TX Senate Hearing on Chairman McElroy's 2-year term

In the midst of everything else, Governor Rick Perry nominated State Board of Education chairman Don McElroy for another two-year term (until February of 2011) as Chairman of the Texas Board of Education. The Nominations Committee of the Texas Senate took his case up at about 4:55 pm, first with a firm but gentle grilling of McElroy by the Republican chair, Mike Jackson (La Porte), and Republican Jane Nelson (Flower Mound). Details or the R's questions are below, and then the two D senators present took to treating McElroy like a pinata--see next posts...

"My overall goal is to help teachers in classroom raise achievement levels," says McElroy in his opening statement. "The Board is focused on academic achievement."

Senator Mike Jackson, (R-La Porte), chair of nominations committee: "You've got a diverse group elected from very large districts. What is your point of view on how you make sure everybody's voice is heard?"
McElroy: "Every two years, we adopt rules, and they're pretty good. I believe that my job as chair is to be sure they are followed."

Jackson: legislation pending in this body to relieve SBOE of duty on textbooks. What do you think?
McElroy: visited with Senate Ed chair and sponsor about that. The Board provides a great role--without us, we'd have phonics books without phonics. We have stand-alone spelling books that wouldn't have happened. Probably the most controversial was English/Language Arts TEKS. It was a controversial process, but we've got really good TEKS. What happens is we get input from both "content/traditional" and "process/progressive" points of view, and the Board makes the decision. Without the Board to facilitate the process, you wouldn't get enough input. Cites example of Massachusetts (going to content model, and scores are rising) and Connecticut (going to "process" model, and scores are dropping). Vital to keep us involved in TEKS and textbooks to allow public (parents, teachers, community leaders, business leaders) to present needs about education. We can't take that away--textbooks are better because of the process. Publishers know they need to have Board approval, and they do a better job than if they had just bureaucrats to please. [Defends rejection of 3rd grade Everyday Math book in 2007 because it didn't have times tables up to 12.] We make tough decisions, and we draw controversy. But it makes for better process. Even in the science adoption, we reached compromises, typically with 13-2 votes. I think we've worked together real well.

Jackson: should Board be appointed instead of elected.
McElroy: without public elections, there'd be no public input from parents, and community. I think they should be partisan elections. I have to campaign from Bryan to Texarkana, and it helps to have a party structure to get my message out.

Jackson: has state board considered laptops vs. schoolbooks. We spend a huge amount of money on textbooks every year.
McElroy: I've been a big advocate of laptops. In Bryan, we did what Ross Perot advised--we pilot tested first, and the results are academic achievement has not been raised. My advice is that there are still bugs to be worked out first. The greatest way we can raise academic achievement for our students is to put great teachers in the classroom. If you do that, you don't even need an accountability system. A lot of this other stuff would be moot. I don't think we're ready for laptops.

Senator Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound): How do you protect the process from the power of the textbook publishing lobby?
McElroy: The key thing is to adopt standards, and one of the great lessons from that math book was that they have to make sure the majority of the Board thinks it's a good book. Another thing about new English standards: identify folktales, morals, and legends for second grade. The publishers heard the debate, and paid attention. We got better books--good literature, strong vocabulary, teach moral truths.

Senator Nelson: what kind of ethics rules are you under, meeting with publishers?
McElroy: Rules against contributions or gifts, nothing else.

Senator Nelson: Hearing about teachers required to be given "minimum grades" instead of grades that were earned. Have you talked about that? (In nearly all school districts in my district, this is going on.)
McElroy: We have not discussed that.
Nelson: If you have that going on, all your work on standards is for naught.

Nelson: Have we gotten too prescriptive with our teachers in trying to insure they are great teachers? In trying to fix our problems in the SBOE and the Legislature?
McElroy: Absolutely. Not an SBOE issue, but we need to look at overall picture in schools. There used to be a "bounce" when I picked up my kids in elementary school years ago. A teacher told me the kids have lost their bounce. I think the accountability system has become a pressure-cooker. The accountability standard is set so every school can achieve exemplary status.

Nelson: What are the Board's most important duties?
McElroy: Setting the TEKS. Where the TEKS go, that's where education goes. I don't know if parents know that, but educators hew to the curriculum standards. It's what students will be taught, it's what will be put in the textbooks and in the test. Talks about writing prompts for the TAKS test--usually opinion essay--our students in college, when asked to write expository pieces, wind up writing an opinion piece instead.

{will continue blogging in a while..posting this now to keep current)