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Texas will resume grading public schools based on students’ STAAR test results

May 19, 2022 by www.chron.com Leave a Comment

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For the first time since the pandemic began, Texas public schools will be rated based on how students score on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness — more commonly known as the annual STAAR test.

It’s the latest big step toward normalcy for the state’s 8,866 public schools — which includes 782 charter schools — since the COVID-19 pandemic forced school closures in early 2020.

But this year’s ratings come with a few changes. For this year only, schools will receive an A-C rating. Districts and schools that score D or F will receive a “Not Rated” label instead. Schools who fall in those bottom tiers will also evade possible sanctions from the Texas Education Agency during the 2022-2023 school year.

The news comes as thousands of students in grades 3 through 12 are taking the exam this spring. Last year, students had the option to take the STAAR test and results were not held against them or the district.

The ratings, those letter grades affixed on school buildings across the state, are typically released by the Texas Education Agency in August. But when the coronavirus began appearing in the United States more than two years ago, schools were shut down and as a result, standardized testing school testing was canceled for the year.

The new A-C rating this year will allow districts that still have a D or F from 2019 to have a shot of getting a better grade.

Schools and districts are graded on three criteria: student achievement, student progress and how well the school is closing its learning gaps. Student achievement and progress weigh the most and STAAR results are how the agency measures progress. Students are tested on different subjects: reading, math, science and social students.

“STAAR results allow parents, teachers and schools to see how individual students are performing so they can better support those students moving forward,” Frank Ward, a TEA spokesperson said. “There is extensive evidence that the process of setting reasonable goals for schools and publicly reporting on progress towards those goals improves the kinds of academic supports our students receive.”

Last year, STAAR results showed that the pandemic had a significant impact on student learning with far lower scores than before the pandemic, especially when it came to math. Also, schools that relied more heavily on online class instruction had students who scored significantly lower than those school that were able to open and offer in-person instruction.

There’s fear that this year’s test scores may be impacted again because of pandemic-related school closures and teacher absences that occurred during surges in infection caused by the delta and omicron variants of the coronavirus.

Even though the rating system has been changed this year, not everyone is a fan of the school rating system to begin with.

Matthew Gutierrez, superintendent of the Seguin Independent School District, near San Antonio, believes the STAAR will be helpful to gauge students’ academic level, but the letter grades should’ve been postponed this school year as well because of the continued COVID-19 distruptions. Seguin, along with other districts, had teachers and substitutes out with COVID-19 during the omicron surge this past winter.

“We had students who went days without support from their certified teacher,” he said. “You had situations where you were combining classrooms and having really creative staffing, so it’s not optimal for learning.”

Gutierrez is also concerned about the “Not Rated” label. He said if a district scored an F in 2019 and then a D this school year, that district won’t get credit for that progress.

Monty Exter, a lobbyist with the Association of Texas Professional Educators, said the accountability system coupled with the STAAR test incentivizes schools to teach for the test instead of taking a holistic approach to teaching.

“Teaching people how to test is frankly a completely worthless skill,” Exter said.

Lawmakers and teacher unions called on the state to scrap the exam again for this spring, citing that teachers and administrators are still feeling the effects of the pandemic and the STAAR would put added pressure during another tumultuous year.

“The STAAR test administration is cumbersome and time-consuming,” Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, said earlier this year in a written statement. “Parents and educators share concerns about learning loss and the need to support our children after two years of disruption.”

Disclosure: Association of Texas Professional Educators has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here .

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Superintendent faces protest, loads of questions on re-staffing of Baton Rouge schools

May 19, 2022 by www.theadvocate.com Leave a Comment

Superintendent Sito Narcisse and his staff were hit with a barrage of questions and concerns Thursday from School Board and community members about recent sweeping changes to staffing to Baton Rouge public schools .

Board member Jill Dyason faulted Narcisse for not working with the board on the staffing changes, saying it’s a pattern going back to controversies over a planned early start to the school year in 2021 and concerns about an expansion of dual enrollment.

“I am having a hard time accepting why we are here again and we haven’t learned from their mistakes,” Dyason said.

Board member Connie Bernard said the reassigning of school employees to new schools and jobs was “a cacophony of errors.” She also said Narcisse’s top-down management is “breeding mistrust.” She said the school system should have relied on incentives, not compulsion, to get employees to switch schools.

“I wouldn’t reassign people against their will,” Dyason said. “I think it just breeds a poor community culture and a poor district culture.”

There were so many questions and concerns that School Board member Mark Bellue suggested the board hold a special meeting soon to hash it all out.

“I do think as I look at these issues … it’s pretty complex,” Bellue said.

The School Board this week directed Narcisse to publicly explain the “comprehensive staffing model” he instituted recently and respond to concerns from the public. Applying that model led to 230-plus school employees being placed on an “impact” list, meaning their specific job positions were cut and they were told they need to change schools.

