Texas Education Agency

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The Texas Education Agency (TEA, each letter pronounced separately, is a branch of the state government of Texas. It is based in Austin. On November 7, 2007, Christine Comer resigned as the director of the science curriculum after more than nine years. Comer said her resignation was due to pressure from officials who claimed she had given the appearance of criticizing the teaching of intelligent design.^[1]^[2]

1 Duties
2 Organization
- 2.1 Controversy
3 School and District Accountability
- 3.1 Education Performance Ranking
- 3.2 Gold Performance Acknowledgements
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Duties

TEA is responsible for the oversight of public primary and secondary education in the state of Texas, involving both the over 1,000 individual school districts in the state as well as charter schools. However, unlike counterpart bodies in other states, TEA has no jurisdiction over the activities of private schools (whether or not accredited) or home schools in Texas.

Although school districts are independent governmental entities, TEA has the authority to oversee a district's operations (either involving an individual school or the entire district) if serious issues arise (such as poor standardized test performance, financial distress, or reported mismanagement). This can be in the form of requiring the district to submit corrective action plans and regular status reports, assigning monitors to oversee operations (including the authority to assign a management board, which essentially replaces and performs the duties of the elected school board), and in extreme cases closure of a school campus or even the entire school district.

The University Interscholastic League, which oversees academic and athletic interscholastic competition, is a separate entity not under TEA oversight.

[edit] Organization

TEA is overseen by a 15-member State Board of Education, elected from single-member districts. TEA is managed by a Commissioner of Education (as of 2007, Robert Scott) who is appointed by the Governor of Texas.

In order to serve the large number of individual school districts and charter schools in Texas, TEA is divided into 20 regions, each containing an Educational Service Center (ESC, sometimes called Regional Service Center or RSC). Below are the districts, the cities in which the ESC office is located, and the counties served (districts which overlap counties are served by the ESC for the county in which the district's administrative office is located):

Region 1, Edinburg--Cameron, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Starr, Webb, Willacy, and Zapata
Region 2, Corpus Christi--Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Duval, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kleberg, Live Oak, McMullen, Nueces, and San Patricio
Region 3, Victoria--Calhoun, Colorado, DeWitt, Goliad, Jackson, Karnes, Lavaca, Matagorda, Refugio, Victoria, and Wharton
Region 4, Houston--Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston (excluding High Island, which is served by Region 5), Harris, Liberty, and Waller
Region 5, Beaumont--Galveston (High Island district only; all others are served by Region 4), Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Newton, Orange, and Tyler
Region 6, Huntsville--Austin, Brazos, Burleson, Grimes, Houston, Leon, Madison, Milam, Montgomery, Polk, Robertson, San Jacinto, Trinity, Walker, and Washington
Region 7, Kilgore--Anderson, Angelina, Cherokee, Gregg, Harrison, Henderson, Nacogdoches, Panola, Rains, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby, Smith, Upshur, Van Zandt (excluding Canton and Wills Point districts, which are served by Region 10), and Wood
Region 8, Mount Pleasant--Bowie, Camp, Cass, Delta, Franklin, Hopkins, Lamar, Marion, Morris, Red River, and Titus
Region 9, Wichita Falls--Archer, Baylor, Clay, Foard, Hardeman, Jack, Knox, Montague, Throckmorton, Wichita, Wilbarger, and Young
Region 10, Richardson--Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt, Kaufman, Rockwall, and Van Zandt (Canton and Wills Point districts only; all others are served by Region 7)
Region 11, Fort Worth--Cooke, Denton, Erath, Hood, Johnson, Parker, Palo Pinto, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise
Region 12, Waco--Bell, Bosque, Coryell, Falls, Freestone, Hamilton, Hill, Lampasas, Limestone, McLennan, Mills, and Navarro
Region 13, Austin--Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Comal, Fayette, Gillespie, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall, Lee, Llano, Milam, Travis, and Williamson
Region 14, Abilene--Callahan, Comanche, Eastland, Fisher, Haskell, Jones, Mitchell, Nolan, Scurry, Shackelford, Stephens, Stonewall, and Taylor
Region 15, San Angelo--Brown, Coke, Coleman, Concho, Crockett, Edwards County, Texas, Irion, Kimble, Mason, McCulloch, Menard, Runnels, San Saba, Schleicher, Sterling, Sutton, Tom Green, and Val Verde
Region 16, Amarillo--Armstrong, Briscoe, Carson, Castro, Childress, Collingsworth, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Donley, Gray, Hall, Hansford, Hartley, Hemphill, Hutchinson, Lipscomb, Moore, Ochiltree, Oldham, Parmer, Potter, Randall, Roberts, Sherman, Swisher, and Wheeler
Region 17, Lubbock--Bailey, Borden, Cochran, Cottle, Crosby, Dawson, Dickens, Floyd, Gaines, Garza, Hale, Hockley, Kent, King, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Motley, Terry, and Yoakum.
Region 18, Midland--Andrews, Brewster, Crane, Culberson, Ector, Glasscock, Howard, Jeff Davis, Loving, Martin, Midland, Pecos, Presidio, Reagan, Reeves, Terrell, Upton, Ward, and Winkler
Region 19, El Paso--El Paso and Hudspeth
Region 20, San Antonio--Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Dimmit, Frio, Kendall, Kerr, Kinney, La Salle, Maverick, Medina, Real, Uvalde, Wilson, and Zavala

The ESC's serve as a liaison between the districts and TEA headquarters, providing support to the districts such as conducting workshops and technical assistance. The ESC's do not have any regulatory authority to monitor the districts (this is reserved for TEA headquarters).

[edit] Controversy

Wikinews has related news:

Science curriculum director resigns from Texas Education Agency

On November 7, 2007, Christine Comer resigned as the director of the science curriculum after more than nine years. Comer said her resignation was due to pressure from officials who claimed she had given the appearance of criticizing the teaching of intelligent design.^[3]^[4]

[edit] School and District Accountability

[edit] Education Performance Ranking

Main article: Texas Education Agency accountability ratings system

TEA ranks schools and districts using four criteria. The criteria are the same for schools and districts. According to the Texas Education Agency, the number of state schools and districts receiving the top ratings of "exemplary" and "recognized" increased from 2,213 in 2005 to 3,380 in 2006.^[5]

[edit] Gold Performance Acknowledgements

Main article: Texas Education Agency Gold Performance Acknowledgement Criteria

In addition to the state ranking, districts and schools can be awarded additional commendations (referred to as Gold Performance Acknowledgements) for other noteworthy accomplishments not included in the ranking system.