INSIGHT—Fall 2001

TEXAS ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS QUARTERLY PUBLICATION

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INSIGHT

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Lessons Learned as Legislative Chair

by Dawson R. Orr Reflects on personal experiences and lessons learned during the past two years as legislative chair for the association, including beliefs on what contributes to legislative success or failure

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The 78th Legislative Session—“Show Me the Money”

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A Second Look at EduPortal™

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Notice! Notice! Hear All About It!—What’s the Scoop on Notice Requirements Following the 77th Legislature

by Michael Hinojosa Forecasts issues for the 78th Legislative Session, emphasizing that the skills, knowledge, and attitudes of Texas administrators will be crucial to the effort of finding new solutions to old problems

Offers the EduPortal experiences of Aldine and Katy ISDs, including their implementation plans, criteria, processes, and successes, along with TASA’s ideas on a new focus for the EduPortal

by David Backus Examines the impact of the 77th Legislature on required school district notices, including class-size waivers, meningitis information, school start-date waivers, bidding information, higher education counseling, truancy notifications, and employee health insurance

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Board Orientations That Count

by Bonny Cain Shares how Pearland ISD orients new board members to real-world reference points with the goal of enabling a panoramic, holistic view of the district and its operations FALL 2001 3

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President’s Message

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A new kind of Texas hero

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Executive Director’s View

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The Leader

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Focus on legislative policy

Region 13 leadership development initiatives; review on Standards for Our Schools: How to Set them, Measure Them, and Reach Them

INSIGHT Officers

At-Large Members

Leonard E. Merrell, President, Katy ISD Don Gibson, President-Elect, Wall ISD Dawson R. Orr, Vice-President, Pampa ISD James E. Wilcox, Past President, Hooks ISD

Willis Mackey, Navasota ISD Dana S. Marable, Marble Falls ISD Hector Montenegro, Dallas ISD Debra K. Nelson, Frisco ISD

Executive Committee

Editorial Advisory Committee

Eliseo Ruiz, Jr., Los Fresnos CISD, 1 Henry D. Herrera, Alice ISD, 2 Tom R. Jones, Jr., Tidehaven ISD, 3 James F. Smith, Alief ISD, 4 M. R. “Bob” Tilley, Kirbyville CISD, 5 Dorman C. Jackson, Crockett ISD, 6 Dee W. Hartt, Tatum ISD, 7 Harvey Hohenberger, Chisum ISD, 8 Randel R. Beaver, Archer City ISD, 9 Tony Daugherty, Pottsboro ISD, 10 Vernon N. Newsom, Mansfield ISD, 11 Rex Daniels, Lampasas ISD, 12 Ron Reaves, New Braunfels ISD, 13 Gayle Lomax, Snyder ISD, 14 Billy Jack Rankin, Bangs ISD, 15 Kyle Collier, Claude ISD, 16 Ken McCraw, Lamesa ISD, 17 Bobby D. McCall, Iraan-Sheffield ISD, 18 Lu Anna Stephens, Fabens ISD, 19 Alton Fields, Pleasanton ISD, 20 Michael Hinojosa, Hays CISD, Legislative Chair

Leonard E. Merrell, Katy ISD, Chair Don Gibson, Wall ISD Marla M. Guerra, University of Texas–Pan American Michael Hinojosa, Hays CISD Jan C. Jacob, Victoria ISD Thomas Earl Randle, Lamar CISD Jeff N. Turner, Burleson ISD Mary E. Ward, Dripping Springs ISD

TASA Headquarters Staff Johnny L. Veselka, Executive Director Ellen V. Bell, Associate Executive Director, Professional Development Louann H. Martinez, Associate Executive Director, Governmental Relations Paul Whitton, Jr., Associate Executive Director, Administrative Services David Backus, Assistant Executive Director, Governmental Relations Dian Cooper, Assistant Executive Director, Professional Development Ann M. Halstead, Director, Communications & Technology Pat Johnston, Director, Special Services Emily Starr, Design/Production Karen Limb, Editorial Coordinator Neal W. Adams, TASA General Counsel, Adams, Lynch, & Loftin—Bedford

Advertising For information on advertising in INSIGHT, contact Ann Halstead, TASA, 512-477-6361.

INSIGHT is published quarterly by the Texas Association of School Administrators, 406 East 11th Street, Austin, Texas, 78701-2617.

Subscription is included in TASA membership dues. © 2001 by TASA. All rights reserved. TASA members may reprint articles in limited quantities for in-house educational use. Articles in INSIGHT are expressions of the author or interviewee and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of TASA. Advertisements do not necessarily carry the endorsement of the Texas Association of School Administrators.

INSIGHT is printed by Thomas Graphics, Austin, Texas.

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NEWS WIRE

2001 Honor Boards Announced Five Texas school boards have been named Honor Boards in the 2001 School Board Awards competition sponsored by TASA. The 2001 Honor Boards and nominating education service centers are: Beaumont ISD (5) Coppell ISD (10) Crowley ISD (11) Hays CISD (13) Temple ISD (12) Among the factors that resulted in the recognition of these five Honor Boards were their vision, commitment, and leadership as policymakers; commitment to the improvement of student performance and strong evidence of growth; evidence of strong community support for the district; cooperation among board members and between the board and superintendent; and evidence of successful school-business partnerships.

Each of these boards will be interviewed by the TASA School Board Awards Committee at the 41st Annual TASB/TASA Convention in late September. The Outstanding School Board for 2001 will be named at the convention’s Second General Session on Sunday, September 23.

Finalists Named for 2001 Superintendent of the Year Award Five public school administrators from across Texas were selected as finalists for the annual Superintendent of the Year (SOTY) award sponsored by the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB). The SOTY program has recognized exemplary superintendents for excellence and achievement in education leadership since 1984. The 2001 finalists and nominating education service centers are: Thomas E. Randle, nominated by La Marque ISD, now at Lamar CISD (4) Carol Ann Bonds, Rogers ISD (12) Marc L. Williamson, Fredericksburg ISD (13) Larry Joe McClenny, Patton Springs ISD (17) Charles Hart, Canutillo ISD (19) A copy of the full news release, including brief profiles on each of the finalists, can be accessed at www.tasb.org.

The 2001 Superintendent of the Year will be announced Saturday, September 22, at the 41st Annual TASB/TASA Convention in Dallas. The winning superintendent will receive a professional development award funded by Balfour.

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State of Texas Earns Record Ratings Rising scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test and declining dropout rates caused the state of Texas as a whole to improve from “acceptable” to “recognized” under the state’s accountability system for 2001, Commissioner of Education Jim Nelson announced on August 16.

“This is outstanding performance for the state as a whole. To achieve a recognized rating, a school or campus must have 80 percent of all of its students and each major student group pass each section of the TAAS and must have a dropout rate of 3 percent or less for all students and each student group. This level of performance represents years of hard work on the part of students, educators, and parents,” Nelson said.

This year, 54 percent of Texas students are enrolled in schools that achieved one of the top two ratings, recognized or exemplary.

Almost 56 percent of the Texas schools and 61.6 percent of the school districts achieved a recognized or exemplary rating in 2001.

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“The districts and schools that earned the exemplary rating today deserve praise from their local communities. It takes constant diligence and encouragement to propel a campus or district to this level.

We are pleased that we have exemplary campuses all over this state,” Nelson said.

“Eight Texas schools deserve special recognition. These schools have earned the state’s top rating of exemplary for the past nine years, which is every year ratings have been issued,” Nelson said.

