Burn the Vote!

Well, the entirety of Harris County's voting equipment - every single e-slate and the machines that assign codes to voters - were destroyed in a fire yesterday. Ten thousand pieces of equipment worth $30 million. The genius Republicans in charge of protecting the vote had all of their election assets stored in one place, and it's all been reduced to ashes . . .and we start early voting on Oct. 18 - seven weeks away.

Chief elections officer Beverly Kaufman is already squawking about reducing the number of polling locations on election day. You can read more about the here and here (click2houston which is an especially interesting read), but I have to tell you, I find it very disturbing that Harris County is where a huge bulk of Bill White's votes are going to come from and here we probably have an arsonist trying to burn up that vote.

This just adds to the egregious situation in Harris County of Republicans trying to suppress votes by rejecting voter registration ballots over the pickiest reasons and having personal for profit schemes being run right out of the elections office.

We have been wondering what Rick Perry had up his sleeve to shut down Bill White's vote. Whee! I don't think anyone could have predicted this.

Back to School - UT This Time

Hook 'em! Today, I help move my son to Austin. He's transferring into UT as a sophomore after a great academic year at Texas Tech his freshman year.

While I'm gripped by thoughts of how much I'll miss him after a great summer at home where he fed me gourmet meals he cooked and made me laugh with his sharp witted commentary on life, I'm also musing about how fortunate he is to be a part of this family, with all the opportunities he has, and how other equally talented and smart young adults are facing much different scenarios as the college year starts up again.

My precious child has a large extended family network of support - both emotionally and financially. He knows he can not only count on his parents, but also his grandparents to make sure he has everything he needs to succeed (thanks, mom and dad!)  It's his choice whether he wants to work or not. His immediate family has college degrees and everyone in my family has graduate degrees, including two grandparents with Ph.D.'s

There are lots of young adults right now who are just as much the future of our country as my son, but they are struggling mightily under the burden of high tuition, fees and room and board. Some of these kids qualify for free tuition at our top Texas universities, but not room and board. They may be living at home taking care of siblings or their own children. They are racking up student loan debts. They won't finish in four years. They may very well be the first in their family to go to college, so they don't have the same role models and support my son has.

I get the same overwhelming feelings I got the day my son was born. He is so fortunate to have been born into this family. On that same day, many, many children were born who were not so fortunate. I'm humbled and grateful for our good luck and am committed to doing my part to make things work better for those who do not have my advantages.

Reality Check: Homeless Students

Everyone - Texas Legislators, I'm looking at you - needs to get real about what goes on with public school students in their everyday existence outside of the school day. I've said it before - one of my reality checks as a new high school teacher back in the distant past of the 1980's was that everything that goes on in society and that you read about in the media, goes on in public schools or affects school children - assault, incest, abuse, poverty, accidents, illness, homelessness, etc. It ALL plays out in classrooms across Texas every single day.

Which leads me again to my question - why are we embarking on a plan to make every single Texas high school student pass twelve stakes tests to graduate from high school (instead of the current four)? Call me crazy, but this is going to put too much pressure on children and cause the dropout rate to increase.

The Houston Chronicle describes the very real and very pervasive problem of childhood homelessness. None of what they reported is any surprise, in any way shape of form, to any public school teacher:

Locally, social service providers have been keeping a tally. So for this year, there are 5,404 homeless children, up from 2,891 last year, according to the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County. These are children 17 and younger who live with a parent in any place that's not fit for habitation. Both counts are considered to be vastly underrepresented, the organizations said.

The story about the high school student is of particular concern to me.

Malcolm, 16, lives at Star of Hope's emergency center in Houston with his mother. The teenager, who guards his emotions, said he worries about whether he and his mother will find a home before their time runs out at the shelter. He also worries about his mother's health because she has diabetes and other health problems.

"She's trying hard to find a home," he said. "I've been trying to help the best way I can, doing whatever she needs me to do. I tell her I love her, and things will get better."

Malcolm's mother, Sheffield, who didn't want her last name used, has a disability and has struggled to find a permanent home since moving to Houston from Lake Charles, La., last year. The family had been living with friends until last month. She said Malcolm shows signs of depression because of their circumstances but he doesn't like to discuss it. But he talks often about having a house with his own room.

"It makes me sad that we're in this situation," Sheffield said, crying.

Note how the reporter points out the multiple issues one student has - this is what we see in a huge number of our high school students (many at risk factors for one kid) - homelessness, a parent with health problems, depression.

Folks, this our reality in Texas public schools. Malcolm is not an outlier. Let me be perfectly clear - with his multiple at-risk factors, he is more the norm than folks outside of public education realize. Pink Dome folks need to get a grasp on this as they head into session in January and once again make education policy that is intended to make kids college and career ready. These kids need a fair chance to check the "I graduated from high school box." I'm not talking about dumbing down anything, but adults can certainly make decisions that take the pressure off of 14-18 year old children and give them a fair chance to progress through high school, and grow and mature into productive adults.

