Monday, September 25, 2017

Texas Education Code and Lesson Plans - Part I


Texas Education Code and Lesson Plans
Part I

            Keeping with the theme of ‘new-school-year review,’ it’s important that we go over the Texas Education Code regarding lesson plans. 
            For the first 20 years or so that I taught, my administrators understood that my lesson plans were for me.  My plans served as an outline to organize what I would teach and what materials I would need to carry out each lesson.  However, things got crazy after that.  Suddenly, lesson plans morphed into time-consuming, complicated forms that did nothing to make a lesson, or a teacher, better.  In many schools today, lesson plans produce senseless stress and rob teachers of precious time that could be used actually preparing the lesson.  This, despite the fact that these forms completely defy the Texas Education Code.
            TEC Sec. 11.164 is titled “Restricting Written Information.”  It is a result of the Texas Legislature’s Paper Reduction Act.   It reads:  (a) The board of trustees of each school district shall limit redundant requests for information and the number and length of written reports that a classroom teacher is required to prepare.  A classroom teacher may not be required to prepare any written information other than….
            Ten items are listed, but today we will focus only on number 6:  a unit or weekly lesson plan that outlines, in a brief and general manner, the information to be presented during each period at the secondary level or in each subject or topic at the elementary level.
            It is critical that we note several things:
1.  The legislature has given the board of trustees the responsibility to see that school administrators are abiding by this code.
2.  This code has been in place by 1997, so why are so many districts still failing to abide by it?
3.  Key words in the code:  (secondary) outlines, brief, general; (elementary) subject, topic
            Like with planning periods, there is case law regarding lesson plans.  In 2015, the case of Ysleta ISD v. Porter was heard by the Texas Court of Appeals.  I read about it, in detail, in a letter written by attorney Martha B. Owen.  Ysleta ISD required teachers to use a lesson plan template that included TEKS objectives (originally written out and later identified by their number), TAKS objectives, lesson objectives, lesson activities and strategies, the assessment and cognitive level, differentiated instruction and/or modifications/accommodations for special populations, and homework.
            Three teachers in the district filed a grievance.  Among other evidentiary items, the teachers provided proof that the plans took anywhere from 50 minutes to two hours to complete. When the district denied their grievance, they appealed it to then Texas commissioner of education Robert Scott.  He upheld the district’s decision in Jennifer Adams, Rita Vasquez, and Edith Porter v. Ysleta Independent School District, Docket No. 043-R8-0306.  The teachers appealed the decision to district court and received a split decision.  According to Owen, “the district court upheld the requirements as to TEKS and TAKS objectives, lesson objectives, and lesson activities and strategies but reversed the Commissioner’s decision as to the validity of the requirement that teachers include the assessments, cognitive level, differentiated activities and modifications for special populations.”  Both sides appealed, and the split decision was upheld by the Court of Appeals.
            In Owen’s letter, she writes, “It is an important decision because it is one of the few cases interpreting the Paperwork Reduction Act and affirms some key principles of the statute, both in general and applied specifically to lesson plans.”
            Owen continues, “…it determined that a school district may only require that a teacher write a plan that ‘outlines the information presented, which by definition includes what is taught and the activities used to teach the lesson.’”
            There is more to this story, so we will pick up here next week. 


Chris Ardis retired in May of 2013 following a 29-year teaching career. She now helps companies with business communications, editing, and social media and works as a sales coordinator for Tony Roma's and Macaroni Grill. Chris can be reached at cardis1022@aol.com. (Photo by Sarina Manahan)

4 comments:

  1. Wow! I didn't know there was such as thing as the Paperwork Reduction Act. I actually thought the Teacher role had been renamed Paperwork Administrator since that's what I did mostly as a teacher in Texas. It's the main reason I left the American educational system and now I teach abroad.

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  2. Hi Arlette! Right? I know exactly what you mean! Despite the fact that it has been LAW since 1997 (!!!) countless schools break it!

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  3. You were a horrible teacher, definition of a white privileged older lady. Don’t make it seem like you were gods gift to education. You were not! You destroyed my self esteem and allowed other students to pick on and tease me for being openly gay. You also had your own obvious prejudices. You shamed anyone who didn’t follow your own beliefs. I hope you have retired and are no longer screwing up other students. Again you were a terrible educator, and you’re also a horrible person. I hope to god the only reason you don’t read this is because you’re dead. I actually was looking for something to cheer me up and searched your name, hoping to find an obituary. But you’re still alive sadly, and have this stupid fake blog to make you seem like you’re a halfway decent human being. Boy was I disappointed. To all that are reading this comment, do not praise this bitch. I say bitch cause she’s not a lady nor is she someone who deserves respect. This bitch is a terrible garbage person. She looked for any reason to kick me out of her class and found it when I arrived 5 mins late with a coffee. That’s how petty and shitty of a teacher she is. I will continue to look for your obituary every year till I see that you have passed..then I will look up your burial site and piss on it. Can’t wait bitch :)

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