

Combs notes that perpupil spending on public education in Texas has increased by 63 percent since the 199899 school year, even after accounting for enrollment growth. If she is trying to suggest that the state already is spending enough money on the public schools, she is wrong. Texas wasn’t spending enough money in 199899, and it still isn’t spending enough. Even after the funding increase she cited, Texas still ranks a poor 38th among the states in average expenditures on perpupil instruction. Is Combs also suggesting that teachers shouldn’t have been given pay raises since 1999? Teacher pay has increased since then, but the average teacher pay in Texas is only 34th nationally.

The comptroller, in her report, also rates each school district on a system that, using TAKS scores and expenditures, purports to measure financial efficiency and academic achievement. Here is the link:

http://www.fastexas.org/

The passion that the late Carlos Guerra had for the young, emerging face of Texas is welldocumented in the news clips linked below. The retired San Antonio ExpressNews columnist, who was discovered dead yesterday in a Port Aransas condominium, was more than a writer. He also was an activist. One of his last endeavors, which he tirelessly promoted on Facebook, was to raise money for a scholarship fund at his alma mater, Texas A&M UniversityKingsville.

As contemporaries in the newspaper business, we occasionally crossed paths to exchange war stories, but mostly what I knew about Carlos was what I read in his columns. He championed the needs of children – health care and education, in particular – and was honored by TSTA, among other groups, for his impassioned contributions to the public debate.

Carlos was a voice for the Texas of today and the Texas of the foreseeable future, a Texas of immigrants and unlimited potential being shortchanged by an Austin power structure fearfully clinging to the past. He will be missed.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/news_columnists/veronica_florespaniagua/article/GuerradidntgiveuphopeforabetterTexas864791.php

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/FormerENcolumnistfounddead864129.php