Idaho Drops High Stakes Science Tests

Texas implemented its first high stakes science test for public school students in 2003, and within a few years rolled out all the science TAKS tests we give now. Texas students take science TAKS in 5th, 8th, 10th and 11th grade, with only the 11th grade Exit TAKS being high stakes for students (a graduation requirement). All of our science TAKS tests are high stakes for schools, as each of them is part of the school's state accountability rating, while none of them figure into their federal AYP rating.

Idaho has a different idea as to the importance of high stakes science tests. Just when you think no state has more religious nuts than Texas trying to control the State's education system, we can thank God we are not Idaho, with Mormons flipping out over science tests. Or, for those who are not fans of high stakes testing, maybe the lesson is that we need to grow our Mormon sub-pop.

An article in the Idaho Statesman paints a picture of a state that has:

• District created science tests for all 5th and 7th graders (not a common state mandated test)
• A state created/mandated test for 10th graders, with no requirement to pass in order to graduate
• Students who perform more poorly in science than in math or reading on standardized achievement tests
• A graduation requirement of three years of math and science (Texas requires four years of both)

Idaho is moving towards end of course exams in science that students would have to pass in order to graduate, but those do not kick in until 2017.

This all sounded to me like, well, OK, this is different from Texas and it gave me pause for thought about where we would in regards to science education in Texas if science wasn't a big part of our accountability system, when I read this (bolded emphasis mine):

That proficiency requirement was part of an effort to boost math and science requirements in 2007, ending a yearlong battle to raise standards that divided churches, educators and some parents. It required students, starting with the class of 2013, to take more math and science classes to graduate high school.

A similar proposal failed in 2006, in part because some groups, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, feared it would cut into religious training after school. Others feared children would have to scale back activities like band or art.

So there's another state with religious fanatics controlling education policy. The discussion about high stakes testing for graduation and school accountability needs to happen everywhere, but it's a shame when the conversation is about teaching less science in order to protect religious interests.

God bless school children who can't vote, and are at the mercy of small minded adults.

Texas High Schools: Pass 12 High Stakes Tests to Graduate

Kuff recently interviewed Texas State Representative Scott Hochberg, vice chair of the House Committee  on Public Education and chair of the Education Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations. The whole interview is terrific, with even just the first 15 minutes chock full of great stuff for those of us who are education policy geeks.

Overall, I came away from listening to the interview with an enormous of amount of relief and gratitude that Hochberg is in the Lege tending to education. He has a deep understanding of our schools and our student population, as well as of the nuances and minutiae of education policy.

I want to clarify one thing that was discussed. Kuff asked Hochberg about Texas high schools going from four accountability tests to twelve next school year. Hochberg corrected him saying that's not true, we currently have ten and we are only increasing that number by two (go to the 12 minute mark in the interview to get to this topic.)

Well . . . technically that's true. But the reality is we are going from requiring students to take four high stakes tests to graduate to twelve, beginning in the 2011-2012 school year. Currently, all Texas high school students take ten TAKS tests during their 9th - 11th grade years. Their graduation requirement is that they have to pass four Exit tests in order to graduate - English, Math, Social Studies and Science.

These are taken during their 11th grade year, and if they don't pass, schools are required to offer remediation (which they offer during the summer and during the senior year), and students can retake those tests up to four more times to try and pass. But, they have to pass those four in order to graduate. Those other six 9th and 10th grade TAKS tests? Students can fail those, and as long as they pass their four Exit TAKS, they graduate from their Texas high school.

What's changing is that current 8th graders will have new, more rigorous testing requirements in their graduation plan. If they don't pass end of course exams in these twelve courses, they don't get a high school diploma:

Science: Biology, Chemistry, Physics
Math: Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II
English: English I, English II, English III
Social Studies: World Geography, World History, U.S. History

Like Exit TAKS, schools will be required to remediate when students fail, so starting in the spring of 2012, schools will embark on the complex task of determining for every student if they failed any of their first round of three end of course exams and if they need remediation. At the same time, students will be taking their next round of courses in the next grade with an end game of having to pass end of course exams for those new courses. And, so it will go for each of 2000-3000 high school students on a campus, until they reach the spring of their senior year, where some will have passed all of their high school courses and twelve end of course exams and some will not. A system that currently requires one testing coordinator on every high school campus is going to require at least one full time testing coordinator per grade level.

If this makes you wonder how this doesn't cause the high school drop out rate to increase, you are not the only one puzzling over that.

