Summer 2012 ATPE News

s u p p o r t i n g

y o u r

f r e e d o m

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SM

Your defined benefit

pension is under attack, but its critics are

ignoring the facts:

summer 2012 | ATPE.org

TRS WORKS Making sense of student data 2012 ATPE Summit preview

Page 18 Page 27

Plan for your future.

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ATPE continues to offer our enhanced voluntary group life insurance program for the 2012-13 membership year. Enrollment is open through Oct. 31, 2012. Please note that during the enrollment period eligible members have 60 days from their date of membership with ATPE to enroll. Log in to the Services and Discounts page at atpe.org for more information or to enroll.

Help fill insurance gaps with guaranteed issue critical illness insurance from Chartis. ATPE members can purchase critical illness insurance for themselves and their families. The lump-sum benefit provided under a critical illness insurance plan can help ease financial burdens and can help fill gaps in traditional life and medical coverage. Enrollment is open year-round. Log in to the Services and Discounts page at atpe.org for more information or to enroll.

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leader texan friend te parent aide principal teacher nurse coach p leader texan friend parent aide principal teacher nurse coach p leader texan friend

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features

special sections

22 TRS works

16 ATPE member legal assistance

COVER STORY The media, candidates and special interest groups can’t stop talking about the Texas Teacher Retirement System (TRS), a defined benefit pension trust fund. ATPE welcomes the conversation, but those who propose changing the pension plan in detrimental ways are too often driving the discussion.

Learn the truth about TRS.

18 Stubborn facts

Since the birth of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, data has become the rhetorical currency of education reform. But student data is only as reliable as the people who wield it.

And in education, data looks different according to who’s using it.

27 The 2012 ATPE Summit

Preview the agenda for the summit,

Save these details on eligible ATPE members’ employment rights and professional liability insurance package.

35 Your Association Annual membership survey results · A special offer for ATPE members from Costco · Which membership category should you join in 2012-13? · ATPE Foundation news · Tenet focus: Superior service to members · Kudos · Family Album · ATPE-PAC Honor Roll

departments 4 Editor’s Message

10 In the Classroom

5 Web Bytes

14 Tech Support

7 Calendar

47 Snip-its

8 News Briefs

columns 15 Capitol Comment

A brief guide to school finance litigation 17 Legal Opinions Think before you assign homework

get to know the 2012-13 state officer candidates, and check out the business before the 2012 ATPE House of Delegates. summer 2012

atpe.org | 3

president’s editor’s message

The official publication of the Association of Texas Professional Educators

STATE OFFICERS

Leaving work a few weeks ago, I accidentally called my uncle (thanks, iPhone), which turned into a happy opportunity: a conversation with my 9-year-old cousin Lauren. I asked her if she was ready to take the STAAR. “Oh, yes,” Lauren said. “I take it in seven days. I need a 67 on the test to go to the fourth grade. I got an 84 on the practice STAAR.” My heart sank. I don’t know whether this “67” has any real significance; even if the Student Success Initiative hadn’t been suspended for 2011-12 because cut scores haven’t been established, it still wouldn’t apply to a third-grader.

But true or not, this is still what’s in my little love’s head. I find myself angry that we live in a world in which third-graders carry such a heavy burden.

My dad is also discovering the reality of our testing culture. A retired PricewaterhouseCoopers partner, he began teaching accounting at the college level this semester. Now, I have a pretty good idea of the stranglehold testing has on our schools; I’m a product of the TAAS era, and I work at ATPE. My dad, however, came straight from the business world (which has plenty of opinions about public schools) and had no clue. He finds himself surprised that his 200 college sophomores’ first question is always, “But will it be on the test?”

I just tell him: Who could blame them? They’ve grown up knowing that their test scores would determine not only their success but also that of their teachers, their campus and their school district—even their community.

No news here. I know that. But I hope that one of our feature stories— “Stubborn Facts” on page 18—helps put the well-worn concept of schoolsas-data-factories into perspective. The story examines the “problem” of data.

When there’s so much of it, what conclusions, if any, should you believe? How should educators use data? Does data really tell us what’s happening inside Lauren’s head?

As I’ve worked on several technology projects this year, I’ve realized the world is just one gigantic database. We can bemoan the fact that history won’t have our diaries and handwritten letters as primary sources, but, rest assured, the stories of our lives are stored on servers hither and yon.

Technology is beautiful. Without it, I wouldn’t have accidentally called my cousin. But it has also made the proliferation of data possible. Numbers wear the mask of objectivity, but, as you will read in “Stubborn Facts,” their interpretation is in the eye of the beholder.

As I said, no news here. Only an attempt to capture a moment in time. I have no answers—only a pen.

Kate Johanns, Communications Manager/Editor 4 | atpe.org

Cheryl Buchanan Deann Lee Ginger Franks Richard Wiggins David de la Garza

Amancio Garza Jackie Hannebaum Jan Womack Ann Petrillo Bill Moye Brenda Lynch Janie Leath Rita Long Kristi Daws Dab Johnson David Williams Julleen Bottoms Greg Vidal Marsha Exum Sarah Beal Shane Whitten Lynette Ginn Teresa Griffin Socorro Lopez Sandra de Leon

President, Ballinger (15) Vice President, Paris (8) Secretary, Nacogdoches Co. (7) Treasurer, Boerne (20) Past President, Northside (20)

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Edinburg (1) Corpus Christi (2) Goliad (3) Houston (4) Warren (5) Huntsville (6) Nacogdoches (7) Mount Vernon (8) Jacksboro (9) Mesquite (10) Keller (11) Corsicana (12) Pflugerville (13) Abilene (14) Coleman County (15) Amarillo (16) Hale Center (17) Stanton (18) San Elizario (19) Northside (20)

ATPE STAFF

Doug Rogers Executive Director Alan Bookman Deputy Executive Director Laura Sheridan Associate Executive Director

ATPE NEWS STAFF

Doug Rogers Executive Editor Kate Johanns Communications Manager/ Editor John Kilpper Senior Graphic Designer Mandy Curtis Senior Copy Editor/Writer Erica Fos Graphic Designer/ Advertising Coordinator Tacy Stephens Copy Editor/Writer Cam Todd Multimedia Designer

ATPE News (ISSN 0279-6260) is published quarterly in fall, winter, spring and summer. Subscription rates: for members of the association, $3.32 per year (included in membership dues); non-members, $10 per year. Extra copies $1.25 each. Published by the Association of Texas Professional Educators, 305 E. Huntland Drive, Suite 300, Austin, TX, 78752-3792. Periodical Postage Paid at Austin, Texas and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ATPE News, 305 E. Huntland Dr., #300, Austin, TX, 78752-3792. Advertising rates may be obtained by sending a written request to the above address.

Opinions expressed in this publication represent the attitude of the contributor whose name appears with the article and are not necessarily the official policy of ATPE. ATPE reserves the right to refuse advertising contrary to its purpose. Copyright 2012 in USA by the Association of Texas Professional Educators ISSN © ATPE 2012 0279-6260 USPS 578-050

web bytes

Download the free ATPE

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Manage your local unit If you’re an ATPE volunteer leader, check out the app’s leader section, where you can read ATPE Leader, access monthly checklists, and request reports and Speakers Bureau presentations.

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Save on travel and more With the ATPE Mobile App, info about ATPE’s valuable member services and discounts is always at your fingertips. Show your mobile membership card to service and discount partners, and find access codes for discounts on car rental, lodging, theme park admission and more.

Stay up-to-date on member benefits Refresh your knowledge of ATPE’s protection, advocacy and resources by visiting the benefits section of the ATPE Mobile App.

Earn CPE on the go The next time you’re waiting at the doctor’s office, launch the ATPE Mobile App to read the latest issues of ATPE News and Essentials, and then document your reading using the continuing professional education (CPE) certificate on page 12 of this issue.

T h e

ATPE Vision

summer 2012

ATPE is the preeminent public educator association in Texas and makes a difference in the lives of educators and schoolchildren. In partnership with all stakeholders, we are committed to providing every child an equal opportunity to receive an exemplary public education.

atpe.org | 5

It’s Your Future.

What Path Will You Choose?

Principal and Counselor Certification with Region 4 There are many ways to a destination, but only one that really prepares you for your arrival. Our Professional Certification Programs provide the guidance and tools vital to your success.

Internships can be completed anywhere in the state of Texas.

www.region4acp.net

calendar

June

1 Deadline to apply for the Barbara Jordan Memorial and Fred Wiesner Educational Excellence scholarships

7–8 Teacher Retirement System (TRS) Board of Trustees meeting 8 State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) meeting 9 Region 10 convention (Rockwall) 14 Flag Day Apply for these scholarships through the ATPE Foundation.

16 Region 1 Leader Lab (McAllen)

www.atpefoundation. org/scholarships.asp

17 Father’s Day 18 ATPE Summit and Professional Learning and Networking (PLAN) delegate

Ask your local unit president to register you as a certified delegate.

certification/preregistration deadline

20 Summer begins

www.atpe.org/summit

© Dollars in book/iStockphoto/Thinkstock; Red Umbrella/iStockphoto/Thinkstock; Hand holding card/iStockphoto/Thinkstock;

P.L.A.N.

July 4 Independence Day (state office closed)

Learn more about the exciting speakers scheduled for this event.

14 ATPE Educator of the Year, Leader of the Year and Scholarship committees meet

www.atpe.org/PLAN

18–20 State Board of Education meeting

14 Professional Learning and Networking (PLAN) 14–16 ATPE Summit 20 State office closed for post-ATPE Summit holiday; TRS Board of Trustees meeting 31 2011-12 membership year and professional liability insurance policy expire* Jane Q. Me mber 123456

August 1 2012-13 ATPE membership year and professional liability insurance policy begin* Renew your ATPE membership for 2012-13.

10 SBEC meeting

Make the most of your ATPE membership.

27–31 Supporting Your Freedom to TeachSM Week

call (800) 777-ATPE to be put in touch with your region officers red dates indicate atpe deadlines

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THE EDUCATORS PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY INSURANCE POLICY IS UNDERWRITTEN BY NATIONAL UNION FIRE INSURANCE CO. OF PITTSBURGH, PA. ALL COVERAGE IS SUBJECT TO THE EXPRESS TERMS OF THE MASTER INSURANCE POLICY ISSUED TO ATPE AND KEPT ON FILE AT THE ATPE STATE OFFICE. Coverage applies to an insured’s activities within his/her professional capacity and does not apply to activities that predate the coverage period. View a detailed summary at atpe.org. Eligibility for ATPE membership benefits is contingent upon ATPE’s receipt of the entire annual membership dues amount for your appropriate membership category. A disruption in payments to an authorized payment plan may result in discontinuation of such benefits, including cancellation of insurance coverage for the entire membership year retroactive to Aug. 1 or your membership date. ATPE reserves the right to determine eligibility for the appropriate membership category. The membership year runs from Aug. 1–July 31.

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summer 2012

atpe.org | 7

news briefs

by Tacy Stephens, copy editor/writer

Popular novel satiates young readers, feeds lesson plans

Texas-size classes

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins’ best-selling dystopian novel (recently adapted into a blockbuster film), has likely captured your students’ imagination, and schools across the country are grabbing headlines for finding creative ways to teach the story. In an effort to spread Olympic-style archery in its schools, the New York City Department of Education has even approved a student archery program inspired by the novel’s heroine Katniss Everdeen.

Since 1984, the state of Texas has enforced a 22-student cap for classes in kindergarten through fourth grade.

Although lawmakers have failed to eliminate the cap altogether, exemptions from the mandate are now easier to obtain. Although 2,238 class-size waiver requests were made during the 2010-11 school year, the 2011-12 school year saw a staggering 8,479 classes exceed this cap. In addition to reducing school programs and laying off nearly 25,000 public school employees, districts have sought class-size flexibility in order to absorb an estimated 170,000 new students during the next two years and cope with the $5.4 billion in cuts to state education funding made during the most recent legislative session.

The controversial novel is No. 5 on the American Library Association’s list of frequently challenged books for 2010, but The Hunger Games has nonetheless been embraced by educators who view it as a way to hook reluctant readers and challenge avid ones. With more than 24 million copies in print in the U.S., the novel has been named The New York Times’ “Notable Children’s Book of 2008” and a School Library Journal “Best Book of 2008,” among other recognitions.

Collins’ treatment of themes of oppression, war and severe poverty has made The Hunger Games a teachable text. At Scholastic.com, educators can find tips, sample discussion questions and other classroom resources for teaching the story to students at different grade levels.

Source: www.scholastic.com/teachers

Inside the bilingual brain People who speak more than one language have the practical advantage of being able to speak with a wider range of people—but they’re smarter, too, according to a number of recent studies. Researchers, policymakers and educators once thought that bilingualism produced a cognitive interference that was actually harmful to children’s intellectual development, but new research on several fronts shows exactly the opposite: Bilingualism improves cognitive function, even beyond the ability to process language.

Neuropsychologists have demonstrated that even when a bilingual person is using one language, both language systems are highly active, which forces the brain to resolve internal dissonance with greater efficiency. This exercise can make bilingual people keener at monitoring the environment than monolingual people, more adept at solving problems and better at performing strenuous mental tasks, such as ignoring distractions to maintain focus, willfully redirecting attention among multiple stimuli and reconciling disparate sets of facts. Other studies show that people with higher degrees of bilingualism are less susceptible to symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, such as dementia.

Although none of Texas’ 1,200-plus school districts has gone unaffected by these changes, the 102 fastest-growing districts, which The Texas Tribune reports have accommodated 92 percent of student population growth since 2007, are now coping with burgeoning class sizes. Campuses in nearly half of these fast-growth districts have requested waivers, compared with less than a third of non-fast-growth districts, according to a report by the Fast Growth School Coalition. School districts across the state are loosening their own internal class-size policies, and some will be forced to transfer students to different schools farther from their homes.

Source: The Texas Tribune, www.texastribune.org

Source: The New York Times, www.nytimes.com

8 | atpe.org

atpe news

The new state of educational opportunity

©teen reader/wavebreak media/Thinkstock; chart man/hemera/Thinkstock; piggy bank girl/ron chapple Studios/Thinkstock; Brain/getty images/photos.com/Thinkstock

During the past several decades, the income gap between high- and low-income families has widened dramatically, and so has the achievement gap between children from these families, according to new research from the Stanford School of Education. Analyses of 50 years of data show that the “90/10 income achievement gap”— the difference in the academic achievement of a child from a family at the 90th percentile of family income distribution (in 2008, about $160,000) and a child from a family at the 10th percentile (in 2008, about $17,500)—is: • About 40 percent larger among children born in 2001 than among those born 25 years earlier, and approximately 75 percent larger in 2001 than among those born in the early 1940s.

