SBOE welcomes new members for first meeting of 2025
Feb. 7—AUSTIN — The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) approved processes for instructional materials review, welcomed newly elected members and selected leadership for board committees at its first meeting of the year Jan. 28-31.
A preliminary list of instructional materials was presented for the board's consideration under the Instructional Materials Review and Approval (IMRA) cycle 2025.
The board approved proposed changes to 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Chapter 67, Subchapter B and Subchapter C, which further clarify:
— Procedures and policies for eligibility, appointment, training and duties for IMRA reviewers.
— Guidance on public comment related to instructional materials.
— Guidelines for the selection and local adoption of instructional materials by school systems.
In addition, the application window is now open for quality and suitability reviewers to support the 2025 IMRA cycle. Texas residents are encouraged to apply as suitability reviewers, while those with expertise in K — 12 mathematics, K — 6 English Language Arts (ELAR), and K — 6 Spanish Language Arts (SLAR) are encouraged to apply as quality reviewers of instructional materials.
Reviewers play a critical role in ensuring the quality and suitability of materials for Texas students and educators. Interested individuals can apply at sboe.texas.gov/IMRA. The deadline to apply is Feb. 24.
In other action, the SBOE welcomed its newly sworn-in members who took the oath of office in a ceremony officiated by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The newly sworn-in members are:
— Gustavo Reveles (District 1)
— Marisa B. Perez-Diaz (District 3)
— Staci Childs (District 4)
— Tom Maynard (District 10)
— Brandon Hall (District 11)
— Pam Little (District 12)
— Tiffany Clark (District 13)
— Aaron Kinsey (District 15)
As part of the first regular meeting after the election and qualification of new members, the SBOE confirmed its officers for the new term. Pam Little was re-elected to serve another term as Vice Chair and Will Hickman was elected to serve as Secretary.
New chairs were also selected for the board's committees:
— Audrey Young will lead the Committee on Instruction.
— Tom Maynard will lead the Committee on School Finance/Permanent School Fund.
— LJ Francis will lead the Committee on School Initiatives.
The 2024 National Blue Ribbon Schools designees from Texas were honored. The board also signed a resolution to designate February 2025 as Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month, recognizing the 1.35 million Texas secondary students enrolled in one or more CTE courses across 1,200 school systems. These programs give students the opportunity to gain academic, technical and employability skills necessary for career readiness.
The board would also like to thank the Brazoswood High School P.M. Jazz Band from the Brazoswood Independent School District for their outstanding performance during Friday's session.
Announcements
Nominations are now open for the 2025 Student Heroes Award. The SBOE encourages students, teachers, administrators and community members to nominate any Texas public school students who exemplify the core value of selfless service.
The deadline to submit a nomination is April 25, 2025. To nominate a student visit https://form.jotform.com/TXEd/student-hero-nomination-form.
The SBOE's next regular meeting is scheduled for the week of April 8, 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Incoming education commissioner outlines priorities
BOSTON (SHNS) – Literacy, teacher recruitment and retention, and promoting bilingual education are at the top of the priority list for the state's new K-12 commissioner of education. Pedro Martinez will begin running Massachusetts's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on July 1, after former Commissioner Jeff Riley stepped down in March 2024 and over a year of interim leadership. Speaking at his first public event in Massachusetts since he was chosen for the role, Martinez outlined some of his priority goals on Tuesday at a Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education event in Boston. Among them is getting students back on track when it comes to reading. 'This issue has been front and center for students, as students return from the pandemic. And by the way this is national. Anybody who was a parent of a young child remembers, and remember our third and fourth graders today, those were children that were going to start their education during the pandemic period. So it's not a coincidence,' Martinez said. Teachers, education advocates and state officials in Massachusetts have been talking about improving student literacy for years, as young people have struggled with reading and writing after the pandemic. On last year's state testing, 41% of third through eighth graders scored in the 'meeting or exceeding expectations' range for English Language Arts. Currently the superintendent of Chicago Public Schools, Martinez said that in the city 'we realized that the only way to really solve this is we had to go back to the basics.' 'So we had to bring them in as soon as possible,' he said. 'So we expanded universal preschool across every one of the 77 communities. Free, full-day preschool. There we started laying the foundations.' In Chicago, they began 'implementing the foundational skills from pre-K through fifth grade — some people call it the 'science of reading,' ' he said. 