Friday, March 8, 2013

Legislative Update

Two months into the 83rd Legislative Session, lawmakers have introduced bills that would give students many more choices and options in their selection of courses to meet graduation requirements adopted last time legislators met in Austin.

In separate action on student testing, lawmakers appear interested at this time in reducing the number of high-stakes tests that high school students must pass to graduate from 15 End-of-Course (EOC) exams down to five exams, or fewer.

Among Legislative bills filed and being watched closely are House Bill 5 authored by Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, chairman of the House Public Education Committee. Under his bill, the number of high school EOC exams would be cut from 15 to five exams.

In addition, Senate Bill 3 by state Sen. Dan Patrick, chairman of the Senate Public Education Committee, has been filed. It would require students to have 26 credits for graduation, but give them the option to earn endorsements in areas like STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), business and industry, public service and arts and humanities. Strong parent, student and community interest appears to be making a difference in Austin this year, observers report.

A few examples from Spring Branch:
  • On Tuesday, Feb. 19, Spring Branch ISD students and others testified in the Texas Senate and House about the impact of new STAAR testing protocols and End of Course (EOC) graduation requirements on students and teachers. Four Stratford High sophomores, Jaila Moore, Niasia Ruffin, Natasha Reid and Macala Carroll rode to Austin with parent Emily Van Buren to speak up about the amount of new student testing. “I honestly feel that STAAR testing is necessary, but the number of the tests is excessive,” Jaila Moore told State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, in her remarks. Spring Woods High Associate Principal Jennifer Collier also testified Feb. 19 about STAAR and its effects on some. In brief, she described how struggling students might be harmed or discouraged rather than helped by the new battery of tests.
  • One week earlier, on Feb. 12, Superintendent Duncan F. Klussmann, Ed.D., provided invited testimony about Senate Bill 3 to the Senate Committee on Education. He joined several other public school leaders and several groups from business and industry, including the Texas Chemical Coalition and the Texas Association of Builders Foundation. Dr. Klussmann has said that Sen. Bill 3 or similar measure would “give kids a chance to take rigorous courses in their areas of interest and prepare every kid in the system for some level of higher education.”
  • In separate action March 1, the Texas Education Agency announced that it has officially asked to be excused from several requirements of No Child Left Behind, the federal law that requires all schools to meet increasingly higher academic requirements, or be rated as failing. Currently, districts in Texas must operate within two separate, often conflicting, accountability and school improvement systems. “The federal requirements and guidelines… have become an obsolete system that does not adequately reflect the performance of the state’s schools,” Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams said in filing the waiver. Thirty-four other states and Washington, D.C., have already done so.
To learn more:
Texas Legislature Online www.capitol.state.tx.us
Texas Tribune www.texastribune.org
Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment (TAMSA) www.tamsatx.org

Rummel Creek Flag Flown at U.S. Capitol


As Rummel Creek celebrates fifty years, a very special flag will be flying overhead.  Alex Monson, a fifth grade student at RCE, wrote to Kay Bailey Hutchison requesting to have a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. in honor of the RCE 50th Anniversary. 

Thank you to Alex for helping make the campus anniversary celebration one we will cherish and remember for years to come!

SBISD Trustees Election Update

One of three seats on the Spring Branch ISD Board of Trustees will be contested in the May 11 district election for School Board.

Competing for the Trustee Position 7 are attorney Karen Peck and Exxon retiree John Buchanan. Both candidates are seeking the vacancy created by Mike Falick, who is not seeking re-election after serving three Board terms.

Unopposed in Trustee Position 5 is current Board Member Bob Stevenson. Board of Trustees President Pam Goodson is also unopposed for re-election in Position 6.

All positions are for three-year terms. All registered voters who reside in SBISD may vote for these Trustee positions.

Click here for ELECTION RESULTS >>

Early voting will begin April 29 and continue through May 7.

Early Voting Locations April 29 – May 7, 2013

Administration Building 955 Campbell Rd. Houston, TX 77024
Monday – Friday, 7:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, May 4, 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

Don Coleman Community Coliseum 1050 Dairy Ashford Houston, TX 77079
Monday – Friday, 7:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, May 4, 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

Holy Cross Lutheran Church 7901 Westview Houston, TX 77055
Monday – Friday, 7:00 am – 7:00 pm
Saturday, May 4, 8:00 am – 12:00 pm

City of Piney Point Village 7676 Woodway Suite, #300 Houston, TX 77063
April 29 – May 2, 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
May 3, 8 am - 12 pm
May 6 and 7, 7:00 am – 7:00 pm
(No voting at this location on Saturday)

For more details, please call SBISD's Diane Dickens at 713-251-2217 or email her at elva.dickens@springbranchisd.com.

For complete election information, visit the BOT website.
If you need assistance, or for all other questions, please call 713-251-2217.



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Rice University Newsmakers

Superintendent of Schools Duncan Klussmann, Ed.D., and former Spring Branch ISD Board of Trustees President Susan Kellner joined several prominent Texas legislators and educational leaders in a one-day symposium on public education held recently at Rice University.