• Now almost twice as large as the black-white achievement gap, in contrast with 50 years ago, when the black-white achievement gap was almost twice as large as the income achievement gap.

• Already wide by the time children begin kindergarten without appearing to narrow as students move from grade to grade.

• Increasing within the white, black and Hispanic populations separately, as well as within the overall population.

Stanford associate professor of education Sean Reardon attributes this stark trend to a convergence of several factors. He hypothesizes that family income has become more tightly correlated with access to economic and social resources, such as parental time and early childhood education.

The gap might also be partly attributed to growing income segregation, which produces inequalities in school quality and opportunity between the rich and the poor.

Source: Center for Education Policy Analysis, Stanford University, http://cepa.stanford.edu

The neuroscience of poetry “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.” English teachers will know these famous lines from Nick Bottom’s comic soliloquy in act four of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Scientists have known for a century that reading them triggers activity in special parts of the brain known as Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area, which are responsible for decoding language. But neuroscience has given us a surprising new look at what happens inside our heads when we read literature.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans from people who are actively reading show that fiction—narrative, description and metaphor—activates many areas of the brain not directly related to language processing. For example, sensory-neutral metaphors such as “the man with strong hands” activate the classical language regions of the brain, but metaphors with strong sensory associations such as “the man with leathery hands” light up other parts of the brain required for perceiving texture or detecting complex tastes, smells or sounds. An even more fascinating discovery: The neurological networks used to understand stories overlap significantly with the networks used to navigate social interactions with individuals and understand their thoughts and feelings.

Source: The New York Times, www.nytimes.com

summer 2012

atpe.org | 9

in the classroom

by Tacy Stephens, copy editor/writer

THROUGH THE C A M E R A’ S E Y E

documentary films survey public education

R

ecently, a spate of education documentaries has been released, aiming to change the way viewers think about aspects of the American public education system. A few have made their mark on public discourse.

The pro-school-choice message of David Guggenheim’s Waiting for Superman has become the rallying cry for a new charter school advocacy group tied to former House Public Education Committee Chairman Kent Grusendorf.

The group recently filed the appropriately named “Waiting for Superman lawsuit” to challenge the constitutionality of the Texas public education system. This illustrates the galvanizing power of a single film despite compelling evidence that Texas charters generally do not educate students any better than traditional public schools—and in many cases, not as well.

The films reviewed below have garnered less press than Waiting for Superman, but they are equally provocative. None paints a complete picture of the American education system, diagnoses all of its weakness or chronicles its every strength. Some contain compelling prescriptions for change.

10 | atpe.org

Some test the line between reportage and advocacy, analysis and prepossession. Some use sentiment to strengthen their arguments, others to gloss over complexities beyond their scope. We hope you’ll watch them this summer and decide for yourself.

American Teacher

C

ritics have shorthanded American Teacher as an argument for higher teacher salaries. The film reports that educators make 14 percent less than people in other professions requiring similar levels of education and that 62 percent of educators have second jobs. But its more ambitious aim is to re-evaluate the profession.

Based on the book Teachers Have It Easy by best-selling author Dave Eggers, journalist Daniel Moulthrop and former teacher Ninive Calegari and directed

by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth, American Teacher is a timely film: According to the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, only 44 percent of educators surveyed report being very satisfied, the lowest rate the survey has recorded in two decades.

Actor Matt Damon, a teacher’s son, provides thoughtful—often somber— narration to stories that speak for themselves. Eric Benner, a 15-year Texas educator from Trinity Springs Middle School in Keller ISD and the father of two daughters, loses his marriage after taking a second job to supplement his income. Like the other educators in the film, Benner never complains about the personal and financial costs of pursuing his passion for teaching. But with nearly half of America’s 3.2 million educators nearing retirement by 2020, these intimate stories prompt questions about the sustainability and attractiveness of the profession in the 21st century.

According to one study, 46 percent of public school educators choose to leave the profession within their first five years. Even more alarming: Attrition is significantly higher among science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) teachers, whose skills command a higher market value in the private sector. Teacher attrition costs the U.S. an estimated $7 billion every year.

Researchers still debate whether financial incentives are the key to

atpe news

improving teacher retention—a debate the film omits. But American Teacher does take some cursory lessons from Finland, Singapore and South Korea, countries that mandate high entrance standards for the profession, recruit top graduates, subsidize professional learning and provide systematic mentoring to new teachers. In these places, teacher turnover is negligible, and students consistently outmatch the U.S. in math, science and reading. These countries’ “front-end” investments attract ambitious, competitive students to teaching and obviate the need for high-stakes testing and retroactive accountability. But the film skims over an important cultural difference between the U.S. and these countries—although salaries in these countries afford teachers more relative buying power, teaching is considered a preeminent vocation, and this level of professional respect is unrelated to how much teachers are paid. In America, social status is more often a consequence of money, rather than a prerequisite.

American Teacher leaves a range of policy concerns unaddressed. How can we attract brilliant teachers to low-performing schools in impoverished communities?

Should salary reforms be tied to test scores or student growth indicators? What other factors influence teacher morale and make the profession unattractive?

In spite of these limitations, American Teacher reframes the debate in human terms.

American Teacher is available in stores and on demand.

A Principal Story

A

Principal Story follows two elementary school principals in blighted Illinois communities. Tresa Dunbar is a second-year principal at a West Chicago school on the brink of closure. Ninety-eight percent of her students are from families at or below the

summer 2012

poverty line. Kerry Purcell is a veteran principal at a school in Springfield with similar demographics.

The film follows their struggles to sustain a hopeful vision of teaching and learning while absorbing blow after blow from the indifferent world beyond the school walls. Both women look for creative ways to turn first-year and veteran educators into teacher-leaders. Both demonstrate that transformative principals are by nature skillful teachers.

Tod Lending, a filmmaker whose previous work explores the effects of incarceration, drug addiction and unemployment on individuals and families, brings to the film a keenly humane storytelling ability, capturing what might be the central challenge of school leadership for Dunbar and Purcell: In schools where many children are practically orphans, both women struggle to be both hard-nosed leaders and patient surrogate mothers (neither has a child of her own). At the film’s emotional pitch, we’re on the cold floor of an empty gymnasium with Purcell. She cradles her first-grade students—they ask her why their classmate Travonte died the day before after being delivered to the hospital in the same ambulance that hit him as he crossed the street.

In tending to students, each woman confronts systemic problems beyond her means to alleviate. Off-screen, each describes her work to the filmmakers as “heart work” —work “based on the spirit and the soul,” which is “not always about academics.”

Organizing walk-throughs for central office administrators, tracking student data and administering discipline are part of a principal’s job. But A Principal Story offers general audiences and policymakers an honest look at the challenges of school leadership.

Visit www.wallacefoundation.org /principal-story for more information.

Race to Nowhere

I

nspiring a grassroots movement of its own, Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture documents the concern among many college-conscious parents that schools have indentured their children to test scores, unrealistic performance expectations and an unhealthy culture of competition. First-time filmmaker Vicki Abeles—a mother of three—investigates the “silent epidemic” of what she calls “pressure-cooker education.” Interviews with articulate students, parents, educators, college administrators and clinical psychologists paint a grim picture: medical and emotional problems including insomnia, depression and prescription drug abuse; epidemic dropout rates; widespread cheating; and scaled college remediation at even the most prestigious universities.

Not everyone will agree with this harrowing diagnosis of schools, but Race to Nowhere does raise important questions about how we define achievement and success both in and out of school and confirms some of what we know about the damaging effects of performance pressure.

But by hastening to blame testing and homework, the film misses an opportunity to examine the institutions and attitudes that distort these practices. In passing, it acknowledges a few—college admissions requirements and the soaring cost of tuition, the high stakes associated with K–12 tests, an outdated theory of learning— that are all moored in parents’ anxiety about their children’s future in an unpredictable economy. The title of the film plays on the Obama administration’s signature school reform effort, Race to the Top, but Race to Nowhere never directly addresses how federal, state and local policy shape our culture of achievement.

Available on DVD for schools and for preorder by individuals; visit www.racetonowhere.com. A

atpe.org | 11

Planning to catch up on your CPE hours this summer?

ATPE’s continuing professional education (CPE) opportunities fit perfectly into your busy schedule.

ATPE News Featuring the latest education trends from Texas and beyond, ATPE’s quarterly magazine is your ideal companion at the beach or the airport (earn 1.5 hours of CPE credit for reading each issue).

Essentials ATPE’s email newsletter delivers the latest Capitol news and legal information right to your inbox (earn 1 hour of CPE credit for reading each issue).

ATPE Book Circle Join a quarterly book discussion through the ATPE Idea Exchange (http://atpe.website. toolbox.com). Look for the next ATPE Book Circle discussion this fall.

Online courses and webinars at atpe.orG Complete online courses at your convenience, and view archived webinars on bilingual education, tips for novice teachers and other topics.

The number of credits available per course varies.

How to document CPE credit earned through ATPE: Use the form below (available year-round at atpe.org) to document credit earned for reading ATPE News and Essentials. Keep track of credit earned through online CPE with the printable certificates available when you complete courses. Keep the forms in your files.

Continuing Professional Education Certificate of Completion Association of Texas Professional Educators (SBEC CPE Provider ID# 500105) This certificate is issued to the signed holder by the Association of Texas Professional Educators for documentation of the continuing professional education (CPE) experience(s) listed below.

Certificate holders should note that the following CPE experiences qualify as independent study. The State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) defines independent study as the self-study of relevant professional materials such as books, journals and periodicals; independent study is not to exceed 20 percent of required hours.

CPE Experience

Hours Completed Certificate Holder’s Initials

Reading the ____________ issue of ATPE News

1.5 ________________________

Reading the ____________ issue of Essentials 1

________________________

I hereby certify that I have completed the continuing professional education experience(s) described above. ___________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

Print Name

Signature

___________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

School District/Employer

Date

This is an official document of verification. Retain this document in your professional certificate renewal file for verification of completed hours. Direct all CPE-related requests regarding renewal worksheets, application forms, additional information or complaint procedures by mail to the Texas Education Agency, Educator Certification and Standards, 1701 N. Congress Ave., WBT 5-100, Austin, TX 78701-1494; by telephone at (512) 936-8400; or via the TEA website, www.tea.state.tx.us.

do not mail to atpe. atpe does not retain records of self-study credit.

12 | atpe.org

atpe news

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tech support

by Mandy Curtis, senior copy editor/writer

Creating a life more Pinteresting How to find educational value in online pinboards In April, Pinterest (www.pinterest.com) became the third-largest social network in the world after Facebook and Twitter. You’ve likely heard a colleague talk about “pinning” an idea recently, or perhaps you have your own carefully curated pinboards. For those of you not on the “pinwagon”: Pinterest is a social network on which users can store and share images—from photos of dream vacation locales to links to do-it-yourself projects. But how can such a thing be useful in the classroom?

Where to start Pinterest can seem daunting; its more than 10 million users have pinned billions of images. Begin by requesting an invitation on the Pinterest home page or through a friend who’s already a user. Once you receive your invitation email, sign up by linking your Facebook or Twitter account. (This is a required step to reduce spam and make it easier for you to find people you know. You can unlink your accounts once you’ve logged in.)

After your initial sign-in, you’ll be given a set of blank default pinboards, which you can use as is or edit to fit your storage preferences. In order to find items to repin, you can follow users, perform searches or explore the site’s categories using the menu at the top of the screen. Once you’ve found something that piques your interest, you can “like” it or repin it to one of your own personal boards. (Learn more

Tech Term

Permalink:

about getting started with Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/ about/help/.)

Classroom uses A few ideas: You could create personal boards for classroom décor or bulletin board ideas; follow the boards of your friends and fellow educators; find new lesson plan ideas on a variety of topics; find images for those lessons; share what you’re doing in your classroom or on your campus; and much, much more.

Students who are 13 or older can create personal accounts. They can use Pinterest to perform searches for images to use on research projects; create collaborative, class-based boards for group projects; and study current events and trends.

A word of warning: Although the site is meant to be family-friendly—according to the Pinterest Terms of Use, “no nudity, hateful content or content that encourages people to hurt themselves is allowed”—the occasional image with questionable content can pop up. Be aware of this before allowing students to freely search the site. Also, before you share photos of your own work or that of your students, be sure to check any applicable district policies and follow them as you use Pinterest. If your district does not have a policy, you might want to speak to your administrator and obtain written permission

Short for “permanent link,” a permalink is a URL that links to a specific news story or Web posting.

TK

from students and parents before posting student work.

Copyright issues In his Edutopia blog post “Pinterest for Educators” (www.edutopia.org/blog/ pinterest-for-educators), principal and Pinterest user Eric Sheninger writes that some educators have deleted their Pinterest accounts over copyright issues. And although copyright laws aren’t always taken into account by users of the site, Sheninger suggests that using Pinterest correctly can be a great way to teach students about proper citation and copyright law.

“I see this as an opportunity to teach students that many images and photos are creative works, which need to be cited appropriately when ‘pinned,’” Sheninger writes. “For the boards I have created, I have given proper credit to any image/picture where I feel there might be a copyright issue. My personal advice is to shy away from pinning professional photos unless you have written permission from the photographer.”

Continued on page 43 14 | atpe.org

atpe news

by guest columnist Dr. Wayne Pierce, executive director of the Equity Center

capitol comment

A brief guide to school finance litigation Multiple issues and multiple plaintiffs at play in historic case

Dr. Wayne Pierce is the executive director of the Equity Center, an organization fighting for equity and adequacy in Texas school finance. The Equity Center has been involved in every school finance litigation of note since Edgewood I in the late 1980s.

To prepare members for the upcoming school finance litigation, ATPE invited school finance expert Dr. Wayne Pierce to write a brief guide to the players and the issues at stake. Look for continuing coverage of school finance issues in upcoming ATPE publications.

Against the backdrop of a pivotal election cycle, a Travis County district judge will gavel the court to order Oct. 22, 2012, in the largest school finance litigation case in Texas history. While courts and Legislatures have struggled for decades to find an equitable, adequate and efficient system for funding public schools, multiple generations of Texans have been educated in the system from kindergarten to graduation. They have been educated in schools with widely varying levels of per-pupil funding.

