In May 2009, Highland Park High School grad Wendy Kopp’s Teach for America — which gives recent college grads a five-week crash course in teaching before dropping them in low-income urban and rural schools — sent close to 100 rookies to Dallas. DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa celebrated their arrival in…
A Friend of Unfair Park points out that William M. Tsutsui started his new gig yesterday as the dean of SMU’s Dedman College. OK, then. But then I read the release and discovered that the Princeton-, Harvard- and Oxford-educated Tsutsui is “a specialist in the business, environmental and cultural history…
Three years ago, or shortly before the Dallas Independent School District introduced its “effort-based” grading policy, the school board reminded teachers: They were not to give students a grade lower than a 50 for any one grading period. As the great Kent Fischer noted, “The reason given was that students…
Since March, Brett Ferdinand — till days ago, a senior at Cedar Park High School outside of Austin — has been among six students blogging for The New York Times about their efforts to get into college. Most of the stories aren’t especially extraordinary — most, in fact, are about…
At this late date is there really any reason to go back and retell the tale of the Ghost of War on Christmas Past? You remember this, right? Kids at Plano Independent School District elementary schools pass out “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” pencils and Christian-flavored candy canes…
Seems we weren’t the only ones following the case of the Institute for Creation Research v. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; so too was The Chronicle of Higher Education, which alerts our attention to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks handed down Friday that has closed the case…
The University of Texas at Austin sends word today that it’s partnering with Dallas-based Education is Freedom — the beneficiary of Mayor Tom’s fund-raiser at the Dallas Zoo on June 26 — on a pilot program intended to “support students who might not otherwise consider the university as an option.”…
The latest Newsweek ranking of Best High Schools in the U.S. of A. is out, and, yet again, The School for the Talented and Gifted at the Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center is at the very tippy-top. And it’s joined by eight other Dallas schools — though one’s Highland…
We’re not surprised that Vince Young was in a Dallas strip club (Onyx) at 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning. We’re not surprised that he was slapped with a citation by police after getting involved in a scuffle. And, considering the kukoos that have played at the University of Texas, we’re not…
At the Dallas Independent School District board meeting two weeks ago, the trustees held off on voting yea or nay on Superintendent Michael Hinojosa’s plan to open an over-age high school in the 2010-’11 school year. Most agree that, yes, it’s probably a very good thing to put, say, college-age…
There are a couple of comments worth pulling out frrom yesterday’s item about Dallas Independent School District’s $23 million budget surplus. Among ’em: Mike MacNaughton, founding member of Dallas Friends of Public Education, recaps yesterday’s budget briefing at Albert Sidney Johnston Elementary School. Following Chief Financial Officer Larry Throm’s PowerPoint,…
The Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees will receive yet another briefing on the 2010-’11 budget Thursday — here’s that PowerPoint for those who like to get head starts on such things. But today, the district sends word that this year’s budget wraps up with a … this can’t…
We said it just last week: The Texas Education Agency won’t release its 2010 Accountability Ratings till the end of July, which hasn’t stopped the Dallas Independent School District from spreading the good news concerning a fifth straight year of improved TAKS scores and additional schools being added to the…
When Patrick checked in with the Jubilee Park residents last week, we reported that just because the Dallas Independent School District had called for a “time-out” of sorts while it looks at other possible alternative sites for a new site for O.M. Roberts Elementary, one group of home- and business-owners…
Like I said last Thursday, the Texas Education Agency would probably prefer it if the Dallas Independent School District held off on announcing school ratings based on TAKS scores till, ya know, July 30, when the TEA officially releases its 2010 Accountability Ratings. But school’s out in a few days,…
The Dallas Independent School District’s designs on land around O.M. Roberts Elementary School may be on a time-out for the next six months, but the folks who stand to lose their homes and jobs aren’t stepping down their protest. They staged yet another protest outside 3700 Ross Ave. last night…
So, if you’ve got a child in the Dallas Independent School District, as I do, and he or she comes home this afternoon with the wowee-zowee good news that their campus has been ranked, oh, let’s just say exemplary by the Texas Education Agency, don’t get too excited just yet…
Friend of Unfair Park Kyle Rains was kind enough to send us this photo he took of the great Burton Gilliam last night at the Woodrow Wilson High School Senior Dinner, which was held at the Lakewood Theater. The co-star of, among others, Blazing Saddles, Back to the Future III,…
Surely you’re aware that down in Austin at this very moment, the State Board of Education is getting ready to vote on changes to the social studies curriculum taught in public schools. And if a few members of the SBOE get their way (S’up, Cynthia Dunbar? How’s it hangin’, Don…
Speaking of the city’s $131.1-million shortfall …That very subject came up last night at the first DISD Budget Town Hall Meeting held at Walnut Hill Elementary, where school district staffers, principals and board members far outnumbered parents. (There were, maybe, 10 people in the audience not employed by the district.)…
Last we mentioned Uplift Education’s planned “museum” school, the growing charter school network already had the name and start date all picked out, and was even inviting students to apply online. Only one big question mark left to sort out before Laureate Preparatory’s Fall 2010 debut: where to put the…
A Friend of Unfair Park asks that we take a long look at this item posted a few days ago to the legal-eagle blog Above the Law: “SMU Will Pay You To Hire Their Graduates.” You read that right: The SMU Dedman School of Law has started a program called…
