For the past six days, the Dallas Independent School District has been hosting “community meetings” on campuses deemed academically unacceptable by the Texas Education Agency — 33 in all, based, of course, on last school year’s TAKS scores. Tonight’s meeting will be held at North Dallas High School, one of…
Spend this morning learning how to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen — by filtering it through algae, duh. Thanks, Param Jaggi! No, seriously. Thanks. The Plano East Senior High School senior’s a genius. Says so right here, in the latest issue of Popular Science, in which he was named one…
As timing would have it, our 8-year-old entered third grade just as the state’s rolling out the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test, which, of course, replaces the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test, which also turned 8 this year. That means his mom and I…
For a split second in the second quarter, SMU was this close to tying up A&M, 20-20. Backup QB J.J. McDermott, subbed in after Kyle Padron tossed two picks in four pass attempts, had a man open with nothing but open field in front of him. But the pass sailed…
At its August 11 board briefing, Michael Casserly, executive director of the D.C.-based Council of the Great City Schools, told the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees: It could be a good, long while till you find a suitable replacement for Michael Hinojosa. Casserly, invited by board president Lew…
You probably noticed: It’s been quite the last few days for the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees, what with the board president Lew Blackburn being compared to Idi Amin by a speaker at the last boarding meeting, and trustee Carla Ranger resigning and then, a few days later,…
On Friday, Dallas Independent School District trustee Carla Ranger posted a note to her blog saying that she was resigning. She didn’t say why. We speculated instead. But, no, she’s not leaving. Not now.”I’ve heard overwhelmingly from the community and constituents who have asked me to stay, and I am…
[Update at 4:53 p.m.: As far as the district is concerned, Carla Ranger has not formally resigned because has not delivered “written notice, signed by the Board member, to the presiding officer of the Board,” per resignation policy. An email is not considered a resignation letter. There will also need…
After our back-to-back items about redistricting last night — one involving the city of Dallas, one concerning the Dallas Independent School District — I received a missive from Bill Betzen, about whom Anna wrote a couple of weeks back as his proposed map for the city’s new council districts worked…
Speaking of contentious redistricting …A little while ago, the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees was treated to its own redistricting drama courtesy the public speakers lined up, for the most part, behind trustee Carla Ranger, who has accused board president Lew Blackburn of wanting “to take by force”…
Speaking of the DISD board of trustees’ meeting agenda for Thursday night …Here’s an item of interest: Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve Amendment to Board Policy BJCG (Local) Superintendent Retirement or Resignation (First Reading), which was initially on the consent agenda but has since been pulled for a…
The Annie E. Casey Foundation just released KIDS COUNT, its annual report on child well-being in every state across the U.S. One of their grantees, the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities, put the report for Texas on its website on Wednesday: The State of Texas Children. So how are…
You can’t swing a mace and chain around Observer HQ without hitting someone who knows what it’s like to fight in a real newspaper war. That Buzz fellow worked in San Antonio back when the Express-News toiled against the Light. Schutze and Wilonsky are both veterans of The Dallas Morning…
How does one explain the follicle-by-follicle perfection of Gov. Rick Perry’s imperturbable man-mane? Where does his mega-watt smile and its rows of pearly whites come from? Braces? No, silly. They come from God. God spoke, and Perry was born a man of uncommon comeliness. That, Friends of Unfair Park, is…
Not so very long ago it looked as though Paul Quinn College on Simpson Stuart Road might not be long for this world, following the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ decision to yank its accreditation. Appeals were made; lawsuits, filed. And the entire time, president Michael Sorrell stood firm,…
Went to look for something on the Dallas Independent School District’s website … only to discover that the DISD has a new website. Trustees got a sneak peek Thursday; it went live moments ago, turns out. It’s certainly a nicer shade of blue than its predecessor. And, I see the…
In July we told you about Dr. David Shorrman, author of The Exchange of Truth: Liberating the World From the Lie of Evolution and a member of the state biology panel making recommendations to the Texas Board of Education. Turns out, Shorrman (pictured to the left) was riding in the…
While Dallas ISD is debating a change to their rules in order to make their campuses more gay-friendly, two local universities have landed, once again, on the Princeton Review’s list of “LGBT Unfriendly” schools. Released last week as part of Princeton Review’s mammoth collection of college rankings, the list ranks…
Last we checked there were around 800 teachers vying for 700 vacancies scattered throughout the Dallas Independent School District. Which, sure, sounds a little odd, given that only a few months ago the district was considering thousands of layoffs due to the state’s decision to gut public education. But truth…
Football coaches, even the high school kind, can be angry men. This is especially true early in the season, when their lives, from their standpoint anyway, are just one big shit salad of false starts and bad reads. Knowing all that, I would have forgiven Patrick Williams, the new coach…
Back in March we took a look at Dallas Independent School District trustee Edwin Flores’s proposal for evaluating the district’s best teachers — an imperative, he said at the time, given the layoffs and buyouts taking place due to the state’s budget shortfall. Turns out, that was bit the tip…
And the hits just keep on coming: One week ago today the Texas Education Agency officially announced that the Dallas Independent School District had more campuses deemed academically unacceptable (33) than exemplary (30) — a radical shift from last year’s stats, thanks in large part to the state doing away…
