September 2016 Committee of the Full Board Work Session Monday Item 1

Learning Roundtable—Educating the Children of Poverty

September 12, 2016

COMMITTEE OF THE FULL BOARD: DISCUSSION
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: NO ACTION

SUMMARY: The State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency are hosting a learning roundtable focused on educating the children of poverty. This item provides an opportunity for the board to hear testimony from invited guests regarding educating the children of poverty.

BOARD RESPONSE: This item is presented for review and comment.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND SIGNIFICANT ISSUES: Texas is a state of great wealth. If Texas were a nation, it would have produced the 12th largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world in 2014, according to data from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Yet millions of Texas children live in poverty.

In the 1987-1988 school year, only 35 percent of Texas public school students were classified as economically disadvantaged. By the 2001-2002 school year, the scale had tipped and more than half (50.5 percent) of the state’s public school students were economically disadvantaged. By the 2015-2016 school year, 58.93 percent of our students came from families who qualified for the federal free or reduced lunch program or other government assistance. Not only do children of poverty make up a larger percentage of the student population, the sheer number has grown by
1 million children in the past 14 years. Today, 3,122,903 of the state’s 5.3 million schoolchildren are economically disadvantaged.

The State Board of Education and the Texas Education Agency will host a daylong summit September 12 that focuses on effective strategies for educating the children of poverty. The conference will be held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Austin Central located at 5901 N. IH-35.

OTHER COMMENTS AND RELATED ISSUES: None.

Staff Members Responsible:
Penny Schwinn, Deputy Commissioner
Academics

Debbie Ratcliffe, Director of Media Relations
Office of the State Board of Education Support