'The instruction incorporates best practices such as abundant reading of diverse texts, frequent opportunities for students to write about what they read, and teaching students how to communicate with digital environments.' Science of reading is not one specific curriculum program that districts can buy, but a collection of research based on phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. The approach to teaching reading differs from past approaches partially by emphasizing phonics instruction — teaching students to understand how letters and groups of letters link to sounds and spelling patterns — though it is not wholly based on phonics. The term science of reading has been around for over a century, but has recently become shorthand to discuss using cognitive research on how children's brains work while reading, and using more classroom time on learning to sound out words and work on comprehension. 'I'll tell you, going into classrooms and seeing kindergartners write about something they've read, it's priceless, especially in high-poverty communities,' Martinez said. Gov. Maura Healey launched a program dubbed 'Literacy Launch' last year that secured $20 million in the state budget, in addition to $38 million in federal literacy grants, focused on getting higher-quality literacy materials into dozens of districts, which they're hoping will translate into improved reading scores and an improvement in the foundational skill on which all other learning depends. 'I know that Massachusetts recently adopted a long-term plan to improve literacy as well. I commit to you I will do everything in my power to ensure that that plan is successful,' Martinez said. In addition to literacy, Martinez said he'd be focused on recruiting and retaining high qualified educators. He shared a story about a teacher who he said changed the trajectory of his life. His sixth grade teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, Mr. Asher, 'was the first teacher that told me I was actually below grade level. He was actually the first teacher that said, 'I'm going to hold you accountable and you're going to make sure that you're going to rise up to that challenge.'' Martinez credited Mr. Asher with his coming out of 6th grade above grade level, and eventually becoming the first in his family to graduate high school and finish college. 'Mr. Asher changed my life,' he said. 'A highly qualified educator is the number one way to really close achievement gaps, and therefore, how we recruit, how we retain teachers — there are proven strategies across the country — and that's what I really want to look at.' He recommended a few ideas, including teacher residency and internal recruitment programs. In Chicago, he said, the district created a program called Teach Chicago Tomorrow. 'We're always complaining that we can't find highly qualified teachers, but guess where the students start? They start in K-12, right? In the districts. And so in Chicago we started working with the higher ed community, identifying students that had a passion for education, giving them really a clear path for them to be able to not only get support financially, get mentorship all the way through finishing to become teachers in our schools,' Martinez said. He added that thousands of paraprofessionals also moved into teacher roles through a similar program. Another priority Martinez highlighted Tuesday was bilingual education. 'I think we need to go even deeper in Massachusetts,' he said. 'One of the blessings that I feel is to be bicultural, to be bilingual is such a gift. It is such a gift. And so why wouldn't we want that for all of our children in Massachusetts? Why wouldn't we want all of our children to have access to multiple languages? Martinez immigrated to Illinois from Mexico when he was five years old. The last priority he highlighted was helping connect Massachusetts students to higher education. He talked about working in the San Antonio school district in Texas, where he saw people move from out of state to take advantage of Texas's strong economy while local students struggled to get jobs. 'Texas imports a lot of their labor, and then we have individuals that grew up in Texas, and there was a mixed bag. And so my question in Massachusetts, how do we make sure that it's our students that live in Massachusetts? How do we make sure that it's our students that are taking advantage of the amazing, amazing higher ed infrastructure that exists in the state?' he said. He added that 'one thing that I'm really anxious to talk to everyone about is, how do we get rid of this conversation of careers or college? That's not a thing everybody.' Martinez proposed working with community colleges and creating pathways in manufacturing, technology and health care to connect higher education and career opportunities for students after high school. 'I can't help but just recognize where I'm at in Massachusetts. This is a rich history, as everybody talked about, of education here,' he said. 'I can just imagine in 1993 when many fine individuals in this room came together to pass the Massachusetts Education Reform Act that has now put Massachusetts, in my opinion, number one in the nation. So think of this moment now. This is a time when we can come together, we can build a similar bold vision about what we expect our students to be able to do after high school.' WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Associated Press
Army Research Lab Signs Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) With Technology Advancement Center (TAC) to Accelerate Digital Modernization