Board member Dadrius Lanus overall defended Narcisse, but started with sharp, if narrow criticism.

“The communications that came out from this office was abysmal,” Lanus said. “It was absolutely abysmal. This can’t continue.”

Narcisse acknowledged the communications problems, but said he’s wouldn’t apologize for his goal for the staffing changes, which he described as “student-centered.” He said the needs of students trump “adult problems.”

“We should be ‘students first’ and everything else second,” Narcisse insisted.

Thursday’s meeting was preceded by a parent protest that attracted more than 50 participants. It was the second such protest in a week . Many of the parents were shouting “Release Narcisse.”

Ashley Ballard, a parent with children in three Baton Rouge schools, held a sign saying “I support a teacher’s right to choose.” She said she’s came out to protest because teachers upset with the changes fear retaliation.

“We want our voices to be heard,” Ballard said. “We want our teacher’s voices to be heard. We want the district to respond, for School Board members to vote him out.”

Juanita Morris, a paraprofessional at Tara High, said that she hopes the board will reverse Narcisse’s actions.

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“I’m hoping everybody can keep their position and they bring these positions back because everyone needs a job,” Morris said.

Many of the protestors stayed for the meeting and told the board their concerns.

Paige Colwell, an art teacher at McKinley Middle, objected to the reassignment of two drama teachers from her school.

“You’re pulling apart our community, and our program that we just stood up here and received accolades,” Colwell said.

Colwell also questioned the assertion that having teachers change schools as outlined will improve equity in staffing.

“Schools that had the biggest need also had the biggest impact list, so I don’t believe that it’s about equity,” Colwell said.

A few speakers spoke in favor of what Narcisse is trying to do.

“I see the sign (at the School Board Office, it says, ‘Every student every day.’” observed Tawanda Cherry, a graduate of Istrouma High. “But what I’m hearing is, Some students in privileged areas every day.”

School officials offered some more detail about the staffing changes made under the new Comprehensive Staffing Model .

Nichola Hall, chief of human resources, said that many of the vacancies are now filled, saying there were 621 vacancies before the reassignment letters went out but now there are 311 vacancies.

Chief of Staff Caron Smith said the staffing model protected certain positions, some new, that were district priorities.

“The model identifies positions that are aligned with the district’s strategic goals and mission,” Smith said.

Dyason questioned Smith at length, saying she objected to the limitations it placed on a principal’s autonomy.

“This could have been done so much better,” Dyason said, “and maybe this didn’t need to all be in the first year of the implementation.”

Board member Mike Gaudet said he has concerns about the model, but said he’s inclined to give Narcisse the benefit of the doubt. He also said that a lot of schools have greater needs than the schools complaining the most.

“I don’t want to tear down the good things but I can’t be deaf to the people who don’t have those things,” Gaudet said.

What rules should Baton Rouge school staff follow on social media? New policy raises questions.

May 19, 2022 by www.theadvocate.com Leave a Comment

Superintendent Sito Narcisse is asking the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board to adopt a new, far-reaching policy tightly regulating what school employees can do on social media when it comes to interacting with students and discussing their jobs and the school district.

The proposed policy, entitled “ Employee Use of Social Media ,” is scheduled to be voted on when the School Board meets at 5 p.m. Thursday. With little discussion, the board gave unanimous preliminary approval to the new policy on May 5, but some parents have raised questions about the proposed policy in the days since.

Harmony Hobbs, a parent of public schoolchildren, sees the new policy as a clear effort to muzzle employees tempted to share their concerns about their school or the school district.

“Basically, our leadership wants to be able to fire any employee who has the audacity to speak out against them on social media,” Hobbs wrote Monday in a public Facebook post . “SILENCING WILL NOT WORK.”

Benjamin Owens, another parent and a practicing attorney, said it took him just a few minutes to conclude that the proposed policy is unconstitutional and “has no prospect for surviving a legal challenge.”

“In particular, it is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, implicates due process, and would chill speech that is protected under the First Amendment,” Owens said.

Despite such concerns, several school districts in Louisiana have similar policies for employees using social media. One of the first was the Orleans Parish School Board back in June 2016, which is almost identical to the one East Baton Rouge Parish is considering now.

Locally, Livingston Parish schools adopted a similar policy in July 2020 . Lafayette Parish schools c onsidered a version of this policy in November 2018 , but quietly dropped the idea.

Currently, the East Baton Rouge Parish school system has an array of rules about what school employees can do on school grounds and with school computers. But it does not have specific rules dealing with what employees can do on the Internet outside of school.

The school district does have a policy setting out general “standards of conduct” for employees that can be invoked if they do something questionable outside of school.

