May 6, 2007
Governor's Business Council, "Excellence in the Classroom," December 2006
I. =
STRENGTHEN STANDARDS AND ALIGN COURS=
EWORK
AND ACHIEVEMENT TESTS WITH THESE STANDARDS
Students must be prepared for = college and the workplace by the time they complete high school. If teachers are to= be successful in keeping students on track to this goal, the state must do a better job of providing teachers clear direction with respect to standards,= the expectations of what students academically should know and be able to do. <= o:p>
According to national experts =
who
recently testified before the State Board of Education, current standards in
Texas are generally too vague and not easily understood, and they do not gi=
ve
teachers clear direction on exactly what specific skills and knowledge and =
in
what progression they should be taught and at what grade. This problem is
particularly pronounced for reading standards in the elementary and middle
grades.
We propose that the Texas Educ=
ation
Agency (“TEA”) and the State Board of Education
(“SBOE”), working with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board, complete a thorough revision of
• more coherent, focus=
ed, and
measurable;
• clear, well-defined =
and
directly skill or knowledge-based;
• more specific to eac=
h grade
level;
• designed and systematically taught such that th=
ey
increase in difficulty and complexity from one grade level to the next, with
vertical alignment from kindergarten through grade 12;
• geared grade by grade to the ultimate objective=
of
college and workplace readiness;
• developed so that, for each grade level, they c=
an be
completed in a 9-month period, and
• set with respect to reading in the early grades=
(K-3)
with an emphasis on explicit, systematic instruction based upon the research
reflected in the National Reading Panel Report, and in the middle grades wi=
th
an emphasis on continued and increasingly complex skill development.
We propose that instructional materials and state academic achievement tests be aligned with the revised standards.
We propose that the standard setting process benchmark the
standards of high performing states and countries and that the new
We are not suggesting that all students will graduate high school and proceed to college. But we are proposing that standards viewed by institutions of higher education and employers as consistent with requireme= nts for college and workplace readiness be set for the advanced graduation plans. Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses should= be encouraged as part of these graduation plans.
We recognize that the standard setting process may be leng= thy, so we propose that revisions in the core areas of English/Language Arts, Ma= th, Science, and Social Studies be initiated and completed within two years.
We propose that assessments with respect to English/Langua= ge Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies be implemented no later than three years after the revision of the standards. Through both a continuation of g= rade by grade assessments and a greater utilization of end-of-course assessments, teacher instruction and student learning each year will be more precisely measured at the high school level.
In order to assist teachers and parents, we propose that t= he key standards in the core curriculum areas be supplemented with examples of expected performance that can be widely distributed to illustrate the level= s at which students are expected to show mastery of knowledge and skills at each grade level. Further, the state must implement policies encouraging teachin= g to the standards rather than the unacceptable practice of “teaching to t= he test.” Students do best on tests, and generally, when their teachers = have effectively taught curricula based on the standards.
We propose strongly that the law specify a mechanism for adoption of core curriculum standards to assure that the SBOE adopt the standards consistent with the advice of researchers in the academic disciplines, experts knowledgeable about the standards in high performing states and countries, representatives of the business and higher education communities as well as exemplary educators in establishing the new Texas standards.
http://www.excellenceintheclassroom.com/files/Excellence-in-the= -Classroom.pdf