U.S. Department of Education

Brad Davis for President. Or Not.

Sully in the White House

Feds Set to Announce Public Corruption Indictment in Moments...

Will Clarke Still Getting Rhode Hard and Put Up Wet

John Wiley Price, You've Been Schooled

DISD: A Hiring Freeze, Wasted Millions and a Missing Audit. Awesome.

Events for the week

School for Scandal

Principal Mike Stiles was turning Dallas' troubled Sunset High around - until a critical misjudgement threw him into a political snakepit

Ten Years Ago, Kevin Sullivan Said Goodbye to the Dallas Mavericks' Front Office. Next Week, He Moves Out of the West Wing.

A decade ago, I interviewed Kevin Sullivan on his last day as the Dallas Mavericks' vice president of communications, a job he'd held for 18 years -- since the team's inception in 1980. It seemed like a good idea to do another exit interview today, because Sullivan, pictured above with President Bus ... More >>

Storm warning

When a tornado ripped through Lancaster, it also laid bare the city's racial wounds

Congressional hopeful Jerry Frankel has ideas, brains, and GUTS.

Dick Armey will eat his lunch.

Too Smart For Their Own Good

"Jones' Geniuses" can calculate difficult math problems in their heads. But DISD hasn't always liked the answers.

Buzz

"Jones' Geniuses" can calculate difficult math problems in their heads. But DISD hasn't always liked the answers.

Math wars

Plano parents lay siege to enthusiasts of the "New New Math" in a fight over how to fix the sorry state of math instruction in the public schools

Gutless coup

Everybody's talking about a takeover at DISD, but nobody wants to do anything about it

DISD's About to Get Very Stimulated

Library of CongressBy now, perhaps, you've read that some $104,070,000 of the nearly $800 billion stimulus package will wind up in the pockets of the Dallas Independent School District. (If your kids aren't in the DISD, you can see how your district fared in the sweepstakes by checking out this site ... More >>

Last Night at W.T. White, Michael Hinojosa Reminded Everyone Who's in Charge of DISD

Mark GrahamMichael HinojosaIt was the last question of the night: "What do you think of the mayor's concept for taking over the Dallas Independent School District?" The audience, consisting of only a few folks scattered throughout the W.T. White High School auditorium last night, let out a collectiv ... More >>

In Dallas District Court, that Preston Hollow Elementary Lawsuit You Forgot All About

Illustration by Brian StaufferWith little fanfare and hardly any spectators, the trial in the case of Graciela McKay vs. DISD wraps up this week in U.S. District Court, with a verdict expected as early as tomorrow. McKay is the Preston Hollow teacher who filed a federal lawsuit against the district ... More >>

Higher Learning

Illustration by Brian StaufferWith little fanfare and hardly any spectators, the trial in the case of Graciela McKay vs. DISD wraps up this week in U.S. District Court, with a verdict expected as early as tomorrow. McKay is the Preston Hollow teacher who filed a federal lawsuit against the district ... More >>

Mavs Man Is Now a Bush Man

Illustration by Brian StaufferWith little fanfare and hardly any spectators, the trial in the case of Graciela McKay vs. DISD wraps up this week in U.S. District Court, with a verdict expected as early as tomorrow. McKay is the Preston Hollow teacher who filed a federal lawsuit against the district ... More >>

Schoolhouse Dynamite

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

Out of step

Dallas dance companies struggle to find an audience in a city that trains many dancers but can't seem to keep them here

Planting SEEDs of hope

An innovative math program recalculates which students will succeed and which will fail at DISD

No class

New York-based Edison Schools flunked out with trying to privatize Sherman's public schools. Why should things be any different in Dallas?

Magnet Mayhem: DISD Trustees Seem Hell-Bent on Gutting the Crown Jewels of the District, and for No Good Reason

Allied Works ArchitectureThe Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual ArtsThe Dallas Independent School District is about to do massive damage to its magnet school and learning center programs. The magnets represent the best of the district's academic efforts. The learning cent ... More >>

Eddie Bernice Johnson, Others Taking a Keen Interest In DISD Trustees' Efforts to Gut Magnet Schools and Learning Centers

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice JohnsonThings are popping a bit today on the Dallas Independent School District magnet schools front.Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson's office confirms that Johnson is talking to the U.S. Department of Education seeking "clarification" of its current position on Title ... More >>

Sooner Than Later, DISD Trustees Will Run Out of Legal Excuses They Can Hide Behind

Ben BarlowI spoke this morning with Ben Barlow, the Fort Worth attorney for the Dallas Independent School District system who had informed me yesterday that no waivers were available under existing law for Dallas's magnet schools facing severe budget cuts under federal Title I funding rules. The ... More >>

Go Ahead DISD Trustees. Gut the Magnet Schools. If You Want a City That Aspires to Mediocrity.