Like prior litigation, the most recent lawsuit— Texas Taxpayer and Student Fairness Coalition v. Commissioner Robert Scott, et al., filed Oct. 11, 2011—claims that the state system for funding public education violates provisions of the Texas Constitution. Such litigation spurs the Legislature to action, and the winners of the November elections will be watching the court closely.

The judge The well-respected Judge John Dietz is known as a tough but fair judge who is extremely knowledgeable about the issues. Dietz presided over the most recent school finance litigation in West-Orange Cove v. Neeley.

Regardless of the district court decision, however, this will only be the opening round; the case is certain to be appealed to the Texas Supreme Court.

The issues When the trial begins, the attorneys for the four plaintiff groups and the plaintiff-intervenor will assemble on one side of the courtroom, replete with laptops, flash drives and PowerPoint presentations, ready to do battle on behalf of more than 3.4 million Texas public schoolchildren in 578 districts. On the other side of the courtroom (and the issues), attorneys from the Texas attorney general’s office will gather to represent the state.

Success in this litigation will depend on whether the plaintiff groups can show that the school finance summer 2012

system violates any part of two sentences in our state constitution: • Article 7, Section 1: “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”

(Does the system offer equal protection—i.e., does it treat all citizens the same? Does the system provide adequate/suitable funding? Is the system efficient—or is the target revenue system irrational? Do students have equity under the system? Do taxpayers?)

• Article 8, Section 1-e: “No State ad valorem taxes shall be levied upon any property within this State.”

(Does the finance system constitute a statewide property tax, something the Texas Constitution prohibits?)

The chart on page 43 indicates which plaintiff groups will be arguing each issue.

The four plaintiffs All four plaintiff groups claim the state has breached the prohibition against the creation of a state property tax. They claim it has done so by implementing accountability and other standards that force districts to adopt tax rates at or near the maximum; thus, districts are denied meaningful discretion to enact lower rates or provide for enrichment opportunities of their own choosing.

The Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness Coalition represents the largest group of districts (414 to date).

This group is associated with the Equity Center, of which I am the executive director. An organization fighting for equity and adequacy in school finance, the Equity Center has been involved in every school finance litigation of note since Edgewood I in the late 1980s. The coalition is primarily made up of low- and mid-wealth districts and is raising all six constitutional issues.

The Calhoun County ISD group is associated with the Texas School Coalition, an organization that represents wealthy and high-funded districts and will concentrate on adequacy issues.

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Renew your ATPE membership

sooner rather than later Few things in life are certain, but this is: You will not regret renewing your ATPE membership sooner rather than later. When you take action early, you ensure your peace of mind. That way, if you need to seek assistance with an employment concern, you won’t have to face the disappointment of finding out that you are not eligible for assistance because a matter arose during your membership gap.

The current membership year ends July 31, 2012, so be sure to renew your membership soon so that you are not subject to an interruption in benefits eligibility. Remember: If you don’t renew on or before Sept. 30, 2012, you will incur a 30-day wait period before your eligibility for benefits begins.

Are you moving to a new school district?

If you paid your 2011-12 membership dues via payroll deduction in your old school district, you must submit a new application and make arrangements for payroll deduction in your new school district.

The 2012-13 membership year begins Aug. 1, 2012. Renewing members must rejoin before Sept. 30, 2012, in order to receive continuous membership benefits, including the professional liability and employment rights defense insurance. New members must join before Sept. 30, 2012, in order for their professional liability and employment rights defense insurance to be effective on their membership date. All individuals who join or renew after Sept. 30, 2012, will be subject to a 30-day wait period from their membership date to be eligible for employment rights defense insurance.* The effective membership date for online applicants is 12:01 a.m. the date following the successful transmission of the membership application to the ATPE state office.

Don’t be caught without valuable protection. The earlier you join ATPE, the greater your peace of mind will be. Coverage is subject to terms and conditions; view a detailed summary of the insurance policy at atpe.org.

Insurance policy highlights include:* • Up to $8 million per claim and aggregate in liability insurance, with a $2 million limit for violation of students’ civil rights plus defense costs.

• Up to $20,000 aggregate for employment rights defense with a $10,000 per-claim limit, win or lose.

• Additional $10,000 aggregate with a $5,000 per-claim limit for favorable outcome dismissal and certification claims that exhaust the underlying win-or-lose $10,000 claim limit.

• Up to $10,000 aggregate for criminal defense, win or lose.

• Up to $5,000 bail bond reimbursement.

Now that’s power in numbers!

ATPE’s 11 dedicated staff attorneys may assist eligible members with employment concerns. This assistance is provided through a program separate from the insured benefits highlighted above.

Claims Procedure Except for situations necessitating immediate representation by a private-practice criminal defense attorney, eligible ATPE members must contact the ATPE Member Legal Services Department at (800) 777-ATPE from 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday–Friday for legal assistance with employment concerns.

Except for criminal defense, only fees from attorneys and law firms approved by National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pennsylvania may be covered. If members retain attorneys in private practice, they must comply with the claims procedure set forth by ATPE.

*THE EDUCATORS PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY INSURANCE POLICY IS UNDERWRITTEN BY NATIONAL UNION FIRE INSURANCE CO. OF PITTSBURGH, PA. ALL COVERAGE IS SUBJECT TO THE EXPRESS TERMS OF THE MASTER INSURANCE POLICY ISSUED TO ATPE AND KEPT ON FILE AT THE ATPE STATE OFFICE. Coverage applies to an insured’s activities within his/her professional capacity and does not apply to activities that predate the coverage period. View a detailed summary at atpe.org. Eligibility for ATPE membership benefits is contingent upon ATPE’s receipt of the entire annual membership dues amount for your appropriate membership category. A disruption in payments to an authorized payment plan may result in discontinuation of such benefits, including cancellation of insurance coverage for the entire membership year retroactive to Aug. 1 or your membership date. ATPE reserves the right to determine eligibility for the appropriate membership category. The membership year runs from Aug. 1–July 31.

ATPE members may submit recommendations for attorneys to be considered for approval to: Chartis Insurance, Jorge Godreau, Claims Director, 175 Water Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10038. Visit atpe.org to view the list of approved attorneys and the criteria used to select them.

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atpe news

by Sylvia Martinez-Haley, ATPE staff attorney

legal opinions

Think before you assign Otherwise, you might wish the dog had eaten your homework

Some teachers believe that First Amendment protections allow them to teach what and how they want, but doing so without consideration for classroom limitations on free speech can lead to complaints and negative employment action.

As a teacher, you might expect to have complete discretion over homework assignments, but more and more, districts are setting parameters for homework.

And when teachers stray, they can face consequences ranging from a verbal reprimand to termination.

Problems might arise with the topic—especially if it involves politics, religion, race or sexuality—or with logistics: When was the homework assigned?

How often is it assigned? You might be left asking, “What happened to academic freedom?”

Academic freedom The term academic freedom, derived from the First Amendment’s freedom of speech protection, promotes learning and research without political, religious, institutional or government interference.

Academic freedom encourages the evaluation of diverse and controversial issues.

In the K–12 setting, however, academic freedom is extremely limited. Teachers are in a unique position to shape children’s attitudes, and they bear a great responsibility to the community for the way they present ideas through instruction. Additionally, standardized tests have left teachers with little discretion as to what they cover.

Some teachers believe that First Amendment protections allow them to teach what and how they want, but doing so without consideration for classroom limitations on free speech can lead to complaints and negative employment action. A teacher’s conduct is “protected” only if it relates to a matter of public concern and does not substantially disrupt the school’s efficient operations. Regardless of protection, however, a school district may discipline a teacher if her actions violate school policy or are harmful to students. You have more protection for what you say and do as a citizen than for what you say and do in the classroom, where the school board and administration govern the curriculum.

The school board's role When teachers speak or act, they do so on behalf of their school districts, so it is permissible

for districts to be involved with issues such as homework. The state grants local school boards great authority over suitable topics and curriculum within the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Through superintendents and administrators, school boards may determine what subjects faculty may teach, and they can decide which methodology teachers will use. Within these parameters, teachers should retain discretion in how they implement lessons.

Through board policy or campus regulations, school boards and administrators may also determine grading periods, the number of assignments per grading period and whether weekend homework is permissible. As district employees, teachers have to follow such administrative directives.

Government actors Teachers in public schools are considered “government actors.” Although teachers do not shed their constitutional rights at work, they must set aside their personal roles and opinions when they take on their professional roles. Teachers cannot promote personal or political agendas in the classroom and should remain neutral on controversial topics; students might perceive a teacher’s shared opinion to be the “right” opinion.

Avoid issues with homework When you create assignments, consider factors such as students’ age, maturity and grade level. Also: • When in doubt about an assignment, check with your grade level or department team as well as district administration.

• Make sure to follow district and campus policy regarding the number of assignments or other possible restrictions.

• Stick to books, films and other materials approved by district curriculum committees with the school board’s stamp of approval. If you wish to assign something that is not on a board-approved list, make sure to follow the proper channels within your district to obtain approval. A

The legal information provided in ATPE News is for general purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for individual legal advice or the provision of legal services. Accessing this information does not create an attorney-client relationship. Individual legal situations vary greatly, and readers should consult directly with an attorney. ATPE members should call (800) 777-ATPE or access the Member Legal Services Intake System (MLSIS) at www.atpe.org/protection.

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atpe.org | 17

Stubborn Facts

Making sense of student data

by Tacy Stephens, copy editor/writer

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On the eve of the American Revolution,

The principle might serve us well in

John Adams defended eight British

the “data-driven” era of education

soldiers on trial for the murder of

reform—but it’s as easy to forget as

colonists in the Boston Massacre,

it is to understand. We are drowning

famously observing: “Facts are stub-

in statistics about students, but which

born things; and whatever may be our

conclusions do we accept when the

wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates

validity of data is in question? What

of our passion, they cannot alter the

should these numbers mean to the

state of facts and evidence.” After a

educators charged with translating

fair trial, six men were acquitted.

data into students’ success?

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W

e are in the grip of data. In the decade since the birth of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act—which has its origins in Texas—data has become the rhetorical currency of education reform.

Data provides an institutional index of teaching and learning and acts as a cultural barometer of both shame and pride for policymakers, educators, parents and students. But the sheer quantity of data we collect about schools and students has often outstripped its quality. Student data is only as reliable and efficacious as the people who wield it. And in education, data looks different according to who’s using it.

International comparisons of student achievement data have provoked national anxiety. Technocrats and business leaders hail data as the key to transparency.

Districts and states use longitudinal data to gauge student growth, identify problems and stage interventions. With reliable data, we can show that investments in early childhood education and dropout prevention save taxpayer dollars. Controversial value-added algorithms promise to measure teacher quality by factoring out the statistical effects of poverty and other social variables. Computer programmersturned-journalists mine district databases to expose cheating scandals. Educational publishers anticipate a “Data Liberation Movement” and, with it, larger profit margins.

Yet some historians of education worry that the “data-driven” movement is only the latest silver-bullet reform strategy.

“Everybody has to play a part here,” says Dr. Ed Fuller, director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Analysis (CEEPA) at Penn State University and associate director of policy for the University Council for Educational Administration.

(Fuller is the author of teacher quality

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studies ATPE commissioned in 2008 and 2010.) “But not everybody is playing their role in a way that allows us to have really good discussions about data, what data should be collected, what data means and how we should use it. It’s a system that’s broken, and we continue using data in incorrect ways, misinterpreting it, misusing it.”

ways that convince policymakers of things that simply aren’t true because the legislators don’t have a background in research or statistics. But they have incredible power—incredible pull—in the Legislature.

No one person can counter all the misinformation that they provide legislators.”

Research institutions, think tanks and nonprofits crowd the “data-driven” conversation with policy reports and commentary, making it difficult for educators and parents to distinguish ideology from substance.

The limits of data

“What happens a lot in education is that people start with their conclusions and work their way backward,” Fuller says. “They write the conclusion to their policy brief, and then they go find data to support it. For example, some think tanks across the country believe that school choice is a panacea for improving education. So they write that thesis, and then they look around for the data that supports it. That’s not how research is supposed to work. That’s not how anybody should work in any field.”

Social psychology says we’re better at seeking out evidence that confirms our assumptions than we are at challenging our pre-existing views (a habit known as selective exposure). One recent study even found that people were more likely to view advocates as experts when they shared similar views. Fuller illustrates the problem to his graduate students at Penn State by showcasing policy briefs published by the influential Texas Public Policy Foundation.

“These policy briefs are examples of really poor research,” Fuller says. “[The Texas Public Policy Foundation] misuses data in

Fuller stakes his career on student data but is vocal about its limitations. In the aggregate, a narrow set of indicators such as test scores makes it easier to mask deficiencies or inflate successes.

“What we have in Texas is a lot of data about student test scores, but none of that data tells you anything about why something happens,” Fuller says. “It doesn’t tell you the causes. It doesn’t tell you the solutions. To explain these things you have to be there, you have to observe, you have to talk to people. You have to gather a lot of different information, and there’s no systematic investment in that.

When you have a limited amount of data and training to interpret that data, the system is set up to produce bad decisions.”

Social scientists know that measuring a behavior—collecting data about it—changes it, especially when only a small set of measures is used and those measures are associated with high stakes.

How data about students gets collected can shape attitudes and practices from the classroom to the Capitol. Familiar examples include “teaching to the test,” cheating, conscientiously tracking and shuffling “bubble students” among statistical subgroups, lowering cut scores for political gain and adjusting housing prices to the ratings of nearby schools.

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Officials hope that the new State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR), which includes fewer multiple-choice questions and a new expository writing section, will provide more granular knowledge of student learning and discourage “drill-and-kill” pedagogy. But as some researchers conclude that Texas' reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have flattened, a testing backlash has been kindled. Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott (who recently resigned) has publicly decried testing as a “perversion of its original intent” and described it as a “military-industrial complex.” At press time, more than 400 Texas school boards had drafted a resolution against an “overreliance” on high-stakes standardized testing, which they say is “strangling public schools.” School leaders nationwide are drafting their own iterations of the Texas resolution, and at least one New York City school board has already endorsed a version of it. Despite the states’ $500 million investment in STAAR, Fuller and other experts insist we’re strengthening a system that yields coarse and degraded data and little usable information.

From a policy perspective, retiring Rep. Scott Hochberg, an education policy expert in the Texas Legislature, argues that testing “was never a reliable way to measure the total achievement of students or their teachers.” He adds that inequalities in school funding make cross-sectional comparisons of student achievement data from low- and high-income districts difficult and often invalid. “We would have to level the playing field to make these comparisons,” Hochberg says. “Otherwise, it’s like comparing the New York Yankees to the Kansas City Royals. For whatever reason, there’s a group of people who perpetuate the myth that money doesn’t matter in education. But it’s a zero-sum game.”

