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Thrive with Five - Introduction to House Bill 5

Added Sep 09, 2016 •

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good morning everybody everyone's okay I mean hear me okay alright morning and you're not in your school right  like when I talk to students I'll bring I have a student group that I'll bring over and visit with them and what do they like to hear me or not or would they find it you're not the fact I'm pulling him out of class for a little bit they owe me a little bit for that I am as Darth says my name is HD Chambers and I'm on her cell service super Sewells Alief ISD and before I get too too far into this to my comments  raise your hand just by show of hands if you are in a central administrative position another are you working support of your school's okay thank you how many of you are the principal of your of your campus how many principles do we have in the room about counselors but that's ninety-five 98% of everyone that's in this room and in but I bring that up because they're going to be various topics that I'm going to cover that you're going to hear the rest of the today that are going to be cific to maybe your particular role that there's going to be that don't misunderstand and don't ever underestimate how important it is for for us to work through this together and in an and how complex hb5 is in the complexities that are going to result from it I will always start my comments on this on this type of talk but topic by saying now I was told this I wasn't around but they're probably been for  maybe four or five four in particular four major pieces of educational legislation in history in the state of Texas if you go back to gilmer-aikin none of us were around then when I don't remember it that was the first one that house Mills 72 in the early eighties which really put us on the trajectory for standards and assessing standards and and teaching to a certain standard and Holden not only students accountable but holding districts and campuses accountable Less in a bill one early in the nineties and then and then House Bill 5  so when you put that perspective when you put 5 into perspective you're not going to walk away today with all the answers but it's going to take some time what we what would I hope to provide you with is what I was asked to share with you I'm going you just a Lil Bit of background as to how this involved and in cuz I was a part of that and if you want to be angry at somebody you can be as angry at me as anybody because because of my roll in it but also what we're doing in our school district because quite frankly a leaves a little bit ahead of everyone else because we've been so involved in it I recognize it where large District we have close to 50,000 kids we have 7,000 employees so I've got resources in my district that many small districts do not have a fully recognize that and as I go through some of my comments all all allude to things that we are making available to districts across the state to De basically copy from us if if you want As you move forward with your with your implementation so I don't make I don't pretend to have all the answers I don't pretend to the misunderstanding of the this is not a complex piece of legislation controversial and some some corners of the state but I'm here to 2 my my rolling out and then explain my perspective on that and we'll have some questions or if I say something in middle of it you just need for me to clarify to raise your hand i'm not just stopping answer your that's so that you not any more confused and I'm probably going to make you so so here we go  I don't know why these are flying in but I'm going to click on them but I've been asking several questions about why  wai-wai House Bill 5 or why piece of legislation it all I will I will double back it started over a 10 12 15 your period of the accumulation of tests testing is what got this conversation started in my opinion in a lot of people's opinion was the over-reliance on state-mandated testing both of the high school level at the theater at the k28 level that was a part of the conversation that got got the the discussion taking place if you recall and I will need this is what probably created a window of opportunity was a couple of years ago whenever the 15% rule was was emplaced that the fit the end-of-course exam was going to count 15% of each house grade  there was a group of parents that when their children got to the 9th grade and they realize what was getting ready to happen to their own kids they be when did I decided to get involved and to take you make sure their voice was heard  that's one reason it occurred the strict and prescriptive one size balkrishna for all students we began I think most people across the stage were paying close attention to it begin believing it the 4 by 4 that those very strict very prescriptive courses the one-size-fits-all the the students the counselors who are building Master schedules and you were building student schedules and you would how old are courses and of their four-year plan based on the four by four then you would just start plugging in electives wherever you can find spot for me so you can add a hodgepodge of a of a tree script addenda and I know cuz my kids graduated under that my own personal children did it so you begin seeing what what was the relevancy what where we actually will react doing for students as a related to the to the overall Creek and they were being exposed to in an arcade 12 schools end-of-course exams Trainwreck I use I don't use that term loosely I believe that we would have had with this year's Juniors getting ready to take their third set of 5 and of course exams number of students across the state of Texas who would not demonstrate Mastery yet I think there was an unintended consequence getting ready to occur that the no one in Texas was paying attention to and no one was prepared for and I'll speak to that in just a little bit there was three