These schools are: • • • • • •

John F. Ward Elementary School, Clear Creek ISD School for the Talented and Gifted, Dallas ISD Murfee Elementary School, Lubbock ISD Mohawk Elementary School, Richardson ISD The Science Academy, South Texas ISD Armstrong Elementary School, Hyer Elementary School, and University Park Elementary School, Highland Park ISD, Dallas

“These eight schools have an outstanding record of performance.

Their communities can be rightfully proud of these top achievers,” Nelson said.

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FALL 2001 7

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President’s

MESSAGE

A New Kind of Texas Hero What do you think of when someone mentions “Texas hero”? A Davy Crockett-type rugged individualist? Someone who is willing to defy almost insurmountable odds like Susanna Dickinson?

A risk-taker like Juan Seguin? A statesman-leader along the lines of Sam Houston?

Our image of the “Texas hero” has its roots in the leaders who emerged more than 160 years ago during the independence movement, but heroism certainly didn’t go out of style in the mid-19th century. Long after the last shots were fired and the final treaties signed, Texans continued to go above and beyond to contribute to causes that serve our common good.

From the very beginning, one of the dominant issues for Texans has been public education. The Texas Declaration of Independence lists the failure of the Mexican government “to establish any public system of education” among reasons for severing ties with Mexico. Mirabeau B. Lamar, who served as the first vice-president of the fledgling republic, worked to ensure that public education was embedded in the Constitution, earning him the nickname “The Father of Texas Education.”

By 1840, the first public school law was enacted and only a decade and a half later in 1854 legislators earmarked part of a legal settlement with the United States to endow a $2 million Permanent School Fund.

The Texas system of public education has grown to include every corner of our state, reached out to include more children, and evolved to serve an ever-widening array of student needs. Along the way, a need for a new kind of Texas hero has arisen—someone who puts aside politics and parochialism while creating big picture strategies for confronting each major issue that impacts our schools. Over the years, new Texas heroes have emerged to deal with consolidation, governance, finance, curriculum improvement, and accountability.

Today, we stand at another milestone in the history of Texas public schools. Legislators and educators seem to agree that the system designed to provide an equitable education for students, whether they live in Presidio, Plano, Poteet, or Paris, is a curriculum success but a financial dilemma. To address that problem, an interim committee on finance will begin studying alternatives to present to the next session of the legislature. That’s bad news and good news for school districts. The timing won’t provide much relief for many of us, who expect to reach our tax caps before the first gavel falls in 2003. On the other hand, the finance issue has too much impact on the long-term success of Texas schools to be addressed in the hubbub of a regular session.

As school administrators, we need to maintain a close watch on the deliberations of the interim committee. Its recommendations will affect—positively or negatively—the ability of each of our districts to offer the best possible education to our students for many years to come. We need to monitor the workings of the interim committee; provide data, testimony, and feedback; and advocate the formulation of a solution that benefits children and districts throughout the state, not just our own. By the time the legislature acts in 2003, we need to be ready to put the new system to work and make it successful.

Just as the heroes of Texas’ war for independence may have had their differences on the best battle plan, just as the creators of our Texas Constitution probably debated their way through draft after draft, we may never agree on a perfect system of school finance. We should take a lesson from the Texas heroes who put aside their differences to provide a strong legacy for generations to come. Former President John F. Kennedy said, “It is time for a new generation of leadership to cope with new problems and new opportunities, for there is a new world to be won.” It is time for Texans to work together on winning a new world for our future generations.

FALL 2001 9

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Executive Director’s VIEW

Focus on Legislative Policy The 77th Legislature has barely adjourned yet our attention has been turned once again to legislative issues. With the announcement by Lieutenant Governor Bill Ratliff and House Speaker Pete Laney on September 5 creating a joint select committee to study the public school finance system, public education is again at the top of the state legislative agenda.

Ratliff and Laney have charged the committee with conducting a comprehensive review of the structure of the finance system, including facilities and transportation issues, the method used to fund public schools, and the criteria used to determine state payments to school districts. Other topics include equity issues and revenue sources, including property tax.

TASA’s Legislative Committee, under the leadership of Michael Hinojosa, committee chair, and Leonard Merrell, TASA president, has already begun its efforts to prepare for the 78th Legislative Session and related interim activities. The committee is particularly interested in receiving input from the membership on critical issues facing the interim committee and the next session. Legislative Committee members in each region will be reporting on committee activities and soliciting input at the monthly regional study group meetings. Once again, TASA and TASB will jointly establish a Special Committee on Revenue and School Funding, headed by the Legislative Committee chairs of the two associations. Collectively, the work of these two committees and the TASA Executive Committee will ultimately lead to the formulation of TASA’s legislative recommendations to the 78th Legislature.

With the active support and involvement of TASA members statewide, we will be able to positively affect future legislative policy. One way that TASA members can support these efforts is through financial support of TASA’s Legislative/Governmental Consultant Services. TASA members consider legislative advocacy as one of their most important association benefits. In order to meet this priority, the association devotes significant time, energy, and resources to legislative and state policy matters.

TASA’s Legislative/Governmental Consultant Services, including legal counsel on legislative issues, consulting, and bill analysis, are invaluable in supporting the association’s overall legislative initiatives.

These services strengthen and unify the association’s legislative efforts during legislative sessions and throughout the interims. Please give every consideration to supporting this important TASA effort.

As legislative activity continues to command our attention in the new membership year, we also are directing our efforts on promoting new and expanded programs and services. We just mailed a packet of information to superintendents about the Texas Regional Education Applicant Placement (REAP) program, our newest enhancement to TASA’s Educator Job Bank, and hope that you will take advantage of this low-cost, online recruitment and placement service. Our First-time Superintendents’ and Central Office academies have each held their first sessions, and the Technology Leadership Academy is well underway across the state. These and other programs and services are described in detail on our Web site, TASAnet. I encourage you to visit the site often to learn more about all the benefits your TASA membership includes.

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Lessons Learned as Legislative Chair

by Dawson Orr

Having recently completed a two-year term as legislative chair for the association, I have been asked to reflect on the experiences and lessons learned in the process. What did I learn?

First, I strongly believe that legislative success or failure generally depends on the amount of preparation and planning that occurs before the legislative session begins. Ideas take time to come into “good currency,” and for an idea actually to be embodied in a piece of legislation requires dialogue and discussion well in advance of a session. Persistence in building understanding of a legislative proposal is a prerequisite for success. I learned that, as an association, we must be thinking at least one legislative session ahead while in the midst of a current session.

Second, reports and statistics are important, but they alone rarely move a legislative proposal. As professional educators who have chosen to become administrators, we have a bias towards facts, figures, and the rational world. We are taught to plan and to aggregate and disaggregate data. If a picture is worth a thousand words, surely a good bar chart is unlimited in its persuasiveness. Be that as it may, I observed that the anecdotal story of a parent, practitioner educator, or student has far more power in moving a legislative proposal. A compelling story of personal experience captures the attention of decision makers. This lesson is clear: we need to tell and sell the human side of educational leadership needs.

that transcend the written rules, procedures, and protocols. What do I mean? Compare and contrast the way business is conducted in the House Public Education Committee and the Senate Education Committee. One embraces Shakespeare’s view of brevity as the soul of wit. The other adheres to the old philosopher’s belief that justice is giving all men (and women, trustees, and association representatives) their due, at whatever hour of the night or early morning it might be. Veteran observers of the legislative process can describe other norms, such as knowing the importance of expressing consistent positions, determining the saturation point (when your audience either due to late hours or extremely diverse opinions no longer has the ability to appreciate what is being stated), and recognizing when it is too late to effectively express opposition. Just as we can identify the distinctive feel and climate of the campuses in our districts, we need to recognize, consider, and respect the unwritten norms present in the legislature.

“This lesson is clear: we need to tell and sell the human side

Last, although not a lesson learned so much as reaffirmed, is the absolute importance of having knowledgeable, experienced people on your team.