20 | atpe.org

“What we have in Texas is a lot of data about student test scores, but none of that data tells you anything about why something happens. It doesn’t tell you the causes. It doesn’t tell you the solutions.”

Muckraking data Fuller, who has helped train education reporters in Texas in data literacy, laments what he sees as the media’s retreat from its responsibility to put the numbers into context and hold institutions accountable for their conclusions. He cites newspapers that print the annual Children at Risk public school rankings as examples of data misuse.

“The Children at Risk comparisons act as their own accountability system in a very perverse way because it’s rarely pointed out by the media that these scores are associated with the percentage of kids in poverty enrolled in the school,” Fuller says.

“There’s no sense of an ethical and moral responsibility to the community to have an open and honest dialogue on these issues—a conversation about what these scores mean and how other factors influence achievement, let alone the targeted ways we should invest in schools.”

As with any reporting, education journalism can be sensational and fragmented instead of systematic and sustained, making quality data analysis difficult. Professional groups such as the Education Writers Association are beginning to train education reporters in statistical and sociological methodology,

but newsroom numeracy remains a steep challenge in an understaffed, deadline-driven profession.

The decision of the New York City papers to publish value-added rankings for the city’s 18,000 public school educators was a watershed moment, prompting as many complaints of unfairness and inaccuracy as it did cheers of support from accountability advocates and proponents of transparency.

Dana Goldstein, a Brooklyn-based education writer whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, Slate, TIME and The American Prospect, says The New York Times handled the story responsibly in spite of some mistakes. “They’ve done a good job explaining to people what the flaws in the data reports were and complicating the whole picture,” Goldstein says. “They provided a lot of context for the data. But you would never publish on the front page of your newspaper a presidential poll that had a 30 to 50 percent margin of error. If we’re going to have high standards for using data in one area, then we should have high standards across the board.”

In Texas, where teacher evaluations are protected under open-records laws, Dr. Michael Marder, co-director of a teacher training program at the University of Texas, is reframing the debate in human terms.

“These news reports are in violation of every principle of human subjects research,” says Marder, who describes the NYC value-added algorithms as “black boxes.”

He argues that publishing teachers’ names with their value-added rankings violates professional and ethical protocol outlined

by IRBs—institutional review boards set up to protect the safety and the confidentiality of human subjects in biomedical and behavioral research.

atpe news

The

A human problem, a human solution For all of the controversy, data has brought us a long way. NCLB galvanized our national commitment to closing achievement gaps by carving out a space for new, actionable data about students—ethnicity, English-language proficiency, disability and family poverty—and reinvented the criteria for judgments about policy and practice. As states seek waivers from the federal mandate for 100 percent proficiency by 2014, we should not concede these advances in the data-driven movement.

But collecting more data will not improve educational opportunity, close achievement gaps, ameliorate the effects of residential segregation on schools or regulate unfairness in school finance formulas.

Today’s array of data-driven reforms— results-based accountability, deregulation of teacher certification and school choice—might be built on an impoverished theory of why schools fail, a theory that, in turn, signals what kinds of data we should systematically collect and how we should act on it. A narrow focus on certain outcomes can blind us to the economic, social and psychological conditions that produce them. The data we have might be distracting us from the data we need.

No algorithm can circumscribe the complex, richly textured association between poverty and learning. Nor can a scatterplot diagram how well a student knows industry, intellectual curiosity, courage and empathy. And in the endless work of verification, Big Data is no substitute for collaboration, dialogue and trust. If broad policy and social interventions are based on numbers, then reliability, validity, inference and interpretation are moral imperatives. Approached responsibly, data is a mirror in which we face our assumptions about the work of teaching and learning. A

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Quantitative Storyteller Dr. Michael Marder’s crusade to make data plain

D

r. Michael Marder is an unconventional voice in the data-driven education debate. A physicist and codirector of the teacher training program UTeach at the University of Texas at Austin, Marder has turned an interest in education statistics from a hobby into a project that has caught the attention of Texas policymakers and educators.

Marder downloads large state data sets and uses them to create visualizations of statistical patterns in education. Available on Marder’s faculty website and on YouTube, the tableaus are designed to be understood by people with no statistics training.

One is legible at a glance: A majority of charter schools in Texas yield lower student achievement outcomes than traditional public schools on several measures—with a handful of exceptions, the picture is the same for the overall student population, Latino and African-American students and students living in poverty.

“What I’m trying to do is find a means of communicating large amounts of data in a way that doesn’t require an expert to be able to tell true stories based on it,” Marder says. “Data creates the grounds for improving situations, and I don’t believe you can address a problem that you don’t acknowledge to exist.”

Marder’s background in physics makes him somewhat of an outsider to the field. Dr. Ed Fuller—who has worked with ATPE to produce several studies—publically challenged his methodology last January in a debate about charter schools in Austin ISD. Although Marder openly questions conventional forms of data analysis in education research—including professionally accepted rules about causal inference—he encourages the research community and the public to scrutinize his conclusions.

“I’m not using the methods that are characteristic in the communities that specialize in data analysis and the social sciences,” Marder says. “I’ve considered all of it. And when I’m not following it, it’s quite a deliberate act. In the traditional form of analysis, most people are in a very weak position to tell whether the conclusions are good or not. I have many doubts about some of those forms, but one of them, right off the bat, is the way it closes down public conversation.”

Marder’s data visualizations have recently been featured by Be Proud, Texas (www.fotps.org/beproud.php), a collaborative effort to highlight the successes of Texas public schools. (ATPE Executive Director Doug Rogers is on the Be Proud, Texas project team. )

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Your defined benefit pension is under attack, but its critics are ignoring the facts:

TRS works

By Josh Sanderson, ATPE lobbyist

M

uch has been said recently in the media, by candidates on the campaign trail and by special interest groups about the Texas Teacher Retirement System (TRS), a defined benefit pension trust fund.

Unfortunately, for anyone who values truth and effective, practical public policy, most of what has been discussed is either based on a misunderstanding of the TRS pension plan or represents a blatant attempt to manipulate the facts. We welcome the conversation about TRS, but those who propose changing the TRS pension plan in detrimental ways are too often driving the discussion.

During the 2011 legislative session, a bill was filed and heard in the House Pension, Investments and Financial

22 | atpe.org

Institutions Committee that proposed changing TRS benefits from the current defined benefit model to a defined contribution plan similar to a 401(k). Thanks to the support of several key legislators and the work of the active and retired education community, the bill was never voted out of committee. However, supporters of changing TRS to a defined contribution plan—such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation, former Enron trader and billionaire hedge fund manager John Arnold and Houston attorney Bill King—continue to press forward, hoping to convince legislative leaders that forever changing TRS is in the state’s best interests. But the only interests served by moving to a 401(k)-type plan are those of the special variety.

atpe news

Nearly every article or argument in favor of pension “reform” lumps all pension systems together and almost always includes examples of failing pensions from other states. This tactic is specious and disingenuous at best.

This is Texas. We do things differently here, for right or wrong. We are not Wisconsin; we are not New York; and we certainly do not operate our public school employee pension trust funds like many other states that are in dire straits because of mismanagement.

It is time to clear the air. It is time to present the facts instead of allowing political rhetoric to be presented as truth, as too often happens in policy debates. ATPE has long advocated for the preservation of the TRS defined benefit pension model for a variety of reasons: TRS is efficient, offering reasonable benefits at a fraction of the cost of a defined contribution plan; TRS is effective, generating investment returns well above assumed rates throughout the past 20 years; and, most importantly, TRS is essential, providing a benefit that helps schools attract and retain quality educators.

Defined benefits and defined contributions Before we get into the details of the TRS debate, let’s get some terminology and basic information out of the way. As a member of TRS, you are required to contribute to the TRS pension trust fund, which makes you eligible to receive a defined benefit (DB) pension upon retirement. Under a DB

of its value during the market downturn between 2007 and 2008, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute and the Investment Company Institute. If someone is nearing retirement and experiences this loss, his retirement will almost certainly be delayed.

Of course, it is not as simple as comparing DB and DC plans. Some states have implemented hybrid plans that consist of both DB and DC components. In fact, the TRS Board of Trustees is currently conducting a legislatively mandated study not only on the effects of changing to a DC plan but also of changing to a hybrid model. Still, it is imperative to know that the only way the state’s costs would be decreased would be if benefits were reduced or risk were shifted to the employee.

How does TRS stack up?

The following might be the most important aspect of the TRS pension discussion for any supporter or opponent of the current DB plan. It is irresponsible to propose altering a system that one does not properly understand.

The DB pension to which TRS members contribute is quite literally one of the best-managed and best-performing pension systems in the world. This year, TRS was named Private Equity LP of the Year by Private Equity International, and in 2009, TRS was recognized as the Public Pension Fund Investor of the Year by Alternative Investment News.

“The report of my death was an exaggeration.”

—Mark Twain pension system, benefits are funded by employee and employer contributions along with investment returns on those contributions. Under TRS, your benefits are determined by a formula that considers your years of service, the average of your highest three or highest five annual salaries and the current multiplier of 2.3 percent. Once you qualify for a pension through TRS, benefits are paid monthly for life, which makes the DB model a stable, reliable source of income for retirees.

A defined contribution (DC) plan can be thought of as a 401(k). In a DC plan, the contributions from the employee and employer are specified, but the benefits are not. The employee’s benefits upon retirement consist of contributions and any investment gains or losses. The risk lies solely with the employee, and benefits are finite; when the contributions are exhausted, so are the benefits. As an example of the individual risks of DC accounts, the average 401(k) lost 30.5 percent

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Aside from being recognized for performance, TRS provides benefits at a cost of approximately $40 per member per year. This administrative cost is unheard of in the private sector, where, according to the Department of Labor, fees often range from 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent of investment returns and result in thousands of dollars in earned returns being realized by the fund manager instead of the investor. Further, the National Institute on Retirement Security concluded that a DB plan, such as TRS, provides retirement income comparable to a DC 401(k) plan at a cost that is 46 percent lower than the 401(k) plan.

In 2011, TRS generated investment returns of more than 15.5 percent, adding more than $15 billion to the pension trust fund, which is currently valued at more than $107 billion. Even with this superb investment performance, pension benefits paid out through the system are anything but lavish.

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The average TRS monthly pension check is approximately $1,900, and more than 55 percent of the 300,000 TRS retirees receive monthly pension checks of less than $2,000. This relatively small amount is all the more important to Texas teachers because more than 95 percent of Texas school districts do not participate in Social Security, meaning that nearly all retirees under TRS do not receive Social Security income.

The 95 percent of Texas school districts that do not participate in Social Security are exempt from the 12.4 percent payroll tax (6.2 percent employer and 6.2 percent employee) that they would otherwise pay on every employee. These districts are exempt because TRS is considered a qualified retirement plan under Internal Revenue Service guidelines.

If Texas lawmakers choose to change TRS to a DC pension plan, there are serious questions as to whether it would retain its qualified retirement plan status, and if it doesn’t, then every district and employee would be required to contribute to Social Security, thus effectively increasing expenses by 12.4 percent of all employee salaries. Neither the state nor school districts can absorb this added cost, especially at a time when school funding has been reduced by $5.4 billion.

There is a reason why many other states are experiencing pension problems, and the issue is not an inherent defect in DB plans. Many states have instituted mandatory cost of living adjustments (COLAs) for retirees even when investment returns could not fund these increases, or they have enacted “contribution holidays” where either the active members or the employer does not contribute to the pension trust fund for a period of time. Mismanagement has been rampant— but not in Texas.

TRS members pay for their benefits, and benefits are only increased when Texas can pay for them (benefits have not been increased since 2001). The state requires each employee to contribute 6.4 percent of his income to TRS. The Texas Constitution requires the state to contribute no less than 6 percent and no more than 10 percent of aggregate TRS member payroll to the TRS pension trust fund. Currently, the state

can be provided unless the fund is 100 percent actuarially sound. The effect of the lack of COLAs in Texas is that TRS retirees absorb inflation costs. Although this requirement can be onerous for retirees by stifling much-needed adjustments in benefits to compensate for inflation, the requirement ensures that benefit increases are not given when they cannot be afforded.

Proponents of changing TRS benefits often claim that the pension system is underfunded and, as such, fiscally unstable.

The truth is that long-term benefits are not 100 percent funded; however, TRS does meet the actuarial standard for being considered healthy by being more than 80 percent funded.

In fact, TRS would be considered 100 percent funded if the state increased its contribution rate to 8.13 percent, which is not substantial considering that as a percentage of the state budget, Texas contributes less to employee pensions than any other state that does not participate in Social Security. Let’s say that again: Among states that do not contribute to Social Security, Texas dedicates the smallest percentage of its state budget to teacher retirement, and we are still considered to be healthy by the independent actuaries who are charged with monitoring the fund.

Does the argument for change make sense?

If the argument to change the TRS pension plan to a DC plan is economic in nature, then—as shown by the efficiencies and investment performance of TRS—it is clear that the argument fails; the TRS defined benefit model achieves superior investment returns at nearly half the cost of a 401(k). Any prudent investor would choose this option.

If the argument is politically based, then we object to the notion that politics should be interjected into the management operations of one of the world’s highest performing pension systems, let alone our public education system.

Think about it this way, from a macro-level policy perspective: If the ultimate goal of Texas policymakers, who are

“ ‘But he hasn’t got anything on,’ a little child said.”

—Hans Christian Andersen, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is contributing at the constitutional minimum of 6 percent; however, that rate is scheduled to increase to 6.4 percent in 2013. Further, no regular COLAs are provided to TRS retirees. Because of a requirement in the constitution, no COLAs

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primarily elected officials, is to create an environment that enhances quality of life—safety, health, job growth, etc.—then they should seek policies that are efficient in the use of taxpayer dollars and effective in achieving the objective at hand.

atpe news

“Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.”

—Henry Brooks Adams The TRS DB plan clearly achieves each of these priorities and does it better than would the proposed alternatives.

Even if the data showed that DB plans were too costly and unsustainable (which, again, it does not), then any policymaker doing due diligence should question what effect changing to a DB plan would have on the public education system. The answer: As with any profession, if the incentive to join the industry is diminished, then those who are qualified to enter the profession are less likely to do so.

