U.S. Department of Education

Dallas ISD Cuts Ties with Two More Tutoring Companies Caught Breaking the Rules

More than a year after its fight became public, Dallas ISD is still struggling to cut ties with unscrupulous tutoring companies it's required to contract with under federal law. A report set to be delivered Thursday to the board of trustees details the Texas Education Agency's findings against two ... More >>

UT-Arlington Fined for Misreporting Crime Data

SMU has come under fire in recent months for its "non-adversarial" process for handling on-campus sexual assaults, but it's the actions of another local university that have earned censure from the federal government. The U.S. Department of Education just levied an $82,500 fine against the Universi ... More >>

Texas Is Leading the Nation in Number of Cases of Student-Teacher Sex

News came out yesterday that former Spring Branch ISD high school teacher Kathanna Culp, 28, is accused of having sex with one of her students and of supplying him and his friends with pot and alcohol. This follows last month's story about a Dallas teacher Jessica Guilbeaux, 31, accused of sleeping ... More >>

Checkmate

Prosecutors team with debt collectors to terrorize consumers in ways both highly profitable and usually illegal.

Feds Say ATI's For-Profit Colleges Created Fake Jobs, Companies to Rip Off Students and the Government

ATI Career Training Center is the type of school you see advertised on daytime TV. It prepares its graduates for "rewarding careers" in "fields such as health care, personal fitness and wellness, business technology, information technology, automotive repair, air conditioning and refrigeration repai ... More >>

Report: Don't Major in the Humanities, You Broke Idiot

A new report submitted to the Texas Legislature says that Texans who earn their bachelor's degrees in the humanities have higher levels of debt and lower earning potential than people who get degrees in math and science-related fields. In 2010, the majors with the highest rates of unemployment were ... More >>

A Prayer for Pinkston: SMU, DISD Team Up to Go Cradle-to-Career in West Dallas

By most measures, LG Pinkston High School is failing. The school, which neighbors Fish Trap Lake in a poor area of West Dallas, has higher dropout rates, lower graduation rates, and lower test scores than the rest of Dallas ISD. It is considered academically unacceptable by the state and has been fo ... More >>

How to Cut the Price of Higher Ed: Don't Pay It

So Teresa Sullivan, the president who didn't cut costs at the University of Virginia, got her job back anyway. Meanwhile making the rounds of newspaper op-ed pages is an essay by Jeff Selingo, editorial director of The Chronicle of Higher Education, saying the way to get college costs down is more ... More >>

Now We're Really Screwed: Asians Are America's Fastest-Growing Immigrant Group

Oh, damn. Now white people are going to have to defend themselves on a second front. First it was the Mexicans swarming into the country and out-working us. Now the Asians are coming here in droves and out-smarting us. What's left for whites? Bowling? The big news in immigration today is a new Pew ... More >>

Former DISD Administrator Pleads Guilty to Test Fraud in El Paso

Back in 2004, just after Superintendent Mike Moses leaped from DISD with his golden parachute, Lorenzo Garcia, the district's chief of instructional services, was a hair's breadth away from becoming interim superintendent. Maybe not a hair's breadth, since the board of trustees voted down his nomina ... More >>

The Gay Selma

Schools ignore gay bullying at their own peril

Commission Recommends DISD Get Rid Of Metal Detectors. But Do They Work?

As Matthew Haag noted yesterday over at the Morning News' education blog, DISD's Citizen Budget Review Commission made several recommendations at last week's board briefing for how the district might cut costs. The most eye-catching: consider getting rid of metal detectors in middle and high school ... More >>

Mark Cuban Tackles America's Student Loan Bubble, Then Roots for It to Burst

In addition to sports team ownership and a sideline in media impresario-ness, Mark Cuban is quite the blogger: dishing out advice to the Occupy movement, fulminating about patent law, apologizing for some casual homophobia. And a few days ago, he aired his views on the small matter of student loan d ... More >>

Republican Senate Candidates Are Politically Identical

Still deciding who to favor among the Republican candidates vying for nomination to the U.S. Senate? Might as well play eenie, meenie, miney, mo, or choose based on favorite color or music preference, because politically, they're practically the same. Tom Leppert, Senate candidate and former Dallas ... More >>

In Dallas ISD, Algebra for (Almost) Everyone on the Bridge Over the Opportunity Gap

Make no mistake: The achievement gap is still a seemingly uncrossable gorge, and minority students in Dallas and across the country are still pretty much hosed. But in a few key areas at least, black and Latino students are slightly less hosed here than they are in other large, urban school district ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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

John Wiley Price, You've Been Schooled

Will Clarke Still Getting Rhode Hard and Put Up Wet

Higher Learning

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

Mavs Man Is Now a Bush Man

Brad Davis for President. Or Not.

Sully in the White House

Schoolhouse Dynamite

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

Gutless coup

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

Buzz

Too Smart For Their Own Good

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

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

Dick Armey will eat his lunch.

Events for the week