Under the principle of Expressio Unius Est Exclusio Alterius, accelerated instruction can never be considered an exception to 26.010, because the law presumes that all exceptions have been incorporated in the statute and unexpressed ones cannot be implied.
TEA Scraps 5th/8th Grade STAAR Consequences
Facing a pending deadline to answer the lawsuit filed by four Texas parents challenging the 2016 STAAR administrations for grades 3-8, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath announced major changes to 5th and 8th grade STAAR for this year. In a letter to Texas administrators, Morath announced that the TEA was “removing student consequences attached to STAAR […]
The “Required” Summer School Notice
As the first results of the STAAR assessment come in and the days left in the school year slip away, more and more parentsof kids who failed or did not take the first assessment are receiving notices that their kids are “required” to go to summer school. Round Rock ISD is even sending notices that […]
The GPC Process – TEA Flowcharts
For parents of 5th and 8th graders who have opted out or failed STAAR, these flow charts show the process for determination of Accelerated Instruction and Promotion/Retention. General Education Students (p. 8 of SSI Manual) Special Education For special education students, the ARD committee acts as the GPC. (p. 27 of SSI manual)
Denton ISD Issues Void Summer School Order; TPERN Responds
Following in the footsteps of Houston ISD, which hastily admitted its error, the Denton Independent School District has started sending notices to parents of children who did not pass the 5th grade STAAR reading informing those parents that their children will be required to attend summer school if they do not pass the second administration […]
TPERN Responds to Houston ISD Warning Letter
The Houston Chronicle recently published an article noting that Houston ISD had sent a warning letter to parents who opted out of STAAR assessment. The letter was full of legal and factual errors, but was also notable for its blatant declaration that mandatory summer school awaits all kids who have opted out of STAAR. This […]
An Opt Out Course for Schools
If there was any doubt that the Opt-Out movement is gaining steam and raising real concerns among school districts, administrators and the TEA, that doubt was put to rest when one of the state’s premier education law firms, Walsh, Anderson, which represents dozens, if not hundreds, of school districts around the state, created a special […]
Pull Out Interventions – The Power to Say No
A recent posting on the Texas Parent’s Opt Out Facebook Group raised the issue of schools removing children from elective courses several days a week for STAAR Intervention or Tutoring. Thanks to some information from teacher members of the group, we were alerted to a provision of HB 5 that limited pull out instruction to […]
A Note on Accelerated Instruction (STAAR Summer School)
Updated June 2018 At the 5th and 8th grade Grade Placement Committees, some schools will take the position that the law prohibits them from promoting your student unless they attend required accelerated instruction (AI). The law could be read that way if your child took and failed the STAAR. For students that did not take […]