As mentioned earlier, the legislative process operates within a complex culture and being a player is full-time work. The Governmental Relations staff of TASA is indispensable to the work of our association. Continuity, expertise, and personal networks all come into play each day, year after year, as we work to implement a legislative program that improves the system by which we educate the children of Texas.

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leadership needs.”

The next lesson follows from the last. Our TASA members—superintendents, business managers, and district administrators—are vital to TASA legislative success. The message we bring—the tone, style, and substance of our interaction with legislators—whether testifying in committee or in personal conferences, is important and helps determine the success or failure of our legislative proposals. In addition, presenting a unified position with other stakeholders— not just the teacher associations but other education-management groups—is particularly critical.

Another observation, born of many hours spent in crowded committee hearing rooms, is that the Texas Legislature has unique cultural norms

In closing, I urge you, the members of TASA, to view legislative advocacy as an important component of educational leadership.

Circumstances may limit the opportunity for testifying before a committee, but all can find a way to help communicate the needs we see from our unique vantage as superintendents and district administrators. Above all, be involved and be prepared to help.

Dawson R. Orr is TASA vice-president and superintendent at Pampa ISD. FALL 2001 13

“… the $1.24 billion set aside for health insurance will only fund one year of the biennium.”

th The 78 78th The Legislative Legislative Session— Session—

“Show Me the Money!”

by Michael Hinojosa The 78th Legislative Session promises to be an interesting experience for public education and has the potential to be filled with school finance issues. The state of Texas is proud of the public school system that continues to gain national and international prominence. The bipartisan political leadership in the state set strategic initiatives in place to ensure that all students achieve at high levels.

The highly touted accountability system in Texas deserves much credit for the state’s academic gains. This improvement also coincides with an equalized system of funding school systems in Texas. The irony regarding the funding of public schools is that the state share of funding has significantly decreased since passage of the Gilmer-Akins Bill in 1948.

During the 77th Legislative Session, many school finance issues were deferred to an interim study committee on school finance that will report to the 78th Legislature. Legal challenges on both sides of the school finance argument will continue to be high profile. Many school districts will be approaching the $1.50 cap on the Maintenance & Operations tax rate. Community expectations for quality programs to benefit students will not dissipate.

There will be additional pressures to continue to pay educators a fair salary since they have the greatest impact on the future of our democracy.

The teacher shortage will continue to be a major challenge for individual school districts, added to the problem of principal and superintendent shortages. The law of supply and demand will test the limits of our resources. Health insurance costs continue to escalate. Educators are extremely thankful of efforts of the recent legislative session to assist in providing financial assistance for health insurance programs. Unfortunately, the $1.24 billion set aside for health insurance will only fund one year of the biennium. By the time the next session arrives, costs will escalate and the legislature will be challenged to fund both years of the ensuing biennium. School districts are labor intensive organizations with more than 80 percent of costs of operations tied to payroll expenses.

The recent slowdown of the economy, along with the bleak projections from the comptroller, will certainly challenge the state to be creative in addressing these major finance issues.

While the challenges are formidable, Texas educators have always maintained abundant creativity in addressing problems. The skills, knowledge, and attitudes of Texas administrators will be crucial to the effort to find new solutions to old problems. Your input in putting together a legislative agenda will be paramount. TASA is viewed by legislators as the organization that represents all school districts and all of their children. An outstanding group of administrators has been put together by TASA to represent you during the next legislative session. Come early, stay late, and let your voices be heard on behalf of the children of Texas who are depending on your leadership.

Michael Hinojosa is TASA legislative chair and superintendent at Hays CISD.

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A Second Look at EduPortal When we first introduced TASA’s EduPortal™ to Texas school districts in the summer of 2000, we knew we were on to a powerful research tool that could dramatically change the way our members approached document sharing and Web-based searching. We promoted the EduPortal throughout the year at workshops and conferences, in printed materials, and through our own Web site, TASAnet. More than 200 districts purchased a Level 1 subscription to the EduPortal—a promising start, we believe, to a very new concept.

As with any new venture, we learned a lot that first year. Those lessons have helped us to reshape our thinking about the EduPortal and how it can best serve the needs of Texas school administrators. What we learned was that while TASA’s posting of current state rules and regulations, attorney general opinions, bill text, etc., was useful to subscribers, districts that got the most benefit from the EduPortal were our Level 2 and 3 subscribers. This level of subscription allows districts to post their own district documents alongside those posted by TASA. Why was this concept so successful? Those districts found that using the power of the EduPortal locally created a full-fledged resource library at their fingertips. Now they have a means to quickly locate documents, search those documents, and easily compare language on a state-to-local basis. Now everyone in the district has instant access to the policies and procedures that shape the daily activities of the district. Instantly and consistently sharing information becomes reality rather than wishful thinking.

Now move beyond the local district and think on a statewide basis. Suddenly we have a means of sharing best practices, successful policies, and solutions to common problems across the state. Not just a Web site where 16

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you can look at or even search a posted document, but a portal where you can quickly search for a concept and compare various documents to help in decision making and planning. Instead of having to wait for the next conference to find out that some district has the very solution your district is looking for, you can now research from the privacy of your own office—a time- and labor-saving technique that capitalizes on the very purpose of the Internet.

We’ve asked Aldine and Katy ISDs to share some of their experiences using the EduPortal within their own districts. Take a moment to look at their ideas, then consider how the EduPortal can be used within your own district. TASA will be sending information to Texas superintendents in the next few weeks that will expand on our new outlook for the EduPortal. We hope you’ll want to capture its power for yourself.

The Power of EduPortal It’s Monday morning. The skies are dark with Texas rain, the kids are restless after a long weekend, and it is time to play superhero and start finding resolutions to a variety of issues that will confront you throughout the day. Just as the morning announcements are finishing, the first opportunity to make a

difference enters your office—a child needing an atypical service. It’s been months since you had to work with this service and now you will need to consult reference materials.

You ask yourself, “What is the board policy related to this service?”, “What have we already communicated to the student through the handbook?”, and the two most dreaded of questions, “How do I record the service in my student accounting package so we get funded, and where did I put all those binders filled with information?” Just the thought of finding all the policy guides, training manuals, and administrative memos needed to provide an accurate and effective solution is enough to intimidate any administrator. As you begin to stack binders on your desk you find yourself asking once again, “Is there a way I can get the information I need to make a critical decision without searching through volumes of policy and guides?” Aldine ISD has found a method—TASA’s EduPortal.

The EduPortal gives Aldine administrators the ability to post critical documents to a secure Web site for employee use. Through this searchable portal, Aldine ISD is able to provide the latest updated reference materials to all school employees, regardless of computer platform, in real time without the need for

costly duplication services. Unlike printed documents, those published to the EduPortal are fully indexed. Indexing documents allows our staff to search any or all documents using a keyword or phrase. Unlike typical databases that rely on a few generic keywords, EduPortal turns every word in the document into a keyword, making for very effective searches. After locating a document, the user can jump from page to page within the document by using the matched keyword to navigate. This ability allows staff to quickly locate relevant information without having to sift through documents, weed out unrelated materials, or worse, overlook an important piece of information that could make a difference in a child’s life.

Aldine ISD began using the EduPortal system in January 2001. We started the implementation process by laying out all of our most critical documents on a large desk. We grouped documents that were similar in nature. A series of trends developed that became the base folder structure of our EduPortal site.

Next we examined our stacks of documents and discussed who our

audience would be and how they would be using those documents. Based on this initial meeting, we not only established a folder structure to house all documents in EduPortal, but also developed an implementation plan and set of goals we would need to reach to make this project successful.

