Monthly Updates

December 2009

December 18, 2009

Daniel Blier
Blierdan@aol.com

As we bring 2009 to a close, we become reflective of what was accomplished during the past year. We also look ahead to what might the future hold for us. Looking ahead, I want us as business and technology educators to consider where the world technology will progress to and how this will affect businesses tomorrow. We must be proactive about learning about these new technologies and bringing them to the classroom. It is important for our students to experience the use of new technologies and become certified in their usage. Our charge is to provide students with employable skills. I want to challenge each of our TBTEA members to consider learning something new in 2010 and bring it to your classroom.

Have a wonderful holiday season and prosperous new year.

Sincerely,

Daniel Blier
Vice President –Secondary Education

CONFERENCES
NBEA 2010 Annual Convention
Active NBEA members should consider attending this year’s NBEA Annual Convention in San Diego, California from March 30-April 3, 2010. Click on this link to learn more about this conference’s registration and hotel arrangements.
Mountain-Plains Business Education Association (M-PBEA)
Fort Collins, Colorado will be the location of our next MPBEA Conference from June 17-19, 2010. Visit this link to learn more about this conference and M-PBEA. Questions regarding this conference should be directed to Sandy Braathen.
Texas Career Education Conference
As stated last month, the Business and Marketing Professional Development Conference is now the Texas Career Education Conference (TCEC). The TCEC will be held in Dallas, Texas from July 12-15, 2010. We are looking for presenters at this conference. Over 2,000 business, marketing, technology, health science educators, counselors and administrators will come together to share ideas, fellowships and learn together. Please consider submitting to be a presenter this coming summer. You can find the presentation form by clicking here. If you know of others that would be great resources, send this information to Dan Blier to be sure they are contacted about presenting at this summer’s conference.
Check the TBTEA website for links to information about all these conferences. We hope you will join us for these great opportunities to learn and network with other business and technology educators.

COMMITTEES
Our committee chairs continue to work hard for our association. If you wish to serve on one of these committees, please contact the committee chair. You can find contact information on the http://TBTEA.org website.
CommitteeChair
AwardsDonna Crook
ConferenceJanet Flusche
Educational DevelopmentMazie Will
Fundraiser Shirlyelaine Gray
Governmental Relations/Legislative ActionTina Casey
NominatingMichelle Kirkland
MembershipDan Blier
ScholarshipDan Blier

MEMBERSHIP
As we begin the New Year, talk to teachers in your department and school district. We want to continue to grow our membership. As we continue to grow, we will be able to offer more services for our members. Here is a link to our current membership form.
Any questions or concerns regarding your TBTEA membership should be addressed to Dan Blier, Vice President–Secondary Education. Specific needs relating to Liability Insurance should be directed to Barbara Leschber, Executive Director.

SCHOLARSHIPS
The applications for the 2009-2010 scholarships are now online. Scholarships are awarded to a graduating FBLA, BPA, PBL, BPA Post-Secondary and a Professional member. Please visit our website for the current forms. . The deadline for submitting the scholarship applications to Dan Blier will be February 15, 2010.

GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS/LEGISLATION
Are you unhappy with the changes to the graduation standards this year? Would you like to do something about it? We will be posting the names, addresses and email addresses for all of the members of the Texas House and Senate Education Committees online. Visit http://TBTEA.org to find this information. Follow the links to be able to enter a message to each committee member. Please take a moment to draft an email about your thoughts. Please encourage fellow teachers and parents to do the same.
To better inform our members, I have asked Robin Panovich, CTAT’s Executive Director to share her professional point of view of the new law that affects our members. Below is the information she provided:
Tech Apps and the 81st Legislature

Regarding Tech Apps credit, the legislature eliminated this requirement for the Recommended High School Plan (RHSP) and removed authority from the SBOE to prescribe any enrichment credits for the RHSP. The SBOE is in the process of altering the other two graduation plans (Minimum and Distinguished) to match additional flexibility established for the RHSP by the 81st Legislature.

When the legislative session began, the senate and house education committees approached flexibility for the RHSP by way of removing all prescribed enrichment credits, including Fine Art, Tech Apps, Health, PE and Speech. By the time the senate version passed its chamber, Fine Art and PE had been added back in, which meant disagreement between the house and senate versions of the bill. A conference committee made of education committee members from both houses met for nearly 48 hours straight to work through differences in the two versions.

At the 11th hour in conference committee, there were not enough committee member votes to pass the graduation plan flexibility as proposed and the committee retained one credit of PE (reducing it by one half credit) and Fine Art. Lawmakers were satisfied that the compromise accomplished their goal, albeit not to extent intended. In short, 4 x 4 academic requirements remained and flexibility for students to pursue other types of credit, including CTE was provided.

In a post session twist, it was revealed that Speech is part of English Language Arts curriculum, not enrichment. Thus, the SBOE retains authority to prescribe that credit. The SBOE is on course to continue prescribing Speech credit for graduation.
The result is less flexibility is a result and students must earn prescribed enrichment credits.

Districts have the authority to prescribe graduation requirements beyond the minimum required by the state. In other words, districts may prescribe Tech Apps credit for graduation credit. Additionally, districts may determine which courses satisfy that credit.

The chart attached is a visual of new rules for high school grad plans.

Regarding authority, the legislature specifies new laws or changes to existing laws. Laws related to education must pass both house and senate education committees and must pass both chambers - house and senate and be signed into law by the governor. Once law, the SBOE creates or changes policies to reflect new laws and changes to laws.

The SBOE is expected to adopt changes to the grad plans as early as January. The public comment period began last Friday with the issue of draft rules in the Texas Register.

In the Dec. 11 issue of the Texas Register, proposed rules included revised high school graduation requirements, allowable PE substitutions and career and technical education courses to satisfy academic credits.

The public comment period for items included in this register is 30 days from release.

Texas Register Dec. 11
HTML version:
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/texreg/archive/December112009/index.html

PDF version:
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/texreg/pdf/backview/1211/index.shtml

If you are interested in sending comments, please reference specific rule numbers. Direct all comments to the contact listed below.

The earliest possible adoption of draft rules by the State Board of Education would be in January.

Send comments to:
Cristina De La Fuente-Valadez
Director, Policy Coordination
Texas Education Agency
Earliest possible date of adoption: January 10, 2010 For further information, please call: (512) 475-1497
Email: rules@tea.state.tx.us
Fax: 512-463-0028

Robin Painovich
Executive Director
Career & Technology Association of Texas
Twitter http://twitter.com/texascte Mobile 512-970-9076 Office 512-288-8666
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CTAT is unified with the national Association for Career & Technical Education www.acteonline.org robin@ctat.org www.ctat.org

AWARDS
Donna Crook will be sending out information about each of our state TBTEA awards in the coming weeks. Consider nominating someone deserving for each of our awards Students, colleagues and administrators appreciate being recognized for their hard work by others that work closely with them daily. The deadline for submitting nomination forms to Donna will be February 15, 2010. The forms are not yet available, but start thinking about who you should nominate for recognition this year. Award winners will be announced at the Texas Business and Technology Association luncheon during the Texas Career Education Conference.
NBEA
National Business Education Association is the national organization representing our curriculum at the United States Government level. Are you interested in joining NBEA, but need more information? Contact Violet Snell, TBTEA’s National Representative, for assistance.