State Board of Education September Update

Texas Education Agency sent this bulletin at 09/29/2016 10:56 AM CDT

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SBOE honors school volunteers

2016 Heroes for Children award recipients

Thousands of Texans help our public schools each year through volunteer activity. For more than two decades, the State Board of Education has honored 15 outstanding volunteers each year as Heroes for Children. The board recognized the 2016 award recipients in September. The volunteers performed a variety of activities such as serving as reading tutors, staffing the lunchroom, organizing school events and providing free health care.

Charter schools celebrate 20th anniversary in Texas

State Board members congratulate representatives of state's oldest charter schools.

It has been 20 years since the first charter school opened in Texas. Of the initial group of 20 schools that were authorized in 1996, 12 remain open today. As of August, 174 active open-enrollment charter schools were educating more than 228,000 children or about 4 percent of the total public school students. The State Board of Education on Sept. 16 approved a resolution celebrating this 20th anniversary of operation and recognized representatives from the first generation of charter schools. Those original 12 schools are Aristoi Classical Academy, Dr. M.L. Garza-Gonzalez Charter School, George Gervin Academy, George I. Sanchez Charter, Pegusus School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Por Vida Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School for Success, Ser-Ninos Charter School, Texas Can Academies, University of Houston Charter School, Uplift Education and Waco Charter School. Supporting the anniversary celebration were the Region XI Education Service Center Charter Network and the Texas Charter School Association.

Educators study the best ways to educate economically disadvantaged students

Thirty speakers at the Learning Roundtable- Educating the Children of Poverty focused on ways to help high-poverty schools become high-achieving campuses. Sponsored by the State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency, speakers discussed a variety of programs they’ve successfully implemented in Texas and around the country. This includes everything from partnering with private daycares to bolster school readiness skills to hosting parent education universities. Videos of conference speakers, as well as PowerPoint presentations, can be found at http://tea.texas.gov/sboe/povertyroundtable/.

Textbook adoption attracts widespread attention

This year’s instructional materials review and adoption process attracted the largest number of products on record. A total of 558 products were submitted for review. The subjects included in this year’s adoption are career and technical education, languages other than English, one math course and one social studies course. However, all 59 speakers at a September public hearing focused on a controversial textbook submitted for use in a social studies elective course called Mexican American Studies. A second public hearing will be held in November before the State Board of Education votes to adopt or reject the materials on Nov. 18. The new material will be available for use in Texas schools beginning with the 2017-2018 school year. Information about this adoption, including public comments and errors submitted by publishers or the public, is available online.

SBOE actions

A summary of actions taken by the State Board of Education at its September meeting is available online at http://tea.texas.gov/sboe/actions/.

SBOE member news

District 12 State Board member Geraldine “Tincy” Miller, chair of the Henry S. Miller Companies in Dallas, will receive the Texas Association of Business Distinguished Leader Award on Oct. 13. Miller is the longest tenured member of the State Board of Education and has long been active in Dallas civic affairs. Past recipients of the TAB award include Herb Kelleher, Ross Perot, Ebby Halliday and T. Bonne Pickens.

District 10 State Board member Tom Maynard announced that he will retire as executive director of the Texas FFA in January. Membership in the Texas chapter more than doubled during the more than 16 years that Maynard was at the organization’s helm.