Unfair Game

If you are not aware, schools will soon be rated using an A-F scale. This requirement was passed by the 84th Legislature as HB 2804, and the implementation date for this requirement is September 1, 2017. There are, however, some issues about the system that I would like to share with you.

The following is a letter from a group of superintendents, and it emphasizes the issues that I would like you to understand.

An Open Letter to Our Communities,

Little kids are notorious sticklers for fairness. Don't believe it? Try giving one child a piece of candy and the other a pat on the head for a job well done. Then just sit back and watch the outrage!

Or, consider this classroom scenario. A teacher makes a research assignment but doesn't specify a required number of pages. Some students turn in five pages, other submit 10-15 pages, and still others write 20+ pages. After the assignments are completed and turned in, the teacher decides that all papers with less than 10 pages will receive an F and only papers with 20+ pages will receive an A. How would you feel if this happened to your child? How would you respond? Would your complaint be valid?

Each of us possesses an innate sense of fairness. We understand that we should take turns, play by the rules, and give everyone a chance. We understand that the criterion has to be set ahead of time and shared before play commences. We understand that taking advantage of anyone, but especially those you claim to support, is unethical and unfair.

That's why it's so surprising to realize that the State Legislature is implementing an A-F rating system that is unfair to students, teachers, schools, and communities.

In 2015, the 84th Legislature enacted HB 2804 which, in turn, established an A-F rating system for public districts and campuses to be implemented September 1, 2017 (TEC 39.054). It is important to realize that the rules of the game were not established before Spring 2016 testing and that the Texas Education Agency has released A-F ratings eight months before the program rating system was legally scheduled to begin.

As school leaders, we oppose the A-F rating system for the following reasons:

1. The A-F rating system is unfair to the students that we serve.

Most school districts in our area serve a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students. These students encounter educational obstacles on a daily basis--including lack of food and other basic needs that make it difficult for parents and students to prioritize education. Quantities of research and even common sense tell us that educating children of poverty and students with English Language barriers is more difficult and more time consuming than educating affluent students. Poverty and English Language competency are such dependable predictors of student failure that we can state assuredly, before the A-F system is implemented, that the more affluent districts will received the highest ratings on this A-F system.*

Do you know that special education students and Gifted and Talented students take the same test with the same passing standard? Is this fair to students? Nevertheless, the state continues to rate diverse Texas districts and diverse Texas students as if they were all exactly the same. Comparing districts without understanding the challenges and barriers each independent district must overcome is simply not fair. It is just another attempt to mislabel public education as a failure and mislead the public with false data.

2. The A-F rating system is unfair to teachers. 

This system vilifies and marginalizes the tireless efforts of skilled and caring teachers, leading to poor morale and eventual loss of our greatest teachers to districts that receive high ratings so that they can receive the respect and work environment that they are due. Is school success sustainable when it loses its best and brightest employees?

3. The A-F rating system is unfair to communities.

The final injustice of this rating system will be borne by our communities. Affluent districts that receive A's based on their economic status will continue to draw business and families that want their children to attend an "A" district. Districts with higher levels of poverty and changing demographics will be passed over, thus creating yet another unfair system designed to leave impoverished children with poorer schools and communities. Is this not another example of discrimination against the poor and people of color?

4. The A-F rating system is based on an unfair test.

Two years ago, House Bill 743 required the Texas Education Agency to conduct a reliability and validity study of the STAAR exam used in the A-F rating system before the next test administration. Not only did TEA fail to comply, a summary of the analysis concluded that the test was reliable and valid but not aligned with the state curriculum. In other words, the test questions did not measure what the students were taught during that year!**Nevertheless, the state will use this questionable test as the primary way to identify and label school.

The greatest irony of the entire A-F rating system that it has been generated by a state government that scores an "F" on every national report card with regard to school finance.***

It is time for schools and the communities that they represent to cry "Foul." It is time for the State of Texas to realize that a sense of fairness is the basis of human cooperation AND unfairness, or discrimination, is the basis of most human conflict. It is time for our government leaders to treat public schools fairly and stop demonizing them in the name of politics and profit. Most importantly, it is time for communities to let the state legislature know their wishes for their schools: a fair accountability system and the resources needed to support education for all.