The implementation plan was broken into three components: a set-up component that included building accounts and granting access to areas of the portal, a document component that included uploading and converting documents, and a training component for both administrators and end-users. Each of the components had a set of goals, a timeline for completion, and an evaluation piece that we could use to establish our progress.

Assuming this implementation would be very linear—design the structure, build the accounts, train the user, upload the documents—we rolled out our timeline and began in earnest.

Following the development, our first activity was training. We took all the documentation

provided by TransACT and reduced it to a single tri-fold handout that users could keep near their computer. Using screen shots and real examples, the tri-fold gave users only the most basic of tools in order to reduce frustration and increase the potential for use. Soon after developing the training handout, however, we realized the implementation did not lend itself to a sequential implementation. We would need to revise our plans if we wanted to be successful.

Training users on a system like EduPortal, we concluded, would need to be done with local documents already in place. It would be the local documents that would build the excitement needed to make the project a success.

Reassembling the team, we went back to the drawing board and reorganized the implementation plan a second time. The new plan called for the document upload component and training component to transpire simultaneously. We quickly discovered users appreciated the availability of Aldine ISD documents on the EduPortal system. Just two weeks after restarting the FALL 2001

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implementation, we had trained almost 200 users and uploaded more than 400 documents to the system.

Today, EduPortal has become an important and integrated member of our document solution family. Used in conjunction with our Web page and other intranet and extranet resources, we have been able to reduce the cost of document ownership and increase our effectiveness. Since the inception seven months ago, we have uploaded all our critical documents, including board policy, student/parent and teacher handbooks, district forms, board minutes, curriculum benchmarks, and major training guides for district software applications. Not only have we increased the number of documents we are sharing, we also have expanded our structure. Many of our campuses have discovered the power of online, searchable document sharing and have begun uploading campus-specific information to an extended document layout that includes folders for each school.

Ownership of the EduPortal program has moved from a select few with a vision of document collaboration and sharing to the entire Aldine ISD community.

Back on that rainy Monday morning you’re thinking to yourself, the skies don’t seem quite so dark anymore. The child needing the atypical service has just left your office with a new schedule that meets her specific needs, and you can hear the buzz of a successful school. The superhero cape is draped over the back of your chair, ready for the next time it’s needed, and you realize just

how nice your online document solution really is.

Nathan Boughton, director of technology projects, Aldine ISD

Using the TASA EduPortal in Katy ISD Beginning with a goal of improving administrative communications and establishing a means for sharing key information among district personnel, Katy ISD began implementation of the TASA EduPortal during the past school year. The initial target audience for its use included central office administrators, key support personnel, and campus administrators.

Building on the vast policy and legal reference material available in the EduPortal system, Katy has begun the development of a central, easily maintainable, and widely available district resource to support its administrators in the performance of their professional duties and responsibilities.

Currently, Katy is using the TASA EduPortal as a research tool and document publishing and sharing system for district information.

Putting together this type of resource has required an underlying change in how information is distributed and accessed within the district. As with any new resource, much of the success of its implementation depends on the amount of planning and preparation that is made before its initial release and the continuing training that is provided. At the outset, this planning included gathering the district’s

WHAT IS the EDUPORTAL? The EduPortal is a Web-based, document-sharing network that allows school administrators to search, create, manage, and publish documents through a private portal on the Internet or their district’s Intranet. The EduPortal combines sophisticated technologies and powerful full-text search tools with hit-highlighting, enabling precise search strategies and quick document retrieval. The beauty of the EduPortal system is that its sophisticated technology operates behind the scenes—accessing and using the EduPortal requires no special technological skills beyond the ability to browse the Web. EduPortal subscribers simply use their standard Web-browser software (Microsoft® Internet Explorer or Netscape® Communicator®) and Adobe® Acrobat® Reader. And because it is Web-based, the EduPortal is cross-platform, accessible by Macintosh and PC/Windows users alike.

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leadership team together to determine the folder structure of the district’s portion of the EduPortal. Careful thought was given to the logical organization of this information.

Several key personnel within the district were designated as authors for the EduPortal. After being trained on how to use and update the system and how to label documents effectively for easy retrieval, the authors are responsible for maintaining certain sections of the system. To help in determining what documents to include, certain criteria must be met before a document is approved for inclusion in the system. These criteria include documents that (1) support administrators in making decisions about legal and policy issues—example: memos concerning policy and legal requirements; (2) are repeatedly requested by phone and/or distributed regularly in paper form or by e-mail—example: staffing formulas; and (3) provide quick reference to district information and procedures—example: handbooks.

One of the challenges that Katy faces to ensuring success of the Katy portion of the EduPortal is the ability to consistently provide current and “up-to-date” documents.

This will involve setting up a process that accounts for where the document originates, when the document gets updated, and how to access the updated version. To resolve this issue, departmental personnel are requested to notify the appropriate section author when a document has been updated. This typically occurs only at certain times throughout the year. Departments that frequently update information have had an author trained to maintain that department’s information. In addition, access to the updated version is done either by e-mail with attachment(s) or by giving network access to a designated share drive.

The first year of the EduPortal implementation in Katy ISD has been to plan the structure of the Katy section of the EduPortal, train authors, build the Katy section, and train central office administrators and key support staff on its use. The second year of implementation will be to continue building/maintaining the Katy ISD section and train campus administrators and school board members on its use. Further down the road the EduPortal may be opened to teachers and staff members.

Janet Arnett, webmaster, Katy ISD

by David Backus

N

otice requirements—state-mandated communications to parents, students, employees, and vendors— serve as a means for the state to reach a comfort level that its political subdivisions are transmitting the level of information the state deems appropriate. For unwary school administrators, however, these notice requirements also may serve to derail an otherwise stellar school year if they discover one that has gone unwritten or unpublished prior to decision making. In an effort to help administrators avoid such a pitfall, this article examines the impact of the 77th Legislature on required school district notices.

Class-Size Waivers. Since 1984, Texas public school kindergarten and first, second, third, and fourth grades cannot have a student-teacher ratio that exceeds 22 to 1. The commissioner of education has authority to waive this class-size restriction under certain circumstances. Beginning with the 2001–2002 school year, a district receiving a waiver must provide written notice to the parents of students who are in any class that has been granted a class-size limit waiver from the commissioner. The notice must adhere to the following criteria: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Be in conspicuous bold or underlined print Specify the class for which an exception was granted State the number of children in the class for which the exception was granted Be included in a regular communication from the campus or district Be provided not later than the 31st day after the first day of the school year or the date the exception was granted if after the beginning of the school year

Meningitis Information. Several highly publicized incidents of bacterial meningitis prompted the legislature to require a new notification to parents informing them about the symptoms and prevention of the disease.

The notification must be made annually by school districts in a form, content, and manner determined by TEA. The notice will include the following information: 1. Symptoms, diagnostic procedures, and consequences of leaving the disease untreated 2. How the disease is transmitted, methods of its prevention, and the relative risk students have of contracting it FALL 2001 19

3. Availability of vaccinations against the disease, and a brief description of any possible side effects of vaccination 4. Sources of additional information regarding the disease, including district and state offices As this article goes to press, TEA already has developed the content of this notice and is planning to mail it along with distribution guidelines to all districts in early September 2001. The distribution guidelines will not require that districts make a special mailing of the bacterial meningitis information to parents, but will require them to include the information in their next scheduled mailing to parents.

Further, if a district operates a Web site, the guidelines will require that the information be posted to the site. Finally, the guidelines also will require the information to be included in the district’s student handbook beginning with the 2002–2003 school year.

If a district desires to distribute the information in a manner different than required by TEA, TEA may allow the district to do so if the agency determines that the district’s method would be effective.

