November 2007

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© 2007
Queue, Inc.

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In Texas, the Largest Rural Student Population in the Country Overlooked

Rural schools in Texas serve an impoverished and extremely diverse student population— the largest rural student population in the country at over 750,000. Yet these students are less than 18% of the total student population of Texas, and they are not likely to be the center of attention for policymakers in the state. Rural children, schools, and communities in predominantly non-rural states are all too likely to be overlooked. So it is no surprise that these realities help rank Texas 13th in the U.S. in need of rural education attention and improvement, according to multiple criteria used in the 2007 edition of Why Rural Matters, the fourth report in a biennial research series from the Rural School and Community Trust. The reports provide essential information on the condition of rural education in the 50 states. Socioeconomic challenges are critical concerns for rural education in Texas. Forty-three percent of rural students are eligible for federally subsidized meals, and almost 16% of rural families live in poverty. Texas also has the nation’s largest minority student population at over 300,000, and almost 8% of students are English Language Learners. Transportation costs are proportionally low compared to instructional spending, but revenue distribution is very inequitable and instructional salaries are low.

A biennial report issued by the Rural School and Community Trust uncovered new trends and challenges facing rural educators. Overall, enrollment in rural schools is up by 15%—a reversal of the year-over-year declines these communities have seen. While overall enrollment is on the rise the most startling data revealed in the new report, Why Rural Matters 2007, is the 55% increase in rural minority students, with some states experiencing increases of over 100%.

Why Rural Matters 2007: The Realities of Rural Education Growth also serves as a reminder that many rural schools continue to face a number of challenges, including high poverty levels, low student achievement, low teacher salaries and uneven distribution of Title I funds.

 In Why Rural Matters 2007, the Rural Trust uses the Rural Education Priority Gauge to assess and rank the overall performance of rural schools in all states. Based on an in-depth analysis comprised of 23 equally weighted indicators, the report prioritizes the needs of rural schools using five gauges: (1) importance of rural education, (2) socioeconomic challenges, (3) student diversity, (4) policy context, and (5) educational outcomes. The higher the ranking on a gauge, the more important, or the more urgent rural education matters are in that state. While no single state appeared at the top of each list, Mississippi, Alabama, Arizona, and North Carolina all scored the highest in at least four gauges.

By applying the Rural Education Priority Gauge, the report cites that the priority states where rural schools produce the worst student achievement outcomes also face an uphill battle to reverse that trend.

Most priority states serve student populations with the severest socio-economic challenges—especially high poverty levels—and they operate with less money than rural schools in other states. Those states are located in four rural education regions: the Southwest (Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas), the Southeast (North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia), the Mid-South Delta (Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana), and Appalachia (Kentucky and Tennessee).

Specific findings and trends discussed in Why Rural Matters 2007 include:

• Poorer and more diverse rural communities generate the lowest NAEP scores in the country. The 12 states with the lowest average NAEP scores also have high socioeconomic challenges and high student diversity (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia).
• Rural graduation rates are below 70% in ten states, most of which are in the Southeast: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. South Carolina leads the nation with the lowest rate at 55%. Some states with the highest overall graduation rates—Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Utah, Wyoming—also had the largest “graduation gaps” between white and minority students, with the graduation rate for minorities between 50-60%.
• Recruiting and retaining high quality teachers is an acute challenge for rural schools. Teacher salaries are lowest in the 13 states through the nation’s heartland (North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Nebraska, Tennessee, Montana, Louisiana, Iowa, and Kansas).
• Between 2002-03 and 2004-05, enrollment in schools located in communities of fewer than 2,500 increased by 1,339,000 (or 15%). Enrollment for schools in communities of greater than 2,500 decreased by over 738,000 students—a 2% decrease—during the same time period. While declining enrollment remains a significant factor in some rural school districts, this represents a reversal of fortunes for rural schools overall.
• The population of rural English Language Learner (ELL) students is also sizable and growing. Rural ELL enrollment in the U.S. has increased dramatically in recent decades, more than doubling in the 15-year period between 1989-90 and 2004-05—a rate of increase more than seven times higher than the rate of increase for total student enrollment.
• Southern states have the lowest per pupil instructional expenditures. Nearly 50% of all ELL students live in rural communities in this region where states are ill-equipped to serve these students and where school face some of the most severe socioeconomic challenges.

