Author: jbenton

By Colleen McCain Nelson and Joshua Benton Staff Writers Page 25A Dallas Independent School District officials said Wednesday that they are investigating allegations of cheating on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills at Onesimo Hernandez Elementary School. Dr. William J. Webster, deputy superintendent for evaluation and accountability, said DISD officials have begun interviewing students, staff […]

Read More… from DISD investigates cheating allegations; Students reportedly received answers to TAAS questions, cash for passing

By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Dallas students scored better than ever on this year’s Texas Assessment of Academic Skills, an improvement that could cut the number of schools with the state’s lowest rating by more than half, district officials said Thursday. The turnaround also could double the number of Dallas schools that receive […]

Read More… from Dallas sees turnaround on TAAS; Scoring gains may raise schools’ state ratings

By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 27A It was 1985, and principal Bob Densmore was presiding over the graduation ceremony at J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson. A senior, apparently overcome with glee, decided to do a cartwheel off the stage after accepting his diploma. He picked the wrong principal to mess with. “I told […]

Read More… from A prankless task: Principals have a few tricks of their own to thwart would-be clowns in caps and gowns

By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Attention, amusement park owners: Expect a lot more late-summer business next year than you’re used to. The Legislature is poised to push the start of school back a few weeks each fall, freeing up more time for late-summer beachcombing and trips to the Grand Canyon. But many school […]

Read More… from Later school start draws dirty looks; Districts want to set own calendars

By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Well-practiced from years of Texas Assessment of Academic Skills testing, the state’s eighth-graders beat out most of their domestic competition in a test of math skills, a study released Wednesday said. But they fell below the national average in science, leading some teachers to argue that the state’s […]

Read More… from Texans ace math, lag in science; Teachers say test results show that some subjects virtually ignored

By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 25A When they dropped their last monthly checks in the mail, North Texans probably thought they’d gotten through the worst of this winter’s sky-high utility bills. But the legacy of those bills could affect taxpayers for longer than they expected. Public schools and universities are reeling from how much […]

Read More… from Energy bills draining schools; Districts scrambling to conserve in effort to maintain budgets

By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1A Annie Quasnitschka has been a successful student at L.D. Bell High School in Hurst. She’s mulling admission offers from three quality universities in the Northeast. But don’t expect her to be too stressed about schoolwork while she makes up her mind. “I guess we’d have to study more […]

Read More… from The year of living idly: With early college acceptance in hand, high school seniors find they have a license to coast

By Joshua Benton Staff Writer Page 1J Shortly after Bob Chase was elected president of the National Education Association in 1996, he outlined his ideas for what he called “a new unionism.” His plan, which stressed collaboration and improving the quality of America’s schools through reform, was aimed in part at combating the decades-old stereotypes […]

Read More… from Q&A: Bob Chase, President, National Education Association