If Texas’ leaders are truly determined to build our education system into one that provides the workforce necessary to fuel our economy, then they must abandon the mistaken notion that weakening educator benefits will improve our state’s well-being.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it Ultimately, every taxpayer, every educator, every business owner and everyone who has a stake in the success of our state should ask: If changing TRS to a 401(k)-like DC plan would not be more efficient and more productive, then why change

it at all? The logical answer can only be one of two reasons: politics/political philosophy or personal gain.

Regardless of the reasoning for changing to a DC plan, the end result will be the same; our public education system, students’ academic prospects and our overall state economy will be weaker. Texas parents, taxpayers and business owners do not need an economist to see that the best investment we can make for our future is through the existing DB model that we have today. A wise Texas orator once said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This simple rule should be applied in the case of TRS. The only way we save TRS is by your being informed on this issue and then acting on the information by voting for candidates who support TRS—and encouraging colleagues, friends and neighbors to do likewise. This is a long-term fight that will not be over at the end of the next legislative session.

One out of every 20 Texans is a member of the Teacher Retirement System. It is time that these 1.3 million TRS members stand up to the few who wish to obfuscate the facts and weaken our schools, our communities and the economic future of our state. A

The economics of the TRS defined benefit (DB) pension • The Texas Constitution requires a state contribution to TRS of at least 6 percent, and the state is currently contributing at the minimum. Moving to a defined contribution (DC) plan does not eliminate the minimum contribution requirement; therefore, the state would have no direct savings in the form of reduced contributions.

• Moving away from the current DB plan could cause all Texas school districts to have to contribute to Social Security, requiring an additional 12.4 percent in contributions not currently made.

• TRS operates at an administrative cost of approximately $40 per member per year, significantly less than the fees and expenses incurred with 401(k)s.

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• The TRS pension trust fund is considered to be healthy by independent actuaries responsible for monitoring the fund.

• Only 2 percent of the state budget is dedicated to TRS. • Texas’ contribution to teacher pensions—as a percentage of employee salary or as a percentage of the state budget—is lower than that of any other state not participating in Social Security.

• Tax dollars make up only 20 percent of the TRS trust fund.

• The current DB model is responsible for creating more than 98,900 permanent jobs and adding $4.3 billion in private-sector income.

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This Election is about me.

Not D’s and R’s.

At TeachtheVote.org, a project of the Association of Texas Professional Educators, Texas voters can research candidates’ education stances. You won’t find endorsements, but you will find solid information from Texas’ preeminent educators’ association. Use this information to select the candidates you believe will make public education their top priority.

TeachtheVote.org

T e a c h t h e V o t e . o r g C o n ta i n s P o l . A d . P a i d F o r B y t h e A s s o c i at i o n o f T e x a s P r o f e s s i o n a l E d u c at o r s .

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Celebrating

the Whole

Educator

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2012-13 ATPE

state officer

candidates Your ATPE State Officer Candidates Candidates for 2012-13 ATPE state offices will deliver speeches outlining their skills, backgrounds, qualifications and philosophies beginning at 8:30 a.m. Monday, July 16, during the House of Delegates meeting.

Delegates will then cast their votes from 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m. at the official polling place at the Austin Convention Center. Only certified voting delegates may cast ballots.

Meet the candidates online Visit www.atpe.org/summit/candidates for links to videos of each candidate answering questions developed by the ATPE Nomination/Election Committee. These videos will be posted after the June 18 delegate certification deadline. (Videos will also be available through the ATPE Summit Mobile App.)

President

Vice President

Deann Lee

Ginger Franks

ATPE leadership experience: State vice president, secretary and treasurer; chairwoman of state Finance and Education, Policy and Curriculum committees; member of state Best Practices, Educators Professional Liability Insurance Review, Legislative, ATPE-PAC, Public Information and Resolutions committees; Region 8 director, president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and past president; Paris ATPE president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, past president, campus representative and LAN coordinator; state convention and Leader U presenter and panelist

ATPE leadership experience: State secretary and treasurer; chairwoman of state Finance and Grant for Teaching Excellence committees; member of Educator of the Year, Educators Professional Liability Insurance Review, Legislative, Membership, Political Action, Public Information and Services committees; Region 7 director, president and secretary; Nacogdoches County ATPE president, past president and campus rep; Woden ATPE president, vice president, secretary and treasurer

ATPE recognition: William B. Travis and Stephen F. Austin honoree; president of Local Unit of the Year finalist; Secondary Teacher of the Year finalist; Ben Shilcutt Plus Club Current position: State/federal programs director in Paris ISD Other leadership experience: TEA Accountability Policy Advisory Committee member; Linden Heck Howell National Endowment for the Humanities, Region 8 ESC and Daughters of the Republic of Texas District III Teacher of the Year; education consultant to KERA Channel 13 in Dallas; U.S. Department of Education grant scorer; Who’s Who in American Education; Who’s Who of American Women; service on campus and district committees; service on civic and church committees Years in ATPE: 23

ATPE recognition: William B. Travis and Stephen F. Austin honoree; Ben Shilcutt Plus Club; Grant for Teaching Excellence finalist; president of Local Unit of the Year finalist Current position: Special education teacher in Martinsville ISD for the Nacogdoches County Co-op Other leadership experience: Member of Texas Teacher Commission; member of Region 7 ESC Texas Teacher of the Year Selection Committee; member of campus- and district-level committees; PTA officer; UIL coach; cheerleading coach; two-time Golden Apple Award recipient; H-E-B Excellence in Education Award nominee; leader and volunteer in church and community activities Years in ATPE: 26 Years in education: 30

Years in education: 23

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atpe news

Secretary

Treasurer

Treasurer

Richard wiggins

cory colby

Ma Elena Ingram

ATPE leadership experience: State treasurer; president and vice president of ATPE Foundation Board; chairman of the state Finance Committee; member of state Membership and Political Action committees; Region 20 director and treasurer; member of Region 20 convention planning, scholarship and PAC committees; Boerne ATPE president, past president, campus representative and LAN coordinator; chairman of Boerne ATPE’s “Meet the School Board Candidates” Night; state convention nominator; Leader U presenter and panelist; Lobby Day auctioneer

ATPE leadership experience: Member of state Bylaws, Leader Development and Membership committees; Region 6 vice president and secretary; Willis ATPE secretary and campus representative; member of Willis ATPE Scholarship Committee; summit presenter and member of Teller Committee; Lobby Day panelist

ATPE leadership experience: Chairwoman of state Public Information Committee; member of state Leader Development and Membership committees; Region 1 president, vice president, treasurer and past president; chairwoman of Region 1 Finance and Bylaws committees; co-chairwoman of Region 1 Membership Committee; McAllen ATPE president, vice president, membership chair and campus representative; Zapata ATPE president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, membership chair and campus representative; Leader U presenter

ATPE recognition: William B. Travis honoree; Stephen F. Austin honoree; Sam Houston Award for Political Involvement recipient; president of Green Apple Membership Growth Award-recipient local unit; Ben Shilcutt Plus Club Current position: Special education department chair in Boerne ISD Other leadership experience: Retired financial consultant for CIGNA Financial Advisors; statistician for the San Antonio Spurs; Lamar University Alumni Association director; distinguished club president for the Boerne Optimist Club; distinguished lieutenant governor for South Texas Optimist International; four-term alderman for city of Fair Oaks Ranch; member of Edwards Underground Water District Advisory Committee; Boerne Education Foundation director; member of Boerne ISD Salary/Budget Committee Years in ATPE: 9 Years in education: 9

ATPE recognition: 2010-11 Campus Representative of the Year finalist; editor of the 2010 -11 ATPE Newsletter Awardwinning newsletter; secretary of the 2010-11 Local Unit of the Year; secretary of the 2009-10 region PAC award winner; secretary of the 2008- 09, 2009-10 local unit PAC award winner; Ben Shilcutt Plus Club; William B. Travis Honoree Current position: AP and dual credit government and U.S. history instructor at Willis High School; adjunct government instructor at Lone Star College–Montgomery; new teacher mentor for Willis ISD Other leadership experience: SBOE STAAR Advisory Committee member; District Education Improvement Committee chairman; congressional staffer for U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady; Campus Education Improvement Committee; Lone Star College System Excellence in Education Award nominee; Willis High School Teacher of the Year finalist; Lynn Lucas Middle School Teacher of the Year nominee; Junior Statesmen sponsor; Member of Gold Star Recognized Department at Lynn Lucas Middle School; Lynx Legend Award winner; Willis High School Teacher of the Month; Willis High School Sweethearts Teacher of the Month; UIL social studies sponsor; vice precinct chairman for Voting Precinct 44, Montgomery County; Sam Houston State University teacher mentor; two-time Green Apple Award recipient; political campaign manager

ATPE recognition: President of Local Unit of the Year finalist; Sam Houston Award for Political Involvement finalist; William B. Travis Honoree; 2008- 09 and 2009-10 Campus Representative of the Year; 2011-12 Campus Representative of the Year finalist; Ben Shilcutt Plus Club Current position: Academic Success Transition in McAllen ISD Other leadership experience: Member of Region 1 ESC Teacher of the Year Selection Committee; secretary of McAllen ISD Joint Professional Consultation Committee; member of Intradistrict Educational Assembly; Academic Compliance Training Instructor; student council sponsor; member of Gold-Star Recognized Department at Brown Middle School; member of site-based decision-making committee; State Bar of Texas Teacher’s Law School participant; National Endowment for the Humanities 2004-05 award recipient; “Ready, Set, Teach” student mentor; American Bar Institute 2012 participant Years in ATPE: 30 Years in education: 30

Years in ATPE: 5 Years in education: 5

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Mind, heart, drive and strength A look at our celebration’s agenda Saturday, July 14

Sunday, July 15

6:30 a.m. Registration opens

10 a.m. New this year: Delegate verification and ballot pickup begins

8 a.m. “How to Be an Effective and Successful Teacher” with Harry and Rosemary Wong— 3 hours CPE Our inaugural day of Professional Learning and Networking (PLAN) begins with a presentation from Harry Wong, Ed.D., and Rosemary Wong, Ed.D., authors of the best-selling book The First Days of School. The Wongs, award-winning former educators and highly sought-after educational speakers, will share strategies for effective classroom instruction and management.

12 p.m.

PLAN sessions begin—1 hour CPE each

Attend professional learning sessions with inspiring speakers Brad Cohen, Barbara Coloroso, Sharon Draper, Patrick Henry and Patrick John Hughes, and Nancy Oelklaus, as well as presentations from the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TAGT) and the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA). (Learn more about PLAN at www.atpe.org/PLAN/ intro.aspx.)

3:45 p.m. General Session with Chef Jeff Henderson—1 hour CPE After you’ve listened to and learned from the PLAN presenters, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from Chef Jeff Henderson, an award-winning chef, motivational speaker and New York Times best-selling author. Henderson is the Food Network personality behind The Chef Jeff Project, a TV series on which six at-risk young adults work to turn their lives around through the art of cooking.

5:45 p.m. ATPE Central opens

11 a.m. ATPE leader training general session Attending ATPE leader training sessions will help you prepare for the 2012-13 membership recruitment season and the 2013 legislative session.

12:30 p.m. Membership Awards Luncheon 2:15 p.m. ATPE leader training breakout sessions begin 4:45 p.m. Local unit planning time begins 6:30 p.m. Presidents’ Dinner with Tierney Cahill— 1 hour CPE; invitation-only Local unit and region presidents will enjoy a presentation by sixth-grade teacher Tierney Cahill, who will share the story of her run for political office—a run inspired by her students and a basic civics lesson on how the government works.

16 Monday, July 16 8:30 a.m. HOD begins—2 hours CPE 10:30 a.m. Region caucuses begin 11 a.m. State officer elections 7:30 p.m. Awards Banquet ATPE region directors, presidents, vice presidents, secretaries, treasurers and past presidents are invited to a region leadership session and breakfast from 8–10 a.m. Tuesday, July 17.

Attend book signings with PLAN presenters Barbara Coloroso, Chef Jeff Henderson, Patrick Henry and Patrick John Hughes, Nancy Oelklaus and Sharon Draper. (Books by Brad Cohen and Harry and Rosemary Wong will also be available for purchase.)

Also, stop by ATPE Central to learn more about great tips, tools and resources for all educators. And while you’re making the rounds at our various booths or ordering ATPE promo materials for the 2012-13 year, enjoy live music and other forms of entertainment, have an hors d’oeuvre or two, and network with other educators from around the state.

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atpe news

2012 House of Delegates business ATPE members representing local units from across the state will convene as the ATPE House of Delegates (HOD) July 14–16, 2012, during the ATPE Summit. Delegates will vote on proposed bylaws amendments and resolutions and changes to the ATPE Legislative Program.

Please note: This issue of ATPE News went to press prior to the May 18–19 ATPE Board of Directors (BOD) meeting. During that meeting, the BOD will review the business before the HOD, and it has the option of making recommendations to the HOD on business items. Please visit www.atpe.org/summit/hod.aspx to see if the BOD made any recommendations on the business. Should the BOD make any recommendations, those recommendations will also be included in the summit on-site program.

Proposed bylaws amendments If approved by the HOD, these amendments will be made to the ATPE State Bylaws, the set of definitions, rules and procedures that guide ATPE’s operations.

Proposed Amendment No. 1 Article VIII: Regional Organizations Section 1: Boundaries Amend to read: Geographical regions of ATPE shall be established by the Board of Directors subject to the approval by majority vote of the House of Delegates. There shall be twenty (20) geographical regions with boundaries as established by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for Education Service Center Regions in its Texas School Directory dated October, 1979, with the sole exception that Waller County shall be considered a part of Region VI. The Board of Directors of ATPE shall approve and charter each affiliated regional organization.

Submitted by: Henry Bostick, Royal ATPE, Region 6 Bylaws Committee recommendation: No recommendation.

Rationale: ATPE was formed in April 1980 upon the merger of two Texas educator groups: the Texas Professional Educators and the Association of Texas Educators. The original ATPE State Bylaws stipulated that the region boundaries of ATPE would coincide with the state education service center (ESC) boundaries as established by the 1979 Texas Education Agency (TEA) directory, with the exception that Waller County would be considered by ATPE as a part of Region 6 instead of Region 4.

Since 1980, there has been confusion as to which school districts were to be included in the Waller County exception. Three school districts are contained solely within Waller County (Royal ISD, Hempstead ISD and Waller ISD).

What was the original intent of the exception? Did it impact only those school districts solely contained within Waller County?

