FW: News Story: TEA

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From: Laws, Cassie To: Lello, ; , Lucy; Loe, ; Carlton, Belinda Sent: Wed Jan 27 06:56:22 2010Subject: News Story: TEA SCOTT TELLSADMINISTRATORS HE WILL SUNSET EVERY TEA RULE!First seriousrewrite of Education Code since 1995Commissioner announced he will sunset every rule at the Texas EducationAgency and spend the next year reworking the implementation of policywith stakeholders to increase efficiency and find ways to clean up state code.Overhauling therules resulting from state law will be a massive undertaking by agency staff.New laws have added 200 pages to the Texas education code over the last fouryears. The last time the education code was rewritten was 1995. hasproposed compressing the typical four-year timeline into one year, promising tobring stakeholders in to rework current rules, especially those that pertain tothe new accountability system and proposed campus interventions.“I want to hearfrom you,†said, describing the process of reviewing rules. “Wherethey’re not clear, where they’re too restrictive, where they just downrightdon’t make sense, I’m going to throw them out, and what works we’ll keep.â€The TexasAssociation of School Administrators, Texas Association of SchoolBoards and Texas Association of School Business Officialshave signed onto the process, which will make this effort the highest profileand broadest outreach effort has made in his two years as educationcommissioner. expects toget two products out of the process: the elimination of duplicative andunworkable rules at the agency and the ability to make a series of legislative recommendationsto lawmakers on what is not working in the education code.“It might beabout time to start thinking about cleaning that up a little bit and bringingback local control,†said, drawing applause from the audience. alsoannounced the state’s new series of assessment test, which will replace the TexasAssessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS, will be known as Stateof Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR. Themoniker will refer both to the high school end-of-course tests and the newlyaligned tests in Grades 3-8. The new tests will be rolled out next year, withthe Class of 2015 being the first to complete an entire high school careerunder the new system.As it was whenthe state moved from TAAS to TAKS, ratings will be suspended for schools anddistricts in 2012, with the new state rating system debuting in 2013. The willbe college- and career-readiness, and said the dropout/completion rate inthat system would include exclusions that made sense for the state.The ratings ofrecognized and distinguished are out in the new ratings system, but notedthe proposed distinction tier would give schools and districts broader latitudeto highlight a broad range of effective programs. also defendedthe state’s current completion rates, noting the state ranked fourth amongthose states that have adopted and reported the more rigorous definition ofcompletion rates under the National Governors Association’s compact ratedefinition. Texas follows behind Iowa, Vermont and Virginia. FollowTCDD on Twitter FollowTCDD on Facebook