messages we kept getting those last three bullets the message business Community was kids are not prepared they're not prepared to come into the workforce they're not prepared higher-ed they're not prepared to many students in remedial developmental course too many children not coming to us ready to take college algebra where did it take integrated reading and writing it must give me at the college level where there's a community college or with its A4 University in the last one. Least I think this is one of the most important too many kids are telling us we're bored we can't this is between we don't he saying what were what were the courses were taking and this just came up over and over and over again and I will tell you  there are two things that the we all have to make sure that we're going to so what curriculum I don't care if it's House Bill 5 I don't care what what you call it if you don't have students if you don't have kids who at least thing they're engaged  if they don't think that they have a say in what they're doing if they don't have any any control whatsoever did I don't care how strong acronym have you're going to lose the benefit of that crate let me we had lost that and and again I would I would just as we were talking to students across the our school district talking to other Educators across the state so you had these three entities higher ed the workforce and then ultimately they're the students we're all saying there's got to be a better way to get to the to the end result here so those are the the overall read reasons why that's kind of how that started as y but you're just a little bit of History so how this but how we going to get the conversation moving during that 15% conversation  during the the parents getting involved engaged listening to former commissioner Robert Scott every once in awhile talk about the idea of maybe some different Pathways that students can graduate other than what was currently on the books they're begin We Begin seeing at least the last week for myself I begin seeing a window of opportunity  during the in between the 2011 session and 2013 session is when the 15% rule kind of blew up in in in before long the Arthur's of those to build that build let it written letters to the governor saying we didn't you know we don't believe the 15% rule should be in place Identify two reasons as to why that was not a good idea there begin being demonstrated an opportunity that could they can maybe we could take advantage of to accomplish a couple of things one on the testing front one on the curriculum front and it won't I didn't gagement student engagement front  so in the spring of 2012 I mean Region 4 region represents 1.3 million students of the five million students in the state of Texas  we're sitting around from superintendents or sitting around and we're kind of having a discussion about the 13 session so where you're away basically before having a conversation and someone said what's going to be our legislative agenda what are going to be our priorities for the 14 Session  I told him I said I will not write another legislative agenda I am not writing another set of priorities for the knot anymore I've done it it sits on his check off we go tell our members what we think what we would like for them to consider ultimately we begin griping wing soup when it's educated We Begin griping about the extension we find ourselves in and I said I will be a part of writing a solution but I'm not going to be a part of routing another set of five or six bullets that we're going to know we're going to bombard them with and hope that something sticks so what we did and what I did is I wrote a a white paper I wrote a separate pages and it's just if HD Chambers working for the day with it was some realistic boundaries current expectations current standards current assessments all of the things that are in place in the state of Texas that's improved public at up into a canal I wrote what I thought might be nice and I did at least for people to consider  and that idea ended up  being pitched others I'll talk about that little bit but it kind of got circulate around the late and next thing you know it gained traction educators are saying yeah we think we could we could we could live with this we could kind of work through this and so anyway ultimately it took on a life of its own and It ultimately became the legislation it was awfully what would use to help draft the endorsements and what was used to draft the foundation plan on what was used to draft the performance acknowledgements in the desire for additional courses to be included that would count towards the high school students graduation plants it all kind of started in the Harris County area with an ID with the solution if it would have if we just sent this thing out and it would have got shot down we are never did never seen the light at but it didn't you just kept getting yeah we need to talk about this more so who do we send it to Let's Solutions arsal agendas my first thought was I need to make sure that whatever this idea this concept is needs to be doable that are low in our smaller schools are smaller District Valdese T's not put the J that then I'll tell you what that stands for a little bit but tasks obviously tassel tasby that's the school Alliance Texas the community school which is about 800 of our smaller districts across the state Texas Association of midsize schools the Texas rural Educators Association Tamsin Texans advocating for Meaningful stood assessment that's the moms that was that was the upset mom the parents and became not just moms but they were the ones who Voice Was Heard in the jftc was the jobs for Texas Coalition and you're going to hear from a gentleman and a little bit later on a panel that represents this group this was the business Community who have been looking for a solution or at least an idea to answer that question or to your address the concern they've been having his that we were not preparing kids for their for