Was it also intended to address school districts that are partly contained within Waller County, such as Katy ISD? summer 2012

It seems that today, more than 32 years after ATPE’s founding, the exception included in the ATPE State Bylaws for Waller County schools still exists, but over time, memories diminish, personalities change, and the original rationale for why Waller County was placed in Region 6 instead of in Region 4 has faded into history, along with the understanding as to which school districts were to be included in the “Waller County” exception.

Also, tracking the Waller County exception has become increasingly problematic over the years, specifically when addressing issues that are impacted by region boundaries, such as region rebates and delegate allocations to the annual House of Delegates.

If adopted, this proposed amendment would codify that Royal, Waller and Hempstead ISDs are assigned to Region 4 ATPE per the 1979 TEA directory, and it would eliminate the confusion that still exists regarding the region assignments of the three school districts contained within Waller County.

Fiscal impact: If adopted, the elimination of the Waller County exception can be accomplished with minimal cost.

Proposed Amendment No. 2 Article IX: House of Delegates Section 4: Notice Amend to read: Each member who has provided the Association with a valid electronic mail and/or postal mail address shall be notified by United States mail of the time and place of the annual or special meeting of the House of Delegates not less than forty-five (45) days prior to the first day of such meeting, unless an official publication in which such notice occupies a prominent position has been sent to every member at least forty-five (45) days prior to the meeting. The Board, or such of its members as might be empowered by the Board, shall prepare and publish an agenda for the meeting. In the event the agenda includes a proposed bylaws change, the foregoing forty-five (45) day notice of meeting shall include notice to all members of the wording of the proposed bylaws changes which will not be thereafter altered in subject substance. atpe.org | 31

Submitted by: ATPE Board of Directors

Article IV:: Officers

Bylaws Committee recommendation: Adopt.

Section 6: Term

Rationale: This proposed amendment would provide the state more options to communicate with members via email as well as postal mail when meeting the deadlines outlined in this section.

Amend to read:

Fiscal impact: If adopted, the addition of email to the methods of communicating ATPE House of Delegates information to ATPE members can be accomplished with minimal cost. In time, this amendment should provide cost savings to ATPE because the cost of sending email is less than the costs associated with postal mail due to savings on printing and postage.

Proposed Amendment No. 3 Article IX: House of Delegates Section 9: Certification of Delegates Amend to read: (c) The Local Unit President shall be responsible for certifying the names of Local Unit delegates and alternates to the Secretary of ATPE thirty (30) days prior to the first day of the annual meeting of the House of Delegates. In the absence of a Local Unit President, the Local Unit Vice President may certify the names of Local Unit delegates.

Submitted by: ATPE Board of Directors Bylaws Committee recommendation: Adopt.

Rationale: This proposed amendment would provide flexibility for a local unit when its president is absent and cannot fulfill the role of certifying local unit delegates to the annual House of Delegates meeting. This amendment is specific to a local unit president’s being absent and would not allow a vice president to certify delegates in the instance where a local unit president was unwilling to certify delegates.

Fiscal impact: If adopted, granting local unit vice presidents the opportunity to certify delegates to the House of Delegates in the absence of the local unit president can be accomplished with minimal cost.

Bylaws clarifications As currently written, language in the ATPE State Bylaws could be interpreted to mean that officers elected to serve ATPE at the state, region and local unit levels would serve from Aug. 1 until 11:59 p.m. the following July 30, leaving the officer positions vacant July 31.

Per ATPE Parliamentarian Mary Short, the words “to,” “until” and “ending on” should be replaced with the word “through” to clarify that an officer’s term of office runs until 11:59 p.m. July 31.

These clarifications to the ATPE State Bylaws shall be considered editorial changes intended to clarify the will of the ATPE House of Delegates (HOD).

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All officers shall take office on August 1 of the year of their election and shall serve until through the following July 31. No officer may hold the same office for two years in succession, except that any person who assumes an office for the remainder of an existing term may be elected to a full term in that office immediately following his partial term. No person may be elected to more than two terms in the same office.

Article V: Board of Directors Section 2: Number, Tenure, Qualifications and Term of Office Amend to read: (f) Each Director shall serve a two-year (2) term of office, beginning on August 1 following his election and ending on through July 31, two (2) years thereafter.

Article VII: Local Units Section 7: Operational Year Amend to read: All chartered local units of the Association shall operate under an August 1 to through July 31 year for their membership, fiscal and officer terms.

Article VIII: Regional Organizations Section 6: Term of Office Amend to read: The president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer of the regional organization shall hold office from August 1 following their election to through the next July 31. The Director shall be elected for a two-year (2) term as provided in Article V, Section 9.

An amendment to the bylaws adopted by the 2007 House of Delegates eliminated Section 11 of Article VIII: Regional Organizations. Therefore, the reference to Section 11 listed below shall be deleted. The deletion shall be considered an editorial change that is not substantive.

Article VIII: Regional Organizations Section 5: Duties of Officers Amend to read: (f) Director. The director shall perform the duties as outlined in Article V, Sections 3, and 10, and 11. In addition, he shall be responsible for the coordination of the activities between ATPE and his region and aid in the formation of local units.

atpe news

Proposed honorary resolution

Standing Resolution No. 3

If approved by the 2012 House of Delegates (HOD), ATPE will issue an honorary resolution to immediate Past State President David de la Garza.

YEAR ADOPTED: 1991

Proposed action on standing resolutions

SUBJECT: Business and Education RESOLVED, that ATPE supports business and education communities working together for an excellent education system that will prepare public school students to meet the needs of a highly technical, industrialized and global environment.

Resolutions Committee recommendation: Readopt Standing Resolutions Nos. 1–13.

Standing Resolution No. 4

Rationale: Standing Resolutions Nos. 1–13 reflect ongoing issues or pertain to ATPE House of Delegates procedures.

YEAR ADOPTED: 1992

Standing Resolution No. 1 SUBJECT: Resolution Process YEAR ADOPTED: 2006 RESOLVED, that the ATPE Board of Directors and officers administer the resolution process to facilitate timely consideration of resolutions and written notification of prefiled resolutions prior to discussion on the floor of the House of Delegates.

RESOLVED, that the ATPE Board of Directors shall review the status of standing and current resolutions following each annual House of Delegates meeting and direct the appropriate action.

Standing resolutions shall be limited to philosophical positions and/or procedures related to the ATPE House of Delegates business. Current resolutions or motions will be directed to the appropriate committee and/or placed in the ATPE Governance Guide as administrative procedures. In the event that the Board determines to place a current resolution in the ATPE Governance Guide, or to discontinue a resolution that has been placed in the ATPE Governance Guide, that action will be reviewed by the next year’s Resolutions Committee. Current resolutions adopted by the House of Delegates will be in effect and in force for a period of one year, after which time they will expire, unless renewed by a majority vote of the House of Delegates.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Resolutions Committee shall review progress and content of all resolutions and present its annual report to the House of Delegates.

Standing Resolution No. 2 SUBJECT: ATPE Convention YEAR ADOPTED: 1991 RESOLVED, that ATPE will open the state convention with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, the Pledge to the Texas Flag and a prayer, excusing those whose beliefs are in conflict with this act.

SUBJECT: Consultation Training RESOLVED, that it be the official policy of ATPE to educate members of ATPE as to the pros and cons of consultation committees and communication committees at the district level. Additional leadership may be provided to locals that may demonstrate a need for special assistance beyond the program of general education; and be it further RESOLVED, that it be the official policy of ATPE to include consultation committee member training at its leadership workshops and state conventions.

Standing Resolution No. 5 SUBJECT: Cooperation with Other Independent Educator Organizations YEAR ADOPTED: 1992 RESOLVED, that the experience and history of ATPE be shared with other independent educator organizations throughout the country in an effort to establish and continue nonunion influence in education policymaking in the United States.

Standing Resolution No. 6 SUBJECT: Legislator Involvement in Public Schools and Classrooms YEAR ADOPTED: 1997 RESOLVED, that ATPE encourage and support regions and local units in developing ways to actively involve legislators in local public schools and classrooms to keep them knowledgeable about current educational issues and conditions.

Standing Resolution No. 7 SUBJECT: Political Participation YEAR ADOPTED: 1992 RESOLVED, that it be the official policy of ATPE to encourage members to be politically active individually; and be it further RESOLVED, that it be the official policy of ATPE to discourage local units from endorsing candidates in the name of the organization.

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Standing Resolution No. 8 SUBJECT: Professional Status YEAR ADOPTED: 1992 RESOLVED, that ATPE accept both the obligations and rights of professionals; and be it further RESOLVED, that future legislative action by the association seek to secure for Texas educators the rights, privileges, benefits and respect befitting a true professional.

Proposed action on current resolutions Resolutions Committee recommendation: Allow Current Resolutions Nos. 1 and 2 to expire. Current resolutions expire after one year unless readopted by the HOD. These resolutions will not be voted on by the HOD unless a delegate moves to present the expiring current resolution as a new resolution.

Current Resolution No. 1 Standing Resolution No. 9 SUBJECT: Professional Rights YEAR ADOPTED: 2000 RESOLVED, that ATPE supports vigorous enforcement of due process laws.

Standing Resolution No. 10 SUBJECT: Right to Work YEAR ADOPTED: 1992 RESOLVED, that ATPE supports networking with other state and national nonunion groups that support the right-to-work philosophy.

Standing Resolution No. 11 SUBJECT: Student Members YEAR ADOPTED: 1992 RESOLVED, that the local and regional units of ATPE work in conjunction with the state staff to continue efforts to support, educate and provide funds to help college students within their respective regions attend the region and state convention each year.

Standing Resolution No. 12 SUBJECT: Election Process YEAR ADOPTED: 2010 RESOLVED, that ATPE shall begin conducting runoff elections for state officer positions 15 minutes after the need for a runoff election is announced to the House of Delegates.

Standing Resolution No. 13 SUBJECT: Overturning Exclusive Consultation YEAR ADOPTED: 2011 RESOLVED, that ATPE state staff work proactively and provide financial support to local units to overturn exclusive consultation in districts where it exists and work to prevent it in districts with an increased potential for exclusive consultation. Financial support can include political action committee (PAC) monies (where not prohibited by state and federal laws) for school board candidates aligned with ATPE’s belief on exclusive consultation.

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RESOLVED, that the ATPE House of Delegates directs the ATPE Board of Directors to work with state staff to conduct a study to determine the most effective recruitment models to compete with other educator organizations, including a cost-benefit analysis related to ATPE hiring full-time on-site staff to assist volunteer leaders in the areas of the state where on-site competition is significantly impacting ATPE’s ability to grow its membership; and be it further RESOLVED, that the cost-benefit analysis include options for local units and regions that face high competition to contribute to the costs of the full-time on-site staff through region and local unit dues and/or rebates; and be it further RESOLVED, that the results of the cost-benefit analysis related to assigning full-time on-site staff to areas of high on-site competition be reported to the Board of Directors for possible future action.

Rationale: The cost-benefit analysis based in the resolution criteria was presented to the ATPE Board of Directors at its February 2012 meeting. The board approved implementation of a program based on the criteria, and implementation is underway.

Current Resolution No. 2 RESOLVED, that the House of Delegates (HOD) charge the Board of Directors to investigate options for local unit delegates to be certified as delegates in cases when a local unit president is either unable or unwilling to certify delegates to this HOD. Rationale: The committee received a report from the Bylaws Committee on the history of the issue, the Board of Directors discussion and the proposed action of the Bylaws Committee on the resolution. The Bylaws Committee voted to send a bylaws amendment to the 2012 House of Delegates with a recommendation to adopt.

Proposed ATPE Legislative Program The HOD will also vote on amendments to the ATPE Legislative Program, a list of the association’s positions on education policies under the purview of the Texas Legislature, state agencies and the federal government. The program guides ATPE Governmental Relations in its work. Delegates and other members wishing to view the proposed changes should visit www.atpe.org/summit/ hod.aspx.

atpe news

atpe news

your association

Living our tenets ATPE’s annual survey portrays all-inclusive membership and more Each year, ATPE surveys members in order to capture a portrait of the educators who choose ATPE and to understand which issues they find most pressing. The survey is mailed to a stratified, random sample of 1,200 professional and associate members. Below are responses to a few of ATPE’s 2011-12 survey questions.

As you can see, the questions and answers reflect ATPE’s tenets, which are the statements adopted by the ATPE Board of Directors (BOD) to encapsulate the association’s guiding philosophies.

All-inclusive

Leadership and professionalism

ATPE invites all members of the public education community to join the association, and that’s reflected in the diversity of our membership. Although most members are classroom teachers (71 percent), 5 percent are administrators; 2 percent are in supervisory roles, such as special education coordinator, director of special services, etc.; 12 percent provide professional support as librarians, counselors, nurses, etc.; and 10 percent are para-educators (classroom aides, secretaries, bus drivers and more).

These tenets emphasize the importance of educator-leadership, and when it comes to continuing professional education (CPE), ATPE members’ preferences reflect the changing times.

Although members report that 53 percent of the CPE credit they earn is delivered through traditional lecture presentations, only 17 percent prefer that style. Fifty-one percent of members would rather participate in smaller, interactive presentations, and 22 percent said they would prefer online, self-paced study.

Issues-oriented advocacy

Superior services to members

ATPE advocates for education, not for political parties, and that approach could be the reason why members’ political affiliations run the gamut. Forty-six percent of ATPE members identify themselves as Republicans; 33 percent, Democrats; 11 percent, independents; and 10 percent, other.

Per the BOD, ATPE members believe their association should provide superior services and benefits to its members through a dedicated professional staff, and the membership survey asks members how satisfied they are with ATPE. Thirtynine percent of members say they are “very satisfied” with their membership, and 58 percent say they are “satisfied.”

The 2011-12 ATPE Membership Survey was conducted under the supervision of Creative Consumer Research of Houston.

It had a 20-percent response rate and a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

A special offer for ATPE members from Costco

© GROCERIES/ISTOCKPHOTO/Thinkstock

ATPE members who join Costco as new members will receive coupons valued at more than $50, including three free items. This special offer is only available to current ATPE members. To receive it, you must log in to the Services and Discounts page at atpe.org, print the exclusive offer page and present it at a Costco location when you join. (If you’re already a Costco member, log in to see the latest offers for existing Costco members.)

You’ll be joining the 64 million Costco members who enjoy low warehouse prices on thousands of high-end, brand-name products and services for their homes or businesses at more than 500 locations worldwide. Costco members save money on thousands of brand-name items every day. From fresh foods and health and beauty items to clothing and electronics, you’ll find everything you need for your home or work.

summer 2012

atpe.org | 35

your association

atpe news

Which membership category should you join in 2012-13?

