SBOE Info: texednews.com/sboe
Click here for the Thursday, April 16 SBOE committee minutes.
African American Course Gets Final OK
The State Board of Education (SBOE), during its first ever meeting by videoconference, spent a couple of hours over both of its meeting days making last-minute changes to the African American ethnic Social Studies course before unanimously voting to approve it on 2nd/final reading (press release).
The new one-credit course, which is based on an innovative course developed by Dallas ISD, was approved for implementation starting next school year.
The course joins a Mexican American ethnic studies course that the board previously approved after much controversy.
Under the board’s rules, the only regular curriculum ethnic Social Studies courses that can be approved are in the areas of Mexican American, African American, Asian American and American Indian.
The board received information that an American Indian social studies course, which is being piloted in Grand Prairie ISD, may be the next candidate to go to the board for approval to be added to the regular curriculum.
Other SBOE Activity
Second reading/final adoption:
- agenda Approved changes to career and technical education and technology applications courses and requirements. Among other things, the rules consolidate or delete courses to eliminate duplication, authorize new courses, and create a new Energy Career Cluster of courses to focus on the study of the energy industry.
- agenda Made several legislatively required changes to graduation requirements, such as by allowing a student who completes an American Sign Language course in elementary school to earn one high school Languages Other than English credit.
First (of two) reading:
- agenda Allow ISDs and charters to hire out-of-state certified public accountancy (CPA) firms to perform TEA-required independent audits even if the firms are not licensed in Texas.
Other Activity, the Board:
- Heard board Chair Keven Ellis of Lufkin announce that the SBOE will hold a meeting some time in May, on a date to be announced soon. The next regularly scheduled meeting is still set for June 29-July 2.
- agenda Voted, after much discussion in the SBOE Committee on Instruction and by the entire board at the final Friday board meeting, to impose a “liquidated damage” assessment of $113,494 against Australian-based publisher ORIGO Education, and set a June 1 deadline for payment of the penalty. The money will be put into the state’s instructional materials fund.
TEA said the publisher violated the SBOE’s rules by not informing the TEA ahead of time, and by not getting prior permission from the SBOE, before substituting — in 2016 — updated student workbooks the publisher sent to districts to accompany the company’s grades K-5 math books that were state adopted for the first time in School Year 2014-15 under a six-year, $10.67 million contract.
TEA however, acknowledged that the substituted materials contained about 98 to 100 percent of the required TEKS for the subjects, much higher than the 75 to 80 percent coverage in the materials that were originally approved.
Staff added that
Fort Worth ISD is the largest of the four districts that adopted the ORIGO math materials. - agenda Approved the final Perkins V state plan for career and technical education for submission to the U.S. Department of Education, a requirement for the state to receive federal CTE funding.
- agenda Approved, by taking no action on, a single comprehensive SBEC rule previously adopted by SBEC’s governing board that contains numerous provisions.
One of the provisions would make it easier for high school students, who are at least 18 years old and have completed specified courses in high school, to be certified for the
Educational Aide I certificate. Another part of the rule implements 2019 legislation that eliminates the master teacher certificate. - agenda Approved the Proclamation 2022 call for instructional materials for first-time use in School Year 2022-23, including by accepting a work group’s recommendation that only PE teacher editions of instructional materials will be adopted. (Click here for the instructional materials adoption cycle calendar.)