the workforce so one reason I think that the five became successful in the one reason I think that  there was never a single no vote against it in the house of don't first rating I think couple of people go to the guest it but at the final after it came out of conference committee every single person voted for in the house voted for it and send it and they'll tell me the governor signed it because I was inclusion of all these different groups and every every superintendent every board member whether you're in a district of 100 students or whether you were in a district of 50000 students you were saying we want this in members listened house members and cinnamon vers listened  I'm going to come back to some little bit but this is a valuable lesson for us to learn our profession are there was a commitment to talk to negotiating to collaborate  I can't tell you how many conversations I was in with people who really had problems with House Bill 5 concerns that we were going to be moving away that we were dropping we were moving away from higher standards that we were moving away from from a rigorous curriculum for all that we were moving towards tracking a certain subpopulation group of students into certain areas and I'll talk to that in a little bit but we had to have those conversation we and we did and in an hour apply was apart a lot of them other people were apart of them to this day there are people that still have disagreement over this but now that it's the law playing I think everyone is on board to make it work  and Tibetan to truly gain the benefits that they're going to come from it that I believe but we had to talk the Wilson the Goshi ation I'll talk about that little bit and in collaboration  I can tell you in from my perspective been in the business 29 years I've the people have told me who have been the business a lot longer than I have they have never seen these groups of people these organizations the parents the Community Health Member Center members they never seen him come around and coalesce around something like they did House Bill 5 not to the extent that they did so I believe a lot of this had to do with us being able to talk in the go she ate the last two bullets  without if it weren't for terminate cock and his staff Jenna Watson in the house public education committee and sent her to Patrick with Marian Wallace in the Senate Ed committee the the people that were involved in actually putting this idea into legislation and in in a manner which we fall Spirit the intuniv what was what was originally thought and then ultimately germinate cock and Senator Patrick leading their perspective bodies  in a master way of getting this pass without anyone without any single no vote that that's where it that's where it occurred that's what we did was we brought an idea POS solution they made it happen they they made it happen  in the last and I'll talk about this a little while just they just last week with the State Board of Education it's one thing to pass a bill to another thing to get the rules written to get it way to bills intended to intended how many of us over there there's there many pieces of legislation passed that when the law pass we said you know week that's pretty good idea but by the time we get the letter from the agency  what did the inter Tatian of the agency's interpretation of the bill or the legislation it looks nothing like what we thought it was going to what we thought we were applauding I can tell you in this is on in this regard that the German Cargill and vice-chair Ratliff and the other thirteen members of the State Board of Education they started bling and I started under trying to try to get a feel for the bill and I guess back in August is as early as August and September and then in November they took their first what's novel tell you coming out of their first folks there were a lot of us there were a little disappointed because we felt as though they were not moving in the direction that we that we were hoping that they would from November to last week we at the they asked for input they ask for discussions ask for conversations I met with him a bunch of lot of people met with them and it kind of work through it and I will tell you that at the end of the day last Last Friday their votes for House Bill 5 rules were is as solid as I as I could have expected and and we owe the wheels of the State Board of lot of credit they deserve a lot of credit we criticize them a lot and a lot of Chen lot of times they deserve the criticism but as it relates to ride roles in a passing rules for five I thought they did as good a job as they possibly could to stay within the intent of the law as well as the legislation of the law kind of the how that's how all this is happened did evolve into a from the from an idea and a concept to a lot of people getting the word out to dissecting it to debating it to negotiating the trying to understand what's what's what's the idea about what's the what in the world you know the pitfalls he mentioned it to commit the committee or the panel later today's going to talk about those are real pitfalls I don't pretend to I don't have to pretend to stand in front of you and say that this this is a bulletproof piece of legislation the responsibility now relies on people like me big-time on people like me because of the investment that I put in the fact that my is this associated with it as it is and so I'm going to do everything I can do to make it to make it as successful in a leaf is but I also believe that I have a responsibility and large districts have a responsibility to help smaller districts who can who don't have the resources at that maybe we so that's why I'm getting ready to talk about some of the things I'm we'll talk about it so hopefully it'll give you some ideas on things you can do with in your district and then I'll talk about the State Board of and then we'll talk a little bit about where do we go from here and then I'll wrap it up and try to answer any