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• Letters to the Editor
• Click and Capture!!
• Texas Education Board Wants More Textbook Control
• Texas Ranks Ninth in Class Size
• Texas Ranks 33rd in the Country in Average Teacher Salary, 40th in Education Spending Per Student
• Texas's Adequate Yearly Progress in 2004–2005
• Different Views of State of Texas Education
• Despite Rapid Expansion of AP Program, Too Few Minority Students in College-Prep Classes
• Technology, Engineering, and Math Initiative Issues Call for Schools and Training Centers
• Texas Renaissance Faires Offer School Days

• Free Student Workbooks for Preview 

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The following letters were sent in response to the January 2006 newsletter.

Jan 27, 2006, at 9:51 AM:


 
Feb 20, 2006, at 8:52 PM:


To submit letters to the editor for this e-newsletter, please reply to jdk@queueinc.com.  Please indicate whether or not we have permission to publish your comments in future newsletters.  The editor reserves the right to trim content for length purposes when necessary, but will not edit the tone of the letters.
 
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Texas State German Contest, February 25, 2006:  http://www.germancontest.org/state/

Sprachfest area German Contest, February 3, 2007:  http://www.germancontest.org/sprachfest/

Student site for German studies:  http://www.germancontest.org/real/

South Texas Chapter, AATG:   http://www.germancontest.org/staatg

Techie Tips for Teachers:   http://www.germancontest.org/techie/

German San Antonio History site:  http://www.germancontest.org/germansa/

Mac German Club Past and Present:  http://www.germancontest.org/mac/

About Me:  http://www.germancontest.org/mary 

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State Board of Education members allied with social conservatives want restrictions eliminated on their power to review and reject public school textbook content.

Republican board member Terri Leo of Spring has initiated a request for state Attorney General Greg Abbott to strike down those restrictions.  She's one of five board members close to social conservatives and a major critic of a 1996 legal opinion that limits board control over textbook content.

To see complete article:  http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/2259026.html

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TEXAS RANKS NINTH IN CLASS SIZE

Quality Counts 2006 ranked Texas in a number of categories. Here are a few:


For more, see: http://www.edweek.org/ew/states/tx/

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Average teacher salaries rose 1.3% in Texas from 2003–2004 to 2004–2005, which moved Texas down from 32nd to 33rd nationwide.

Spending per student fell 1.0% in Texas from 2003–2004 to 2004–2005. That resulted in Texas falling from 36th to 40th nationwide, out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Spending rose 4.4%, or 3.7% per student, on average nationwide.

For more rankings and data, see: http://www.nea.org/edstats/images/05rankings-update.pdf

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On December 14, 2005, Education Week released "Room to Maneuver," a special report on the progress of the No Child Left Behind Act. Eighty-seven percent of Texas schools showed adequate yearly progress in 2004–2005. That was down from 94% in 2003–2004.

Ninety-five percent of Texas teachers were deemed highly qualified.

For this and other data, see: http://www.coloradoea.org/media/nclb_1214.pdf

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Gov. Rick Perry claims that Texans can be proud of student educational gains, but his chief rival, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, countered that residents should be ashamed of the state's record on school funding and achievement.

"No other state in America can measure up to the progress Texas has made in improving education," Perry said in a speech to business and education leaders.

"Fancy education proposals packaged in lofty titles won't fool the people of Texas. It is a sham to preach excellence and deliver mediocrity," Strayhorn said at a news conference shortly after Perry's speech.

She cited statistics indicating that Texas trails most states in several key education indicators, including per-pupil spending, teacher pay, high school graduation rate, and college entrance scores.

But Perry said scores on national assessments have gone up in every age group, ethnicity and subject area. More students are taking advanced math courses here and the state spends the most on pre-K education, he said.

Texas is the first state to make a college prep curriculum the standard in high school, to provide study guides for struggling students and to tailor individualized graduation plans for students at risk of dropping out, Perry added.

Strayhorn honed in on funding issues, where Texas falls below the national average for per-student spending and teacher salaries.

She was specific in saying that Texas ranks low in Scholastic Aptitude Test scores and high school graduation rates. Perry merely alluded to these issues when he said that the state is "by no means near the summit" of education excellence.

For complete article with more details, see: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3676407.html

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/comm/page1.html

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Despite a 61-percent increase in the number of Texas students taking Advanced Placement high school classes since 2001, Hispanic and African-American students are underrepresented in these rigorous classes. In a report called Advanced Placement Report to the Nation, issued by the College Board, which oversees the AP program, it found that African Americans make up 13.5 percent of the Texas high school population, but only 6.8 percent of the Texas students who took AP exams were African American. Texas, however, was on the verge of closing this participation gap with Hispanic students. Thirty-five percent of the state's high school students are Hispanic, while 32.2 percent of the Texas AP examinees are. The report said that both Texas and California, which have large Hispanic enrollments, "are each within reach of achieving this goal" of equitable representation in the classes. Texas has eliminated the equity gap for one minority group, Native Americans. They represent 0.3 percent of the student population and 0.5 percent of the examinees.

