Four months back, Dallas Independent School District trustee Carla Ranger directed our attention to a a study by UT-Austin Assistant Professor of Educational Policy and Planning Julian Vasquez Heilig that questioned whether Highland Park High School grad Wendy Kopp’s Teach for America was the success story it claims. Ranger also…
Remember two years ago, when there was all that ruckus over Dallas Independent School District trustees trying to extend their terms — from three years to four? But a single trustee said: No way, no how. (Right — it was Carla Ranger.) And remember how, in April 2009, Texas Attorney…
When we first looked at the Dallas Independent School District’s proposed anti-bullying policy one month ago, it was a brief two-page document intended, as trustee Edwin Flores said at the time, to be more “comprehensive” than the existing student code of conduct. But for some, the so-called “Freedom of Bullying”…
The Dallas Bar Association’s eighth annual Community Symposium for Justice in Education is ongoing today at the Belo Mansion, but a break for lunch offered a chance for Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa to share his thoughts on the state of things. The reason the district was in…
Nate Newton has lost almost 200 pounds. His son, Tre, has lost his interest in playing football. Tre, a running back at Texas, decided this week to give up football in part because of numerous concussions. The sophomore missed last week’s loss to Oklahoma State after sustaining a concussion in a loss…
Bike-riding the few blocks to F.P. Caillet Elementary back in the day was certainly no big deal — it certainly wasn’t revolutionary, it certainly wasn’t news. It’s how we got to school. Flash-forward three decades, and our neighborhood — same one in which I grew up — stages a Bike…
Back in February, we took a long, hard look at the 107-year-old Davy Crockett School on Carroll Avenue, a designated city historic landmark since 1993. Long story short: The Dallas Independent School District shipped its students to Ignacio Zaragoza Elementary in ’89, repurposed the building as administrative offices, and, about…
During my 90-minute FOX stopdown last night — still having a hard time getting around to Running Wilde, which is a decided fall-season disappointment — there were copious teases for the 9 p.m. news recap of the James Martin High School lip dub featuring everyone at the ginormous school. Alas,…
Speaking of the Dallas Independent School District …This morning, The New York Times — or, more to the point, The Times via its new-found relationship with the Texas Tribune and, in this instance, a partnership with the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Columbia University — looks at…
There are countless studies that show children who get a full day of pre-kindergarten fare better than kids who only get partial-day instruction. Take, for instance, this ’06 National Institute for Early Education Research look-see, Is More Better? The Effects of Full-Day vs. Half-Day Preschool on Early School Achievement. (Spoiler…
Earlier this week, Robert wrote about state Rep. Eric Johnson’s October 28 letter to Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, in which Johnson wondered whether the district had exhausted all its options for building a new O.M. Roberts Elementary. Johnson also wondered, by the way, whether the DISD wouldn’t…
On November 20, 2008, only weeks after it came to light the Dallas Independent School District had come up with a sudden shortfall of $64 million, the district hired Austin ISD’s chief financial officer, Larry Throm, as its new moneyman in charge. Said DISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa in a press…
Exactly two months ago, it appeared as though the Dallas Independent School District was backing off its intentions to seize via eminent domain houses in Jubilee Park to make way for a new-and-improved O.M. Roberts Elementary. On August 12, the district informed Pat Berry, owner of Vickery Wholesale Greenhouse, that…
Maybe you’ve heard: Tomorrow the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees will vote on a proposal that will allow district higher-ups — which is to say, employees at the executive director level or higher — to live outside DISD’s boundaries. And, yes, that would even include the superintendent. Per…
Speaking of the Bush Institute …Its new director for education reform, Kerri Briggs, has been on the job for about two weeks now, after abruptly leaving her old job as D.C.’s state superintendent of education — jumping ship from lame-duck mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration almost a month before school chancellor…
I was looking for something entirely unrelated on Flickr yesterday when I stumbled across a cache of illustrations by the great Justin Claus Harder, who counts among his clients Disney, Cartoon Network, The Fray and, once upon a time, something called the Dallas Observer. As it turned out, the artwork’s…
A handful of Dallas Independent School District gatheredn the old board room at 3700 Ross this morning to poke at a question with big implications: How can the district get the most of its new partnerships charter schools, possibly even next school year? Born out of April’s West Dallas “School…
D.C.-based Afterschool Allliance wondered: What are America’s kids doing after the 3 p.m. school bell rings? Survey says: Only 15 percent of students nationwide are involved in some kind of afterschool program. That’s a small number. And Dallas comes in below the national average:Only 30,000 children in Dallas (14 percent)…
Photos by Danny FulgencioAt Kimball Friday afternoon, a pep rally with Common, at right, turned into a improved dance, dance revolution.On Friday, our own Danny Fulgencio was at Justin Kimball High School for what he reports was: Best. Pep. Rally. Ever. The reason: The Knights received a surprise visit from…
For the last three years, David and Shannon Croft have tried to excise the phrase “one state under God” from the Texas Pledge of Allegiance, four words added in the summer of ’07. The couple had kids at Rosemeade Elementary School in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, and the self-proclaimed “humanists”…
Yesterday we spoke with Dallas Independent School District trustee Edwin Flores about a proposed policy before the board tomorrow: “Freedom from Bullying.” Which is great news, says the Resource Center Dallas. But the center’s higher-ups believe the bullying policy doesn’t go far enough, especially when it comes to protecting gay,…
While we’re on the subject, perhaps some required reading?On Thursday, the Dallas Independent School District’s board of trustees will take a closer look at a proposed policy: “Freedom from Bullying.” District officials say this morning it was an idea proposed, separately, by trustees Edwin Flores and Bernadette Nutall; Flores tells…
