The latest public education news from The Texas Tribune.
The outgoing superintendent of Garland ISD on how to prepare students for college and the workplace, the weighty decisions coming up for state leaders, and standardized tests’ potential for “cognitive bludgeoning.” Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/C-Culwell.jpg)
Gov. Rick Perry is slated to name Michael Williams the new commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, a source close to the governor said Monday. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/WilliamsM096CMS.jpg)
To mark the beginning of a new school year at many campuses across the state, we've added some new features to our comprehensive public education database, including maps of districts and campuses statewide and four-year graduation rates. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/EduApp2.jpg)
In a preview of a likely battle in the upcoming legislative session, state lawmakers on Friday heard testimony on school choice programs, including vouchers that would allow students to use public money to attend private schools. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/c13c5822dccdd0cca541d6f58f7d52c4/TT%20Event%20Education%202012)
As the state and its independent school districts head to court again in October to debate school financing, it's still possible that the issue of a statewide property tax could be revisited. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/PropertyTax.jpg)
Only about a quarter of the state's Class of 2012 students are college ready, according to a new report by the ACT. Texas Education Agency officials attribute the numbers to an increase in students taking the test. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/StandardTesting-1.jpg)
For this week's nonscientific survey of government and political insiders, we asked what will dominate the next legislative session and about the odds for school vouchers, high-stakes testing and a Medicaid expansion. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/inside_intelligence-logo-Hahn-sponsorship.jpg){kind=logo}
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Texas public schools are supposed to have 100 percent passing rates in reading and math by 2014. The chances of meeting that benchmark are slim. So what happens next? Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Standardized-Test.jpg)
This week on the Newsreel, a look at property taxes versus sales taxes, 85-mph speed limits and Super PAC contributions from Texas. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/081612_Newreel_ART.jpg)
Because of the complexity of school finance, it’s tempting to turn to per-student spending to understand how well — or how poorly — a district is spending its money. But that approach has its perils. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Money-Education-2.jpg)
Houston conservationists reintroduce native plants to the area, and we examine how much money school districts spend per student. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/081612_Insider_ART.jpg)
In 2011, Texas drastically changed the way it regulates school district purchases of instructional materials. Last week, a new online marketplace opened, giving districts more than 100,000 options to exercise their newfound freedoms. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/InstructionalMaterials.jpg)
How school districts manage personnel costs will be increasingly monitored as debate over efficiency progresses — as will the ways they have coped with the loss of roughly 25,000 employees they shed before the 2011-12 school year. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Education-Teachers-Beyond.jpg)
Despite a half-hearted attempt at the end of the 2011 legislative session, the last real grasp lawmakers made at passing private school vouchers was in 2007. But that could soon change. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/_CBM2931.jpg)
An initiative from San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro that would direct a portion of sales tax revenue to fund full-day pre-kindergarten unanimously passed the City Council, leaving it for voters to approve in November. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/castro_julian.jpg)
After a UT-Austin professor's research suggested a flaw in the design of the state's standardized tests, an official with the testing vendor said the firm welcomes an "open dialogue" based on well-founded evidence — but not what he called "wild conclusions." Full Story
Only 44 percent of Texas schools met No Child Left Behind requirements for 2012. That's a drop from 66 percent last year, meaning many of them will be subject to federal sanctions. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/multiple-choice.jpg)
The author of a new book that investigates what communities lose when schools are shuttered talks about standardized testing and how students, teachers and parents cope with testing pressures. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Brick-TTI.jpg)
Less than one in two Texas students met the state’s “college readiness” standards in math and verbal skills on the ACT, SAT and TAKS in 2010. And although the data shows that something is not going right, pinpointing why is difficult. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Community-College-Beyond.jpg)
Researchers believe they have uncovered a glitch in the DNA of the state's standardized exams that suggests, because of the statistical method used to assemble them, they are virtually useless at measuring the effects of instruction in the classroom. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TAKS-Border.jpg)