If your employment status will be changing during the 2012-13 school year, you need to make sure that you renew your ATPE membership in the correct category.

I f you are a 2011-12 college student member who will be student teaching or doing classroom observations in 2012-13, renew in the teacher trainee category so that you have access to the insured benefits.* I f you are a 2011-12 teacher trainee member who will be teaching in your own classroom in 2012-13, renew as a first-time professional member so that you have access to the insured benefits.* If you will be substitute teaching, renew in the associate category to have access to the insured benefits.* I f you are retiring at the end of 2011-12, continue your relationship with ATPE in 2012-13 by renewing in the retired category for only $10. Please note that the retired category is not an insured category, so if you will be substituting, you need to renew in the associate category to have access to insured benefits.* I f you will not be working in education in 2012-13, remain a part of the ATPE community by renewing in the public category for only $10. Public members receive ATPE publications and save using our services and discounts. This is not an insured category, so if you will be substituting, you need to renew in the associate category to have access to the insured benefits.* Please contact ATPE Member Services at (800) 777-ATPE or member_services@atpe.org if you have questions about which membership category you should join.

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atpe news

foundation news

your association

Help students and educators succeed Ferdinand Herff Elementary School principal Dr. Traci Smith, San Antonio ISD trustee James Howard, Herff teacher Erica Huerta Flores and ATPE Media Relations Specialist Ashley Anthony

Beth Ann Rogers Literacy Initiative grant recipients The ATPE Foundation presented $1,000 grants to five school libraries this spring as part of the Beth Ann Rogers Literacy Initiative. Through the initiative, which is named for a late ATPE state president and school librarian, the foundation helps school libraries purchase literacy materials and modernize their resources. Applications for 2012-13 grants will be available in July at www.atpefoundation.org.

Donate to the ATPE Foundation Since 2008, the ATPE Foundation has given $32,000 in literacy and technology grants to Texas public schools and $60,000 in scholarships to current and future educators.

None of the foundation’s literacy initiatives, technology programs, or educator recruitment and retention efforts would be possible without the generous support of our donors. Supporting the foundation is easy when you visit www.atpefoundation.org: You can make tax-deductible donations online using your Visa or MasterCard, or you can print a donation form to mail in with your cash or check. Donations of any size are appreciated and can be given in honor of or in memory of family members, friends and colleagues.

Congratulations to our 2011-12 recipients Curtis Elementary, Weatherford ISD Ferdinand Herff Elementary, San Antonio ISD Laneville School, Laneville ISD Parkland High School, Ysleta ISD Parkway Elementary, Crowley ISD

F r i d a y, O c t. 2 6

www.facebook.com/atpefoundation

T E RA V I S TA G O L F C L U B , R O U N D R O C K

All proceeds benefit the ATPE Foundation’s literacy, technology, and educator recruitment and retention programs in Texas public schools. Learn more at www.atpefoundation.org.

The ATPE Foundation is registered in Texas as a nonprofit corporation and is a public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

summer 2012

atpe.org | 37

your association

tenet focus

Exploring ATPE’s 10 tenets ATPE was founded in April 1980 with a distinct set of philosophies. In this ATPE News series, we’ll take an in-depth look at each of ATPE’s 10 tenets and explain how they act as the building blocks of the association.

Superior services to members ATPE members believe their association should provide superior services and benefits to its members through a dedicated professional staff.

The workday varies widely for staff members in the ATPE state office, but the end goal is always the same—making things better for association members. Read on for a “day in the life” of a few of the ATPE state office staff members.

8 a.m.—The state office opens for business. ATPE Receptionist Mary Rivera answers a phone call from a member looking for assistance with a legal issue; she transfers the call to the ATPE Member Legal Services Department, where a legal assistant and staff attorney work with the member to get her the help she needs.

9 a.m.—ATPE Meetings and Conferences Director Andrea Davis and Meeting Planner Emily Weddle hold a meeting to discuss contract specifics for the next ATPE Board of Directors meeting.

10 a.m.—ATPE Member Services Assistant James Callaway receives a phone call from a member who wants to update his contact information because he has recently changed districts. Callaway quickly updates the member’s information in the ATPE database.

11 a.m.—ATPE Professional Development Coordinator Kris Woodcock signs on to the ATPE Idea Exchange to moderate recent posts on the ATPE Book Circle and post the next question for discussion.

1 p.m.—ATPE Volunteer Program Coordinator Kelli Johnson answers an email regarding a local unit that wants to reactivate. Johnson forwards the reactivation information to one of the four ATPE field representatives, who contacts the volunteer to offer assistance.

2 p.m.—Staff members from various departments, including ATPE Communications Manager Kate Johanns, meet to plan the next issue of ATPE News. During the meeting, attendees discuss what’s new or on-trend in education, how the information is applicable to members from all membership categories and how they can present the information in an engaging manner.

3 p.m.—ATPE Governmental Relations Communications Coordinator Ethan Herr prepares a Legislative Alert Network (LAN) email about a recent development with the Texas Legislature. The email will be sent to members of the LAN and will also be posted in the Legislative Update on atpe.org, on the official ATPE Facebook page, on Twitter and in the ATPE Mobile App.

4 p.m.—ATPE Public Relations Director Larry Comer calls a local unit president to discuss matters of policy assistance, including how ATPE can help perform salary surveys, which can be used by the president during school board proceedings.

5 p.m.—The state office closes for the day. ATPE Finance Director Gary Richardson hits the road to assist a region with the details of its biennial financial analysis.

10 ATPE tenets

Professionalism

Member-Owned/ Member-Governed

Right to Work/ Oppose Strikes

Superior Services to Members

All-Inclusive

Leadership

Collaborative

Issues-Oriented Advocacy

Independent Association

Local Control of Public Schools

Look to the next issue of ATPE News for information on ATPE’s all-inclusive tenet.

38 | atpe.org

atpe news

kudos

your association

Bravo, ATPE members

Congratulations to all of the ATPE members who achieve great heights in their field.

AGUA DULCE

HUMBLE

Aaron Bonds, an educator and athletics coach at Agua Dulce High School in Agua Dulce ISD, received recognition from local media outlets for his retirement after 27 years in education. Bonds was honored at an Agua Dulce High School assembly.

Dwight Smith received a classroom award from the Houston Texans and First Community Credit Union. Smith teaches classes on principles of law, court systems and practices, and law enforcement at Summer Creek High School in Humble ISD.

BRADY Angela Lindgren, who teaches English at Brady High School in Brady ISD, was selected to present a paper on the Gothic in literature, film and culture at a Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association conference in April. In her paper, Lindgren explores The Hunger Games trilogy. Lindgren is also a graduate student at Angelo State University.

DAYTON Cindy Jones, a history teacher at Woodrow Wilson Junior High School in Dayton ISD, was awarded a $700 Target field trip grant to organize a class trip in May to the San Jacinto Battleground in La Porte. Jones and her students will also tour the nearby Battleship Texas.

HAWKINS Carol Kennedy, who teaches language arts at Hawkins Middle School in Hawkins ISD, participated in a daylong teacher workshop about Civil War-era American literature. Held in Austin and sponsored by Humanities Texas, the workshop offered educators the opportunity to collaborate with literary scholars from the University of Texas at Austin and Drury University; examine the work of writers such as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln; and reflect on the revised standards in Texas’ language arts curriculum.

summer 2012

McMURRY Meagan Ake received the Education Deans of Independent Colleges and Universities in Texas (EDICUT) award for the 2011-12 school year. The award is given each year to a student in the McMurry University School of Education who exhibits excellence in campus and community leadership. Ake is completing her student teaching in Wylie (14) ISD.

PASADENA Darla Kelly was honored as the University Interscholastic League (UIL) District 22–5A Girls and Boys Diving Coach of the Year for 2011-12. She was also recognized as the UIL Region 6–5A Boys Diving Coach of the Year. Kelly teaches history and coaches swimming and diving at Pasadena High School.

Robert Kelly, a math teacher at Sam Rayburn High School and the swimming and diving coach at Sam Rayburn High School and Pasadena Memorial High School, was honored as the 2011-12 UIL District 22–5A Girls Swimming Coach of the Year.

PFLUGERVILLE Kristina Carssow, an educator at Connally High School in Pflugerville ISD, received the prestigious Milken Educator Award along with a $25,000 teaching prize.

Carssow is the only Texas educator to receive this recognition and one of only 40 educators in the U.S. Carssow, who mentors and provides professional training to her fellow educators and is actively involved in policymaking in Pflugerville ISD, was described by Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott as “a true teacher leader.”

PORT ARANSAS Melanie Mayer, an English teacher and chairwoman of the English department at Port Aransas High School in Port Aransas ISD, recently published a book on classroom writing instruction titled Two Roads Diverged and I Took Both: Meaningful Writing in the Age of Testing.

2012 H-E-B Excellence in Education AwardS Congratulations to the following ATPE members who are finalists for the H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards, which “celebrate public school professionals whose leadership and dedication inspire a love of learning in students of all backgrounds and abilities.” As finalists, these educators received a $1,000 teaching award and an additional monetary prize for their schools. They will compete for statewide recognition in May. • Rachael Brunson, a fourth-grade teacher at Great Oaks Elementary in Round Rock ISD, is a finalist in the Leadership Award category.

• Loryn Windwehen, a science teacher at Bernard Harris Middle School in North East ISD, is a finalist for the H-E-B Rising Star Award.

• Tracie Rodriguez, the principal of Collegiate High School in Corpus Christi ISD, is a finalist for the Principal Award.

atpe.org | 39

your association

family album

Save Texas Schools March and Rally

AUSTIN–edwin ortiz

AUSTIN–edwin ortiz

<PHOTO/BYLINE Credit>

Approximately 4,500 Texans marched through downtown Austin March 24 to stand together for public education on the steps of the Capitol during the Save Texas Schools March and Rally. ATPE co-sponsored the rally, where it introduced its new education advocacy website TeachtheVote.org. Educators, students, parents, elected officials and a cadre of passionate ATPE members and ATPE staff members heard speeches against continued cuts to public education funding and the increase in high-stakes testing. Those gathered shared a vision for a world-class education system in Texas. The event drew the attention of state and national media and even the support of high-profile education advocates such as actor Matt Damon, journalist Dan Rather, and education historian and policy analyst Diane Ravitch.

AUSTIN–edwin ortiz

Austin ATPE President Marcy McNeil and Zavala Elementary campus rep Gabriel Estrada spread the word about ATPE’s TeachtheVote.org.

40 | atpe.org

ATPE members march in solidarity with thousands of educators, parents and students from across Texas.

AUSTIN–KATE JOHANNS

ATPE State President Cheryl Buchanan leads ATPE members in a march to the Capitol.

Waxahachie ATPE President Kim Kriegel, Secretary Nora Crist and Dunaway Elementary campus rep Patty Hilton listen to stirring speeches from the Capitol steps.

atpe news

welcome back The following local units have recently reactivated:

houston–lacey denton

• C anutillo ATPE in Region 19.

It has 161 members and is led by President Manuela Sanchez, Vice President Deyanira Fronce and Treasurer Heather Atherton.

Houston Educators in Region 4’s Houston ATPE recognize volunteer leaders at the Crowne Plaza in Houston. During the March gathering, Houston ATPE Vice President Cynthia Villalovos (back row, far left) and President Jim Cumming (far right) presented Houston ATPE campus reps with certificates of appreciation. From left to right: Ana MunozZepeda, Blackshear Elementary; Candias Strange, Sugar Grove Elementary; Cindy Merka, Davis High School; Suzanne Gager, Davis High School; Maudie Reece, Lantrip Elementary; and Judith Zolandz, Kashmere Gardens Elementary.

•C oldspring ATPE in Region 6.

The 65-member local unit is led by President Tina Quiser and Secretary and Treasurer Sylvia Cooper.

• Manor ATPE in Region 13. It has 98 members and is led by President Richa Muhammad, Vice President Sandra Turner, Secretary Shemon Bailey and Treasurer Damaris Womack.

•M aypearl ATPE in Region 10.

It has 75 members and is led by President Deborah Martin and Vice President Letitia Pipes.

region 7–lacey denton

• TARLETON STATE UNIVERSITY ATPE in Region 11. The 34-member local unit is led by President Kirstie Wixon, Vice President Andrea O’Mary, Secretary Cassy Coldwell and Treasurer Lindsey Wall.

highlights AUSTIN ATPE officers met in March

Region 7 Region 7 ATPE members meet at Papacita’s Mexican restaurant in Longview to hold elections and discuss the future of public education in Texas with policymakers. Pictured are: Marshall ATPE Treasurer Anna Hardy, Marshall ATPE President Amy Crumrine, State Board of Education (SBOE) member Thomas Ratliff, Chapel Hill ATPE member Stacy Ratliff and Carlisle ATPE President Regina Sugg.

summer 2012

at Texas Land and Cattle to plan an end-of-the-year local unit meeting, organize local unit elections and discuss the exclusive consultation debate taking place in Austin ISD.

atpe.org | 41

your association

Thank you for your donation!

atpe-pac honor roll

The following ATPE members donated $50 or more to ATPE’s Political Action Committee (ATPE-PAC) between Jan. 1 and March 27, 2012.

Boerne

Huntsville

North East

State office

Richard Wiggins

Brenda Lynch

Lola Miller

Brock Gregg

Corsicana

Killeen

Northside (20)

Tyler

Doris Corley

Barbara Graham

Kathy Day

Betty Berndt

Robert Corley

Glynda Neuwirth

David de la Garza

Eddie Hill

Plano

Waco

Kathryn Chesley

Sandra O’Connor

Ina Rivera Dallas Dianne Reed Ennis Nanette Moyers Fort Worth Steve Pokluda Gatesville Skip Omenson Harlandale Janet McDaniel

Judy Roundtree Eileen Walcik Melissa Walcik Ron Walcik

Tina Christian Jill Gipson Norma Jones

La Vernia

Laurie Newby

Clay Bordner

Aimee Newsom Diane Porter

McAllen

Dennise Schuler

Ma Elena Ingram

Sherre Shafer

Mesquite

San Antonio

Carol Davies

Tina Briones

West Sue Melton Woden Malinda Holzapfel Shelly Watson

Michele Garner Barbara Jo Green Debbie Massey

©online donate/hermera/Thinkstock

Diane Nix

Learn more about ATPE-PAC and make donations at www.atpe.org/Advocacy/ATPEPAC/pac.asp. Donors from the period between March 28 and June 30, 2012, will be recognized in the Fall 2012 ATPE News.

