Austin ISD chief Meria Carstarphen talks bluntly about the poisonous politics between the state and the district over the bungled “repurposing” of Pearce Middle School (spoiler alert: she blames the state) and how it informs her efforts to reform the city’s failing schools.
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 inState Government
Carstarphen Clip Four
Carstarphen Clip FourTexas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.
Posted inState Government
Carstarphen Clip Two
Carstarphen Clip TwoTexas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.
Posted inState Government
Carstarphen Clip Three
Carstarphen Clip ThreeTexas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.
Posted inState Government
Carstarphen Clip One
Carstarphen Clip OneTexas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here.
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: SBOE = State Beatniks of Education
State Board of Education conservatives stand up for the sex-and-drugs Beat Generation, but still can’t stomach the sex-and-drugs Hip-Hop generation.
Posted in
Higher Education
“We’re Outnumbered”
At Thursday’s State Board of Education meeting, as conservatives had their way with social studies standards, voting to limit the discussion of race and gender issues and to challenge the notion of separation of church and state, Democratic members were left to sulk and seethe — and walk out.
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: SBOE Rejects Church-State Wall (Updated)
America never barred “the government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion above all others,” according to board conservatives.
Posted in
Public Education
The SBOE Gets Medieval
When State Board of Education members ventured into world history curriculum at Wednesday’s meeting, they carried their modern-day political agendas with them.
Posted in
Public Education
TribBlog: TEA Rips Fox News
“Highly inaccurate” news reports on changes to the social studies standards raised the ire of conservatives.
