DISD schools: still not great, but not that bad if you look at other really big districts. So says a report issued by the Bush library and Mayor Mike Rawlings that compares achievement and disciplinary stats across the country’s biggest urban districts. The mission of the reports is described as…
From its beginning last fall, the narrative of the Great Highland Park Book Ban — and I think all spectators can agree that it’s been great — has been about sex. This is understandable. Almost all great book-ban fights are about sex — about when kids should be exposed to…
Monday’s news that Prime Prep Superintendent Ron Price is resigning at the end of January marked the beginning of the end (for real this time, we think) of Deion Sanders’ troubled charter school. His resignation was followed with an announcement from state officials that the Texas Education Agency is appointing…
There was a time, late last year, when someone actually tried to fire Deion Sanders from Prime Prep Academy, the charter school he co-founded. That brave someone was the school’s then-superintendent, an educator unrelated to Prime Time named Rachel King Sanders. At a school unofficially run by some of Deion…
In July, all of the TRUTH-haters in the media reported that Deion Sanders’ disaster of charter school was being “shut down.” But we were wrong. Prime Prep is still open and participating in sports. Not only that, Prime Prep has proudly become the only school in the country to equip…
Update: December 18, 3:28 p.m.: Governor Perry has announced that he will decline having the building named after him. “Upon deep reflection, I have informed the Board of Regents of my decision to politely decline this great honor. I do so because certain places on this campus, like our most…
Providing yet another reason for me to be thankful I never have to attend another day of primary school, The Dallas Morning News’ Matthew Haag enumerated a little of what’s on DISD’s controversial exams for elective courses in elementary school Thursday afternoon. They are tough. The list is littered with…
The Texas UIL’s system of determining high school athletic eligibility has meted out another dose of its strange justice. Gabrielle Gregory, a junior point guard at Irving MacArthur and a four-star recruit who’s made a verbal commitment to Kansas State, has been sidelined for the first weeks of the season…
It was never going to be easy for Kimball to win its fourth state basketball title in five years. The heart of last year’s team, 6-foot-7-inch small forward D’Angelo Allen, was gone for University of Missouri. Gone, too, was longtime Kimball Coach Royce “Snoop” Johnson, who was fired in the…
Boston is the smartest large city in the United States, according to a new study from New Geography. Dallas did not fare nearly as well. The numbers behind the rankings are straightforward. Weight is given to the number of college graduates in each of the Census Bureau’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas…
Duncanville ISD thought it was getting a great deal when, one year ago this month, it switched electric providers and signed on with the State Power Program through the state’s General Land Office. Just like that, Duncanville ISD’s price-per-kilowatt hour dropped almost 20 percent, from 7.3 cents to a maximum…
On Tuesday, the State Board of Education met for the final hearing on the adoption of new social studies textbooks. The board intended to cast the first vote on the textbooks, with the final vote scheduled for Friday. But after hours of impassioned testimony from both the right and the…
Last week, Highland Park ISD released its updated high school reading list. The list provided titles required for in-class reading, optional outside reading and the passive aggressive list of “approved” but not taught in the classroom reading. Students will have to get parental permission to read six books on the…
Vinita Hegwood, the Duncanville High School English teacher whose profane tweet aimed at “dumb duck ass crackers” went viral on conservative social media, has resigned, she announced Thursday afternoon. Hegwood was suspended without pay in anticipation of her being fired after her Friday night tweet went viral…
Dallas ISD has, for the moment at least, put last spring’s athletic-recruiting scandal behind it. The 15 coaches and administrators Superintendent Mike Miles fired over the summer have exhausted their appeals. Madison High School’s 2012-13 and 2013-14 basketball titles have been vacated. There’s a new athletic director and, the district…
For the first time since 2002, the Texas State Board of Education is considering the adoption of new social studies textbooks. The books must incorporate 2010 state social studies standards, which have been criticized as right-wing biased and blatantly conservative. See also: Proposed Texas Social Studies Textbooks Get Climate Change…
On Tuesday morning, right after an African-American principal and an African-American superintendent had finished predicting a great future for East Dallas’ Lee Elementary and its new International Baccalaureate program, a woman buttonholed DISD trustee Mike Morath. After a few complimentary words about Morath’s efforts on behalf of the campus, she…
The neighborhoods surrounding Dallas ISD’s Robert E. Lee Elementary are much like the neighborhoods surrounding nearby Stonewall Jackson and Lakewood Elementary. That is, they are predominately white and upper middle class, with just a touch of East Dallas crunchiness. But while Stonewall and Lakewood bulge with kids from the neighborhood,…
In Dallas ISD, early childhood education has been a major push in the last year. It’s a move that administrators believe could one day in the future lower soaring poverty rates in a district where free and reduced lunch rates have steadily creeped toward 90 percent in recent years, and…
Vinita Hegwood, a Duncanville High School English teacher, has some strong opinions about white people, especially as it relates to what’s happened in Ferguson, Missouri. Friday night, she decided to share some of them. “Who the fuck made you dumb duck ass crackers think I give a squat fuck about…
It’s far too early to render judgment on Superintendent Mike Miles’ school-choice initiative. Eventually, he wants to open nearly three dozen specialized campuses that offer an alternative to neighborhood schools but aren’t as selective as magnets. Thus far, he’s opened just one: Mata Montessori, just south of White Rock Lake…
When it comes to reporting weapons in schools, kids are often each others’ best watchdogs. In light of the recent Washington high school shooting, and the school shootings in recent years at Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech and Columbine, police departments across the country are constantly brainstorming new ways to decrease…
