“Not even Jesus could save everybody,” one teacher laments.
Brian Thevenot
Brian Thevenot was an education editor at the Tribune in 2009-10. Previously he 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 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, he won a National Headliner Award for education reporting for his 2002 five-part narrative tracking an eighth-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.
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Public Education
Hijacking History
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.
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Public Education
TribBlog: Washington Monthly vs. Don McLeroy
The venerable D.C. magazine takes on the State Board of Education — and its former chair.
Posted in
Public Education
Data Apps: Best/Worst Public Schools
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.
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Public Education
Dropping In
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.
Posted in
Public Education
An Escape with Few Takers
When public schools fail, students are allowed to transfer to better campuses. But only a tiny fraction ever do.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Super Salaries
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.
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Public Education
TribBlog: Superintendents as Bonus Babies
Mindful of the down economy, more public school districts are paying their superintendents bonuses rather than giving them raises.
Posted in
Public Education
Race to the Bottom Line
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.
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Public Education
TribBlog: El Paso ISD Embraces Honest Grading, Sort Of
The El Paso school board this week dumped a controversial policy requiring teachers to give automatic grades of 50 to students who didn’t earn them. But teachers are still allowed to do so at their discretion.