HR Extras

Starting this month, Texas educators can become certified to teach Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Vietnamese. Teachers of those languages have held a special school district permit to teach—not state certification—so they haven’t been counted as highly qualified teachers under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

The new certificates will allow those who qualify to be designated as highly qualified under NCLB, though that’s not the sole reason for their existence. “These five new certificates were created to be responsive to the needs of multicultural communities and to prepare students for increasing globalization of the economy,” said Karen Loonam, director of Educator Standards at the Texas Education Agency.

In the past, secondary level (grades 6-12) foreign language certificates were limited to Spanish, French, German, and Latin.

Districts that want DATE funds must let TEA know by Oct. 19

Texas is set to provide more funds for performance incentives, this time through the District Awards for Teaching Excellence (DATE) program which is open to all schools.

DATE is the final part of the state’s three-part, $472.5 million incentive plan. Districts and charter schools must notify the Texas Education Agency (TEA) of their intent to apply by Oct. 19. District award amounts will be determined when TEA knows how many districts have applied. As with the Texas Educator Excellence Grants, the amount of the awards will be based on a school’s average daily attendance.

TEA included a matching-funds requirement when proposing rules for the program, asking districts to match 15 percent of the funds for the first year, 25 percent of the funds for the second year, and 35 percent of the funds for the third year.

The matching funds requirement has generated some controversy. The Texas School Alliance, made up of 31 of the state’s largest school districts, cried foul about the requirement, noting that there’s no mention of district providing matching funds in the legislation authorizing the program. The alliance asked the agency to reconsider the requirement.

The dispute had yet to be resolved when this issue was published.

Dallas ISD reports job cuts saved $9.2 million for schools

The process of cutting jobs and reorganizing the administration at Dallas ISD is done, and officials there report cutting 169 jobs and saving $9.2 million to redirect to the district’s classrooms.

Dallas went from 11 to seven layers of management in the process. Thirty of the employees who lost their positions were reassigned. Forty-one people were laid off, 77 resigned, five retired, and several vacant positions were not filled. Critics of the cuts say they unfairly targeted black and Hispanic employees and came too late for laid off employees to find jobs in other districts.

The administrative overhaul was part of the district’s reform effort, Dallas Achieves.

In spite of the cuts, the district will offer longer central office hours. The office is now open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (the old hours were 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.). Employees have staggered their work shifts to cover the new hours.

Houston ISD secures grant funds for math, science teachers

Houston ISD received a $1.5 million Transition to Teaching grant from the U.S. Department of Education to help recruit nontraditional math and science teachers for the next three years. It is the third and largest Transition to Teaching grant the district has received.

Houston ISD’s Alternative Certification Program (ACP) will use the funds to recruit and train 150 teachers to help meet the district’s need for math and science teachers. Houston has the oldest ACP in the state.

Northside ISD a finalist for Broad Prize

San Antonio’s Northside ISD was one of four finalists for the 2007 Broad Prize for Urban Education. The prestigious award, provided by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, honors large urban school districts that show the largest improvements in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among poor and minority students.

New York City won the prize this year and will receive $500,000 in college scholarships. For being named a finalist, Northside ISD will receive $125,000 in college scholarships.