questions you might have if I'd okay so far this is kind of how we got here good for better for worse is that we got here I think for for for for the better let me start this off with a couple thing I mean this is my opinion 3 things House Bill 5 is not  it's not a test production Bill yes it did it did reproduce into course exam the high school level it did not touch 3 through right there are still 17 STAAR test that every third to eighth grader has to take at a minimum and their third through eighth grade year but this bill at its core was not just a bill to reduce testing for kids in state of Texas as I mentioned earlier hit that did start a versation that did provide a window but it was not that's not all it is and I don't want anyone to walk away thinking this was a tough production bill  it wasn't a CTE bill when when I get to the endorsement comments I'm going to make I hope I explain why that the the whole notion of endorsements even came stop  the bill itself ended up at self was not a bill to to to booster or to bulk up CTE CT was involved in it because there are Mini's you but you know very well there are many sequences of courses within the CT framework which Italy within the good Chief Texas career clusters that vetted and making determinations and where the jobs are going to be where the jobs going to be the next 10 years 20 years 25 years and still CTE got a lot of a lot of publicity in a lot of a lot of airtime that's not what the bill was and last but not least I know I'm not sure how this occurred  it was not a declaration of war on Algebra 2 I've been asking when did and we can chuckle about that but you have no it's it's a serious issue  NN and I don't want to make light of this but never ever in that whole hit that bed brief history of baby about being someone who's been involved with it since the very Inception never did out of her to have a bullseye on its back never the course and we have people thinking we're not teaching the course anymore  which is absolutely ludicrous and I think that the people that were concerned about remove the requirement that all students take Algebra 2  I think the narrative Got Hijacked a little bit that if we don't require all students to take out to the nose sneaky superintendents are going to make sure that we only put our best and brightest now to Pretend We're going to something else fun other kids in the less rigorous math courses nothing could be further from the truth  I fundamentally firmly believe and in MN willing to accept someone who disagrees with this bleed family believe that algebra to the way it was being taught in our schools are high schools in the fact that there were other meaningful  courses that teach critical thinking that problem solving there other courses it could be offered that are as meaningful if not more meaningful and relevant to students than Algebra 2  that's my that was my belief based on conversations without a repeaters all over the state of Texas and so this was not at this was not an attempt to undermine oportun  I will tell you this and I learn this I was never mad teacher so I'm not I am the least qualified to talk about this but I will tell you what I learn from just privations  is it most algebra two teachers will tell you that the way in which I refer to is being taught in our schools and it's been like this for a long time it was more of a theory based it was teacher standard teacher curriculum so that a student can answer a multiple choice test question that is not Applied Mathematics that is robbing out of or two of the of the of the of the potential which that course has and I think we've been robbing the potential of that course for many years so what you know chairman Ed Cox said this on the house floor when he when he begin laying out the bill the very first time it was debated he said this whole bill will Javon Algebra 2  my goodness was he right  because it has continued to hinge upon Algebra 2  so you know I don't want anyone to listen to me speak to to have the impression that we were moving away from Algebra 2 because I thought it was a bad class I just didn't think it was being taught in a way still going to have the vast majority of our kids taking Algebra 2 we're still offering it we have not reduced the number of sections for next year's Force Gaiden Alief ISD what we are you're adding some additional courses based on students interest in based on move meaning moving students to a more meaningful diploma but we're not we're not destroying out 2 / 2 then what it is these are the three things and I'll just real quickly supposed to secondary Legends build miles for rigors flexibility and choice little bit of choice not a lot of choice  a lot more student flexibility and when I is not a not a reduction a regular I think it's a change in rigor it's going to take some time for this to occur to take some time but I think it's a change and I think when we're talking to DePere show me when I'm talking to higher ed folks my local mod my four year universities in our community and our two year universities and we're talking about what are we doing prepare students for college algebra what are we doing to prepare them for that integrated reading and writing English Lit course  we have to talk about how we're what am I turn the ringer still there but it's being taught in different ways and different courses different different subjects it's an option for local boards and communities to have some control your superintendent  if you're super didn't hear you need to have your boarding gay just as an opportunity for school boys to actually have a little bit more say in what's going on there Cool School District than they've ever had  that some of you may be scary  and I was quite frankly that was a concern those who were concerned about this for a fearful they say we're not worried about it you actually we're not worried about any leave we're not worried about you we're not worried about  many many many successful districts but we'll worry