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Monday, February 8, 2010

Brian Thevenot Reporter

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Brian Thevenot spent a dozen years at The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, most recently as special projects editor. As part of a team that covered the worst of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, Thevenot contributed multiple bylines to two winning entries for Pulitzer Prizes, in breaking news and public service. His Katrina reporting also won the Mongerson Prize for Investigative Reporting on the News, from Northwestern University, and the Medal of Valor from the National Association of Minority Media Executives. In 2009, an eight-part series Thevenot edited, chronicling the investigation into an all-too-routine murder of a New Orleans teenager, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in local reporting. In 2005, just before Katrina, Thevenot spent a month reporting on Louisiana soldiers in Baghdad, Iraq and produced a three-part deadline narrative about squad of soldiers hit by a deadly roadside bomb, which was a finalist for Livingston Award. In 2003, Thevenot won a National Headliner Award for education reporting for his 2002 five-part narrative tracking an eigth-grader's struggle to pass Louisiana's high-stakes standardized test. Before joining the Times-Picayune, Thevenot worked as a suburban reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Oklahoma City, Thevenot has a degree in journalism from The University of Missouri-Columbia.

bthevenot@texastribune.org
512-716-8622

Recent Contributions

Reform Follows Function

by Brian Thevenot  |  11 hours ago

The federal push for accountability at schools across Texas is running smack into the hard, slow work of improvement at the local level. Should the nearly 160 campuses labeled "persistently lowest-achieving" by the feds fire their principals? Their principals and their teachers? Should they hand the reins over to a charter school operator? Should they simply shut their doors? Or should they do none of those things and turn down what could be millions of dollars in grants from the Obama administration?

Burned Orange

by Brian Thevenot  |  2/3/2010

A clash over a beloved campus music club at UT-Austin portends the gnashing of teeth at schools statewide as a budgetary winter threatens to envelop higher education.

A Matter of Degrees

by Brian Thevenot  |  2/2/2010  |   2

Community colleges pitch themselves as the gateway to prosperity for lower-income students who've been historically shut out of higher education. Trouble is, despite increasing enrollment numbers, few of them graduate.

Charter Churn

by Brian Thevenot  |  1/27/2010

Teachers quit Texas charter schools at nearly three times the rate of traditional public school districts, according to state data. Dozens of individual schools lost well over half their teachers in the latest year.

The Tuition Time Bomb

by Brian Thevenot  |  1/18/2010  |   1

It costs an average of 63 percent more to attend a four-year state school today than it did in 2003 — and that's still not enough to keep pace with bulging university budgets. Some policy makers see the higher education business model on the cusp of collapse.

History Lessened

by Brian Thevenot  |  1/15/2010

On day three of the State Board of Education's social studies curriculum hearings, targets of the conservatives' ire included Marcus Garvey, Clarence Darrow, and Ted Kennedy. 

Civil Civics

by Brian Thevenot  |  1/15/2010  |   1

State Board of Education members played mostly nice with one another Thursday, as they added and subtracted historical figures to the social studies curriculum. In: the first Hispanic Texas Supreme Court justice, Tejanos who died at the Alamo, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Out: "Ma" Ferguson, Henry Cisneros, and Dolores Huerta.

The American History Wars

by Brian Thevenot  |  1/14/2010

As the SBOE grinded through testimony on Wednesday over its controversial social studies standards, much of the debate teetered on two basic fulcrums: teaching vs. indoctrination and patriotism vs. realism.

Hijacking History

by Brian Thevenot  |  1/12/2010  |   10

Was America ordained by God to lead the world? Are our public school students taught enough about the African American and Hispanic experiences? Was Joseph McCarthy an American hero? The always controversial State Board of Education meets this week to take up such questions as it revises Texas' social studies standards.

Data Apps: Best/Worst Public Schools

by Matt Stiles and Brian Thevenot  |  12/23/2009

Find the highest and lowest performers in Texas. Learn why nearly 500 campuses failed to meet minimum standards — and how the state inflated the rankings in the top category. 

Dropping In

by Brian Thevenot  |  12/21/2009

After much hand-wringing by public officials and business leaders over the dropout crisis, a patchwork of last-resort schools and programs has emerged statewide. Gauging their performance is tricky, but there's no question that the students they serve might otherwise be on the street or in jail.

An Escape with Few Takers

by Brian Thevenot  |  12/18/2009

When public schools fail, students are allowed to transfer to better campuses. But only a tiny fraction ever do.

Super Salaries

by Matt Stiles and Brian Thevenot  |  12/17/2009  |   2

School superintendent salary data offers a unique window into the vast diversity of Texas districts, from massive to miniscule, and the way they pay their chief executives. One new trend: Performance pay. 

Race to the Bottom Line

by Brian Thevenot  |  12/11/2009  |   1

The feds want Texas to sign onto a movement toward national education standards in order to get up to $700 million in "Race to the Top" money. Texas officials say our students —and our curriculum — aren't for sale. 

The Charter School Waiting Game

by Brian Thevenot  |  12/9/2009

Nearly 130,000 students attend Texas charter schools, but 40,000 more are waiting to get in.