What makes these end of course exams even more high stakes is that the Texas Education Agency has made it very, very clear that these exams will have harder questions than TAKS and the minimum score to pass will be higher than TAKS.

I recently had the opportunity to be on a TEA educator committee that examined field testing data from the Spring 2010 Biology end of course field testing. At the end of that two day adventure, the TEA assessment division gave us a detailed briefing on the upcoming end of course exams and pointed us to a presentation they made at a recent math education leadership conference as a reference (go to this link, then click on the July 14, 2010 TEA assessment update.) What TEA told us (with my commentary in italics):

Will the EOC's (end of course exams) be harder than TAKS? Yes. (For those of you who think TAKS is easy, we can go over how the current Science Exit TAKS is not a minimum skills test. Another blog post for another day.)

The minimum score to pass each EOC will be higher than TAKS.

The test items will be more rigorous - more detailed questions over more curriculum than TAKS. (Don't be fooled by new "readiness" TEKS being "fewer, deeper, clearer" - the more accurate description is "more, harder and pickier." Trust me on this one.)

The EOC score will count as 15% of the grade for the course. (Can you see the double jeopardy here? Not only do you have to make a passing score on your EOC, but your low score may cause you to fail the class, causing you to retake it, as well as the test.)

Students can retake the EOC an unlimited number of times to try and pass. (Districts will have to set a policy on whether a student who passes the EOC can retake it to try and make a higher grade in the course. Think of high performing students who are concerned about their GPA.)

I'm not sure how easy it is for those not neck deep in public education to understand how much more high stakes the EOC program will be for each and every Texas high school student, but I'll do my best to paint that picture as we go forward in this school year. One thing that concerns us in science education is that while at the same time the state is ratcheting up the stakes on our testing, they are not providing us with new science textbooks to go along with our brand new, shiny Science TEKS we are implementing this year.

I'm really curious if the Lege, while trying to correct the real problem of the four 11th grade Exit TAKS covering subjects taught in 9th and 10th grades, intended to raise the stakes this much on high school graduation.

If you've got a struggling 8th grade or younger student in your own home, buckle up, because you are in for a roller coaster experience in high school, with the real possibility of crashing. If you are concerned about children in general, and the economic future of Texas, you should be paying attention, as well.

More on the Hochberg interview and my reactions in future posts.

Bill White Community College in Clear Lake

You’re invited

Bill White Community College

Learn how to reach out to prospective voters through proven techniques at a training session for volunteers interested in working on the Bill White for Governor campaign. Advance registration is strongly recommended but not required.  RSVP to Suzy Allison atsuzy.allison@att.net

When:  Saturday, August 14th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where:  City of Webster Recreation Center building, 101 Pennsylvania (at the corner of Pennsylvania & S. Austin streets),77598.
Cost:  Free
Food:  Light refreshments will be provided during the break.

Sponsors:  BAADWomen (Bay Area Association of Democratic Women) and BAND (Bay Area New Democrats)

If you haven't been able to attend an all-day Bill White University training session at the Bill White headquarters in Houston,  you will benefit from this Bill White Community College, a shorter (3 hours), local (Webster) Bill White volunteer training program.

Program segments includes the following:

• Block walking training:  presented by Sherry and Mark Weesner, CJ Farley and Cheryl Germain.  We will have an opportunity to divide up and practice on each other after the presentation.
• Virtual phone bank familiarization:  by John Cobarruvias, a VAN trainer for the State Democratic Party.
• Phone bank training:  by Kris Banks.
• Strategy overview for the Bill White effort along with problems and opportunities in specific parts of our area using data from the '08 election cycle: by Suzy Allison.
• Issues, talking points, and charges and rebuttals:  by Bob Tomlinson.
• Plans for Bay Area headquarters and an opportunity to sign up to help:  by CJ Farley.   
• Information on all nearby headquarters will be provided.

We hope this will be informative and give volunteers the comfort and confidence you need to get to work  to ELECT BILL WHITE OUR NEXT GOVERNOR.

We'd like some clue as to how many will attend, so RSVP to Suzy Allison at suzy.allison@att.net, but feel free to come if you didn't get around to replying. 

Taking a Piece out of Rick Perry's Hide

It looks like Rep. Lloyd Doggett did just that. He introduced an amendment to a House Bill that will require Texas to maintain education spending levels through 2013. Basically, it's a warning that the education stimulus dollars Gov. Perry used to plug holes in the state budget, rather than for their intended purpose to beef up education in Texas, must be used on education - no cutting the education budget at all.

My first thought was that this is a mandate for the 2011 Texas legislative session, but I wonder if this would also affect the 5% mandated budget cuts that are supposed to go into affect Sept. 1, including all sorts of cuts to special needs populations that TEA has proposed.

This bill is projected to pass the Senate today. Read more about it here.