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Child nutrition advocates gathered Tuesday at the Capitol to celebrate the Legislature's $3.3m annual allocation over the next biennium to give 70,000 children who already qualify for reduced-cost school breakfast free access to those meals. The expenditure — $6.6m over two years — was slotted into the budget by Rep. Armando Walle (D-Houston) and Rep. Toni Rose (D-Dallas). Statewide, 3.5m of around 5.5m students are signed up for free meals, according to No Kid Hungry Texas, a national nonprofit that hosted Tuesday's event at the Capitol. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government provided states with money to let all students in public schools eat free breakfast and lunch, but that program has since ended. That transition out of free meals also means students are racking up more meal-related debt, said Catherine Wright-Steele, administrator of food and nutrition at the Texas Department of Agriculture. A 2023 nationwide report by the School Nutrition Association found that each of the 847 districts that responded to its survey had outstanding meal-related debts ranging from $15 to $1.7m.

 

Austin American-Statesman

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA) have now formally introduced the IDEA Full Funding Act. This legislation would ensure Congress fulfills its commitment to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Under IDEA, the federal government committed to pay 40% of the average per pupil expenditure for special education. However, that pledge has never been met, and current funding is at less than 13%. According to the Congressional Research Service, the IDEA shortfall in the 2021-2022 school year nationwide was $23.92bn. The IDEA Full Funding Act would require regular, mandatory increases in IDEA spending to meet obligations to America’s children and schools. It is co-sponsored by more than 20 Senators and over 60 House members. The legislation is also supported a broad and diverse group of over 60 national organizations, including AASA – The School Superintendent Association, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, Council for Exceptional Children and the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

 

Van Hollen

Houston ISD has announced the official list of New Education System (NES) campuses, participating in Superintendent Mike Miles' incentive program to shift how they teach students. The list includes 57 campuses, consisting of elementary, middle, high schools, and kindergarten through eighth-grade campuses. They serve predominantly Black and Brown students and include 36 elementary schools, 10 middle schools, nine high schools and two specialty schools. Schools from nearly every HISD feeder pattern – minus Bellaire, Heights, Lamar and Waltrip high schools – are included among the 57 campuses. NES-aligned schools will lose much of the autonomy that schools in HISD have traditionally enjoyed, using a standardized curriculum with lesson plans prepared for teachers in advance. School budgets will also be cut to $100 per student for discretionary funds and $100 per student for supplies, with the district handling any other costs incurred by a school. "This is one more clear signal that HISD educators are ready for change. They know our children can’t wait, and they want to be able to prepare their students for the workplace and world of 2035," Mr. Miles said. "As a district we have an obligation to help them do just that."

 

KTRK-TV

Houston Chronicle

Waxahachie ISD has approved the participation in an Optional Flexible School Day Program (OFSDP) called Flex Path. The program aims to help students who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out of high school by offering optional hours of a school day for qualifying students. The students can get caught up on their requirements and receive average daily attendance funding from the state. The program will cater to students with unusual circumstances who are unable to attend school during regular hours. The district will use an application process to determine eligibility. The program won't impede on the district's High School of Choice program. The district has identified 22 teens who could participate in the program. Pending approval from the Texas Education Agency, the program could roll out by the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.

 

Waxahachietx.com

As the ESSER spending deadline coming in almost a year, some education experts are beginning to question if investing in school staffing is the best choice moving forward, especially given that public school enrollment is continuing to decline. Marguerite Roza, a research professor and director of the Edunomics Lab, says that $24bn of the total $122.7bn in ESSER III funds are financing districts’ annual labor. When those funds dry up, she warns, jobs are likely to be reduced. With 4% of all education jobs on the line due to this ESSER fiscal cliff, up to an estimated 250,000 education jobs could be cut and it’s unlikely state revenue will be able to fill the gaps. Earlier this year, NCTQ released data showing 31% of the nation’s 148 largest districts rely on seniority as a major factor when determining layoffs. Such a policy leads to laying off younger teachers, who are also more likely to be educators of color. "As ESSER funds wind down and potential staffing cuts loom, it’s crucial policymakers focus on analyzing teacher performance and retaining the best teachers while focusing on school-level needs," comments Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality.

 

K12 Dive

Amy Allen has been named principal of Chalmers Elementary School in Gainesville ISD, after serving as assistant principal for three years. She succeeds Brandon Whiten, who has accepted a position as principal of S&S Middle School. Ms. Allen has spent her entire 17 years in education at Gainesville. Before moving into administration three years ago, she taught third and fourth grade at Chalmers and then was an instructional coach for three years serving multiple campuses within the district.