In the report, the Rural Trust offers some policy considerations to help improve the outlook for rural education, including:

• Keep schools small. Research shows there are academic benefits for students attending small schools in small districts. Congress and state legislators should find ways to replicate advantages of large-scale systems without losing the intimacy, accountability, and cost-effective educational strategy of small schools.
• Concentrate resources in high poverty areas. The cost of teaching low-income children rises disproportionately as the poverty rate increases; more student support per pupil in schools with high poverty rates is needed.
• Maximize rural school effectiveness and efficiency with technology. Distance learning has been proven to be effective in meeting needs of rural communities. Additional financial and policy assistance is needed to develop and maintain adequate technology infrastructure, interlocal cooperation, and program coordination to support distance learning among clusters of schools.

The 2007 edition of Why Rural Matters is the fourth report in a biennial research series from the Rural School and Community Trust, but it is not a longitudinal study. Rather it is a snapshot of rural education using a changing set of indicators that reveal the complexity and diversity of rural education. The reports provide essential information on the condition of rural education in the 50 states.

The full text:
http://www.ruraledu.org/site/apps/nl/content.asp?c=beJMIZOCIrH&b=3508831&ct=4537855

National Report: Politics Messes with Texas’ Pre-K Momentum

Despite anticipated increase, legislators overlook quality and funding measures

Texas legislators are criticized for sending mixed messages in “Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K Fiscal Year 2008,” a national report released by Pre-K Now. The annual state-by-state analysis of legislative support for pre-k highlights the state legislature’s failure to address the need for improved program quality due to political infighting in Austin.

“While Texas serves more 4-year-olds than any other state, the program quality is nothing to be proud of,” said Libby Doggett, executive director for Pre-K Now. “Unfortunately, legislators focused on political battles instead of capitalizing on an opportunity to improve the quality of one of the lowest quality pre-k programs in the nation.”

Thirty-six states increased funding for pre-k, a number that breaks last year’s record of 34, and far exceeds the FY05 record of 15. Eight of these states, including Texas, anticipate increases through the school funding formula. A total of 528 million total new dollars will allow at least 88,000 more children to attend pre-k. Seven states are now providing or phasing in pre-k for all children and three states moved to fully fund pre-k for all eligible at-risk children.

Additional report findings include:

• A total of $4.8 billion in state funds will be spent in FY08 nationally —a $2 billion increase in three years;
• Texas is one of only seven states with no limit on class size;
• Just one state, Florida, decreased pre-k funding;
• Iowa and Pennsylvania had the highest increases at 241 and 135 percent, respectively; and
• Ten states still do not have pre-k programs, resulting in over 500,000 3- and 4-year-old children without access to quality, state-funded pre-k settings that have been proven to help all children.

“While expanding pre-k access is a good goal, it only matters if those programs are of high quality,” said Texas State Senator, Leticia Van de Putte. “This session gave a mixed message: while pre-k for all is valuable, the quality of programs is not a high enough priority. Only by supporting quality measures can we expect pre-k to truly improve educational outcomes.”

A PDF of the report can be accessed at: www.preknow.org/documents/legislativereport_Sept2007.pdf

Reading Across the Nation

Reading Across the Nation is designed as a resource for policymakers and professionals who are working to optimize the early language and literacy experiences of young children. By presenting “reading snapshots” for each state, with comparative rankings on literacy indicators, this chartbook will be a useful tool for policy makers and program planners as they consider how to make investments in the early years to enhance literacy and language development. The charts provide detailed state by state information about whether parents are meeting the basic recommendation of daily reading aloud to their children.