WASHINGTON, D.C. / ACCESS Newswire / June 4, 2025 / The Technology Advancement Center (TAC), in collaboration with the IT Acquisition Advisory Council (IT-AAC), a subsidiary of the Interoperability Clearinghouse (ICH), has signed a groundbreaking Department of Defense (DoD)-wide Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA). This new alliance empowers all DoD components to fast-track digital modernization initiatives in alignment with the President's Executive Order on Defense IT Acquisition reform and Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth's directive to deliver cutting-edge software capabilities to the warfighter at and IT-AAC The PIA unlocks a robust portfolio of strategic tools for agencies striving to innovate under budget constraints, including: The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory, designated as the executive agent in coordination with the Army CIO, will be the first to operationalize this capability. The task is to drive compliance with federal IT reform mandates and rapidly scale DoD software acquisition pathways with targeted expertise and actionable guidance. 'I'm honored to partner with IT-AAC and the U.S. Army to help accelerate the delivery of emerging technologies to the warfighter. Together, we're creating a faster, more agile pathway for innovation that directly supports mission readiness and operational advantage,' added Gregg Smith, CEO of the TAC. 'Having invested over two decades in advancing Defense IT reforms, we are honored to have an opportunity to work with one of the best CIOs in government to advance Army's top priorities,' stated John Weiler, co-founder of the IT-AAC and the CEO of the Interoperability Clearinghouse. About TAC and IT-AAC TAC and IT-AAC provide government program managers and decision-makers with the tools, methodologies, and expertise needed to accelerate digital modernization and transformation. Leveraging elastic, just-in-time Tiger Teams composed of experts from over two dozen leading nonprofits, standards organizations, Fortune 500 companies, and Silicon Valley innovators. TAC's website is IT-AAC's website is Contact Information Gregg Smith Tel: (443) 626-4450 Email:John Weiler 703 863-3766 SOURCE: Technology Advancement Center press release
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
APS budget boosts school-level funding by $45M, cuts central office costs
The Brief The Atlanta Board of Education approved a $1.3 billion budget for fiscal year 2026, focusing on classroom instruction and foundational learning while reducing central office costs. The budget includes a $45 million increase in direct school-level funding and cuts 135 central office positions, saving $25 million to be redirected to schools and classrooms. The budget aims for long-term financial stability by eliminating a $15 million general fund transfer to the School Nutrition Program and reducing reliance on reserve funds by 86%. ATLANTA - The Atlanta Board of Education has approved a $1.3 billion budget for fiscal year 2026, embracing a "back to basics" approach aimed at closing a financial deficit while preserving key investments in teachers, literacy, and school safety. The budget, passed during the board's regular meeting on Monday night, reallocates resources to support classroom instruction and foundational learning while trimming central office costs and duplicative programs. The backstory The newly adopted budget includes a $45 million increase in direct school-level funding and an additional $11 million targeted for core classroom instruction. Resources will be concentrated at the elementary level to bolster early learning. Cuts made in the current year have allowed the district to fast-track the adoption of new textbooks and updated learning materials. Funding for professional development in English Language Arts and Math will be maintained, reinforcing the district's emphasis on instructional quality. A major component of the new budget is a reduction of 135 central office positions, resulting in $25 million in savings. Officials said those funds will be redirected to schools and classrooms. The district is also working to limit utility spending and apply zero-based budgeting to its signature and turnaround programs. Duplicated funding for programs such as Atlanta Virtual Academy and Phoenix Academy is being eliminated to free up additional funds for core services. Employee benefits remain a significant cost driver, with more than $26 million in increases tied to retirement system contributions and state health benefits. The budget fully funds a 5% increase in Teachers' Retirement System rates and increases of 7% and 20% for certified and classified health benefits, respectively. The budget eliminates a $15 million general fund transfer to the School Nutrition Program and fully funds an $8.8 million step increase for all district employees. APS also reported an 86% reduction in its reliance on reserve funds, a move officials said points to improved financial sustainability. A new facilities master planning process is underway to address long-term infrastructure needs across the district's 87 learning sites. Atlanta Public Schools serves approximately 50,000 students across neighborhood, partner, charter, and alternative schools. What they're saying "This budget reflects a focused and deliberate approach, leaning into what's working and strategically abandoning what's not," said Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson. "We are maximizing resources in ways that directly propel our students forward, while simultaneously being diligent stewards of taxpayer dollars." "The ABOE's priority is to ensure that every dollar is used effectively to support student success," said Katie Howard, chair of the board's Budget Commission. "This budget, which reduced central office spend and put more money towards schools, reflects our educational goals and priorities as well as positions us to further improve as we focus on student outcomes." The Source Atlanta Public Schools provided the details for this article.