School Start-Date Waivers. As all administrators should know by now, beginning with the 2002–2003 school year, districts may not begin instruction for students before the week in which August 21 falls.

What may not be as well known is that the new law provides a mechanism for requesting a waiver from the commissioner of education when a district believes it is wise to begin school earlier than the prescribed time. Districts wanting to begin school earlier will be required to adhere to the following notice and hearing requirements prior to filing an application with the commissioner for a waiver: 1. Publishing notice in a newspaper at least 60 days before the date the district submits the application for the waiver, stating that the district intends to apply for a waiver and specifying the date on which the district intends to begin instruction for students 2. Holding a public hearing concerning the date of the first day of instruction for students 3. Including a summary of the opinions expressed at the public hearing and any consensus of opinion expressed concerning the start date in the application for a waiver Bidding Information. School districts are greatly restricted in how they may procure personal property under the state’s bidding laws when the cost of such property exceeds $25,000. Generally, districts spending $25,000 or more in a year on particular categories of personal property (or $10,000–$25,000 if opting not to use the vendor list method of procurement) must use competitive bidding, competitive sealed proposals, request for proposals, GSC catalogue purchases, or interlocal contracts. When awarding a purchasing contract under state law, a district may consider a variety of factors, including but not limited to purchase price. Until this legislative session, one of those factors has been “any other relevant factor that a private business entity would consider in selecting a vendor.” This flexible language, however, has been eliminated. In its place is a requirement that districts only consider any “relevant factor specifically listed in the request for bids or proposals.” Therefore, administrators must be particularly careful to review the language in all bid notices to ensure they accurately contain all relevant factors that will be used to award the procurement contract. experience and desire to

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INSIGHT

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Higher Education Counseling. Due to the future economic requirements for a highly educated workforce, the state has placed a great deal of emphasis on communicating to the public the importance of obtaining a higher education. The legislature has enlisted the assistance of public primary and secondary schools in that campaign by requiring counseling of not only students but also parents on issues related to higher education. Specifically, beginning with the 2001–2002 school year, school district counselors in elementary, middle, and high school must advise students and their parents or guardians on the importance of higher education, the coursework that is designed to prepare students for higher education, and the various financing options available to fund it. A counselor in high school must provide students and their parents specific information during the students’ first year in high school and again during the students’ senior year that includes the following:

1. Importance of higher education 2. Advantages of completing the recommended or advanced high school graduation program 3. Disadvantages of taking courses to prepare for a high school equivalency exam relative to the benefits of taking courses leading to a high school diploma 4. Financial aid eligibility 5. Instruction on how to apply for federal financial aid 6. Description of the state center for financial aid 7. Automatic admission of certain students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school class 8. Eligibility and academic requirements for the TEXAS grant program Truancy Notifications. The legislature made several significant changes to the truancy laws of the state.

Administrators are well advised to examine the bill in its entirety for its impact on districts beyond the notice requirements discussed below. (A summary of the changes to the truancy law may be found on TASA’s Web site, www.TASAnet.org). The law changes include two new notice requirements. The first one is a general notification to all parents made at the beginning of each school year informing them that if a student is required to attend school and fails to do so on 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period in the same school year or on 3 or more days or parts of days within a fourweek period that the parent(s) and the student are liable to criminal prosecution. The second notice is triggered when a student has been absent for 3 days or parts of days during a four-week period. This notice is again sent to the student’s parent or guardian and must include the following: 1. That it’s their duty to monitor the student’s school attendance and require the student’s attendance at school 2. That they are subject to criminal prosecution 3. That they need to request a conference between school officials and the parent(s) to discuss the absences Employee Health Insurance. Perhaps lost among the more pressing concerns of the new health insurance program for public school employees is a notice requirement for all school employees. Most administrators by now know that in addition to the state and local contributions to health insurance, the new health insurance program provides to each employee who is a TRS-contributing member $1,000. These employees are required to make an election of how they wish to receive the $1,000. They may use the money to increase their group health insurance coverage, defray the cost of dependent care costs, place it in a medical reimbursement account, or take it as supplemental compensation. This election must be made by August 1 or no later than the 31st day after an employee is hired. In order to allow employees the opportunity to make informed decisions in this regard, the bill requires TRS to develop a model notice in English and Spanish detailing the particulars of the employee election and tasks districts with preparing and distributing the notice. The district’s notice must follow the following criteria: 1. Be based on the model explanation prepared by TRS and must reflect all available health coverage options available to the employee 2. Be distributed to an employee before the later of July 1 or the fifth day after the date the employee is hired 3. Be accompanied by a copy of the election form prescribed by TRS Conclusion. As long as the state legislature meets, it will draft the assistance of school districts to communicate information to parents, students, employees, and vendors through mandated notice requirements.

The responsibility for carrying out these notice requirements inevitably falls on school district administrators. Armed with the information contained in this article, administrators should be able to accomplish the legislature’s intent to get particular information to the public before making certain decisions.

David Backus is staff counsel and assistant executive director for Governmental Relations at TASA.

FALL 2001 21

Board Orientations That Count

by Bonny Cain School boards without a sense of unity rarely achieve anything noteworthy. Those who have attended the annual TASA/TASB conventions where outstanding school boards are honored have seen what first-class teamwork is all about. School boards having strength of teamwork go beyond operating at a rudimentary level; they develop trusting relationships with one another as well as with the school administration.

22

INSIGHT

Unlike adventurers, however, who have ancient and tattered maps as a guide to the treasures they seek, school boards are not furnished with directions to The Land of School Board Greatness. Such a road map would indicate detours and warn about the quicksand of a changing society where violence, drugs, and those students who seem to belong to no one are interwoven into the everyday fabric of school life. This map also would designate a “home,” as it is there that relationship building always begins. Home is also the place well known as the best departure point for most journeys.

Home in this case is the board orientation process. The Texas Administrative Code’s section 61.1 requires school districts to provide an orientation session within a specified period of time when a new member takes a board position.

The intent of this requirement is clearly not only to provide information but to help shift a point of reference. Most new board members’ frame of reference is primarily associated with being a parent with children who attend a certain school or schools within the district. Those parenting experiences, even though other data and knowledge about the school district may have been shared, control the board members’ perceptions of teachers, administrators, school policies, discipline, and efficiency of operations.

A successful orientation is crucial. The more meaningful the orientation, the more effective the board member will be in the decision-making process. Hence, the challenge is to find how to best prepare a person going from a limited, personal, experience-based perspective to one with broad, global views of a very complex system. Additionally, he/she must immediately begin to work intimately with six other people and a superintendent.

director, who is responsible for the Transportation Department, to already be on that bus to ensure that the trip went smoothly.

It would be easy to think the orientation process began with the dialogue that occurred on the bus between the executive director and the board member. In truth, the orientation began with the board member’s walk to the bus stop. It is common for school board members to hear parent complaints about student activities at bus stops, as well as about the perceived unfairness of students having to walk to bus stops rather than having door-to-door bus service.

After the bus picked up the route’s remaining students and dropped them off at school, the bus took the men to the transportation facility where buses were being checked in, refueled, and parked. After the new board member was given a brief tour of the facility and its morning activities, a bus driver trainer had the new board member actually drive in a safe and secure area so he could experience firsthand the maneuvering of a “big yellow school bus.”

The new board member was then brought by the school bus to the central administration building and given a customized Pearland ISD orientation manual, after which he and the

The Texas Association of School Boards offers an excellent (and cleverly titled) video training guide, Getting on Board: An Orientation for New School Board Members, to assist with new board member orientation requirements. This structured and professionally produced program allows superintendents to handle the orientation unambiguously and concisely. Even so, while TASB’s program does fulfill the requirement, it is limited by its very nature as a model. To personalize TASB’s orientation video requires additional effort at the local level.

