Gov. Rick Perry has come out in favor of allowing school districts to choose whether to implement a rule requiring that new state assessments count for 15 percent of high school students' final grades.

While skeptics say reporting requirements for state graduation rates contain too many loopholes, other education policy experts say Texas deserves credit for implementing innovative programs to keep students in school.

A few Texas school districts and charters are finalists for funds through a new version of the Obama administration's Race to the Top program. Texas had refused to participate in the program at the state level in 2010, citing concerns over federal intrusion into Texas classrooms.

According to new U.S. Department of Education data, Texas has the fourth-highest graduation rate in the nation. 

Chapter 313, a provision of the state's tax code that allows school districts to use tax cuts to lure large corporations, will expire unless lawmakers act to renew it next year.

The massive trial involving more than two-thirds of the state's school districts and most of its charter schools has been under way for two weeks now — and while the evidence will continue to pour in until January, the arguments of all seven parties, including the state, have taken shape.

Economic and immigration issues remain top concerns in the state, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. 

At a Tuesday hearing, lawmakers discussed giving more discretion to teachers, law enforcement and judges when it comes to dealing with disciplinary violations at schools.

The top 10 percent rule at Texas colleges wasn't all about higher education — it was about the inequities in public schools that are still being litigated today.

State Sen. Dan Patrick says he is ready to champion public schools at the Capitol when the 83rd Legislature convenes in January. Whether the education community is ready to embrace him in that role is another matter.

The scandal in El Paso ISD is the worst to come along under the high-stakes testing regime that rules our schools, but we have no right to act surprised in Texas.

After school district lawyers attacked Texas for underfunding public schools, an attorney for the state shot back, saying that decisions made at the local level — not the state — were to blame for school districts’ failures.

Opening arguments begin Monday in a major school finance case pitting more than 500 school districts against the state in a legal battle that could reshape how money is distributed to classrooms across Texas.

The decision that comes from the school finance trial that will begin on Oct. 22 will set the tone for the next round of reforms. But there’s a separate conversation happening outside the courtroom that could be equally instructive — and indicates funding for schools may face challenges not only at the state but the local level.

Kountze has become the latest setting in a string of lawsuits over where students' rights to religious expression end and the constraints on Texas public schools as governmental entities begin, showing the fine line administrators must walk. 

At the 2012 Texas Tribune Festival, New York Times reporter Manny Fernandez talked about educating the emerging Hispanic majority with Sarita Brown of Excelencia in Education, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD Superintendent Daniel King, South Texas College President Shirley Reed and University of Texas at Brownsville President Juliet Garcia.

A San Antonio district has implemented a pilot program to track students while on campus, having them wear radio frequency identification chips on cards around their neck. Administrators say it's the best way to make sure they get all the state money they're entitled to.

Some consequences of the Legislature's more than $5 billion budget cut to public schools — like a loss of morale and stress levels in the classroom — aren't easily measured. But the pressure on teachers may have more complex origins.