Texas lawmakers for years have provided financial incentives to make AP exams more accessible to all students and to provide training for AP teachers. The state provides a $30 fee reduction so that Texas students pay no more than $52 per exam. Through a combination of federal, state, and local subsidies, the exam fee is reduced further to $5 for low-income students. These incentives, an expansion of course offerings and a growing student population have increased the number of students taking AP exams from 69,569 students in the 2000–2001 school year to 112,263 in the 2004–2005 school year, according to information released by the College Board in August.

Last year, 54,706 of the Texas test takers were white. Hispanics were the second largest group, with 34,976 students taking AP tests. AP exams were taken by 514 Native Americans; 10,007 Asian Americans; 6,826 African Americans; and 5,234 students who either marked "other" for their ethnicity or gave no response.

Students who identified themselves as minorities or other made up about 49 percent of the Texas testing population, compared to 33.5 percent of the test takers nationally.

Students can earn a score of 1 to 5 on an AP exam. Typically, colleges and universities will give students course credit if they earn a score of 3 or higher. But even those students who earn a score of 1 or 2 are often found to be better prepared for college-level work than those students who haven't taken AP classes.

In Texas in 2004–2005, students took 204,403 AP exams and scored 3 or higher on 99,428 of them. Some students take multiple AP exams. The College Board has designated 8,861 Texas students as AP Scholars because they earned scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams. Another 3,152 Texans were named AP Scholars with Honor because they earned an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these tests. An additional 4,447 Texans were named AP Scholars with Distinction because they received an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. The College Board named 752 Texas students National Scholars because they received an average grade of at least 4 on all AP exams taken and grades of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams.

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The Texas Education Agency has issued a call for applications for those who want to establish schools or training centers that focus on science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. The academies and training centers are part of the $71 million Texas Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (T-STEM) initiative created by Gov. Rick Perry, TEA and private partners involved in the Texas High School Project.

Each T-STEM academy will be heavily focused on these four subject areas and will serve students in grades 6–12 or serve grades 9–12 and have a strong relationship with the middle schools that feed into the academies.

Each grade level will enroll only 100 students in order to keep instruction as personalized as possible. One RFA is for academies that will open in the fall of 2006. The second RFA calls for applications for academies that will open in fall 2007. By 2007, approximately 15 academies will be open. By 2011, the total is expected to reach 35 academies. These schools collectively will produce about 3,500 graduates annually. Students attending the T-STEM academies will be required to take four years of math and science classes, which is more than is required under the state's Recommended High School Graduation Plan, and must participate in extracurricular activities and an internship or project in areas related to science, technology, engineering or math. The academies will also be required to work with higher education institutions to foster partnerships, dual credit classes and teacher training opportunities.

Academies opening in 2006 will receive about $1,000 per student in additional funding with additional funding possible in subsequent years, while those opening in 2007 will receive a planning grant of $125,000 with follow-up funding available as well. Because the grants will not be awarded until May, the schools opening next fall are likely to have strong math and science programs already in place. Three academies, which were already operating programs similar to those required by this initiative, have already been named T-STEM academies. They are:

• Carver High School for Applied Technology/Engineering/Arts in the Aldine Independent School District;
• The Academy of Irving ISD, Advanced & Applied Technology, Small Learning Community; and
• A.J. Moore Academy in Waco ISD.

Each center will be eligible to receive a planning grant of $300,000 the first year, with follow-up funding of $600,000 the following year. Funding for the Texas Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Initiative is available for five years and comes from the following sources:

• State: $30 million;
• Michael & Susan Dell Foundation: $20 million;
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: $20 million; and
• National Instruments: $1 million.

The Communities Foundation of Texas is committed to raising $10 million from leading businesses, foundations, and individuals who understand the significance of high-quality science, technology, engineering, and math education.

For more information about the Texas High School Project, visit http://www.tea.state.tx.us//ed_init/thsp/

The T-STEM Requests for Applications are available online beginning next week at: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/opge/disc/.
 
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Renaissance Faires are a great way to introduce students to Renaissance history and literature. Three Renaissance Faires offers School Days especially for students:

• Four Winds Renaissance Faire: March 10 and 24 and April 7, 2006, http://www.fourwindsfaire.com
• Scarborough Renaissance Festival: May 2–3, 2006, http://www.scarboroughrenfest.com
• Texas Renaissance Faire: October 25–27, 2006, http://www.texrenfest.com/school_days1.htm
  

Are you interested in Renaissance Faires or Renaissance history? To receive Renaissance Magazine News, a free e-newsletter, follow this link: http://admail.net/mailprefs/%%c_id%%/%%m_id%%/  
Queue, Inc. offers previews of its Texas test preparation workbooks to public schools.  Queue publishes test prep books in Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, and Composition for Grades 3–high school, as well as Practice Tests in Math.
 
Queue also offers Math and Reading workbooks for grades 1 and 2, and publishes a wide variety of other workbooks in Literature, Science, History, Government, Health, and ESL.  Samples of student workbooks are available for preview.
 
 
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