The new policy includes several new, specific employee restrictions that, if violated, could lead to discipline, up to being fired:

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No posting of confidential information about students, employees or school district business.
No posts that “libel or defame” the School Board, School Board members, school employees or students.
Any posts “related to or referencing the school district, students and other employees” must be “professional.”
No posting of “profane, pornographic, obscene, indecent, lewd, vulgar or sexually offensive language, pictures or graphics or other communication that could reasonably be anticipated to cause a substantial disruption to the school environment.”
No posts with “inappropriate content that negatively impacts their ability to perform their jobs.”
No posting of “identifiable images of a student or student’s family without permission from the student and the student’s parent or legal guardian.”
Never accept current students as “friends” or “followers” or otherwise connect with students on social media sites unless there’s a “a family relationship or other type of appropriate relationship which originated outside of the school setting.”

The policy defines social media to include personal websites, blogs, wikis, social network sites, online forums, virtual worlds and video-sharing websites. It also has a catch-all that covers “any other social media generally available to the public or consumers that does not fall within the School Board’s technologies network (e.g., Web 2.0 tools, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln, Flickr, YouTube).”

Gwynn Shamlin, the board’s general counsel, told the School Board on May 5 that he helped develop the new policy after getting a request from Nichola Hall, chief officer for human resources.

“This looks at our employee’s use of social media, which can happen outside our system, including the internet and use of email,” Shamlin said. “So this is the use of platforms like Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.

Shamlin said the policy was developed in order not to violate employee rights.

“We had to walk a bit of a tight rope developing this because there are free speech issues you have to be careful with,” Shamlin said.

In his letter, Owens notes that a judge on May 10 struck down an employee policy used by Jackson Public Schools in Jackson, Mississippi that has similarities to the one East Baton Rouge is considering. In that case, the judge ruled that the rules that the policy there violated the Mississippi state constitution , “but also that they gravely threaten the public interest in public education.”

“By silencing its teachers, staff, employees, and their organizational advocate, JPS deprives its students, their parents, and other interested parties such as legislators and taxpayers, of important information necessary to fully understand and take part in their public education system, and meaningfully call for its improvement where and when needed,” special Circuit Judge Jess Dickinson wrote in the ruling.

In Louisiana, the City of New Orleans recently settled litigation over an employee social media policy in a case brought in 2020 by two public library workers who said the policy violated their First Amendment rights. As part of the settlement, the city government removed the most controversial aspects of the previous policy, including a provision that said city employees are not allowed to “engage or respond to negative or disparaging posts” about city government.

Katie Schwartzmann, director of the Tulane University Law School First Amendment Clinic , helped represent those two city employees. She said the City of New Orleans policy was different in key ways, but she said the proposed policy in East Baton Rouge raises several potential First Amendment concerns for her. For instance, the policy does not define “professional” when it comes to what employees post on the internet and could be used to target otherwise protected free speech.

“What does it mean to be professional and does that purport to cover criticism of otherwise public matters?” Schwartzmann said.

Teachers speak out about frustrations with unions slow-walking school reopenings: ‘Politics seems to rule’

February 25, 2021 by www.foxnews.com Leave a Comment

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President Biden’s plan to reopen schools within 100 days has faced opposition from teachers unions due to coronavirus safety concerns, leaving other teachers frustrated.

“For the past year, there has essentially been a national teachers union strike that has left tens of millions of families without access to an adequate education,” said Tommy Schultz, vice president of the American Federation for Children, a nonprofit supporting school choice programs.

Schultz cited numbers from October 2020 showing that roughly 3 million children haven’t had a day of education since last March , “completely falling through the cracks.”

“This will haunt our country for decades to come, and the teachers unions’ blatant refusal to disregard science in the name of political extortion is outright shameful,” he said.

Rebecca Friedrichs, who was an elementary school teacher in California for 28 years, echoed Schultz’s concerns for U.S. children and the state of their education.

TEACHERS UNION HEAD ‘DEBUNKS’ RUMOR THAT IT DOESN’T WANT REOPENING, DODGES ON WHETHER KIDS BACK THIS YEAR

“Most good teachers are deeply troubled by the strikes,” she said. “We never want to deny the children even one day of learning, and we understand that we are servant leaders to those children.”

Chicago Teachers Union leadership list their demands and leave a box of coal outside the entrance of City Hall following a car caravan where teachers and supporters demanded a safe and equitable return to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chicago on Dec. 12, 2020. (Photo by Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Friedrichs is also a former union representative and was the lead plaintiff in the 2016 Supreme Court Case, Friedrichs v CTA , the case against the National Education Association and the California Teachers Association, which sought to give teachers and other public employees the right to decide for themselves whether or not to fund unions. The case lost after the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked in a 4-4 decision and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately ruled against it.

