Nearly 130,000 students attend Texas charter schools, but 40,000 more are waiting to get in.
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.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: Texas’ Charter School Law Gets a “D”
The pro-charter National Center for Education Reform cites state’s lack of financial support for facilities, a cap on the number of charters and a restrictive regulatory environment.
Posted in
Higher Education
TribBlog: Facebook is Like, Real, Says UT Study
Researcher finds social networking allows genuine, not idealized, personalities to shine through
Posted in
Health care
The Hidden Food Line
Pending food-stamp applications have soared in Texas — from about 38,000 a year ago to more than 65,000 in October. Two-thirds of those people had waited longer than the federally mandated 30 days, and nearly half had waited more than 60 days.
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: Federal “Takeover” of Texas Schools?
Texas school chief calls requirements to adopt national curriculum standards “unprecedented intrusiveness”
Posted in
Economy
Grading KBH’s Education Plans
Education has emerged as one of the more contentious fronts in the gubernatorial campaign, with Kay Bailey Hutchison this week releasing a barrage of school proposals and attacks on the status quo. But the differences between the candidates have more to do with execution than with design.
Posted in
Economy
Beyond Textbooks and Tests
Hoping to push a wide array of digital content and teaching tools to public schools, the Texas Education Agency has cut a deal with a division of The New York Times for an electronic curriculum portal and searchable access to the newspaper’s content since 1851.
Posted in
Public Education
Charter School Crossroads
Do charter schools outperform traditional public schools? Should they be allowed to expand? Who holds them accountable if they fail? David Dunn, founder of the Texas Charter School Association, explains.
Posted inState Government
Interview with David Dunn on charter schools
David Dunn, former advisor to President Bush and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, has returned home to found the Texas Charter School Association. He takes the tough questions on charter performance, future expansion and accountability for results.
Posted in
Public Education
Soul Search: Race, religion and education in West Dallas
Rev. Rayford Butler watched as the churches of West Dallas slipped into irrelevance and the surrounding community suffered. The hard truth: neighborhood pastors failed to work together, selfishly competing with one another.