Texas PTA is proud to continue building upon our long-standing legacy of advocating to make every child’s potential a reality within the following pillars: Supporting Student Success, Health and Safety, Meaningful Assessment and Accountability, and Strengthening Public Schools.
Public School Funding System
Pursue legislation that increases the basic allotment and funds public education based on enrollment versus attendance.
Read Fund the Future Fact Sheet
Vouchers
Oppose legislation that authorizes state funds to be used to pay for private school tuition and related costs.
Read Vouchers: Debunk the Myths Fact Sheet
Teacher and Staff Shortage and Retention
Pursue legislation that addresses teacher and staff shortages and improves retention.
Read Educators are Worth It Fact Sheet
Student Mental Health
Pursue mental health legislation, including systems to identify students in need of intervention, and programs and services designed to help keep students mentally strong and prepared to cope with personal challenges.
Read Student Mental Wellness Fact Sheet
A-F Accountability System
Pursue legislation impacting the state’s A-F system. Advocate for an accountability system that more broadly reviews school performance and includes a family engagement component.
Read Beyond the STAAR Fact Sheet
The Texas Education Agency, under the direction of the governor, recently formed a task force to address teacher retention.
About the announcement, Texas PTA President Suzi Kennon commented.
Tell Gov. Abott“Teacher retention is a real and pressing problem for Texas schools. While we applaud Gov. Abbott for bringing light to this issue and suggesting an approach to help alleviate it, TEA’s task force should be more representative of those who are impacted most – teachers.
While it will be beneficial to learn from superintendent and administrator members of this task force, critical teacher-in-the-classroom feedback is lacking. The best people to help find solutions are the ones who are interacting with our students and doing the job every day.
Texas PTA calls on Gov. Abbott to appoint more teachers to the task force. The stakes are high, and public education is at risk without teachers in the classroom.”
| Months before the legislature convenes for regular session, Texas PTA is hard at work preparing our thunderous advocacy voice. First, we survey our membership to find out what’s important to you, covering a broad range of topics pertinent to Texas students and schools. Next, the Texas PTA Advocacy Committee takes those findings to draft a list of legislative priorities. The recommendations of the committee are presented to the Texas PTA Board of Directors, which then votes to either adopt or amend them. On September 13, 2020, the Texas PTA Board of Directors moved to adopt the legislative priorities as presented. These priorities will now guide our association’s work during the upcoming 87th session. Please begin to familiarize yourself with our 14 priorities, organized under four headings: Support Student Success; Health & Safety; Meaningful Assessment and Accountability; and Strengthen Public Schools.More information will be available for each priority beginning this fall. |
For more than a century, Texas PTA’s primary goal has been to support Texas students and faculty members in reaching their full potential through continuing education. More than $500,000 has been awarded to graduating high school seniors and faculty members since the scholarship program began.
With $25,000 available each year, Texas PTA awards $1000 to eligible high school seniors and up to $500 scholarships to eligible faculty members at any school level that has a PTA/PTSA on their campus. These scholarships are made possible by the commitment of our half a million members and volunteers who understand that creating an environment of active, engaged families can make the difference in education.
In keeping with our work in building strong family-school partnerships, Texas PTA’s scholarship process focuses on the impact an applicant’s family, teachers, and PTA have had on their goals to continue their education or training.
Explore the new STAAR report card with Texas PTA next week during a one-hour webinar with the Texas Education Agency. We’ll also review the brand new TexasAssessment.com.
When: Thursday, Oct. 19 at noon
The new STAAR Report Card gives parents a more in-depth look at their child’s academic strengths and areas for improvement so they can be an even stronger partner in their child’s learning. Once parents log into the new website, they’ll be able to see the actual test questions from the test, their child’s answers, and the correct answer if they answered incorrectly. The new site also provides information on boosting reading levels, questions to ask their child’s teachers, interactive videos and more.
There are many ways to measure student learning, and STAAR isn’t meant to tell the whole story. When combined with a student’s grades and teacher feedback, parents can use STAAR results to get a complete picture of their child’s progress.
Dear PTA Advocates,
Once again and with your help, Texas PTA was instrumental in stopping the passage of legislation to create a voucher program in Texas. Our message continues to be, “Focus on strengthening our public schools! All students benefit from that goal.”
We made small, but important progress to begin to reform our outdated, inequitable and inadequate school finance system during the Special Legislative Session that lasted for 30 days this summer. HB 21 by Rep. Dan Huberty, created a grant program to provide extra support for students with dyslexia and autism, removed a penalty in funding for very small school districts, created a step-down to help some districts to adjust to the loss of specialized funding they had been receiving since 2006, and created a commission to develop recommendations for school finance reform that can be considered in the next Legislative Session that will begin in January of 2019.
While we did not see the progress in reforming our school funding system that we were hoping for, we made great progress in educating legislators about the fact that as property values rise and homeowners pay more in taxes, the state, for at least 10 years, has been using those increased revenues to offset their share of the cost of public education so that they now contribute less than 32% of the cost of education in Texas. This cannot continue. The state must increase its share of funding for public schools and must fund schools equitably. We will continue to work toward this goal.
Thanks again for making a difference,
Texas PTA Board of Directors and Staff
Texas PTA Advocacy Committee
If you have an entering 9-12 student, please consider taking a few minutes to complete the following survey relating to endorsement selection.
- The ways in which information about your students’ endorsement selection process is transmitted to you
- How effective you feel the information you are receiving is to your ability to support your child’s decision making
Complete the survey concerning school accountability by midnight tonight (23-JAN-17).
As a reminder, the 84th Legislature passed HB 2804, changing the school accountability system so every campus and district receives one of five ratings from A – F. The law requires schools and districts to be graded based on five different areas of performance or “domains,” and those five grades must be combined into a single overall rating.
The following are A – F domains:
I: Student Achievement
II: Student Progress
III: Closing the Gaps
IV: Postsecondary Readiness
V: Community and Student Engagement
For more information on A – F or HB 2804, go to
http://tea.texas.gov/A-F/ or http://tea.texas.gov/2804implementation.aspx
[wc_button type=”primary” url=”https://t.e2ma.net/click/6qt7r/66tqjf/6uc9sd” target=”_blank” position=”float”]Take the Survey[/wc_button]
Texas PTA members are encouraged to go to the link below and complete the survey regarding STAAR’s CSR – Confidential Student Report. The CSR is used by parents, teachers, and students to communicate a student’s acquisition of the knowledge and skills required to be taught in Texas public schools. Student academic performance is measured in required grades and subject areas using the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR®) in grades 3-8 and high school. The CSR serves as an important communication tool that enables collaboration and cooperation between a student’s school and home.
2016 STAAR Confidential Student Report
2017 STAAR Confidential Student Report