On Monday, Feb. 25, Dr. Klussmann and Susan Kellner, a vice president with Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student (TAMSA), won applause – if not all hearts and minds – from the knowledgeable listeners inside Rice’s Baker Hall. Spring Branch’s own experts on education shared frank views on issues ranging from local control of schools to high-stakes student testing and accountability.

The one-day symposium on public education was sponsored by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, Austin-based media organization that promotes civic engagement and debate on issues of importance that range from state government to education policy.

Increased student testing, high school graduation plans, and school finance were just a few topics explored at the daylong symposium. Superintendent Klussmann spoke during a morning session on “Choice and Charters.”

Session panelists included David Anthony, CEO of Raise Your Hand Texas; Caprice Young, education vice president at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation; and Rosemary Perlmutter, co-founder and CEO with Teaching Trust, founder of Uplift Education.

Last fall, SBISD through the SKY Partnership with KIPP Houston and YES Prep Public Schools opened first-year programs led by these successful public charter school groups at both Landrum and Northbrook middle schools. In several years, a charter high school program will begin at Northbrook High School, providing a feeder for many middle school charter graduates.

Highlights of Dr. Klussmann’s remarks included:

On choice in education: The Superintendent noted that one size does not fit all in education. Students all have different needs, and they need as many options in education as possible. • On competition and regulations: One of Dr. Klussmann’s concerns is that really innovative education leaders are not looking to Texas for ideas today. One reason may be state regulation, which ranges from the starting date for the new school year to local Board decisions on setting local tax rates. More competition is better.

On state education policy and the Legislature: When the Legislature makes a new decision on education policy, it takes two years to address it if changes or corrections are needed. School boards, and local superintendents, can react and make changes at the local level far quicker, in a few days for serious issues.

On Graduation Plans: Proposed changes to the current state Graduation Plan can give kids a chance to take rigorous courses in their area of interest and prepare every kid in the system for some level of higher education. Such changes should be encouraged.

Featured speakers during an early morning session were Texas Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killen, the chairman of the House Public Education Committee, and state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, chairman of the Senate Public Education Committee.

These two influential lawmakers have filed measures in Austin (Senate Bill 3 and House Bill 5) that could change graduation plans and redirect the state’s increasing emphasis on student testing before graduation, as seen in the current requirement for most public high school students to pass 15 separate, STAAR End-Of-Course (EOC) exams to graduate.

Monday’s meeting on public education at Rice made headlines when four of the state’s former education commissioners agreed that Texas needs less high-stakes testing in its public schools. State Rep. Aycock said that he favors reducing EOC tests from 15 to 5, too.

In addition, state Sen. Patrick told the Baker Hall audience that he plans to formally ask current Education Commissioner Michael Williams to put an immediate “hold” on several tests, including world history and geography, as required for graduation.

During an afternoon session on “Accountability and Testing,” Susan Kellner, the TAMSA vice president and former Board president, debated the proper amount of student testing with former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and others on her panel.

The former top education official agreed that 15 tests were too many, but she also questioned why some groups were opposed to more accountability, too. She was education adviser to former President George W. Bush, who made No Child Left Behind Act the law of the land for public school accountability during his time in office.

More than 80 percent of Texas school boards, including SBISD, have adopted resolutions during the past several years that criticize the state’s new STAAR/EOC exams as either flawed or dangerously excessive. TAMSA advocates for the use of national norm-referenced tests in grades 3 through 12 instead of more expensive, state-designed exams like STAAR.

If Texas continues to support STAAR/EOC testing, then TAMSA contends that no more than two or three EOC exams should be required.

“We are appalled at what is now happening in our schools and in our children’s classrooms, all in the name of accountability,” Kellner said. “It is driving curriculum, and it is driving teaching and learning that we are shocked at. We can’t believe that we’ve gotten this far.”

“Children between grades 3 and 8 are taking 17 tests, in addition to the 15 needed in order to graduate from high school. It’s out of control… It’s gone to the dark side and parents are finally stepping up and saying, ‘This is egregious. This is hurtful, and we’re not going to take it anymore.’”

The afternoon panel also included Texas Workforce Commissioner Tom Pauken and Robert DurĂ³n, a deputy commissioner at the Texas Education Agency.

To learn more, visit these sites:

The Texas Tribune www.texastribune.org
Texans Advocating for Meaningful Student Assessment (TAMSA) www.tamsatx.org

Students Lead by Example - MMS National Junior Honor Society Gives Back

Members of the E.O. Wilhelm chapter of the National Jr. Honor Society at Memorial Middle School recently conducted their annual food drive.

This year’s proceeds benefited East Spring Branch Food Pantry, located at Westview and Wirt Road.  The pantry services families in the 77024, 77043 and 77055 neighborhoods.

Classroom students and teachers challenged each other over a two week period to meet the NJHS goal by raising $2,368 in monetary donations and collecting over 1,560 non perishable food items for the pantry. Thank you to the MMS students, teachers and parents for showing your love and support for our community!


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