Ben BarlowI spoke this morning with Ben Barlow, the Fort Worth attorney for the Dallas Independent School District system who had informed me yesterday that no waivers were available under existing law for Dallas's magnet schools facing severe budget cuts under federal Title I funding rules. The ... More >>

Eddie Bernice Johnson Asks DISD Board to Delay Tonight's Staffing Vote

Eddie Bernice JohnsonThe headline says it all. But this missive, which we just received from Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson's office concerning the fight over funding at Dallas Independent School District's magnet schools and learning centers, says it better. Certainly, longer.Update at 5:15 p. ... More >>

DISD's Attempt to Gut Magnets, Learning Centers Gets Uglier With Every Misstep

Patrick MichelsThe scene outside 3700 Ross Avenue last nightLast night's decision by the Dallas Independent School District's board of trustees to delay voting on budget cuts for the district's enhanced schools was more than just a stall. The debate leading up to that decision shed a little more lig ... More >>

Wherein the DO and the DISD Have a Math-Off Concerning Per-Pupil Expenditures

On Tuesday of this week Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander responded to questions I had asked him last week for my column this week about per-pupil expenditures at high school campuses. Unfortunately, his response by e-mail reached me several days after my deadline had passed ... More >>

A Week After Losing Its Accreditation, the Fate of Paul Quinn College Still Up in the Air

Kimberly ThorpePaul Quinn College president Michael SorrellMore questions than answers remain about the future of Paul Quinn College a week after its president announced the institution's loss of accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Michael Sorrell last Friday explain ... More >>

DISD's Running Full-Speed to Reform Through New West Dallas "School Zone"

Patrick MichelsChartering a new course: Mayor Tom Leppert and DISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa this morning at Dallas City Hall​This morning's mayor's breakfast at City Hall featured a parade of speakers covering the need for big-picture reforms in West Dallas education, the sort of shakeups t ... More >>

For the First Time, The Man Who Blew the Whistle in DISD E-Rate Scandal Talks

Yacht ForumsIt ws Ruben Bohuchot's passion for Post Yachts, like the one seen here, that ultimately let to his downfall at DISD.​Danny Cain does not and never has worked for the Dallas Independent School District. He does not and never has worked for Hewlett Packard. And yet yesterday, two federal ... More >>

In DISD and Across Local Charter Schools, Teach for America's Growing Next Year

​While they were busy voting not to extend their term lengths last Thursday, the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees also made the call to extend the district's partnership with Teach for America, on the heels of the glowing review they heard of TFA's first year-and-a-half here so ... More >>

First, DISD Opened a High School for Over-Age Students. Now, Perhaps, Comes Middle School.

​Lots of interesting items to be found on the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees' briefing agenda for Thursday, and we'll get to 'em in short order -- which is to say, in the order the phone calls are returned on the myriad subjects of interest. But let's begin with this: At its ... More >>

Tiffany Derry Defends For-Profit Culinary Schools

​Dallas chef Tiffany Derry this week dove into the maelstrom surrounding financial assistance at for-profit colleges, arguing in an essay for The Hill that the government is threatening the culinary arts by withholding loans from students enrolled in career schools. The Department of Educatio ... More >>

DISD Splits Townview Center Into "Two Schools" With Two Principals, Not Seven

​The Dallas Independent School District sent word earlier this afternoon: It is splitting the mammoth Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center on E. Eighth Street into two schools -- one devoted to humanities; the other, arts and science. The six magnets housed within Townview, among them the TAG Magnet, t ... More >>

Hinojosa About-Faces on Townview Restructuring, Goes With Parents' Proposal

​Just a few minutes ago, the Dallas Independent School District posted to its Facebook page a lengthy note that says Superintendent Michael Hinojosa has ditched his plan to split Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center into two schools while at the same time eliminating five of its seven principals. Inste ... More >>

Rick Perry, Proving That When When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold

​OK, so just below this item is last night's Saturday Night Live sketch starring the best Rick Perry impersonator yet, Rick Perry. But a lot's happened since then as the Perry camp attempts to salvage the campaign. Like that tweet from the gov you see above. And: the hastily popped-up poll on the ... More >>

Nation's Report Card Shows DISD Students Doing OK in Math, Need Help With Reading

​Moments ago, the National Center for Education Statistics released its so-called Nation's Report Card, wherein the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences rank fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 21 urban districts using math and reading scores. And f ... More >>

In Deion Sanders's Quest for a Charter School, the Whistleblower Turns it Up to 11

​Lawrence Smith has what you might call a bit of a beef with Cowboys great Deion Sanders. And he just took that beef -- what's that phrase? Ah yes. Priiiime tiiiime. A few years back, Smith went into business with Sanders and a businessman named D.L. Wallace on a high-school recruiting direct ... More >>