Pearland ISD, a 43.5 square mile district of almost 11,000 students located south of Houston, decided to take the board orientation process to a higher level. The district determined that introducing the complex and abstract processes involved in the operation of a school district in a more meaningful fashion would require concrete experiences. Administrative personnel, therefore, sought to offer new board members real-world reference points with the goal of enabling a panoramic, holistic view of the district and its operations.

Orientation Process At 7:35 a.m. on the day of his orientation in April of 2001, Pearland ISD’s newest school board member was asked to walk to a bus stop near his home and wait with students riding bus number 23. The superintendent had asked the executive

superintendent had a 45-minute discussion that included viewing and discussing selected portions of TASB’s video Getting on Board. For 45 minutes following this discussion, the assistant superintendent for instruction took the new board member to her office where she had arranged for the director of human resources and the curriculum director to give departmental overviews. This is important since oftentimes the first actual interaction new board members have with assistant superintendents and directors is at board meetings when a controversial issue is at hand. With introductory meetings included in an orientation, new board members have the opportunity to first get to know administrators and the direction of district programming.

This helps to build important administrator/new board member relationships.

FALL 2001 23

At the end of that session, the assistant superintendent for instruction escorted the board member to the assistant superintendent of business where the two of them discussed the general business operations of the school district, budget process, tax rate, and complicated state funding formula. The board member then returned to the superintendent’s office where additional portions of the TASB guide were viewed and discussed.

At 10:50 a.m., 15 minutes before a nearby junior high school’s student lunch time, the superintendent and the board member met the food services director in the kitchen where a tour was conducted and questions answered about how meals are planned, prepared, and served for large numbers of students. As students began coming into the lunchroom at 11:05 a.m., the superintendent and the board member served about 10 minutes of actual lunch duty, monitoring adolescents engaged in their highly social dining experiences.

At 11:15 a.m., the two left to pick up the board president for lunch.

This occurred in a neighboring community to allow for privacy and to minimize those interruptions that board presidents and superintendents often experience in their own community. The lunch meeting was a critical part of the process because it allowed the new board member to have the undivided attention of the board president, visit with an experienced board member, and give the board president the opportunity to point out key issues coming up as action items at the next board meeting. Unlike the workplace where a new employee has a few days to weeks of training, a new board member takes an oath of office and then is asked to vote on crucial district business immediately. During this luncheon meeting the board president took the opportunity to discuss relevant board history and share his

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After returning the board president to his office, the superintendent and the new board member went back to the superintendent’s office for 30 more minutes of selected portions of the Getting on Board video.

From 1:00 p.m. until 1:45 p.m. the new board member met with the assistant superintendent for administration, athletic director, director of career and technology education, and special education director to hear about their programs. It was planned that from 1:45 p.m. until 2:10 p.m. there would be more coverage of the Getting on Board information. However, the schedule was altered so the superintendent could address questions the new board member wanted clarified and explored based on his morning and early afternoon experiences.

From 2:10 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. the executive director took the new board member for a tour of the district’s support center complex where the maintenance, custodial care, food services, warehouse, and textbooks are located. At 3:30 p.m. the project manager took the new board member on a tour of school district-owned properties and campuses under construction. At approximately 5:00 p.m. the project manager took a very tired, and probably overwhelmed, new board member home.

Conclusion Several purposes were accomplished by using this format for the new board member orientation. The pluses for the school district include allowing top-level staff members to get to know the new board member better while there were no issues on the table.

Additionally, a comfort level was achieved because of the setting and the manner in which the conversations occurred. Most importantly, however, the staff felt validated as professionals. This process says that their work is important or they would not have been included in such a significant board/administration training design.

The pluses for the new board member include attaining a clear overview of the multiple and complex operations of the school district. Additionally, the format allowed the new board member to be better armed with information about the various departments before starting to hear complaints from parents and patrons, or being asked to vote on various issues affecting specific departments. Most importantly, however, our new board member had the opportunity to ask questions in private—questions he may have been reluctant to ask at a board meeting with the media present.

Another purpose served in this training process is that many people may think they know what a school district does and is about because they went to school, and/or because they have children in schools. They have a narrow lens for viewing the school district.

Pearland’s new board member commented after the orientation day, “Having met all these folks will, I am convinced, prove extremely beneficial to me as time goes by . . . . I was not completely prepared for the scale on which Pearland ISD operates.” Thus, for this new board member, the orientation did indeed provide the district’s hoped-for “panoramic, holistic view.”

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observations about the overall composition of the board and how board members interact with one another as a team.

It is important to note for anyone considering this process that this particular new board member was known to be a very good-natured

person and was very up-front during the campaign season that he had “no axe to grind” and that his goal was public service. Those statements proved to be quite true. The week before this “immersion orientation” was scheduled, the superintendent sent the new board member an e-mail asking if he minded having a new and untried orientation process that reduced some of his actual learning seat time and included more hands-on activities. He replied, “No! This sounds great. Information I can absorb from paper whenever, but how often do I get the opportunity to drive a school bus? Just give me the details of when I need to arrive and where, and I’ll be there!”

Board member training requirements are an excellent opportunity to start building relationships while imparting necessary knowledge. To really accomplish this, however, one must be part of the process in order to start feeling a part of the group. Professional journals, news magazines, television, and newspapers can lead one to believe that associations among school board members, as well as between administrators (school superintendents in particular) and school board members, must be adversarial.

Frequently the perception is that board members have hidden agendas and want to administrate rather than oversee school district policies. This often leads to perceptions of general distrust that can result in positions that are resolute and extreme. Orientations such as the one described bring about such worthwhile results as: •

• • •

New board members become actual members of the team more quickly.

An abstract process becomes concrete; the “system” becomes people who have names.

Boundaries necessary for efficient decision making become clearer.

The end result of this process is that the new team member benefits from concrete experiences that he/she can link to abstract processes and concomitantly gains a vocabulary with which to communicate in this position of great responsibility. This type of orientation helps to remove barriers and fulfill the requirements of the Texas Administrative Code, and allows new board members the opportunity to truly see and feel what goes on behind the scenes of public education. What a great beginning!

Bonny Cain is superintendent at Pearland ISD. She has had extensive experience as a teacher and public school administrator.

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FALL 2001 25

TASA Welcomes its Esthela R. Aguirre Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Instruction Big Spring ISD (ESC 18) Rick Alvarado Assistant Superintendent Southside ISD (ESC 20) Iris Amon Executive Director for School Improvement Southwest ISD (ESC 20) Sandra Apperley Assistant Superintendent Lago Vista ISD (ESC 13) Steve Arthur Superintendent Sam Rayburn ISD (ESC 10) Rudy Barreda Assistant Superintendent Tornillo ISD (ESC 19) Douglas Bawcom Principal Sonora ISD (ESC 15)

Danny Clack Superintendent Winters ISD (ESC 15)

Samuel B. Gonzalez Superintendent La Villa ISD (ESC 1)

Bryan E. Clark Superintendent Bland ISD (ESC 10)

Elizabeth G. Goodwin Director of Career and Technology Education Hallsville ISD (ESC 7)

Collin Clark Superintendent Celeste ISD (ESC 10) William Clements Principal Loraine ISD (ESC 14) Janie DeLaney Director of Policy Implementation San Angelo ISD (ESC 15) Sheila Dove Assistant Superintendent Fairfield ISD (ESC 12) Joe D. Driskill Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Groveton ISD (ESC 6)

Sandra L. Billodeau Assistant Superintendent Como-Pickton CISD (ESC 8)

Gaylon Edwards Vice President, Marketing Life Insurance Co. of the Southwest

Ken Blystone President PEIMS, Inc.

