Education Issues

Mike Miles vs. The World

In Dallas ISD, a fight over principals, race and a slice of the pie.

Sex Ed the Texas Way

Dallas wants to close the book on abstinence-only education. Texas keeps getting in the way.

Worth the Wait, DISD's Potential New Sex Ed Curriculum, Teaches Some Really Weird Stuff

This year, a group of parents and administrators at the Dallas Independent School District embarked on pretty much the most thankless task there is: finding a new sex ed curriculum for the district's students. The job is thankless in large part because no matter what they do, someone's going to get ... More >>

Here Are All The Reasons Why Texas Teenagers Can't Seem to Stop Getting Pregnant

Congratulations, Texas! After a lot of hard work and many long nights, we're number one in the nation for repeat teen births. According to the Centers for Disease Control, which released a new report on April 2, in 2010, 22 percent of Texas teenagers aged 15-19 who gave birth were delivering their ... More >>

The Real Victims in School Reform Battles Are Kids Who Can Be Taught and Aren't

The response to my article here last week about school reform proves one thing. I'm doing a poor job presenting school reform. The entire issue, in fact, is being framed in the responses to the article as a kind of combination civil rights question and job security dilemma for teachers and principa ... More >>

Faced With Rising Teen STD Rates, County Health Officials Lobbying DISD to Jettison Abstinence-Based Sex Ed

Teenagers, volatile bundles of hormones that they are, are going to have sex. That's an iron law of nature, as unchangeable as the fact that lions like to eat zebras. It's also a fair bet that, unless they are taught otherwise, these teenagers are going to have sex in an completely unsafe and irresp ... More >>

Texas Reps. Say Planned Parenthood Recruits Schoolkids, Aim to End Its Sex Ed Effort

Texas parents beware: your children are being "imperiled" by "abortion peddlers" who want to teach them "sex education." No. No, they're not. Although at some point someone might want to teach them to put a condom on a banana, and conservative lawmakers, predictably, want to make damn sure that per ... More >>

Closing the School-to-Prison Pipeline

If DISD's Mike Miles has a plan for that, then let's give him a chance.

The Future of Texas' Public Schools. (Spoiler Alert: With Dan Patrick, That Future is Bleak.)

Houston Republican Dan Patrick -- a conservative radio shock jock and founder of the Tea Party Caucus in the Texas Senate -- is vowing to lead the charge in the next session of the Texas Legislature for a school voucher system that would give away tax money to private and religious schools. That's ... More >>

Republicans Begin Renewed Push For School Vouchers

State Senator Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican, fired something of a warning shot two weeks ago when he announced a renewed push for school choice, both in the form of vouchers and expanded charter offerings. "To me, school choice is the photo ID bill of this session," Patrick told the Houston Chr ... More >>

Texas Charter Schools, Parents Sue State Over Facilities Funding

Dana Allen, a Lakewood parent, is thrilled with the education her 5-year-old receives at Lindsley Park charter school, but is displeased that the school has no gym, no cafeteria, no library and no computer lab. She attributes the absence of such basic niceties to the school's lack of state funding f ... More >>

TEA Tightening Rules for Tutoring Companies. But Will They Work?

As the district announced yesterday, and the DMN reported over the weekend (paywall), DISD is accusing five private tutoring companies of more $500,000 in fraud. That's on top of more than $140,000 the district accused two other companies of illegally taking in April after an external audit. The co ... More >>

Deion Sanders' Prime Prep Academy Has Registered 1,100 Students and Counting

Is it any wonder that Prime Prep Academy, the charter school hyped by Deion Sanders, is accepting triple the number of students that most charter schools accept in their first year? Everything about the place has been propped up with hopeful grandeur. Sanders, the school's co-founder and spokesperso ... More >>

Deion Sanders' Charter School and the Making of a Prime Time Scam

A businessman and a bishop used Cowboys' Hall of Famer Deion Sanders' name to drum up interest in a charter school. Then they tried to score from the deal.

More Money for Schools? Take a Hike, Kid.

Texas public schools are barely squeaking by, The New York Times reported this morning in a heart-rending story about state budget cuts. Things have gotten so dire that the Times led its story with the horrifying tale of a youth in Hutto, northeast of Austin, who must now walk a mile to classes beca ... More >>

Bryan Rep. Bill Flores Wants To Revive Abstinence-Only Education Funding

All this arguing we're doing about contraception is getting a little tiresome, isn't it? Sure, we get to use the word "sluts" repeatedly in a national conversation, and we've watched several elderly male politicians state their understanding of how birth control works, explanations which often deser ... More >>

Dallas' Charter School Plan May Be a Good Idea, But It Was Badly Executed

Before Vote to Help Uplift Sell Less Expensive Bonds, City Council to Get Schooled on Charters

​Below is the charter school briefing the city council was promised last week, but only after the heated discussion punctuated by Mayor Mike Rawlings's fiery call to expand charters -- because, as he said, "freedom is choice, choice creates excellence, and excellence graduates kids." The purpose o ... More >>

Item Involving Charter School's Bonds Pushes Council Into Passionate Philosophical Debate

​This was a good day -- such days do occur -- to study democracy in action at Dallas City Hall. The city council engaged in a smart debate on a proposal to help a charter school organization sell bonds to build more charter schools. The mayor and council decided not to decide. If you listened to ... More >>

DISD Says It's Not Sitting on Federal Funds. It's Actually Trying to Keep From Wasting Them.

​We started this morning by noting Brett Shipp's piece from last night suggesting the Texas Education Agency is threatening to withhold Dallas ISD from close to $80 million in federal funds birthed by No Child Left Behind. The reason, says Commissioner of Education Robert Scott: Only 40 students o ... More >>

What's the Hurry? Why Does Council Have to Vote on Helping Uplift Sell Bonds This Week?