Sincerely,

Dr. Debra Crosby

Superintendent, Quinlin ISD

Dr. Lori Blaylock

Superintendent Kaufman ISD

Micael French

Superintendent of Terrell ISD

Blake Stiles

Superintedent, Athens ISD

Kevin Worthy, 

Superintendent, Royse City ISD

Phil Edwards

Superintendent, Kemp ISD

Randy Perry

Superintendent Malakoff ISD

Dr. Russell Marshall

Superintendent Mabank ISD

John Rouse

Superintendent Rains ISD 

*Of the top 20 public school districts in Texas (as rated by Niche.com), 15 (75%) receive higher than average funding. Alternatively, of the 39 districts rated by TEA as "Improvement Required," 30 (77%) receive lower than average funding. This demonstrates a high correlation between school funding and school ratings.

**STAAR article or google HB 743 and STAAR.

***Rutgers Graduate School of Education and the Education Law Center, 2016; National Education Association, 2016.

Looking to the Future!

On November 8, 2016, our district held elections for the Board of Trustees. I would like to welcome our new members: Patrick McGill, Kevin Wright, Brian Degner, and Brad Nixon. I look forward to working with these new members as we move our district into the future.

With the election of new Board members, we have to salute the service of the outgoing members. I know that you share my gratitude for the years of service that these men have given our school. Please join me in thanking them for giving their time and energy in an often thankless job. The outgoing members are: Charlie Mangham, Paul Wilson, Randy Pilkinton, and Rickey Newman. Under their leadership the district has gained a wonderful reputation with high performance in academic achievement and financial stability. There are many people in our area who would like their children to be able to attend Harleton ISD. I think that speaks volumes for the quality of the education provided here.

As we look to the future, I remind everyone that the state legislature will begin its biennial session in January 2017. I would encourage each of you to contact your representatives and let them know that you are concerned with the flaws in the school finance system of the state. In a previous blog entry I described how Harleton ISD compares to wealthier districts in terms of revenue per student or classroom. Compared to districts in the top 50% of wealth, Harleton ISD receives $33,000 per classroom LESS. This is also while taxing at a higher rate. Let your representatives know that you're not asking for more you just want Equal Revenues for Equal Tax Effort.

The Holidays will soon be upon us, and I hope that you all get to spend time with friends and loved ones. We have much for which to be thankful!

I thank you for allowing us to be a part of your children's lives. Happy Holidays!

Get Involved!

Currently, our district is accepting applications for those wishing to run to serve on the Board of Trustees. If you are interested, you have until August 22 to sign up. This is a great opportunity to serve your community and the students of Harleton ISD. Even if you can't serve on the Board, we invite you to get involved with the school. There are many opportunities, and we welcome you to be a part of our great school district!

Although I am disappointed by the Supreme Court's ruling on the school finance system, I am grateful that they indicated how broken the current system is in Texas. The current system of financing education in our state is inequitable for students and taxpayers, and I would like for you to have some information that shows the differences in funding for surrounding districts. In the figure below, you can see the comparison of the funding differences for a typical elementary classroom of 22 students in districts when compared to the wealthiest 50% of school districts in the state.



These data show that Harleton ISD has $32,480 per elementary classroom less than the wealthiest 50% of districts in the state. Can you imagine what we could with $30k more? While the information presented here levels the playing field by putting every district at the average tax rate of the state (for comparison purposes), we need to keep in mind that many, many districts are getting an advantage like this while taxing at a lower tax rate of $1.04 for Maintenance & Operations (M&O), and the taxpayers in Harleton ISD are being taxed at $1.17 M&O. Our students and taxpayers are getting less and paying more. The problem with that is that our district has to tax at the higher rate to maximize the state's contribution to the district.

As taxpayers, you need to let your state representatives know that you believe in equal revenue for equal tax effort. Let them know that you expect the system to change in order to be more equitable. They will listen to you! The students in our district are just as important as students in other districts! Get involved!

