TEA Updates as of July 21, 2020

TEA Accountability Manual Finalized

After reviewing public comments last month, the 2020 Accountability Manual has been finalized and adopted into rule. Accountability experts may find it enlightening to review TEA’s summary of public comments and agency responses that are available here.

BY THE NUMBERS: TEA categorized all public comments into 25 topics, and out of those 25 topics the Agency determined that 20% or 5 comments were outside the scope of rulemaking, agreed or agreed in part with 24% or 6 comments, and disagreed with 56% or 14 comments.

SPOILER ALERT: TEA disagreed with TSA’s recommendations to 1) remove “Ds” to align the accountability manual with statute until such time as lawmakers decide to make changes, and 2) remove Step 10 (the Forced-Failer Rule) from the manual.

2021 Accountability Development Update

TEA posts the July ATAC/APAC meeting materials ATAC/APAC members met yesterday and today to continue their discussion of the 2021 academic accountability system. 

For a glimpse into what the committee members discussed…you can download the presentation slides that are available on TEA’s website here.

Key slides to review include:

• Slide 9 which details ‘Potential Approaches to 2021 Accountability’;

• Slide 12 provides ‘USDE’s guidance’; and

• Slide 17 captures the ‘Commissioner’s Thoughts.’

Breaking News:  Education Department Delays Civil Rights Data Collection, Citing COVID-19

The U.S. Department of Education is delaying the federal collection of civil rights data—a biennial survey that’s considered a key source of information about the nation’s students, teachers, and schools—because of the coronavirus. 

“One of the primary reasons for the postponement is the uncertainty and unreliability of any data collected for the 2019-2020 school year, given the significant and rapid change that happened in most schools when the coronavirus outbreak began,” department spokeswoman Angela Morabito said.

Read the full article here.