Data on frequency of reading to young children are from the National Survey of Children’s Health (2003), in which families of a nationally representative sample of children were interviewed by telephone about early childhood routines (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2005). For each state, data are also presented on fourth grade reading performance from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) (2005). Reach Out and Read (ROR) National Center data (2007) and US census data (2000) are used to derive proportions of young children ages 0-5 years in each state who are served by ROR, both in the general population and for those families living in or near poverty. Data are also presented on the ratio of young children to libraries for each state.

The Problem: Children entering school not ready to learn

Up to one-third of American children enter kindergarten lacking at least some of the skills needed for a successful learning experience. For too many children, the preschool years have left them without the language skills necessary for literacy acquisition. When children are poor readers by the end of first grade, they are likely to remain so in fourth grade. Interventions in the early years that promote language development are powerful, cost-effective routes to improved school performance. The National Research Council’s Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children stated that most reading difficulties can be prevented by promoting language and literacy development. Snow CE, Burns S, Griffin P (Eds) (1998) 

The Solution: Parents reading aloud

Parents reading frequently to their children provide language and literacy skills that help children learn to read. Helping children to prepare for the challenge of learning to read before school entry is better than helping them catch up later. Reading aloud is the single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading. Early language skills, the foundation for later reading ability, are based primarily on language exposure and human interaction – parents and other adults talking to young children. The more words parents use when speaking to an eight-month-old infant, the greater the size of the child’s vocabulary at age three. Many children from low-income families hear fewer 4

Texas Report:
http://healthychild.ucla.edu/ROR/States/Texas.pdf

Schools Not Sustaining Mental Health Aid to Children Displaced by Hurricane Katrina, RAND Study Finds

      Despite strong initial efforts to support the mental health needs of students displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, many schools have not been able to fulfill students' mental health needs over the long term, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

       "Mental health responses were good during the early part of the crisis, but most schools were not able to sustain their efforts," said Lisa H. Jaycox, the study's lead author and a psychologist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "Schools need to respond not only in the weeks following a disaster, but for the months and years afterward when lingering mental health problems start showing up."

       Researchers from RAND Health found that schools in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas were quick to implement a comprehensive approach to assisting students immediately after the storms, enrolling displaced students, getting them books and uniforms, and providing other services, such as one-on-one counseling.

       However, within six months of the storms, some schools determined there was no need for those additional services and returned to an emphasis on academics. Other schools felt there was a need for additional mental health services, but either did not have the funding or the properly trained staff, according to the study published in the October issue of Psychiatric Services.

       Some schools were able to extend additional services to displaced students, but most schools reported facing barriers that kept them from continuing special services. Among the barriers cited were:

• Problems communicating with parents. Many families were living in government-provided trailers, with no phone service or reliable transportation routes.
• Administrative pressure to "get back to normal" and focus on academics, particularly with mandatory testing required by federal education laws.
• Inadequate resources and insufficient staff training. Schools in larger cities tended to have the strongest mental health systems in place before the storms, but needed them to tend to the needs of their pre-existing students. Smaller, rural communities were less likely to have staff members trained to screen and assist troubled students.
• Burnout among staff in charge of implementing and running the programs, because many staff members also were affected by the hurricanes.
• Difficulties balancing the needs of displaced students with the continuing needs of pre-existing students.

       More than 196,000 students from kindergarten through grade 12 were displaced in Louisiana alone after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005. Students in Mississippi and Alabama also were affected by Hurricane Katrina, and students in Texas and Louisiana were affected when Hurricane Rita hit the coast in September 2005. Some reports found that nearly one-third of New Orleans children had elevated symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

       Jaycox and her colleagues interviewed mental health professionals at 19 public and 11 private or parochial schools or school systems in Louisiana, Alabama, Texas and Mississippi in the spring of 2006 and again in the fall/winter of 2006. These schools had taken in large numbers of displaced students, increasing their populations by more than 10 percent.