Welcome 2016!

Have you already written the wrong year on a check yet? I was just getting used to writing 2015, and now we are already in a new year.

As we always do with the new year, we take a little time to reflect upon the previous year and to set our resolutions for the upcoming one. I hope that you have learned and experienced from 2015 the things that you need to make 2016 the best year ever! It's important that we set goals and work towards them. Our children need to know that goal-setting is important. Take some time to visit with your children and talk to them about the goals you have for the new year. I bet they will be more than willing to help you achieve those goals, and they will learn the positive aspect of working to better themselves.

Have a happy and safe 2016! Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your child's life.

2nd Six Weeks Completed!

We have completed the second six weeks. My how time does fly. Before we turn around it will be Thanksgiving and then Christmas.

Student report cards should be coming home today. If you have any concerns, please make arrangements to visit with your child's teacher now. The sooner we can address the concerns the better. We want to work together in order to help your child succeed.

The Thanksgiving Break will be November 23-27. I hope that you will be able to spend time with friends and loved ones during this time. I also hope you are able to spend some time in reflection upon the things for which we can all be thankful. The Christmas Break will be December 21-January 4. We will also have Early Release days on December 17 and 18.

We are working hard to develop a learning environment that will meet the needs of today's learner. Students today do learn differently than when even you or I were in school. Harleton ISD has a vision of creating a Personalized Learning environment where we will meet the needs of every student through the blending of traditional brick and mortar schools with the new virtual schooling that is available today. I hope you will join us as much as possible to gain a better understanding of this vision and what we are doing to help prepare students to be successful in an ever-changing world.

Our district has developed a Steering Committee, made up of members of the community, to study our facilities and make a recommendation to the School Board about how the community and taxpayers would like us to proceed with some of the needs of our district. We currently have an enrollment of 788 students in our district,  and this number is up from 723 at the end of the previous school year. The growth we are seeing is from new residents of our district, and I believe, based upon the data, that we will continue to see growth in our district.

As always, I want to thank you for allowing us to be a part of your child's life. We welcome your questions or concerns (or praise), and we hope to meet your expectations. Please contact me if I can be any service.

Off to a Great Start!

We are off to a great start at Harleton ISD! I appreciate everyone making the little extra effort to make sure that things started smoothly.

We are beginning the year with a lot of new students to the district. We have had about 50 new students move into the district since the end of last year. Please be patient with us as we make arrangements for these new students. We may have to order a few more textbooks or chairs in some of the classrooms, but we will make sure that every child gets what they need to be successful.

There are a lot of activities taking place around the district during the next few weeks. We invite you all to join us. You are always welcome!

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your child's life. We are honored and grateful!

The Beginning of a New School Year!

There's always a feeling of excitement that I feel when we are about to start another school year. I guess it's because of the renewed feelings of hope and purpose that is evident when we have a new start. Anyway, I'm really excited about the coming school year.

We have several new employees at Harleton ISD that I believe are going to be great additions to our school district. Each of them brings new ideas and strategies to help us as we strive to become the premiere school district in East Texas. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish this year. I expect great things!

We have a new Athletic Director/Head Football Coach this year. Coach Terry Ward joined our district at the beginning of the summer. Coach Ward brings a lot of enthusiasm and successful coaching strategies to all of our athletic programs. I believe Coach Ward will be a great addition to our district, and I hope that you will join me in welcoming him and his family to our district and community.

School will begin for students on August 24. We looking forward to seeing the students on this day, and we are going to work hard to ensure that we help each and every student reach his/her fullest potentials.

We appreciate you entrusted us with your most precious resource. Please know that we consider you partners in the endeavor to educate your children. Don't hesitate to let us know if we can be of service in any way. Also, remember that we are on Facebook and Twitter to help keep you informed about the activities of the district. You may also gather information from our Skyward portal. This will help to keep you informed of your child's progress throughout the school year.

Thank you again for allowing us to be a part of your child's lives. We are looking forward to making 2015-2016 the best year ever!