42 | atpe.org

atpe news

Continued from page 15—Capitol Comment The Edgewood ISD group is associated with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA).

This group filed the first school finance lawsuit in state court and was the lead group in the first four iterations of litigation (Edgewood I–IV). Edgewood has been involved in all six prior school finance cases and will focus on all but the equal protection claim, with a special emphasis on student weights.

The Fort Bend ISD group is primarily composed of urban and suburban districts, including Houston, Dallas, CypressFairbanks and Austin ISDs. This group represents the most students; combined, these districts have an average daily attendance of about 1.7 million students.

The plaintiff-intervenor Another group, led by Kent Grusendorf, the former chairman of the Texas House Public Education Committee, has joined the suit as a plaintiff-intervenor. Grusdendorf ’s group does not

represent any school districts. Styled “Texans for Real Efficiency and Equity in Education,” this group appears to be pursuing two primary goals under the umbrella of the efficiency clause: Remove all restrictions regarding the number of charter schools that can be formed, and reduce public education funding (e.g., the state can “save billions” by updating the cost of education index, which flows money to all districts but primarily to larger ones). The Texas Association of Business, led by Bill Hammond, announced May 2 that it was joining this group to demand a study of school efficiency.

The latest news As you can see, multiple agendas are at play, and much is at stake. In addition to reading ATPE publications, you can stay up-to-date and engaged by signing up to receive information from the Equity Center. Just visit www.equitycenter.org, click on the Join the Fight graphic, and follow the simple directions.

There is no cost or obligation for signing up. A

Which plaintiff groups are making the claim?

Constitutional Claim

Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness Coalition

Calhoun County ISD

Fort Bend ISD

Edgewood ISD (MALDEF)

The system is inadequate and unsuitable for the state’s needs.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

The target revenue system is irrational.

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

The system does not provide equity for students.

Yes

No

No

Yes

The system does not provide equity for taxpayers.

Yes

No

No

Yes

The system does not provide equal protection for citizens.

Yes

No

No

No

The system constitutes a state property tax.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Continued from page 14—Tech Support The Pinterest Help page also suggests the following: “To make Pinterest the most useful to yourself and others, follow best practices when pinning: 1. Pin from the original source.

2. Pin from permalinks. [See Tech Term on page 14.]

3. Give credit and include a thoughtful pin description.”

More tips • Educational blogger, author and California high school educator Larry Ferlazzo has “The Best Guides to Figuring Out

summer 2012

Pinterest” posted on his blog at http://larryferlazzo.edublogs. org/2012/01/05/the-best-guides-to-figuring-out-pininterest/.

• The HP Teacher Experience Exchange offers a discussion on Pinterest and education at http://h30411.www3.hp.com/ posts/1421030-Pinterest_An_amazing_resource_for_teachers.

• Try searching Pinterest for “education,” or visit the Everything: Education section at www.pinterest.com/ all/?category=education.

• And don’t forget to visit ATPE’s boards at www.pinterest.com/atpe/. A

atpe.org | 43

2012-13 ATPE STATE COMMITTEE SERVICE INFORMATION FORM Your Region Number

The ATPE state office must receive this form by July 16, 2012.

➤ If you have questions regarding the duties of any of these

committees, please call (800) 777-ATPE. ➤ If you know of ATPE members who might be interested in

serving, please give them copies of this form.

Please print Name (last, first) _____________________________________________ Home address __________________________________

___ I am interested in serving on any committee.

_____________________________________________

➤ Please indicate your preferences by numbering the com-

City/State/ZIP__________________________________

mittees in the spaces below, with 1 being your top choice.

Standing Committees ___ Bylaws ___ Leader Development ___ Legislative ___ Membership ___ Minority & Diverse Population Recruitment ___ Nomination/Election ___ Public Information ___ Resolutions ___ Services

Home phone ___________________________________ Cell phone ____________________________________ Home email ___________________________________ Work email ____________________________________ Local unit name ________________________________ Current employment position ______________________ _____________________________________________ q Elementary

q Secondary

q Other ______________________________________ Age range (Please circle one): 21–30

31–40

41–50

51–60

over 60

Years of education experience ______________________

Other Committees

Comments ____________________________________

___ Educator of the Year (Meets at summit)

_____________________________________________

___ Leader of the Year (Meets at summit) ___ Scholarship (Meets at summit) Program administered by the ATPE Foundation. ___ Grant for Teaching Excellence This committee does not meet in person. All judging is conducted via mail and email.

Ethnicity: q Anglo

q African-American

q Hispanic

q Asian

q Native American

q Other

I pledge that if I am selected to serve on a committee, I will attend the meetings and be an active participant. I understand that submitting this form does not guarantee an assignment but that I will be considered for the committees I’ve selected.

Applicant’s signature _________________________________________ Please submit only one form per member.

MAIL THIS FORM TO: ATPE, 305 E. Huntland Drive, Suite 300, Austin, TX 78752-3792. You may also fax it to (512) 467-2203.

2012-13 ATPE Membership Application 3 Ways You Can Join ATPE:

1 Mail this completed application to the ATPE state office.

2 Give this completed application to your ATPE campus rep.

3 Join at atpe.org (and pay by credit card).

1 Provide your contact information.

2 Select your membership category.

This information helps us maintain your unique member record, a tool that allows us to provide member services more efficiently.

Last 4 digits of your Soc. Sec. #: XXX-XX-__ __ __ __

Female

Male

Refer to the chart on the back of this application to find your appropriate category.

Insured categories*

*See back.

Professional

$145.00

$ ______

First-time Professional

$80.00

$ ______

$70.00

$ ______

Yes, I have been an ATPE member in the past.

Member ID# _______________ (Optional—If you don’t know it, no problem.)

Name_________________________ _______________________ _________ Last

First

(MM)

I have never been a Professional member.

Middle initial

Associate

ISD ___________________________ Campus __________________________

Paraprofessional and classified positions

Home address ____________________________________________________

FrEE

City/State ____________________________________ ZIP _______________

Teacher Trainee

Home phone ( ____ ) _____________________________________________

Uninsured categories

Student teacher in Texas

Retired

School email ____________________________________________________

$10.00

$ ______

Retired former school employee

Home email _____________________________________________________

FrEE

College Student

Submit your email addresses to receive the latest news on member benefits.

Non-teaching college student

Yes, send me information about volunteering for ATPE!

Public

$10.00

$ ______

Friend of public education

3 Invest in public education.

Support ATPE in your school district.

Local unit dues

$

Support candidates and officeholders who prioritize public education.

Suggested donation: $12.

$ ______

ATPE-PAC

4 Select a payment method.

Check enclosed.

Payroll deduction Complete the authorization below. Arrangements for payroll deduction are the responsibility of the applicant.

TOTAL

$ ______

Payroll Deduction Authorization Payroll authorizations for 2012-13 will not be accepted after Jan. 31, 2013.

I, ______________________________________________ , authorize the _____________________ school district to deduct the total amount of $ _______ over ______ payments in order to pay for ATPE state dues, local dues and political action donations. I further authorize the Association to notify the school district of changes in the annual dues amounts and the school district to deduct the new amounts. If my employment with the district ends, I authorize any unpaid balance to be deducted from my final check. This authorization for the deductions referenced above will be effective until I give notice to the school district that I want to revoke it.

I wish to cancel deduction of membership dues for:

Texas AFT

TCTA

TSTA

UEA

Other

____________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _______________ Applicant’s Applicant’s Social Security number or employee ID number Dateatpe.org of signature | 45 summer signature 2012 2012-13 AP8

Questions You Might Have About ATPE Membership

1 Are ATPE membership dues tax-deductible?

4 When is my ATPE membership effective?

ATPE membership dues are not deductible as charitable contributions for income tax purposes but may be deductible as miscellaneous itemized deductions, subject to IRS restrictions. It is estimated that 4.6 percent of your dues dollar is used for lobbying activities and is therefore not deductible.

For paper applications, your membership date is established when your application is received in the state office, or when your application is received, signed and dated by a designated local unit representative. For online applications, your membership date is established at 12:01 a.m. C.S.T. on the date following successful transmission of your online application and payment at atpe.org.

2 How does ATPE spend my membership dues?

• $3.32 pays for a subscription to ATPE News (published four times per year) and includes all state and local sales taxes.

• Up to $24 of Professional and Associate member dues and up to $4 of Teacher Trainee member dues pays for the Educators Professional Liability Insurance Policy.*

3 What does the Liability and Employment rights

Defense Insurance* for the 2012-13 membership year cover?

*Coverage applies to your activities as a Professional or Associate member in the course of your duties of employment with an educational institution, or to your activities as a Teacher Trainee member in the course of your duties as a student in a teacher education program in an accredited college or university. Coverage is underwritten by National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pa. ALL COvERAGE IS SUbJECT TO THE EXPRESS TERMS OF THE MASTER INSURANCE POLICY ISSUED TO ATPE AND KEPT ON FILE AT THE STATE OFFICE. view a detailed summary at atpe.org. The policy applies only to activities that begin during the period when coverage is effective and does not apply to activities that predate the coverage period.

5 When is coverage effective? *

*Coverage begins on the later of 8/1/12 or your Membership Date and expires on 8/1/13 except for the following: COvERAGE IS EFFECTIvE ON 8/1/12 IF YOU RENEW MEMbERSHIP ANYTIME DURING AUGUST OR SEPTEMbER 2012, AND EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS DEFENSE INSURANCE IS NOT EFFECTIvE UNTIL 30 DAYS AFTER YOUR MEMbERSHIP DATE IF YOU JOIN AFTER 9/30/12 AND WERE ELIGIbLE FOR MEMbERSHIP FROM AUGUST 2012 THROUGH SEPTEMbER 2012. Eligibility for membership benefits is contingent upon receipt of the entire membership dues amount for your appropriate membership category. A disruption in payments to an authorized payment plan may result in discontinuation of such benefits, including cancellation of insurance coverage for the entire membership year, retroactive to Aug. 1 or your membership date. For further information, call (800) 777-ATPE.

6 What does ATPE-PAC do?

The ATPE Political Action Committee (ATPE-PAC) accepts voluntary donations from members to advocate for ATPE’s legislative priorities.

ATPE-PAC does not endorse political candidates. Donations to ATPEPAC are not a condition of employment or membership. A member may donate more or less than the suggested amount or may choose not to make a donation without it affecting his or her membership status, rights or benefits with ATPE. Donations are not deductible for federal income tax purposes.

ATPE Membership Categories You must join in the appropriate insured category in order to qualify for coverage. ATPE reserves the right to determine eligibility for the appropriate membership category. Commissioned peace officers are eligible for public membership only.

Professional and Associate membership is open to persons employed in Texas by a public school district, institution of higher education, Regional Education Service Center, State board for Educator Certification or the Texas Education Agency.

If you have a question about the eligibility of job descriptions not listed below, call (800) 777-ATPE.

Insured Categories*

Uninsured Categories

Professional MeMber ($145) /first-tiMe Professional MeMber ($80)

associate MeMber ($70)

college student MeMber (free)

• Administrator/ Supervisor

• Department Head/ Chair

• Regional Service Center Staff

• Aide to position in Professional category

• Athletic Director/ Coordinator

• Diagnostician • Instructional Officer

• School Psychologist/ Associate

• Alternative Center Aide

• Athletic Trainer

• Intern Teacher

• Social Worker

• Bus Driver

• Nurse (LVN)

• At-Risk Coordinator

• Cafeteria Worker

• Audiologist

• Superintendent/Asst.

Supt.

Public MeMber ($10)

• IT Director/ Coordinator

• Regional Service Center Aide

• Friend of public education

• Band/Choral Director

• Librarian

• Teacher

• Nurse (RN)

• Therapist/Pathologist

• Computer Programmer/Entry

• Secretary

• Coach • Counselor

• University Professor

• Custodial Worker

• Substitute Teacher

• Curriculum Director

• Parent/Community Coordinator

• Dean of Instruction

• Principal/Asst. Prin.

46 | atpe.org

• Visiting Teacher

• Clerk–General

• Deaf Interpreter

• Non-teaching college student

• Educational Aide/ Technician

retired MeMber ($10)

• Maintenance Worker

• Retired former school employee

• Security Guard

teacher trainee MeMber (free) • Student teacher in Texas

atpe news

by Mandy Curtis, senior copy editor/writer

snip-its

TED Ed videos The online lecture series known as TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) has recently expanded into the education arena. TED, the nonprofit organization devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading,” started in 1984 as a conference and has since grown to include two annual U.S. conferences, an annual global conference and the TEDTalks video site (www.ted.com). Although many of the more than 1,000 videos available on the site can be used for educational purposes, a lot of them are too long to be fully appreciated in a classroom setting. That’s where TED Ed comes in.

TED Ed, http://education.ted.com/, is a new YouTube channel featuring shorter videos (no more than 10 minutes long) on a variety of educational topics geared to a K–12 audience. The videos currently on the site cover voting, poetry, viral videos, the wonders of the oceans and more.

©Teens Computers/jupiterimages/comstock/Thinkstock; illustration/stockbyte/thinkstock

In the future, TED Ed will also allow educators to submit lesson plans that, if chosen by the TED Ed team, could be turned into featured videos.

“ ”

A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes,

American author, poet and physician (1809–1894)

summer 2012

Google and you In January 2012, Google launched a redesign of www.google.com/edu/ that makes the website easier to use. Through the site, educators can access Google Apps for Education, resources, lesson plans, professional development training and student resources.

Students can also use the site to find information on Google contests such as the Google Science Fair and Doodle 4 Google, summer programs, scholarships, internships and jobs.

Slow the summer spiral Studies show that students can lose up to three months of learning during the summer break. When you communicate with parents, pass along the tips below from Dr. Harris Cooper, a professor of psychology at the University of Missouri–Columbia.

Hopefully, they'll help your students avoid the “summer brain drain.”

• Keep lots of books around, and make regular trips to the library.

• When you plan your family vacation, consider tying it to what your kids might be learning next year in class. Talk with teachers to find out what they’ll be covering.

• Keep math in mind. Because kids lose more math skills than anything else over the summer, plan a few engaging math-related activities during the break.

• Consider summer school or tutoring.

• Call the curriculum coordinator in your child’s school district, visit the school board office, or contact the schools of education at local colleges and universities to find out what educational programs will be offered in your area this summer.

Learn more at http://school.familyeducation.com/ summer/cognitive-processes/38453.html.

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