Five years after it began, Dallas ISD’s revamping of its early learning strategy appears to be paying dividends, according to a report given Thursday to the district’s board of trustees. Derek Little, the district’s assistant superintendent of early learning, told the board that Dallas students who enroll in pre-K programs are…
Beginning next year, Texas will require nearly all high school seniors to apply for federal financial aid before they graduate, whether they plan on going to college or not. One state to the east, education officials in Louisiana created a similar requirement three years ago. Nearly all high school students…
Last week’s proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could result in more than 300,000 Texans losing food aid. Of those people, many are children who are eligible automatically for free or reduced school lunch because their families receive food stamps. Advocates worry that some of those students will…
Researchers at two Texas universities are launching a project to document investigations into teacher misconduct in the state for the last two decades. David Thompson, a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Catherine Robert, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, are building a…
When the Texas Legislature wrapped up its session in May, lawmakers sent a series of bills to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk designed to put pressure on the state’s colleges and universities to do something about sexual misconduct on their campuses. The new requirements outlined in those bills come at a…
When Texas rolled out its Top 10% Rule in 1997, supporters said it would promote diversity on the state’s college campuses and expand access to students at high schools that don’t typically send students to the state’s top institutions. Two decades later, it appears the program has done none of…
Calls for change are continuing at Texas A&M University a little over a week after a video surfaced online of a student using a series of racist slurs while delivering a fake biology lecture. In the video, the student, who is white, stands in front of a chalkboard, holding a…
Colleges and universities nationwide, including in Texas, are seeing a growing number of instances of white supremacist groups recruiting on their campuses, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League. The 2018-19 academic year marked the third consecutive year of growth in white supremacist campus recruiting across the country,…
For the last two years, colleges and universities nationwide, including in North Texas, have seen fewer international students applying to graduate degree programs. But officials at some North Texas universities say they’re seeing signs that international grad students are beginning to come back. Higher-education officials say a healthy population of international…
With state funding in place, school districts across Texas are now looking at the prospect of expanding their half-day prekindergarten programs to full-day. Dallas ISD made the same change about five years ago. The district offers an example both of what other districts should keep in mind when they expand…
Dallas school officials offered the first glimpse Thursday of a plan to offer raises to teachers in the district. At a budget workshop, officials proposed spending $30.1 million on salary increases for certain teachers and raising the salary for new hires. The proposal calls for increasing the number of distinguished…
The $11.5 billion public education bill passed by the Texas House and Senate last week is proof that Texans are getting smarter, especially those who thought they were already smart, like education reformers. Intently focused for the last two decades on clearing the sludge out of the state’s public school…
A bill that would overhaul Texas’ college credit transfer system is on its way to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. Senate Bill 25 seeks to help students avoid losing course credits when they transfer from community colleges to four-year colleges and universities. Both houses of the Legislature approved the bill last…
Texas’ big three — Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen — effectively ended the state’s 2019 legislative session Thursday, announcing that the Legislature had reached a deal on school finance reform. With the agreement, the Legislature has settled its three biggest priorities for 2019:…
When the University of Texas at Arlington announced last month that it would prohibit its fraternities and sororities from holding social events on campus, it joined a growing list of colleges and universities that are taking action against their Greek organizations. Over the last several years, a number of colleges…
As lawmakers in Austin work out details of a plan to fix the state’s college transfer process, two North Texas institutions are looking to ease that process between their schools. The University of Texas at Arlington and the Dallas County Community College District signed an agreement Friday that they say…
The Texas Senate unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that is designed to make sure college students lose fewer credits when they transfer from one school to another. Senate Bill 25 reorganizes lower-division courses that many students take at community colleges, making it easier for them to predict which ones will…
This week, the Texas House of Representatives is expected to take up its version of a plan to slow the growth of property tax rates statewide. School officials worry that, depending on what version of that plan makes its way to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk, it could mean a major…
Last month after federal sleuths in Massachusetts rolled up 16 well-heeled parents in an alleged college admissions and exam scam that included the University of Texas, four members of the UT-Austin student government proposed that some kind of formal apology be tendered to former UT system regent Wallace Hall of…
Texas is lagging behind other states in the education it offers to its youngest learners, according to a study released Wednesday. But a plan lawmakers are considering to fund full-day prekindergarten statewide could help turn the state’s early learning program in the right direction, one of that study’s authors said…
Texas Tech University’s medical school will no longer consider race as a factor in admissions, as part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center officials signed the agreement in February, but it was first reported this week by the Wall Street Journal…
The Texas Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved its version of a “landmark” budget bill that includes $9 billion in new money for education and property tax relief. That figure mirrors the one put forward in a budget passed last month by the House of Representatives. But the two houses differ…
