The board did approve a tax increase of 2.5 cents per $100 of assessed value tax to cover district debt payments on previously approved bonds. The 2.5-cent tax increase does not require voter approval, according to district officials.

After the budget and tax rate vote, several trustees acknowledged that tough budget choices are in their future:

Trustee Robert Schneider, asking for continued discussion on comments by [Superintendent Meria] Carstarphen about needing further cutting and work on the budget in the coming year, said, “I’m glad we ended up in this place versus some of the other places we ended up at, but I also want to make sure we don’t make some of the same mistakes again next year.”

If federal stimulus money–EduJobs–comes to Texas, Carstarphen said she would consider using that money for one-time stipends to district employees. However, she did not commit to do this.

The Austin Chamber continues to be enthusiastic about Austin ISD’s work to accomplish the goals in its strategic plan. That plan calls for 90 percent of the Class of 2014 (today’s rising ninth graders) to graduate, 77 percent of the Class of 2014 to enroll in postsecondary education, and more than 90 percent of students enrolled in the district for at least three years to be on grade level by 2015.

The Chamber looks forward to continuing to support Austin ISD trustees as they make more of the hard decisions necessary for Austin ISD to reach its goals.

Please join the Chamber in thanking Austin ISD administration and trustees for their continued leadership in reshaping AISD to accomplish its strategic plan. Thank you also to Austin Chamber Education/Talent Development chair Gene Austin, vCFO CEO Ellen Wood, Higginbotham & Associates President Curtis Page, and the Austin Asian American, Capital City African American and Hispanic chambers of commerce for their support of the accomplishment of Austin ISD’s strategic plan.  Austin Area Research Organization, Downtown Austin Alliance and long-time business leader (and Austin ISD elementary school namesake) John Blazier also played key roles.

Though vastly greater percentages of Texas Class of 2010 graduates are completing courses in statistics, algebra II and pre-calculus, the contents of those courses are again being called into question by credible sources.

When the State Board of Education adopted new math standards in 2005, educators recommended—and the board adopted—primarily cosmetic changes in format, organization and grammar. This was a missed opportunity, as the Austin Chamber noted at the time. With available, quality Core Curriculum standards available, written by noted scholars (including Austin’s own Kaye Forgione), the State Board of Education should now act quickly to adopt those national standards and ensure Texas’ math standards are on par with those in China, India and Europe, much less with the average for the rest of the country.

Competitiveness will also likely require Texas to again include the expectation in the Recommended Program that students complete a math course beyond algebra II, not the watered-down Math Modeling course. The Charles A. Dana Center has created a hands-on course, with appropriate rigor and content, called the Advanced Mathematical Decision Making, which can provide additional options. But if future graduates are to invest for a home and their own retirement, manage their own health accounts, and have the math capability to start their own business–especially if they are not going to college–they need exposure to at least statistics.

The Austin Chamber continues to ask trustees to adopt greater efficiencies—and certainly not to dig a deeper fiscal hole—before considering a tax rate election. On Monday, the Chamber will again ask trustees to dedicate themselves to cutting deeper in order to reallocate money to fund the programs that will result in the higher graduation, college/career readiness and post-secondary enrollment rate goals outlined in the district’s strategic plan.

All trustees would benefit from hearing your views on a potential tax rate election, in particular Trustees Sam Guzman, Annette Lovoi, Tamala Barksdale, Lori Moya, and Robert Schneider. The Chamber would appreciate your advice and your willingness to contact Trustees in advance of Monday’s vote.

Judging by the discussion at last night’s school board meeting and discussions at past board meetings, here’s where the trustees seem to stand on a November tax rate election:

• Standing firm against the five-cent tax increase: President Mark Williams, Vice President Vincent Torres, Cheryl Bradley and Christine Brister
• Strongly in favor of the five-cent tax increase: Tamara Barksdale and Sam Guzman
• Previously said they would support the five-cent tax increase: Secretary Lori Moya and Annette LoVoi
• Previously said he would support the five-cent tax increase if the district’s “house is in order”: Robert Schneider

Dr. Carstarphen has not taken a public position on the five-cent tax increase as of this writing.

Last night, Sam Guzman said that he will propose the five-cent tax increase on Monday regardless of the superintendent’s position. If that motion fails, he will propose that the district spend up to $22 million into fund balance to fund additional teacher salary increases beyond the small increase already included in the budget, as well as other currently unfunded programs.

This motion, if adopted, would not represent fiscal stewardship, could reduce Austin ISD’s bond rating (which increases future borrowing costs) and will create an even deeper fiscal hole trustees will have to dig out of next year before even starting to fund key strategic plan priorities.

Gene Austin, Chamber board member and CEO of software company Convio, Inc., told trustees last night that the Chamber is enthusiastic about Austin ISD’s positive direction and strongly supportive of the district accomplishing the goals of its strategic plan. Austin recommended that trustees work on further financial efficiencies before talking with voters about a higher tax rate.  The Austin, Austin Asian American and Capital City African American chambers have all asked the trustees to balance the FY11 budget and fund the strategic plan.

Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Board Chair Pilar Sanchez and President/CEO Andy Martinez asked trustees to “demonstrate further efficiencies before seeking a tax increase” and “limit…use of the reserve fund,” in a statement Sanchez gave last night. They also asked trustees to adhere to the strategic plan, continue recent positive changes, and aggressively pursue funding from external sources. (Read the full statement.)

Charlie Betts from the Downtown Austin Alliance also spoke in opposition to the five-cent tax rate increase last night.

In closing comments to last night’s board meeting, Austin ISD Board President Mark Williams cited business concerns, among many others, about supporting a tax rate election as a compelling reason to get Austin ISD’s house in order before approaching voters about a tax increase.

Please contact dscheberle@austinchamber.com with any questions or comments.

According to new U.S. Department of Education data, Austin region students submitted nearly 2,000 more federal financial aid forms—the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)—in the spring of the 2009-10 school year than the spring of 2008-09. This represents a 15 percent year-over-year increase.

Since 2006, the Chamber and 14 school districts, postsecondary institutions, businesses and community organizations from across the Austin region have held nearly one hundred Financial Aid Saturday events. These free, open-to-all events are held on nearly every Austin region high school campus. Regional higher education financial aid counselors and advisors are part of the 450-plus volunteers from a variety of backgrounds that helped students and their families fill out and submit the often confusing federal and state financial aid forms—the FAFSA and the Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TAFSA).

The program runs from the beginning of February through the end of March and has been a key contributor to the increase in first quarter FAFSA filings for the Austin area.  Regional first quarter FAFSA filings have increased by 85 percent since 2006.

“Our coordinated effort – unifying educators, administrators, businesses and community volunteers – has been tremendously successful. Completing the financial aid process in early spring helps students receive the funding they need to continue their education. This one-year increase in early FAFSA submissions possibly equates to millions of dollars for our Austin area students,” said Doris Constantine, Associate Vice President for Student Financial Services at St. Edward’s University and chair of the Chamber’s Financial Aid Committee, the group that oversees the Financial Aid Saturday Program.

The Financial Aid Saturday Program is a component of the Chamber’s 20,010 by 2010 initiative, which began in 2006 and is focused on ensuring 20,010 area high school graduates are prepared to enroll in college and graduate ready to meet future workforce expectations by the end of 2010. The initiative aims to close a regional college-going gap and aligns with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s statewide Closing the Gaps effort. The 20,010 by 2010 initiative is funded by Opportunity Austin investors and plays a key role in ensuring our region has a diverse and well educated local workforce that makes the Austin area attractive to businesses looking to locate or expand in our region.

High school graduates who submit financial aid forms are more likely to enroll in postsecondary education than those who do not, according to Chamber-funded research by the Student Futures Project hosted at the University of Texas’ Ray Marshall Center. Student Futures Project research has also shown that Hispanic students who submit a FAFSA are 350 percent more likely to enroll in postsecondary education than their peers.

“For the Austin region to prosper, we need more of our local residents to complete some type of postsecondary education,” said Gene Austin, CEO of Austin software company Convio, Inc. and chair of the Chamber’s Education and Talent Development Council.  “Helping more students and families complete and submit college financial aid forms is a remarkably effective way of unkinking the educational pipeline and ensuring a strong supply of well-qualified workers for years to come.”

School districts operate differently. When overall property values go up, a school district’s per pupil operations revenue stays essentially the same. Nearly all of the increase goes into the state Treasury. When overall property values go down, per pupil operations revenue stays essentially the same and the state either makes up the difference or, in Austin’s case, reduces our recapture (Robin Hood) payment.

With lawmakers unlikely to change the school finance system significantly this session, school districts essentially know how much they will have to spend per pupil for the next three years.

Barring any legislative action, the only way school districts can increase net per pupil revenue is to call for an election to raise the property tax rate.  Austin ISD Trustees are considering this now.

However, the part of the tax rate that pays interest on school bonds is tied closely to local property values. Austin ISD will need to consider increasing its local property tax rate by up to three cents per $100 of appraised value to pay for existing, taxpayer-approved school and technology bonds. Other districts may need to do the same.

Illustration courtesy of Adria Richards.

Until 2009, the Texas K-12 accountability system primarily measured whether a minimum percent of students, disaggregated by race, ethnicity and family income, learned at least basic skills in main academic subjects. The Texas Education Agency generally awarded school districts ratings on the basis of the percentage of students who had learned those basic skills, as demonstrated by passing the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS).

In 2009, the Texas Education Agency applied an additional loophole in state accountability called the Texas Projection Measure (TPM) to those ratings. TPM allows school districts to count some students who failed the TAKS as passers for accountability purposes.