​You know the cell phones must have been burning all weekend when the first city council committee briefing of the week at City Hall on Monday morning starts off with a rebuttal. Wait, rebuttal already? While those of us out here in the peanut gallery are still wiping the weekend from our eyes, co ... More >>

Survey Says Texas Schools Are Now a Little Less Awful at Teaching Students Sex Education

​Just three years ago, 94 percent of the state's school districts told their kiddos: Just say no to sex. And that was that when it came to sex ed -- abstinence only and nothing but, which was working out real well considering that Texas's teen-pregnancy rate was the third-highest in all the land. ... More >>

My, How This Crisis is Growing

Interim Super: "The Annual Ratcheting Up of Standards is Catching Up With" Dallas ISD

Dave Goldfinger​And the hits just keep on coming: One week ago today the Texas Education Agency officially announced that the Dallas Independent School District had more campuses deemed academically unacceptable (33) than exemplary (30) -- a radical shift from last year's stats, thanks in large pa ... More >>

Want to Get More Involved in the Dallas ISD? Then Here You Go. But It Ain't Free.

​Over the last couple of weeks I've received numerous emails suggesting I sign up for something called Leadership DISD, which promises to develop "education-focused, informed leaders within the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) service area who affect positive change and help to lead suppo ... More >>

Michael Hinojosa's Gone, But As He Begins New Job, His Time in Dallas Is Not Forgotten

Photo by Patrick MichelsMiss him yet?​Former Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa officially begins his new gig in Cobb County, Georgia, today. Hence, this morning's piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "New Cobb superintendent's job 1: Close students' achieveme ... More >>

If Buyouts Were Fine for Teachers, Says Local Lawmaker, Why Not Offer to Students Too?

State Rep. Sid Miller​Last night in Austin, state Rep. Sid Miller laid out a novel solution for Texas's troubled school budget: the Taxpayer Savings Grants Program, a reward of nearly $5,000 for any parents who'll do us all a solid and take their kids out of public school. Under Miller's plan, par ... More >>

Ranger Tries to Use Outside Contributions to Tie Blackburn to Charters. Donors Say: "Nope."

Lew Blackburn​At some point this evening, the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees will elect new officers. Among the front-runners for president is Lew Blackburn, which may explain why Carla Ranger took to her blog earlier today to throw Blackburn under the bus.You see, there's no ... More >>

On Thursday, DISD Board to Discuss Proposal That'll Make It Easier to Create Charter Schools

​On Thursday morning, the Dallas Independent School District's board of trustees will take its first long, hard look at a proposal to "streamline the process for implementing a charter school." It's the result of months of work by the board's Charter School Ad Hoc Committee, which was tasked with ... More >>

At Last, Carla Ranger Weighs In On Budget Cuts

​It's been a long while since Dallas Independent School District District 6 trustee served up a hot sports opinion on her blog. But given the looming "new reality" that has led to trustees being asked to consider giving teachers $10 million to scoot before they're fired, Ranger can hold her tongue ... More >>

Dallas ISD Trustees Take A Look At Ways to Bring More Charter Schools Into the District

​A handful of Dallas Independent School District gatheredn the old board room at 3700 Ross this morning to poke at a question with big implications: How can the district get the most of its new partnerships charter schools, possibly even next school year? Born out of April's West Dallas "School Zo ... More >>

Days After Cheering TEA Ratings, DISD Misses Feds' Adequate Yearly Progress Standards

​One week ago today the Texas Education Agency sent word: With significant help from the state, the Dallas Independent School District racked up 63 exemplary schools, while several high schools long on the academically unacceptable list finally get a reprieve. Not all was well, as dropout and comp ... More >>

On L.A.'s Skid Row, a generational war over how to teach the American children of illegal immigrants

Education Guru To Dallas Teachers: In School Reform, "There Are No Miracles"

Patrick MichelsDiane Ravitch speaking at the Dallas Institute's first annual Education Forum last night.​The big shakeups credited with turning around public schools in New York, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. -- which Mayor Tom Lepeprt and organizers cite as influences for a new school reform e ... More >>

Trustee Carla Ranger Is Very Unhappy With DISD Super's West Dallas Initiative

DISD trustee Carla Ranger​Yesterday Patrick Michels brought back this report from Dallas City Hall, where Mayor Tom Leppert and Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa introduced the so-called the West Dallas "School Zone," a public-private partnership involving charter ... More >>

Speak Out, Loud And Proud

Dallas ISD's Long and Winding Road to Broad Prize Just Hit a Dead End

​Perhaps you've seen the promotional materials -- they've been everywhere during the past five years, as the Dallas Independent School District (and superintendent Michael Hinojosa, especially) eased on down that Road to Broad, so named for the $2 million award given to urban school districts who ... More >>

A Modern Prophecy

The Road to Broad Runs Through Texas, Just Not the Dallas ISD

Word By Word

LIFT raises money for literacy

No Child Left Behind. Yeah, O.K.

Hard-on for Reading

Dallas Achieves! What, We Have No Idea.

"Nice Kid, But..."

To get into the right college, sometimes you have to be better than perfect

Schoolhouse Dynamite

If Russell Fish ever wins his lawsuit, watch 'em blow

The Resurrection of Sandy Kress

Or, how a Democrat and reviled former DISD board president found a happy home pushing "educational acoountability" for the GOP

Letters to the Editor

Man with the Plan DISD's New Math

Buzz

Good God, a good grade; Has he even unpacked yet?

Flunking Out

Charter school scandals are teaching Texas a tough lesson -- one the state should have known four years and $77 million ago.

Easy pickings

In the Legislature this year, lawmakers may find that it's better to give than receive