 

Gainesville Register

Ten states have now signed on to the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact, the benchmark needed for the agreement to become active. Now, a teacher who has a bachelor's degree, completed a state-approved program for teacher licensure, and has a full teaching license can receive an equivalent license from participating states. The initial 10 are Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Nevada, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah. So educators can teach in another state without having to submit additional materials, take state-specific exams, or complete additional coursework. Policymakers hope the compact will increase the supply of teachers in their states and help with filling classroom vacancies. It won't be a silver bullet, but the model can reduce the red tape that may deter prospective teachers. Six additional states have legislation pending, and other states are likely to join in the years to come.

 

Education Week News

Lawsuits contesting new state laws and policies keeping transgender students from using bathrooms or locker rooms aligned with their gender identity are progressing nationwide. In Wisconsin, a federal district court judge granted a temporary restraining order on July 6 against the Mukwonago Area School District’s policy requiring an 11-year-old transgender girl to use the boys’ bathroom or a gender-neutral restroom. In Idaho meanwhile, LGBTQ+ civil rights organization Lambda Legal sued in federal court on the same day to block an Idaho law signed in March by Gov. Brad Little that requires “ensuring separate school restrooms and changing facilities on the basis of biological sex.” The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a 12-year-old rising 7th grader in Boise School District. According to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks facility access bans in schools, at least nine states have passed laws restricting transgender students from using bathrooms and facilities aligned with their gender identity. In March, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Florida public school’s ban on transgender students using the bathroom matching their gender identify. “The School Board, like many others, maintains a longstanding, unwritten bathroom policy under which male students must use the male bathroom and female students must use the female bathroom,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Barbara Lagoa in the opinion.

 

K12 Dive

Upper elementary and middle school students have experienced a significant decline in reading and math skills, according to new data from NWEA. On average, students need four more months of school to catch up to pre-pandemic levels, while ninth graders need an entire extra school year. The youngest students, however, made above-average gains, but this progress only returns them to an already significantly inequitable state of academic achievement. The results from NWEA's MAP Growth tests reveal the impact of the pandemic on education, with the most vulnerable students having the most ground to make up. Efforts to reach these students have been criticized for low participation in interventions like tutoring and summer programs. The data shows that students who finished eighth grade this year need additional months of learning to reach pre-pandemic levels, with Black and Hispanic students needing even more extra instruction. “There's still a pretty big distance between the COVID and the pre-COVID trends,” says Karyn Lewis, director of NWEA's Center for School and Student Progress. “We're not doing anything to shrink that distance.”

 

The 74 (Online)

School districts used an average of 2,591 different ed tech tools in the 2022-23 school year, according to a report from Instructure’s LearnPlatform, up slightly from 2,547 the previous year. While the overall number of ed tech tools used by districts is trending upward, the average number of unique tools students accessed dipped from 52 in 2021-22 to 42 in 2022-23, the ed tech firm's report found. For educators, the number also dropped, from 49 tools in 2021-22 to 42 in 2022-23. Learner-centric tools continue to be the most commonly-accessed, making up 58% of ed tech tools used in 2022-23, while the top 40 ed tech tools districts tap into hasn’t changed over the last seven years.

 

K12 Dive

Projections for illegal passing incidents involving school buses rose more than 4% in 2022-2023, according to the latest survey by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS). The association released the results of its 11th survey, in which 94,581 school bus drivers in 33 states reported that 62,482 vehicles passed their buses illegally during a single measurement day in the 2022-2023 school year. Projected across a 180-day school year, NASDPTS officials estimate that it would amount to 43.5m violations per year among the motoring public, up from last year's projected 41.8m. We encourage each state to use this information to bring attention to this critical safety issue and engage all resources necessary to ensure each child is protected," a NASDPTS spokesperson comments.

 

School Bus Fleet

Pieper Ranch Middle School teacher A’ndrea Fisher has been chosen as a 2023 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow. She will embark on a National Geographic expedition from Bali to Singapore, bringing along a list of questions from her students. Ms. Fisher has been named the 2023 Secondary District Teacher of the Year and is known for integrating fun and engaging learning opportunities in her classroom. Participating in the expedition will encourage an "explorer mindset" among her students and provide real-world experiences for their learning. National Geographic Society chief education officer Deborah Grayson commended the educators for inspiring the next generation of planetary stewards.

 

Herald Zeitung