Burbio School Tracker 10/21: Texas vs California

1. Burbio maintains a database of district checkbook registers covering over 20 million PreK-12 students. California and Texas are two large states and we thought it would be interesting to review the differences in market penetration for a select group of large suppliers to K-12. The charts below show the percentage of districts in each state that have written a check to the supplier in question at least once in the last twelve months. The sample size covers over 60% of California students and just over 50% of Texas students. 

Our first chart shows suppliers with a higher market penetration in California:

Our next chart shows a selection of suppliers with higher market penetration in Texas:

2. Burbio's State Information dashboard includes information such as state board meetings, budgets, Title I funds, state AI policies and curriculum lists, TSI/CSI schools, state report cards and more. Burbio summarizes state board of education meetings and highlights the issues covered. This week we highlight CTE policies being discussed in states across the country:

• In Texas, the state passed a motion to establish Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) in employability skills for effective performance in the workplace. Employability skills standards would be required as part of each career and technical education (CTE) course.
• In Georgia, The State Board of Education adopted the K-12 Standards for Audio Technology for Post-Production Pathway and Audio Technology Live Production Pathway.
• In Vermont, at a recent meeting, the Secretary of Education spoke about "the Governor's priority to expand CTE and increase exposure to CTE. There were recommendations around funding for CTE that came out of a study on our CTE systems . . ."
• In Virginia, they conducted their 'First and Final Review' of an Amendment to Virginia’s Consolidated State Plan to include High-Quality Work-Based Learning in the 3E Readiness Indicator.
• In Kansas, a recent meeting details the Kansas Build Forward Partnership, a collaborative effort requested to expand construction trades in western/rural Kansas. The group consists of employers, unions, high schools, educational partners and state agencies, and has received interest from a philanthropic foundation to support the program. 

3 . Burbio's Superintendent Turnover Tracker measures changes in that role nationwide by tracking when positions open and where the outgoing Superintendent is going. When the position is filled we track where the new Superintendent came from and their previous role. 

Below we highlight reasons for departure broken down by district enrollment. The analysis covers over 1,300 districts where the superintendent position has turned over since July, 2024. The first chart analyzes Superintendent departure - either retirement or leaving for a new job - categorized by district size: 

Another reason for a Superintendent leaving would be termination. The chart below breaks down the percent of Superintendent departures that were terminations by district size: 

4. Burbio now bundles RFPs into our PreK-12 Intelligence Hub with datasets of state grants, school board meeting minutes, strategic plans, bonds, superintendent turnover, and more. RFPs are presented in a sortable dashboard by category and are updated daily. Below is a selection that appeared in the last week:

• Colorado Springs School District, CO, is looking to source a comprehensive online curriculum and LMS for grades K-12 instruction.
• Mobile County Public Schools, AL, has issued an RFP for fire alarm monitoring for schools across the district. 
• Comstock STEM Academy, MI, is looking for a proposal to move existing playground equipment from Comstock STEM to the new Comstock STEM Academy. 
• Winslow Township School District, NJ is looking for Special Education teacher services. 
• Miami-Dade School District, FL is seeking to purchase a variety of brands of computers, laptops, servers and monitors.