about those few that may may take advantage of this and not not not approach it is in the same thought that maybe some other folks you're approaching it and I don't deny that I think it's our responsibility I think it's okay to other superintendent I guess people are responsibilities of Ensure  that our colleagues don't don't allow that to happen and it's an opportune for Meaningful accountability measures that are broader than a single test  that's the one thing that is a student engagement Community piece that didn't really get to discuss that much during the when you got back to work and this bill was passed in the things you start looking at and what's really do right now what do I have to really work on right now that Community engagement accountability component other people look around on what do we do with it  that's part of what I'm going to share with you just a little bit to help you out  we all know the the no campus no district is either successful as their test scores tell you they are or if pores are test scores tell you they are there's a whole lot of other things that are going on that find your District in part of House Bill 5 was designed to to give you a chance to tell your community okay star results of come out  breather Rumi require that we met standard that's what this what state of Texas tells you the community here so we're really doing  you're the areas in which you believe what you wish judged and here's how we're doing in these nine areas and I was the whole that was the whole premise behind this it was tonight he was not dismiss the importance of teaching the standards and assessing students and making sure that they're keeping up little standards it was an opportunity say that's not the only way to define the success or the lack of success Tampa School  any questions so far before I get in time I start to the community engagement for a little bitty question so far on any of this let's talk just talking about the community engagement piece I'm going to tell you what we're doing today leave if you already moving forward redistricting ignore this but I know there's a lot of questions out there about how how are you doing this  as you know there are nine components of the community engagement one of the other piece Fine Arts Wellness Community parent involvement 21st century Workforce second language acquisition digital learning compliance the last one the compliance that testing that's two scores that's us complying with state of Texas  we have to do it so that's where that when is included gifted and talented program Advanced academic programs whatever you want to call him whatever you're District calls them and then obviously Dropout prevention strategies graduation strategies is there no we didn't I like we we we ask these questions we sent these questions out to our will first thought we put a task force together and this is where I lease a little different than small District we have this to put Rich together but we put a group together for graduation plan we put a group together for endorsements you put a group together for Community engagement this is what this group did they sent it to the principal's I sent it to our leadership group in the ass these these five questions what do we proud of of those nine things are we proud of  what are we the focus for improvement and here's why we mention that this is important  very district and state of Texas and every campus in the state of Texas rates themselves as exemplary everything they do  then we're going to lose credibility we're going to lose we're going to lose some credibility on this so when we ask what we're areas we need to improve we wanted to have a conversation with ourselves about here the things in our school district or hear the things on our campus  they need to be improved hear things are proud of than we do really well to hear the things we don't do this so well what day does the horses are out there too to help us support it what are we going to use to evaluate and then one or false that we have about this indicators yes that question we ask those questions of our of our staff in this task force brought their responses back  so this tell the way it looks to community student engagement piece as you know  the law stipulates you you're going to either write yourself an unacceptable through X2 exception or exemplary we're going to identify the data source and we're going to identify what is that based on in other words how did how did you come to that conclusion here's an example I know there's a lot of words of Paris don't get caught up in the words but here's an example upper for this is 21st century 21st century horse development we've got a performance measures in the very first one says the program's of lead to recognize certifications or licenses that sounds mean right  so we're going to look at that and if we don't have more than 24% or 25% of our students are involved in these eat taking these courses are on there or just programmed to see me for that certification that we would be unacceptable and then you can kind of go across the the screen we're going to do and then you see the five or six performance measures then what we do is we shade in  what are real bikes on her data what are where do we where do we rest so in our case and Haley's case we actually have 75% or more of our kids who are Greg who are in weird sequence of courses who actually earning a license or certification  so we would be exemplary of that example we be recognized under the under the second performance measurement and so you look at it and you had the first question you ask yourself okay well what are your you recognize or you exemplary in our case we recognized as 3 is greater than 2  that's how we do it that's how we're doing it we're doing it for each indicator for each campus and then is a district

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Thrive with Five - Introduction to House Bill 5

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