The Education Legislative Briefing is a partnership of Washington
Mutual and the Texas Public Education Reform Foundation. Our purpose
is to promote public education improvement and to provide a forum
for dialogue among key stakeholders in education reform.
Those participating in the Briefing included 200+ attendees from
school districts, major businesses, teacher associations, the State
Board of Education, the Texas Education Agency, Governor’s
Business Council, State Board of Educator Certification, chambers
of commerce, policymakers, board of trustees, and public policy
groups.
The Briefing include a Business/Educational Panel that presented
2005 policy goal statements on behalf of the following organizations:
Texas Education Reform Caucus (Don McAdams, TERC board member);
Texas Business and Education Coalition (John Stevens, TBEC executive
director); and the Texas Association of Business (Jack Campbell,
TAB governmental affairs manager).
Lunch speakers were Texas Education Agency Commissioner Shirley
Neeley and Sandy Kress, senior advisor on Education to President
Bush with respect to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
Dr. William Sanders, perhaps the leading authority on the value-added
assessment of schools and teachers in the world today, presented
a session on educational value-added assessment. Currently, school
districts across the nation are adopting the assessment model Sanders
developed to explore the effects of schools and teachers on the
academic growth of students.
A legislative panel comprised of Representative Kent Grusendorf,
House Education Committee chair, and Representative Dan Branch,
House Education Committee member, discussed what’s likely and
what’s needed for the 2005 session. |
