02.12.07
Posted in News at 12:50 am by Paloma Cruz
A group of teachers recently voiced complaints about the Houston Independent School District’s bonus program.
From a Houston Chronicle report (”Rowdy HISD teachers demand change“):
A rowdy group of more than 300 teachers pleaded with the Houston school board Thursday to scrap — or at least overhaul — the performance-pay plan that they say has hurt morale and divided campuses.
Wearing pins that called the bonus pay “rotten to the core,” the standing-room-only crowd of educators shouted down and heckled district leaders, especially after they acknowledged problems with the plan.
Since the initial $14 million payout late last month, the Houston Independent School District has paid nearly $1 million more to several hundred teachers who were overlooked when the first checks were cut, said Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra. A committee of teachers and other HISD employees also began meeting this week to offer suggestions for retooling the system.
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02.07.07
Posted in News at 12:28 am by Paloma Cruz
Hoping to fill in the expected and current gaps retirement has created in the ranks of principals, Houston Independent School District is offering a training program to graduate its own replacements.
Aspiring principals going back to class
HISD academy aims to fill gap left as baby boomers head to retirement
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
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Several colleges, including the University of Houston, offer principal certification programs, but HISD officials say their program is different. The district’s tuition, about $4,900, falls in line with that of some other nearby programs.
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In HISD, principals have broad powers. They manage multimillion-dollar budgets, hire their staffs and oversee course offerings. They also must ensure students pass state tests, stay out of trouble and don’t drop out.
And they must work fast. Houston principals are on one-year contracts, which means they could be reassigned, demoted or fired if they don’t meet Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra’s admittedly high expectations. The school board agreed last year to remove a principal automatically from a school deemed “academically unacceptable” by the state for two consecutive years.
Research shows principals have “a huge impact” on teacher morale and indirectly affect student achievement, said Karen Seashore Lewis, a professor at the University of Minnesota who has studied principal leadership.
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Over the next two years, the trainees will attend class several times a month, several hours a night. They’ll take 11 courses, focusing on leadership, diversity, school law, community relations, data analysis and finance. They’ll get grades like at any other school, and they’ll intern under a successful administrator. In the end they’ll have to pass the mandatory state exam.
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02.04.07
Posted in News at 12:38 am by Paloma Cruz
Perry higher-ed plan touts cash incentives, exit tests
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Gov. Rick Perry outlined one of the most sweeping higher education reform proposals in the nation today, calling for cash incentives for universities to push students to graduation and mandatory exit exams to track how much students are learning.
The plan would increase higher education funding by $1.7 billion, including a huge expansion of the B-On-Time loan program, which forgives loans for students who graduate college in four years with a B average.
“If lawmakers adopt this plan the ultimate result will be a higher education system that is more affordable, more accountable and more focused on meeting the needs of tomorrow’s global marketplace,” Perry said.
University administrators and national higher education experts heralded the plan as a visionary answer to many of the financial problems colleges face. But critics, including several key Democratic lawmakers, said the proposal relies too heavily on loans instead of grants and could hurt students who have to work their way through school.
One of the key provisions is the $350 million pay-for-performance measure that would let colleges earn money for graduating students and getting them to perform well on exit exams. The funding is meant to bolster Texas’ effort to increase the number of undergraduate degrees and certificates awarded annually to 171,000 by the end of the decade.
Universities would get a cash reward for each student who graduates, with bonuses available for students who major in science- or math-related fields or come from a disadvantaged background. Community and technical colleges would get rewards for awarding certificates and associate degrees or sending students on to four-year universities.
Perry estimated the average reward would be about $2,200 per university graduate and about $1,200 per community college graduate or transfer.
To ensure universities were holding graduates to high standards, students would have to take a professional licensing test in their field, an end-of-course exam related to their major or a general test like the GRE. They wouldn’t have to pass, but better scores would mean bigger rewards for their universities.
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