2004 Customer Satisfaction Survey (PDF, 566 KB) - TEA - Home ...

fewer hours of effective, quality instruction due to excess testing.
Make paperwork more streamline and easier to process. TEA communications could be better
disseminated if done on email, made brief and clear.
SSI. Specifically, meeting the needs of at-risk students with 2 or more grade retentions due the TAKS
failures. Many of these are, 504 students.
The paperwork is overwhelming for small schools whose staff must wear many hats. The TEA
interpretation of policies can sometimes seem arbitrary and void of logic. Our school was classified
as under performing because of TEA interpretation of the word "or" meaning "in other words" rather
than "choice".
Compensation issues. Class size issues.
Class size, Insurance Compensation for teachers.
With the increasing expectations placed on students, I think it is critical for the state to begin funding
pre-kindergarten for all students. I also have another suggestion dealing with special education
students. I would like for third grade special education students to be able to take the Reading TAKS
without the student or school being penalized if they do not pass. Many students are not being
allowed to take TAKS because schools and parents do not want to take the chance on “looking bad”
to TEA.
The school funding issue is a huge problem. Also, why use TAKS? Why not use a national criterion
referenced test?
Student Support Programs for emotional, psychological and social development. Professional
Development. Parental Involvement.
Being a rural school district, it is not always possible to have the “expert” knowledge that a larger
school district has in its administrative team. As the elementary principal, I am accountable for every
program as well as curriculum, discipline, PEIMS coding, TAKS administration and everything else
that falls onto a team of people in a larger district. I do feel that the reporting at times is tedious and
not defined by TEA. (Especially the TPRI report) That will be ready this summer. I am the only one
that can do it and my staff will be gone. It is very frustrating.
Poor monitoring of Charter Schools. Students transferring from many charter schools are not meeting
the standards of comprehensive state schools. Student performance on standardized tests are below
standards and many of the students eventually transfer back to their home schools after attending 1-3
years at the charter schools making As and Bs.
Most educators that I speak with are very concerned for the 10 % of our student population who has a
very low I. Q. and their ability to be able to pass the TAKS Exit test. Many of these students have
strengths/talents in the area of vocational skills however they would not be able to be academically
successful in the college arena. In our society there is going to be a natural continuum of IQ ability
ranging from very high to very low. The students with very low IQs those who are between 70 and 80
and don’t qualify for help from Special Education yet they will not be able to pass the 11th grade Exit.
It is an Anglo middle class mentality to not place worth and value on highly talented low IQ students
who possess the ability to achieve success vocationally. The vocational programs should be offered
for students who can't pass the 11th grade EXIT based on the identification that the student has an
IQ between 70 and 80. Recently the 5th Circuit Court ruled a young man with a 70 IQ was
determined by that court to be mentally retarded (due to a 5 point standard error of measure). The
court ruled that the young man could not be held fully accountable for the repeated stabbing/murder
that he committed. However if he was from the state of Texas he would be required to pass the TAKS
Exit level assessment in order to graduate from school. There should be another path of graduation
for these students.
Charter school funding.
Equity and adequacy of funding for charter schools.
I want to emphasize that school finance is at a desperate situation, the current state and federal
approaches to accountability are going to drive the student centered teachers and administrators out
of the profession. If it were meaningful in the arena of helping students learn, that would not be true. It
is nothing more than a political bandwagon ploy. It is time for the politicians to get out of education,
particularly the federal government. I also am very concerned as to how little help alternative high
schools get. They work with the most at risk students, yet there is no specialized training available.
Drop outs are expensive emotionally, financially, and morally. New accountability standards could
destroy these campuses.
Survey Research Center, University Of North Texas
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