By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Education research has been a punching bag for decades – largely for good reason. Streams of studies serve up contradictory facts. Anecdotes and hearsay are often as prominent as hard data. And some scholars, motivated by ideology, seem to reach their conclusions before the research even starts. “When […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 41A When the Education Commission of the States moved offices not long ago, Kathy Christie came across an old storage box and a lot of bad memories. “The entire box will filled with nothing but information on state dropout prevention efforts from the 1980s,” said Ms. Christie, vice president […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 41A Not long ago, a woman in her late 20s came up to Paul Cruz, the Laredo school superintendent. She wanted to say thanks. Thanks for the teachers who had taken an interest in her, years after she dropped out of high school. The teachers who had persuaded her […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 23A This time, Lee Jackson got the job. The Dallas County judge had been up for top education posts three times before: twice for superintendent of Dallas’ school system and once for Texas education commissioner. Each time, the job went to someone with more experience in education. But the […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 17A Ten thousand members of America’s largest teachers union are in Dallas this week. But if they start looking for the union label, they could be searching a while. That’s because Texas’ teachers unions are among the nation’s weakest. A combination of state laws and large nonunion competitors has […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Too many teachers make it into American classrooms without knowing the material they’re teaching, according to a new report issued by the U.S. Department of Education. “Smart teachers with solid content knowledge have the greatest effect on student achievement,” said Rod Paige, the secretary of education and former […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Jerry Cook has a PR job to do in the coming months. The Duncanville school superintendent must explain to the public why his district will drop from “recognized” to “acceptable” in the state’s eyes, even though nearly all of its standardized test scores improved this year. “It’s frustrating, […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A After years of preaching the benefits of the state’s school district rating system, officials are considering putting it on hiatus next year. The uncertainties surrounding a new state test debuting next year – the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS – may make judging school districts […]
By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Home-schooled students miss out on many of the traditions of high school life: the football games, the homecoming dance, the high-stakes testing. But they don’t have to miss out on graduation. An increasing number of home-schoolers are opting for caps, gowns, and all the pomp and circumstance of […]
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By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A They came from all over the world – and they brought their diplomas with them. The Texas population boom in the 1990s helped make the state more educated than ever, according to census data released Friday. The Dallas suburbs led the way. “There were significant improvements all across […]