Texas Education Agency Commissioner Robert Scott received a standing ovation today after he told a gathering of public school educators that the state testing system has become a “perversion of its original intent.”
Morgan Smith
Morgan Smith was a reporter at the Tribune from 2009 to 2018, covering politics, public education and inequality.
In 2013, she received a National Education Writers Association award for “Death of a District,” a series on school closures. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Wellesley College, she moved to Austin in 2008 to enter law school at the University of Texas.
A San Antonio native, her work has also appeared in Slate, where she spent a year as an editorial intern in Washington D.C.
Posted inPublic Education
Slideshow: A School Without Sports
In a state where the football field is hallowed turf, Premont ISD has suspended all athletics — including football — to improve its struggling finances.
Posted in
Public Education
Texas District Suspends Sports to Stay Afloat
In a daring and rare move in a state where the football field is hallowed turf, a superindent has suspended all athletics to help his South Texas district improve its struggling finances.
Posted in
Public Education
Schools Find Many Ways to Adapt Grades to Test
This year, for the first time, students’ scores on standardized tests will count 15 percent toward their final grades. It sounds straightforward, but how some districts are applying the so-called 15 percent rule threatens to spark the next political battle over a test that has seen plenty of them.
Posted in
Public Education
Texas Museums Seeing Fewer School Children, Dwindling Dollars
Cultural institutions that once counted on revenue from student field trips are feeling the hit of the state’s multibillion-dollar education cuts.
Posted inState Government
N.H. Debate Take Two: Perry, Paul Struggle for Relevance
Both came ready to brawl. But neither Gov. Rick Perry nor U.S. Rep. Ron Paul managed to nudge Mitt Romney out of the limelight at this morning’s debate.
Posted inState Government
Perry Hits Stride in Iowa, But It May Be Too Late
As his bus tour rolls to a stop and his campaign readies for the critical Iowa caucuses on Tuesday, the Texas governor appears to be hitting his stride after months of bumbles.
Posted inState Government
In Iowa, Perry Bus Tour Makes Last Stops of 2011
After the last two scheduled stops of his tour today, Gov. Rick Perry made an impromptu visit to a local precinct leader and knocked on a few doors in a West Des Moines neighborhood.
Posted inState Government
Perry’s Cowboy Boots? They’re on the Bus
Amid renewed attacks on Rick Santorum today, Gov. Rick Perry answered a question that’s been on many minds since July: the whereabouts of his signature cowboy boots.
Posted in
Economy
As San Antonio Grows, So Does Its Confidence
In the last decade, companies have flocked to San Antonio, making it an economic center rivaling Houston and Dallas, and rattling the Alamo City’s pre-existing inferiority complex.
