Dallas County used to be pretty damn proud of how it handled truancy cases. In a 2005 letter to then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, District Attorney Bill Hill wrote with evident satisfaction of the swiftness and ferocity with which students were punished for chronic absenteeism. In 1996, a year after Texas…
We’re certainly not above a little promotion, especially for a good cause. So when we got word that venerable newsman Dan Rather and his grandson Martin wanted to tell us about The Rather Prize, a $10,000 grant to be given to the Texas student or educator who could come up…
The new Dallas school superintendent, Michael Hinojosa, could have done a lot of things to signal he was the new sheriff in town. Reform the teacher pay system. Look at testing. The enemies of the old one, Mike Miles, claimed they were mad about everything, so Hinojosa had everything to…
OK, this is one of those stop, do not pass go moments. The Dallas Morning News published a story yesterday about the University of Texas admissions scandal that was so far off the mark, so wide of the target, so separated from reality that we need to call a halt…
Try this on for size. The University of Texas is back in the soup big-time over its admissions policies, for what will be its second tour before the U.S. Supreme Court. In putting itself there, UT has dragged every other public university and college in the nation back into the…
Maybe it’s because Mike Miles’ cutting ties with Dallas ISD has felt inevitable for so long, but the reaction to his Tuesday-morning resignation has been largely muted, at least in tone, even from his harshest critics. Bill Betzen, a former Dallas ISD teacher who now fancies himself a district watchdog,…
Dallas ISD’s embattled superintendent gave up the fight Tuesday morning, resigning his post after almost three years on the job. In May, Miles survived an attempt by the Dallas ISD board to remove him from his post, but there were signals at the time that he may have held on…
The Dallas ISD School Board saved Anna Brining Monday afternoon. Brining, the principal at Rosemont Elementary school in North Oak Cliff, is popular with parents. When Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles said he wasn’t going to renew her contract at the end of the year, parents protested and some even…
Memo to Dallas ISD teachers: The kids you are teaching have smartphones. They are more than willing to record you. Do not say anything profane or threatening to them when you can’t see their hands. For the second time since the beginning of March, a video of a Dallas instructor…
Three freshman-level tests are all that stand between Texas high school students and graduation after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill loosening the state’s graduation requirements. Seniors must now have passed only three of the five STAAR exams they were previously required to pass — algebra I, algebra II,…
Five of the 10 best high schools in North Texas are in Dallas ISD, Children at Risk, a Houston-based nonprofit says. So are five of the 10 worst. Three of the 10 best middle schools in North Texas are in Dallas ISD. So are seven of the 10 worst. The…
Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles will live to fight another day. During a more than lenthy session of the Dallas ISD board of trustees late Friday, no action was taken with regard to his employment. The board did adopt a “letter of concern” about Miles’ performance, but the details of…
We write so much about how uninsured women get screwed over by Texas lawmakers that we often forget about the women with health insurance. Did you know that some health insurance policies will actually cover an abortion? But maybe not for much longer!…
Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles must face a performance review by school board members before the May 9 board elections, Dallas County District Judge Carl Ginsburg ruled Tuesday. In a case filed by three school trustees against board President Miguel Solis, Ginsburg said Solis’ decision to push the meeting about…
Three Dallas ISD trustees asked separately in February that school board President Miguel Solis schedule a meeting for the board to discuss Superintendent Mike Miles’ performance. Dallas ISD board policy required that Solis honor such a request by placing the item on an agenda within 60 days. Solis interpreted that…
Texas might be about to make it a lot easier to graduate from its public high schools, but three Dallas ISD schools have been ranked among the 15 most challenging in the country by The Washington Post. See also: Graduating from Texas High Schools Is about to Get a Lot…
In 2013, Texas lawmakers made it a lot easier for high school seniors to graduate. This year, the legislature is set to do it again. Before the 2013 changes, seniors would have had to pass 15 end-of-course exams to graduate. That was too much, the House and Senate decided, so…
Dallas ISD will extend the school day, offer thousands of dollars in relocation incentives to staff and install new grading policies in an effort to close the achievement gap at six district schools deemed “Improvement Required” campuses by the Texas Education Agency,. Beginning with the fall 2015 semester, instructors classified…
Levi Pettit is sorry. The Highland Park grad, one of two University of Oklahoma students expelled this month for leading their Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brothers in a racist chant, spoke to reporters at Fairview Baptist Church in Oklahoma City after a closed-doors meeting with community leaders. “There is no…
Hey, can I just ask something? Dallas ISD trustees are slated to discuss a proposal barring pay-outs to terminated or otherwise departing employees unless those settlements have been voted on and approved by the school board. The political message is that the administration has been paying people settlements when it…
Tuesday, after a couple dozen kids came home sick on Monday, DISD cancelled school at Lakewood Elementary. Areas at the school — specifically an art classroom — contained high levels of carbon monoxide, enough to make kids in the class complain of stomach aches and dizziness. A retired teacher who…
A teacher at Dallas ISD’s Oliver W. Holmes Middle School, identified by students as Sgt. Griffin, is in trouble after a student recorded his highly motivational rant about his students’ test scores and lack of decorum in the classroom. He says “fuck” a bunch of times, and the whole thing…
