Topic: Every Student Succeeds Act

House to hold hearings on hurricane issues; State submits plan to feds; Voter Registration Day!

Publish Date: September 26, 2017

Texas House to Hold Hearings on Hurricane-Impact Issues:  Three Texas House committees are expected to conduct hearings soon on issues arising from Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath. On October 2 in Houston, the Appropriations Committee will meet to take stock of federal and state funding available for relief and recovery. On October 4, also in Houston, the Natural Resources Committee will...

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A Look at TEA’s Plans for Compliance with Every Student Succeeds Act

Publish Date: September 8, 2017

Come hell or high water, the process of mapping out the state’s implementation of federal requirements that replaced the No Child Left Behind Act goes on. Because of the disruptions caused by Hurricane Harvey, however, federal officials gave the Texas Education Agency some extra time to submit the state plan required by the successor federal statute, the Every Student Succeeds...

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Tell U.S. Department of Education: Don’t Destabilize Successful Schools!

Publish Date: October 25, 2016

Please join fellow AFT members around the nation in urging the U.S. Department of Education to support struggling schools without destabilizing successful schools. While we appreciate the intent of the Department’s proposed rules requiring that federal aid be used to “supplement, not supplant” state and local funding for schools, the proposal needs to be fixed or it could wreak havoc...

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Texas AFT Comments on Proposed Federal Testing and Accountability Regulations

Publish Date: August 1, 2016

Texas AFT has filed comments with the U.S. Department of Education on proposed regulations concerning testing and accountability under the new Every Student Succeeds Act, the successor to the late and unlamented No Child Left Behind Act. Our chief concern is to make sure that the hard-won freedom in this new law from NCLB test-and-punish mandates is not undermined by...

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The Fight against Testing Inertia on the Federal Level—Sign AFT’s Petition!

Publish Date: July 26, 2016

Your voice was critical in the repeal of No Child Left Behind testing mandates and the enactment of the Every Student Succeeds Act, and your voice needs to be heard again as federal ESSA rules on accountability systems—that is, the rules around what counts in determining which schools are identified for supports—become final. Sign our petition to the Department of...

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From the Laboratories of Bad Government

Publish Date: May 31, 2016

Officials in Austin and Washington have given us some fresh examples in recent days of misguided and misplaced policy priorities. Item:  Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath on Tuesday approved an application for a state charter-school license despite the fact that the same applicant—Athlos Academy—had been rejected by the State Board of Education last year because of assorted shortcomings relating...

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How the Teacher Shortage Could Turn Into a Crisis

Publish Date: April 19, 2016

Texas school administrators have begun to sound the alarm over a looming teacher shortage that could leave Texas classrooms more than 30,000 teachers short when school resumes next August. The phenomenon is not unique to Texas, though the fast-growing Texas student population makes the problem more acute here. As American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten wrote in an April...

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