       "A lot of these children lived in inner city New Orleans and faced stress caused by poverty even before the storms hit," Jaycox said.

       Students with PTSD or anxiety might appear to be fine and might show up for school every day, but still struggle, Jaycox said. Many have nightmares, are hyper vigilant, easily startled, irritable, depressed or want to avoid things that remind them of the trauma, which can include the loss of family members, pets and their homes. These conditions can interfere with their ability to learn and form social relationships.

       The study recommends that schools develop crisis plans that specify the roles, training and resources required to address longer-term mental health consequences following a disaster, not just for students, but also for staff members and their families.

       Jaycox said the most effective mental health services for students after a crisis like Hurricane Katrina -- cognitive-behavioral techniques that teach students how to develop coping and problem-solving skills to reduce anxiety and depression -- also can be applied to other kinds of traumatic events such as earthquakes and shootings.

       "Education is the primary mission of schools, but schools also serve as a community hub in a disaster, doing everything from providing shelter to mental health services," Jaycox said. "Few people are able to access specialty mental health care. If they can get care in a community setting like a school, then many more can be served.

Garland Independent School District Selects Progress Monitoring System

Garland Independent School District, located in the Dallas, Texas metropolitan area, has selected its AIMSweb® Progress Monitoring System, as a solution for tracking the progress of students in their special education and special programs departments. AIMSweb is a three tier assessment, intervention and progress monitoring system that informs the teaching and learning process by providing continuous student performance data and reporting to students, parents, teachers and administrators.

"We are excited about implementing AIMSweb®. We had been looking for a product that would allow our special education teachers to do progress monitoring of their students without taking large amounts of time out of instruction. We believe AIMSweb® will make that happen. We are excited to have this tracking piece and the ability for the administrators to have access to the data. We know it will improve the instruction in our special education classrooms in Garland ISD." Said Montez Tice, Garland ISD Director of Special Education.

Tyler ISD Embraces State of the Art School Bus Security System

The Tyler ISD awarded AdComp Systems Inc. of Carrollton, TX the contract to install AdComp's state of the art, technologically advanced school bus Digital Video Recorder system on 130 of its school buses.

"The need for having cameras on our school buses has been a long standing wish that finally became a reality for us this year. Our dilemma has always been that, none of the products that have been out there really met our needs," said an official of the Tyler ISD.

Installing cameras in the school buses is just one of the many steps that the Tyler ISD has taken in keeping their environment safe from predators and mischief makers.

“The features that the Transport Track system offers, gives us a lot of confidence, that we will have video to protect the children or our bus drivers when we need it. The system provides a report daily of all working and non-working cameras online.”

Tyler ISD has the system already on 50 of their buses and the entire fleet of 130 buses will be installed by October 2007. The system is GPS ready and can also be upgraded to be a student tracking recorder.

About Tyler ISD: As the largest school district in Northeast Texas, Tyler ISD encompasses 193 square miles, maintains a total of 35 campus and auxiliary facilities, and serves an enrollment of 18,000 students.

Mt. Pleasant ISD Chooses Mizuni Motiv to Inform Instruction

Mt. Pleasant Independent School District (ISD) (Mt. Pleasant, Texas) has chosen Mizuni, Inc. as a mission-critical solution provider to assist in informing instruction for its 5,400 students. Mt. Pleasant will implement the Mizuni Motiv product suite, including the data warehouse, reporting tools, and web-based portal. Mizuni was selected because of its successful track record in synthesizing data from disparate systems to support improvement in student achievement.
Mt. Pleasant ISD is located in Northeast Texas, 117 miles east of Dallas, and serves a fast-growing farming, oil, and manufacturing community. Accordingly, the student population has experienced such growth that Mt. Pleasant is no longer able to manually combine data from disparate systems to meet state electronic reporting requirements. Recognizing that they needed to automate, Mt. Pleasant administrators looked for a way to provide more immediate feedback on assessments to help inform instruction earlier in the year. The Technology and Instruction departments worked together to find a technical solution to their instructional needs.