Debbie Emery Principal/Student Cypress-Fairbanks ISD (ESC 4)

Jamie Carroll Assistant Superintendent Highland Park ISD (ESC 16)

Gerald J. Gindt Executive Director of Human Resources Weatherford ISD (ESC 11)

Alma Iris Casas Director of Finance San Diego ISD (ESC 2)

26

INSIGHT

✵ ✷ NEW

Larry T. Lee Superintendent Junction ISD (ESC 15)

James Lujan Interim Superintendent Sierra Blanca ISD (ESC 19)

Peggy Gordon Assistant Superintendent Wichita Falls ISD (ESC 9)

Pamela Martin Executive Director of Curriculum Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD (ESC 10)

Oliver Hadnot Superintendent Calvert ISD (ESC 6)

Andres Martinez Superintendent Donna ISD (ESC 1)

Jeffrey M. Hanks Superintendent Burnet CISD (ESC 13)

Ronald G. Miller Assistant Superintendent Plainview ISD (ESC 17)

James A. Hartman Superintendent Aspermont ISD (ESC 14)

Matilda H. Moore Principal Medina Valley ISD (ESC 20)

Keith A. Hickman Principal OPUS 3 Architects and Planners

Linda G. Mora Director ESC Region XIII

Sherry Hubbard Director of Pupil Services San Angelo ISD (ESC 15)

Dannette L. Murray Director of Purchasing Services Grapevine-Colleyville ISD (ESC 11)

Kelly S. Ingram Principal University Middle School Waco ISD (ESC 12)

Sherry H. Myers Superintendent Pettus ISD (ESC 2)

Brett Koch Superintendent Evant ISD (ESC 12)

Robert Ortega Superintendent Anthony ISD (ESC 19)

Sherrie Leach Director of Curriculum and Technology Newton ISD (ESC 5)

Tanya P. Parker Assistant Principal Hall Jr. High Weatherford ISD (ESC 11)

Members: Joseph T. Patek III Superintendent Hallettsville ISD (ESC 3)

Jerry C. Stout Superintendent Roxton ISD (ESC 8)

Jack C. Webb Principal Huntsville ISD (ESC 6)

Susan D. Wey Area Superintendent Fort Bend ISD (ESC 4)

Steve Post Superintendent Rosebud-Lott ISD (ESC 12)

Barbara A. Sultis Superintendent Goose Creek CISD (ESC 4)

William W. Webber Assistant Principal Hays CISD (ESC 13)

Mary Ann Wood Human Resource Director Alvarado ISD (ESC 11)

Deborah Queen Principal Medina Valley ISD (ESC 20)

Rickey L. Summers Superintendent Deweyville ISD (ESC 5)

Robb Welch Chief Financial Officer White Settlement ISD (ESC 11)

Ronald D. Ray Assistant Superintendent Pottsboro ISD (ESC 10)

Jim Tankersley Superintendent Leary ISD (ESC 8)

Gail R. Renfrow Executive Director of Technology Grapevine-Colleyville ISD (ESC 11)

Sue Thibodeaux Principal St. Ambrose School (ESC 4)

Nancy Roberts Advanced Academics/GT Coordinator Kilgore ISD (ESC 7) Romeo Rodriguez, Jr. Principal Laredo ISD (ESC 1) Doug Setliff Superintendent Kress ISD (ESC 16) Leslie Shaw Principal Allison ISD (ESC 16) Janet W. Snider Principal Fort Worth ISD (ESC 11) Kevin Spiller Assistant Superintendent Roosevelt ISD (ESC 17)

Lucy Thomas Director of Communications San Angelo ISD (ESC 15) Dan Troxell Assistant Superintendent, School and Community Relations Cypress-Fairbanks ISD (ESC 4) A’Lann Truelock Assistant Principal Elgin ISD (ESC 13) Gary L. Utsler Principal Pottsboro ISD (ESC 10) Linda M. Wade Superintendent Harlingen CISD (ESC 1) Elton DeWayne Wallace, Jr. High School Principal Elkhart ISD (ESC 7)

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FALL 2001 27

Region 13 Leadership Development Initiatives

by Lauralee Pankonien and Eileen Reed This article highlights three professional development initiatives offered as part of the leadership development services at ESC Region 13 in Austin, Texas. The highlighted programs are the Central Texas Assessment Cooperative, the Cohort Administrator Certification Program, and the Leadership Development Cooperative. Each of these programs reflects a “best-practices” approach to principal professional development and features a different element of effective professional development practice.

goals. Professional development strategies are not limited to workshops but rather include such activities as mentoring, participation in study groups, accepting new challenges, professional development networks, and teaching.

Central Texas Assessment Cooperative A thorough understanding of one’s strengths and developmental needs is essential for longterm planning for professional growth. An assessment center process is one method for gaining this information. Assessment center methodology is based on identification of skills determined for a particular job role and activities that elicit the presence or absence of these skills. Trained observers collect data as the participant moves through the various activities that depict a “day in the life” of a principal. Findings are shared in a feedback conference and developmental reports.

Cohort Administrator Certification Program The Cohort Administrator Certification Program (CACP) is a two-year, cohort-based preparation program for aspiring principals.

The program provides a comprehensive model for working with partner school districts to recruit, select, develop, and certify aspiring principals. The program employs an alternative route to certification model, meaning that after a defined period of preservice training, the individual is eligible for a two-year probationary certificate and is able to hold the position of assistant principal while completing the remainder of the preparation program. A rigorous screening and selection process, as well as a cohort-based learning community, forms the foundation of this program.

The Central Texas Assessment Cooperative (CTAC) is a shared service arrangement under the leadership of ESC Region 13, in partnership with member school districts.

CTAC offers a variety of assessment programs, which allows for customization for the various career stages and experience levels of the assessment center participants.

The service center provides assessor training, assessment service, individualized feedback conferences, and professional development plans collaboratively developed with the principal during the feedback conference.

Principals who participate leave the process with a professional development plan and a manageable number of professional development goals and strategies for achieving their 28

INSIGHT

Most principals report that the individualized feedback conference is a rewarding experience and is the first time they have had the opportunity to focus on their personal developmental needs and long-term goals.

The CACP uses a multilevel screening approach in the selection of its cohort members. Initial screening efforts focus on the applicant’s status as to grade-point average, leadership experience, and satisfaction of other basic requirements for program entry.

Additional criteria include professional recommendations that ask the respondent to identify the candidate’s current level of skill and prioritize areas of development, performance on a writing sample, a written accomplishment record of identified leadership skills, and a self-assessment.

Applicants who successfully complete the first level of screening participate in a structured interview and a performance activity. The results of the screening and assessment process provide a multidimensional picture of the intern candidate emphasizing not only past accomplishments but also future potential as well as baseline information for a developmental plan for each administrative intern.

For those individuals who are simultaneously seeking certification and a master’s degree, Region 13 has partnered with Masters Online and Houston Baptist University to offer a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in instructional technology. The degree is offered online with periodic cohort meetings facilitated by Region 13 staff.

Leadership Development Cooperative The Leadership Development Cooperative is a professional development initiative in which practicing school administrators explore relevant topics in educational leadership in a collegial learning community.

Cohorts of 12–15 peers stay together for a one-year period and meet for a total of seven and one-half days. At an initial meeting, each cohort group makes decisions regarding meeting dates, time and locations, topics of study, meeting formats, and group norms.

