We have talked at length about the requirements under House
Bill 5 relating to Curriculum. Given the fact that there is a deadline associated with the Community
and Student Engagement part of the legislation, we decided to refocus our
message on that topic. We will get back
to discussions surrounding both Curriculum and Assessment in the near term.
So what are the requirements relating to Community and
Student Engagement? While a small part of
the text in the bill (only about 2 pages of a 111 page bill), this area
represents both a significant requirement and a responsibility to engage all
stakeholders, including business partners and students.
But part of the challenge is that HB 5 does not provide a
prescriptive “how to” relating to actions that you as trustees must take in
this area. The text of the bill relating
to community and student engagement can be found at:
Specifically, the key points included in a new Section
39.0545 of the Texas Education Code include:
- - School districts must evaluate the performance
of each campus as well as the District.
- - Based on this assessment, the District must
assign a rating of exemplary, recognized, acceptable or not acceptable to each
campus.
- - The rating reflects overall performance as well
as performance for individual factors, including:
o
Fine arts
o
Wellness and physical education
o
Community and parental involvement
o
21st Century Workforce Development
program
o
Second language acquisition program
o
Digital learning environment
o
Dropout prevention strategies
o
Educational programs for gifted and talented
students
- - The ratings must be submitted by August 8 each
year, effective August 8, 2014.
- - In addition, each District must report on
compliance with the statutory reporting requirements.
Further, Section 46 of HB 5 establishes a requirement that
the criteria for evaluating the performance against each of the above factors
is to be defined by a local committee … not
TEA, not the SBOE (italics added by the author).
But that’s it!
Nothing further defined. And
that’s what local control is all about.
So, if you have not already moved forward with designating a committee
to analyze and provide this input for your District, the time to act is
NOW! You may choose to create a new
committee or appoint existing committee members to undertake this effort. It is up to you.
Over the past couple of months, we have had discussions with
superintendents and with region service centers in an effort to better
understand how to report this information.
Not surprisingly, there is no consensus.
You may want to contact your local ESC to see if they have developed a
template for inputting the factors and evaluation for each. For example, we know that Region XI has
developed a template that is being used by many districts in our region. But you are not bound to use what they can
offer; again, local control suggests that this is a decision you make.
With the August 8 deadline, there is little time for
delay. Talk with fellow trustees in
other districts; talk with your ESC.
But, most importantly, start the dialog now. Your community and your students deserve a
highly focused effort to comply with Section 46 of HB 5; it’s up to us to meet
their expectations!
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