Winter 2000
As the 12th edition of Snapshot goes to print, Texas is enjoying national acclaim for the educational excellence of its public schools. During the past year, Texas was one of only five states to earn a spot on the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's honor roll because of its solid academic standards and strong school accountability system, and was the only state to earn a grade of A in a study of teacher quality issues conducted by that foundation. Results of the 1998 National Assessment of Education Progress released in September 1999 indicated that Texas 8th graders who took a national writing examination scored higher on average than 8th graders nationwide, and in December 1999 Texas was one of 12 states honored for its progress toward meeting the National Education Goals established in 1989. Such national recognition adds to the statewide recognition of the gains in performance that Texas students have achieved over the past five years on indicators used in the public school accountability system. Credit for this improvement goes to educators, policy makers, business leaders, and the public for setting high expectations and to the students for continuing to meet those expectations.
Texas school districts are required to provide instruction based on an established statewide curriculum. The statewide assessment program is linked to this curriculum and the accountability system uses the assessment results, along with other indicators, to evaluate Texas public schools and school districts. In addition to the changes brought about by the rewrite of the statewide curriculum in 1997 and the subsequent realignment of the assessment program to the revised curriculum, even more significant changes are on the horizon for the assessment program and the accountability system due to recent legislative action. We face significant challenges in our continuing efforts to provide educators with the resources needed to do their jobs well, and to provide stability in our measurement of academic progress given the changes planned for our assessment and accountability structures.
I encourage you to become familiar with the material contained in Snapshot '99 so that you will know where public education in Texas is today, how far we have come, and where we need to go in the future.
Sincerely yours,
Jim Nelson
Commissioner of Education
Acknowledgments
The preparation of this document and the related Pocket Edition would not have been possible without the assistance of many people. First, appreciation goes to the staff of local school districts and regional Education Service Centers who compile and report the vast majority of the information used. Their efforts directly affect the quality and usefulness of this document.
Many Texas Education Agency staff, in addition to the project staff, generously contributed their time to this project. These include Philip Cochran, Sharlana Dillard, Omar Garcia, Linda Hargrove, Shannon Housson, Richard Kallus, Spring Lee, Angie Liu, Stacy McDonald, Ester Regalado, Maureen Moore Scheevel, Joe Wisnoski, and staff of the General Services Commission print shop.
On the cover of the printed book: Students and staff of Kocurek Elementary School and Johnston High School of Austin ISD; and R.C. Barton Junior High School of Hays Consolidated ISD, photographed by Mary Pat Waldron of Austin, Texas.
Executive Management
Jim Nelson
Commissioner of Education
Ron McMichael
Deputy Commissioner for Finance and Accountability
Project Staff
Criss Cloudt
Associate Commissioner, Office of Policy Planning and Research
Cherry Kugle
Director, Division of Performance Reporting
Cathy Long
Project Manager, Division of Performance Reporting
Diane Hernandez
Information Specialist III, Division of Performance Reporting
Melinda Fowler
Yvonne Liang
John Haetinger
Betty Weed
State Board of Education
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