Mt. Pleasant evaluated a number of integration and data warehouse solution providers, but chose the Mizuni Motiv’s Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) approach because it “simplified the implementation of a complex system,” says Mr. Noe Arzate, Director of Technology at Mt. Pleasant ISD. “Mizuni is easier and faster to implement. We do not need customizations or lots of consultants.” The district expects that the Mizuni implementation will cost 30% less then the other systems they evaluated.

The main instructional benefit of the Mizuni implementation is to “more accurately monitor assessments to inform instruction and improve student achievement earlier in the year,” states Mr. Bruce Gearing, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction at Mt. Pleasant ISD. The data will be immediately available to administrators, principals, teachers, and eventually parents.

As Mt. Pleasant improves the efficiency of its business systems, the school district can provide more services to students. “With Mizuni, rather than generating data manually, there will be more hours available to work with teachers at the classroom level to improve instruction. Every student can be successful. The Mizuni Motiv is another tool in our toolbox to make this happen,” says Mr. Gearing.

Fitch Rates Aledo ISD, Texas ULT Bonds 'A-' Underlying; 'AAA' PSF

Fitch Ratings assigns an 'AAA' rating to Aledo Independent School District, Texas' (the district) bonds.

The rating reflects the district's improved financial position, strong tax base growth, and above-average wealth levels. Offsetting risks include a high debt burden and slow principal payout rate, neither of which is unusual for Texas school districts with small but rapidly growing enrollment bases. Other credit concerns include ongoing operating and capital pressures arising from this enrollment growth and increased tax base and oil & natural gas sector concentration. Fitch does not believe the increased tax base and sector concentration will decline in the immediate future. Current financial performance and expected tax base growth suggest the district will be able to maintain its sound financial profile over the near term, however.

Encompassing 129 square miles, Aledo ISD is located primarily in the southeastern portion of Parker County, but includes a small portion of western Tarrant County as well. The district's primary population center is the city of Aledo, a small agricultural center located 19 miles west of Fort Worth, near Interstate Highway 20, which roughly bisects the district. As evidenced by numerous high-end residential developments, Aledo is transitioning from an agriculture-based economy to an affluent bedroom community for the Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan statistical area. Despite ongoing population growth, estimates indicate that only 10% of the district is currently built-out. Enrollment, currently around 4,400 students, has grown rapidly at an annual average rate of almost 6% since fiscal 2003. The district expects this trend to continue or slightly accelerate over the next five fiscal years. Strong tax base growth, due in large part to increased oil & natural gas production and higher mineral valuations, continues to outpace student enrollment at an annual average rate of approximately 17% over the past five fiscal years. While primarily residential in its composition, various properties within the district's tax base are located in workable portions of the Barnett Shale, one of the largest natural gas fields in the U.S.

The district's financial performance has shown steady improvement in recent years, despite operational and capital pressures due to enrollment growth. After nearly depleting reserves in fiscal 2001, a new administration quickly restored the district's financial position to adequate levels, in part attributable to more conservative enrollment growth projections and continued expenditure controls. Audited fiscal 2006 results recorded a better-than projected $6.7 million or about 29% of spending in general fund reserves, equal to slightly more than three months' operating expenditures, and management will have essentially attained its three-month fund balance goal two years earlier than planned. The district anticipates maintaining this level of reserves over the near term with a portion to be used for minor capital improvements. Unaudited fiscal 2007 results point to the addition of $3.2 million to the general fund balance, increasing the total to $10 million.

District debt levels are high, and are expected to remain so considering growth pressures. The current offering will be used to refund certain outstanding obligations and generate an interest cost savings of approximately $700,000. The district has no remaining authorized but unissued debt, but is seeking additional voter authorization in November. Capital needs are expected to remain substantial over the near term and will require additional bond financing in the next three years according to district officials. The district no longer receives state support for its debt service as in prior years.