Topics of study may include anything that is considered meaningful to the cohort members’ work as educational leaders, and can be correlated to the State Board for Educator Certification’s seven principal standards. Recent cohorts have chosen as topics of study (and sometimes healthy debate) quality schools content on the ethical leader; the principal, politics, and community; judgment; and problem continued on page 30

theLeader

News from the Texas Leadership Center

Book Review

Book Review

Standards for Our Schools: How to Set Them, Measure Them, and Reach Them

by Marc S. Tucker and Judy B. Codding Published by Jossey-Bass Publishers, CA, 1998 ISBN 0-7879-3894-7 Reviewed by Pat Jacoby, educational consultant, Authentic Learning, Austin, TX The aim of this book is to show that it is possible to build a system from the materials at hand that will enable virtually all American youngsters to leave high school with a standards-based education.

Much of this book has been devoted to detailing the panoply of initiatives it will take to do the job. The top three initiatives are: 1. High standards that focus on the kind and level of student work that meets the standards; 2. New assessments that capture not only whether the student has mastered the knowledge and skills that are needed but also can apply that knowledge and skill to the complex real-world problems that he or she will face as an adult; and 3. New curricula that focus on mastery of the concepts that underlie the disciplines, thus enabling students to learn new things quickly all their lives.

Other reform initiatives addressed in the book are new teaching methods, uses of available time, form of high school diploma, organizational structures, forms of professional development, resource allocation systems, planning systems, and school organizations; a reallocation of responsibility between the school and the community; and a redesign of the central office.

The authors point out that it is all too easy to go through the motions—to embrace the agenda of standards-based reform without doing what is really required. All over the United States they see new standards, but standards that are very weak; standards with no assessments (which are useless) or assessments that are not matched to the standards (which are worse than useless); accountability systems with no teeth; accountability systems with plenty of teeth but no effective help to drowning schools; and much talk about results without real plans for producing them.

More than anything else, it will take a renewed moral commitment to our children and a willingness to set aside established ways of doing things in favor of a singleminded focus on results. This book is about the conviction that virtually every student can achieve high standards and the iron determination to see that they do so.

we are accountable for students reading and comprehending at grade level, what would acceptable responses to reading look like for each grade level?

2. Develop a variety of local assessments, including performance assessments that capture not only whether the student has mastered the TEKS but also can apply that knowledge and skill to complex real-world problems. Local assessments would go beyond what can logistically be measured by the state on TAKS—not simply mirror the same format. Criteria or rubrics for the assessments should be more detailed than the state’s and give more specific and immediate feedback to students and teachers.

3. Develop local curricula to focus on mastery of the concepts that underlie the disciplines and present several contexts in which the concepts are applied in complex real-world problems. Include instructional support for in-depth understanding of the concepts and also detail common misunderstandings.

Having a single-minded focus on results means examining actual student-constructed work and figuring out what each student understands and needs to learn next.

We must do whatever it takes to improve student achievement in Texas.

Comments from the reviewer: Here are some suggestions to help schools in Texas restructure local accountability and assessment systems.

1. Set local student performance standards directed toward the kinds of performances and products that reveal mastery of the TEKS (or beyond) and make local decisions about the quality of student work at each grade level to meet these performance standards. If FALL 2001 29

Region 13 Leadership Development Initiatives continued from page 28 analysis. Books studied by recent cohort groups include Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit; Schools that Learn by Peter Senge, et. al.; and Making Sense as a School Leader by Ackerman, Donaldson, and Van Der Bogert.

Current events in education news and pertinent research literature also are frequently introduced for group discussion.

In addition to cohort meetings, Leadership Development Cooperative members have access to the Distinguished Speakers Series cosponsored each year by Phi Delta Kappa and ESC Region 13. Well-known authors and speakers such as Tom Guskey, Rick DuFour, and Tom Sergiovanni offer cohort members a national perspective on important issues at an affordable price.

Cohort members report, however, that it is the ongoing exchange of dialogue and relationship building with their peers that they value most about the Cooperative experience. An atmosphere of open exchange of ideas, critical thinking, and questioning is

encouraged in cohort meetings. Each member is facing the challenges of navigating the increasingly complex work of school leadership. The opportunity to speak frankly with a trusted group of professional colleagues is surprisingly rare, but welcome and liberating.

Cohorts are not categorized by members’ school assignment or level of experience.

Principals, assistant principals, central office administrators, first-year and seasoned school leaders, and educators from large urban school districts and small rural communities all come together in any given cohort. Every Cooperative member is seen as having valid personal and professional life experiences to bring to the group and is expected to make contributions that give the cohort a richer perspective of our purposes and responsibilities as educational leaders.

Lauralee Pankonien is education specialist and Eileen Reed is deputy director of academic services at ESC Region 13.

NEW! TASA is excited to announce a powerful enhancement to its popular Educator Job Bank: Texas Regional Education Applicant Placement (REAP) program.

Launched in cooperation with the National School Applications Network (NSAN), Texas REAP takes the power of a premier national online recruitment and application service and customizes it for Texas. Designed to help you save time, money, and energy through the online management of applications, Texas REAP is the online application system Texas educators have been dreaming of!

• Instantly gain a national audience of potential candidates • One simple application for all job applicants • Candidates apply to as many participating school districts as they choose • Easily create customized searches through a national database of applicants A subscription packet has been mailed to all TASA superintendents.

For more information, contact Ann Halstead, 800-725-TASA (8272), AHalstead@TASAnet.org.

30

INSIGHT

TASA would like to

thank Joint Planning Meeting

2001 Executive Committee/Study Group Chairs

Sponsors

the following:

LUNCHEON (WEDNESDAY) SHW Group 4000 McEwen North Dallas, TX 75244-5039 972-701-0700 Scott Milder

BREAKFAST (THURSDAY AND FRIDAY) Medicaid Claims Solutions of Texas 747 Hwy. 287 North, Suite B Mansfield, TX 76063 800-235-4902 Gordon Harmon

LUNCH (FRIDAY) Riverdeep Interactive P.O. Box 2486 St. Francisville, LA 70775 617-995-1176 Chris Lee

THE BALLPARK AT ARLINGTON (THURSDAY) Apple Computer, Inc. 1950 Stemmons Freeway, Suite 3065 Dallas, TX 75207 214-573-2750 Sandee Casey Curriculum Advantage 19002 Dallas Parkway, #1818 Dallas, TX 75287 972-763-2163 Melissa Campbell or 12934 Queensbury Lane Houston, TX 77079 713-984-0347 Bella Soler

EdVISION Corporation 4112 Desert Garden Drive Dallas, TX 75093 888-877-8377 Michael Glover

Texas Association of School Administrators

Texas Curriculum Management Audit Center Offered in cooperation with Curriculum Management Audit Centers, Inc.

TASA’s Curriculum Management Audit Center is your first step toward district change as a superintendent who is new to a district. A team of highly trained, independent auditors will come to your district to determine the congruence of the written, taught, and tested curricula. The audit report becomes a powerful tool for planning and implementing change.

Whether your district is urban, rural, suburban . . . whether you serve 200 students or 100,000 . . . your district will benefit. The curriculum management audit process can be specially tailored for districts with less than 2,500 students. Two certified auditors conduct these special audits in a two-day site visit at a reduced cost to the small school district.

For further information, contact Dian Cooper TASA Texas Curriculum Management Audit Center 406 East 11th Street Austin, TX 78701-2617 Phone: 512-477-6361, 800-725-8272 Fax: 512-482-8658 DCooper@TASAnet.org

406 East 11th Street Austin, TX 78701-2617

The curriculum audit offers the most comprehensive examination available. The audit evaluates your district against the following five standards: ◆ District control ◆ Clear objectives for students ◆ Internal connectivity and rational equity ◆ Use of results to improve or terminate ineffective practices or programs ◆ Improved productivity

Presorted Standard U.S. Postage PAID Austin, TX Permit No. 1941