TPM is a statistical model that predicts how TAKS failers will do in the next high-stakes grade using students’ current TAKS scores and average campus and school district TAKS scores. Grades five, eight and eleven are considered high-stakes grades because students in those grades must pass the reading and math TAKS to ensure graduation or promotion to the next grade. Depending on the grade level and test, the accuracy of this statistical model ranges from 52 to 81 percent.

Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott has suggested he may scrap TPM.  Any such change should:

• Restore meaning to school rating labels. A campus rating of Acceptable or higher should mean that a minimum percentage of students have actually passed the state’s basic skills test. If a school does not have a minimum percentage of students passing, it should be labeled Unacceptable. A school that demonstrates actual, significant improvement but doesn’t meet minimum passing standards should still be labeled Unacceptable, but should also receive an additional label to distinguish it from campuses which are not improving.

• Restore the sense of urgency to get sufficient percent of students to grade level. Schools that fail to meet state standards or make actual, significant progress towards doing so should be labeled Unacceptable.
  • Until 2009, schools that failed to meet state standards or make actual, significant progress towards doing so were labeled Unacceptable. This label came with a host of required actions, ranging from hiring school improvement advisors to replacing administrators to school closure.
  • Struggling schools do not always benefit from these interventions. But giving these schools a break from disruptive interventions should not mean papering over the hard work still to be done by labeling them Acceptable. Too often, calling a struggling school Acceptable removes the community’s sense of urgency to continue the work of school improvement.

In Dallas ISD,  Spruce High School Principal Lucy Hakemack told the Dallas Morning News that she was not pleased with how her school’s rating was boosted from unacceptable to acceptable by the Texas Projection Measure:

Hakemack said she wanted to get off the list the old-fashioned way under “absolute standards,” education speak for not using TPM or other ratings boosters.

“I don’t like that,” she said. “I like to be absolute.”

Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier told the Houston Chronicle that he is critical of the TPM:

“The TPM was never designed to be used in the way the state is using it,” he said. “That’s why I’m not a big fan of it. I think you should award people on how the kids do, not on how they’re projected to do.”

Moulton ISD, a small school district in Lavaca County, was awarded an exemplary rating due to TPM, the Victoria Advocate reports:

I just think it creates these false passing scores,” said Moulton superintendent Michael Novotny. His district would have been rated recognized, but with the rating was pushed to exemplary.

Novotny refers to the Texas Projection Measure as a “crystal ball,” and although his district has benefited, he plans to write the state to do away with it.

“I’m going to suggest discontinuing the TPM but also looking more holistically at our scores so you’re not just rated on one subgroup on one test,” he said.

And several Hidalgo County superintendents weighed in on the TPM in The Monitor:

[Weslaco ISD] Superintendent Richard Rivera acknowledged the projection measure benefited his district but said it is something he personally dislikes.

“Either you pass the tests or you don’t,” Rivera said. “The projection measure inflates the scores, and those who are supposedly passing never did. There’s no in-between.”

• Betty Richardson on her upcoming  retirement from Bastrop ISD as the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction after 28 years with Bastrop ISD and 33 years in education. Ms. Richardson, right, has worked with the Chamber for several years on the Education Progress Reports and has been a major regional leader on improved management systems. Little Elm ISD Director of Secondary Assessment and Instruction Jane Pollard has been named Bastrop ISD’s new assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

• Santa Garza on her retirement after 34 years in UT-Austin’s office of financial aid.  Ms. Garza has been the lead UT financial aid officer on the Chamber’s Financial Aid Committee.

• Jim Van Overschelde, who became the Director of Research and Policy at E3 Alliance.  Dr. Van Overschelde was previously with the Texas Education Agency.

• Doug Killian on being named lone finalist for the Hutto ISD superintendent’s position. Killian is currently superintendent of Huffman ISD near Lake Houston.

Trustees plan to visit Huffman ISD in early August to “see and hear firsthand how he has successfully lead that district” and then vote on Killian’s contract, according to the district press release.

The school district’s search firm received more than 90 applications for the position. Former Superintendent David Borrer resigned in April.

Huffman has served as superintendent of Huffman ISD (a 3,044-student district near Lake Houston) since 2006. He previously served as superintendent of Poteet ISD (a 1,716-student district near San Antonio). In 2008-09 Hutto ISD had about 4,800 students.

Huffman ISD’s most recent state performance data shows that 91 percent of all students in the class of 2008 and 77 percent of economically disadvantaged students graduated within four years.

Forty-four percent of all Huffman ISD class of 2008 graduates were college/career-ready, up from 23 percent the previous year. Nineteen percent of economically disadvantaged graduates were college/career ready, up from four percent the previous year.

Huffman ISD’s traditional high school met actual state standards for an acceptable rating without using any systemic loopholes and its middle school met actual state standards for a recognized rating, again without using any loopholes.

16) Citizenship. The student understands the importance of the expression of different points of view in a constitutional democratic republic society. The student is expected to:

(A) analyze different points of view of political parties and interest groups such as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the National Rifle Association (NRA), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on important contemporary issues; and…