Friedrichs said unions are using strikes to “push their muscle,” and essentially pressure communities into meeting their demands, sometimes at the expense of children’s education.

“Unions use these tactics on good teachers and threaten their jobs and peace on the job,” she said. “So most teachers participate in strikes only to ‘go along to get along.'”

Lisa Disbrow, an elementary school teacher in California with 34 years of experience, agreed, saying that teachers stay in the union because they’re afraid of the union response to them leaving.

CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION AGREES TO REOPENING DEAL FOR IN-PERSON LEARNING

“They’ve been told that no one else will take care of them, no one else will protect them,” she said. “They’re surrounded by people pushing in on them and trying to undermine a focus on academics, quality classroom management and a pursuit of real academic growth as the whole spectrum of agendas and indoctrination platforms swoop in. It’s very politicized.”

Teachers and PSC CUNY union members hold signs during a strike outside Hunter Campus High School in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020. (Photo: Paul Frangipane/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Willie Preston is the father of six children who all attend public schools in Chicago. He said said his children’s teachers and Chicago public school teachers in general are “very afraid” to speak out publicly because the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is a “very unforgiving organization.”

“I don’t know if a CTU member even those against what’s going on would be willing to publicly speak out,” he said. “CTU has teachers reaching out directly to parents for making social media statuses that don’t align with their views. These teachers won’t be saying anything.”

Karen Cuen, an elementary music teacher for over 25 years in the Chino Valley Unified School District in California, believes other teachers are frustrated with their unions too, because schools need to reopen.

“Teachers unions are never correct to strike,” she said. “Teaching is not just a job, it’s a calling. Our ‘clients’ are precious children who deserve to have their teachers teaching them, not walking a picket line.”

Cuen said she understands workplace issues and the need for bargaining power, but said that some union demands to reopen schools “are often not even related to education.”

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“We have been told to ‘follow the science,’ which increasingly points to opening schools, yet politics seems to rule at every turn,” she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that schools can open for in-person learning without teacher vaccines “even in areas of the highest community spread” with proper safety precautions.

“We have a consensus among non-political medical experts, including top CDC leaders who wrote in the top medical journal, JAMA, three weeks ago that schools do not contribute to transmission — a position that contradicted the official CDC guidelines,” said Dr. Marty Makary, a physician and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, as well as a Fox News Contributor.

Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a family and emergency medicine doctor and Director of CityMD and Fox News contributor, agreed.

FILE – In this Jan. 11, 2021, file photo, pre-kindergarten teacher Sarah McCarthy works with a student at Dawes Elementary in Chicago. (Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, Pool, File) ((Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, Pool, File))

“I understand the fear teachers may have,” she said, “however let’s look at the data, and the science which shows transmission of COVID-19 in the classroom is less than that in the community. I think we need to support our teachers and allow them to have access to vaccinations so that they feel safe returning to the classroom.”

“The CDC already issued school guidance in September. The Biden administration’s call for another updated set of guidance stalled the reopening of schools and resulted in more pediatric suicide, worsened the child hunger crisis and created other health problems in children,” he said. “The overly onerous requirements for schools in the CDC’s guidance has further stalled school reopenings and further harmed children. Time is lives.”

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Preston said he wants his six children to be able to return to school in Chicago for multiple reasons, but principally that “the science from the CDC and others says schools can reopen safely as long as mitigation policies are put in place, which the Chicago Public School system has done.”

“In fact, CPS spent nearly $100 million to set CPS classrooms up to be safe,” he said.

Preston believes it is possible for Biden to achieve his goal of reopening schools in his first 100 days if he stands behind science and “stands up for American children and their families, and does not allow education to become a political fight.”

2 Montgomery County School Districts To Require Masks Again Due To County’s COVID-19 Level

May 19, 2022 by philadelphia.cbslocal.com Leave a Comment

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Pa. (CBS) — Masks are coming back for at least two suburban Philadelphia county school districts. Both the Lower Merion School District and Cheltenham School District said Thursday night masks will now be required in all district schools and on buses beginning Friday.

The school districts cited the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 level for Montgomery County.

Due to change in CDC COVID level for Montco, masks will be required in LMSD schools/on buses starting tomorrow, Friday, May 20, 2022. pic.twitter.com/ny52syonmP

— Lower Merion SD (@LowerMerionSD) May 20, 2022

“Please remember to send your child to school with a mask. If your child doesn’t have a mask, they are available in the nurse’s suite. Once the county has returned to ‘medium’ on the data tracker, the district will pivot back to ‘mask recommended.’ We are still offering Test to Stay and Mask to Stay for eligible students and staff,” Cheltenham Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian Scriven said in a letter sent to parents.

Montgomery County’s community COVID-19 level is listed as high , according to the CDC.

(Credit: CDC)

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The county has a 281.26 case rate per 100,000 population and 10.4 new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population.