HR Extras

Auditors Office to examine TEA’s oversight of teacher ACPs

The State Auditor’s Office has begun an audit of the Texas Education Agency’s oversight of Alternative Certification Programs (ACPs) for Texas teachers. The audit will examine whether ACPs follow laws and regulations, keep accurate and complete data, and how they perform—specifically how well they prepare their students for the classroom.

The Auditor’s Office has distributed a Web-based survey to some principals of schools that employ teachers prepared by ACPs. The office wants to know what principals think of the preparation and qualifications of teachers from alternative programs. The survey’s results will be provided to the 81st Texas Legislature.

Critics of some ACPs object to what they perceive as lax teacher preparation standards in those programs.

TEA produces list of teacher shortage areas

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has produced its annual list of teacher shortage areas by subject for 2007–08. The list includes mathematics, science, special education, bilingual/English as a Second Language, foreign language, and technology applications.

The agency also provides a list of designated low-income schools to the U.S. Department of Education. Teachers at low-income schools who teach in shortage areas may qualify for partial forgiveness, deferment, or cancellation of their student loans. Designated low-income schools are those with more than 30 percent of enrolled students from low-income families in districts that qualify for Title I funds.

A December letter to administrators from Education Commissioner Robert Scott outlined the opportunities for loan forgiveness available to teachers.

Inflation rate increase is the highest in 17 years

In January the Labor Department indicated that consumer prices rose 4.1 percent for all of 2007, up sharply from a 2.5 percent increase in 2006. Rising costs for energy and food drove inflation up by the largest amount in 17 years. Outside of food and energy, inflation rose 2.4 percent in 2007, down .2 percent from 2006.

Gates Foundation assists Houston ISD’s ASPIRE reforms

Houston’s Accelerating Student Progress, Increasing Results and Expectations (ASPIRE) program received a $4.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in December. The grant is the second multimillion dollar award the district has received to assist with its reform efforts.

The ASPIRE program is a performance-pay plan that provides bonuses for teachers, principals, and Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra based on students’ academic improvement.

The district plans to use the grant to train teachers to analyze student test scores to see how much progress students are making. When teachers can analyze student progress they’ll be able to see how much “value” they add in terms of the learning of each student they teach.

Eanes ISD won’t seek sanctions against educator for late resignation

Eanes ISD won’t seek sanctions against Dan Harper, a high school physics teacher who left the district shortly before the start of the school year to take a job in Austin ISD.

The Eanes ISD board accepted Harper’s letter of resignation in December, resolving the district’s complaint with the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC). Had the district allowed the complaint to continue, Harper might have had his teaching certificate suspended by SBEC. Eanes officials say they dropped the complaint because it became an “unnecessary distraction” for faculty and staff and due to the potential legal fees.

Harper teaches Advanced Placement science courses at Akins High School and trains Advanced Placement teachers at some low-income schools.

According to Texas law, Texas teachers must resign from their contracts no later than 45 days before the first day of instruction for the school year. SBEC can suspend the licenses of teachers who are found to have abandoned their contracts.

NYC teachers brace for drama that hits close to home

For Big Apple teachers, the new drama to watch this year won’t be CSI: New York or the latest incarnation of Law and Order. The real action is likely to come from an entirely new source. Think TPU: New York.

New York City plans to launch an aggressive drive to weed out incompetent tenured teachers. A group comprised of five lawyers and a former prosecutor—the city’s Teacher Performance Unit—will work with principals to help them build cases to fire ineffective educators.

The move has been assailed by teachers’ unions and characterized as “a witch hunt.” But New York’s state labor laws offer public employees job-protection rights that require extensive hearings and appeals. Firing a teacher who’s not getting the job done can take as long as two years.

The district will offer peer intervention to teachers who are struggling. It will begin the firing process only for teachers who fail to improve following intervention.

—“New York City Taps Lawyers to Weed Out Bad Teachers,” Education Week, December 5, 2007.