By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A As long as universities continue to use Social Security numbers to identify students, there will be crimes like last week’s computer hacking at the University of Texas, experts say. “I am 100 percent opposed to any college using Social Security numbers that way,” said Jay Foley, director of […]
By Todd J. Gillman Staff Writer Page 22A WASHINGTON – Texas teachers rounded up enough friends Wednesday to stop Congress from closing a loophole that lets them change jobs for one day in order to collect both Social Security and a teacher’s pension. Texans covered by the state’s teacher retirement system generally can’t collect Social […]
Page 23A Texas is one week into the TAKS era, and already there has been a snag. About 5,000 copies of Tuesday’s third-grade Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills repeated the same question. The error occurred on one of the 56 versions of the reading test distributed to students. The versions all feature the same […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Sherri Corum knows what fear looks like in the eyes of a third-grader. “On test day, some of them come in with this blank look on their face,” said Ms. Corum, a third-grade teacher at Plano’s Weatherford Elementary. “You can tell they’re scared they might not do well.” […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 25A The weather has done what a million hopeful students could not: stop the TAKS test. Temporarily, at least. Tuesday was supposed to be the debut of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills in Texas – and across much of the state, it was. But more than 100 […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A A new hurdle to high school graduation goes up on Tuesday. That’s the day 11th-graders will take the first Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. State estimates say almost 150,000 of them could fail the test. Starting next school year, students will be required to pass it to […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A One in an occasional series SAN ANTONIO – David Robinson looms large wherever he goes. Being a 7-foot-1-inch multimillionaire and one of the most famous centers in basketball history will do that to a man. But to an 8-year-old getting a world-class education because of his generosity, he’s […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 19A It can be easy for children who can’t speak English to get pushed to a school’s margins. Texas’ new federal accountability system will make that a lot more difficult. The new system, partially unveiled last week, puts unprecedented pressure on schools to look after students whose command of […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 12A After-school programs – touted as a way to bring up test scores and keep children out of trouble – do little to help kids academically, according to a new federal study released Monday. They might even encourage bad behavior. Partially as a result of the study’s findings, the […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 7A When Columbia fell out of the sky Saturday morning, the spirits of Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch fell with it. The West Texas ranch has been taking in at-risk children since 1939, and Amarillo native Rick Husband volunteered to carry one of the school’s banners into space when he […]