Texas Education Agency

With Change in Formula, School Ratings Drop Precipitously

By Morgan Smith July 29, 2011

The new accountability ratings released Friday for public school campuses in the state's 1,228 districts and charter schools are markedly lower from the ratings given last year. Full Story

Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera
Anxiety Over STAAR Persists as New School Year Looms

By Kelsey Sheridan July 29, 2011

A new standardized testing system will replace the TAKS exam this year, and as Kelsey Sheridan of KUT News reports, the switch to more difficult tests comes as schools are already grappling with reduced budgets. Full Story

Credit: Shannan Muskopf
Change in Ratings Protocol Worries Some Schools

By Morgan Smith July 25, 2011

This will be the first year school accountability ratings will not contain a mechanism that, for some schools, had boosted their scores and led to higher ratings. Now they'll have to explain to parents what the change means for their kids. Full Story

Credit: Callie Richmond
Cargill: Peacemaker or Culture Warrior?

By Morgan Smith July 20, 2011

Supporters say the new chairwoman of the State Board of Education is a mild-tempered, fair leader who is well suited to oversee the fractious board. Her critics say she is a culture warrior who injects her religious and political agenda into classrooms. Full Story

Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller
Visualizing Days of Lege Debate: Education

By Becca Aaronson July 19, 2011

It took a series of often rancorous debates this session to reach agreement on how to finance public education for 2012-2013. Use the Trib's latest interactive to track what lawmakers said about Texas education. Full Story

Credit: Graphic by Becca Aaronson / Todd Wiseman
Judgment Day

By Morgan Smith July 14, 2011

There's a day in July that school districts eye with a mixture of anticipation and dread. This year, it's on the 29th, when the Texas Education Agency will publicly release the accountability ratings for the state's more than 1,000 districts. Full Story

Credit: Joel Martinez
A Battered Texas Education Agency Faces Competing Demands

By Morgan Smith July 14, 2011

Even as it is coping with deep reductions to its own budget, the Texas Education Agency faces criticism from school districts and lawmakers, although not necessarily for the same reasons — vivid evidence of the pressure on the TEA. Full Story

Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera
School Counselors Face More Duties with STAAR

By Morgan Smith July 11, 2011

The most drastic change for many students will come in the spring, when approximately 350,000 new ninth graders will be the first to take the end-of-course exams that are part of the new standardized testing system known as STAAR. Full Story

Credit: Shannan Muskopf
House Approves Key Education Bills

By Morgan Smith June 16, 2011

When the Senate passed her two signature education bills, Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, made an effort to keep her colleagues from weighing them down with extra amendments. The lower chamber took a different approach. Full Story

Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera
Amid School Finance Scuffle, Pre-K Measure Makes a Return

By Morgan Smith June 9, 2011

Expect the Texas House to revisit old battles over school finance — and open a new one, for the lower chamber at least, over pre-kindergarten accountability — when it takes up Senate Bill 1 today on the floor. Full Story

Credit: Bob Daemmrich
Lawmakers Target Prison School for Makeover

By Brandi Grissom May 16, 2011

Texas could save money, and prisoners could get a better education, some lawmakers say, if inmate learning programs were provided online. But correctional education experts and teachers say lawmakers’ ideas — particularly about online programs — show a lack of understanding about prison life. Full Story

Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman
Schools for Troubled Students Can Often Face Long Odds Too

By Morgan Smith May 6, 2011

A bill in the Legislature aims to adjust the formula for assessing completion and dropout rates at dropout recovery charters, which supporters say penalizes the schools who serve challenging populations. Full Story

Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller
Is Poverty, Not Teacher Quality or Charters, Key to Student Outcomes?

By Reeve Hamilton May 2, 2011

Michael Marder, the co-director of the University of Texas' UTeach program, which trains secondary school math and science teachers, looks at public education data and explains the significance of poverty, why he thinks charter schools are not necessarily the answer and how public education is like a Boeing airplane. Full Story

Credit: Callie Richmond
2011 Rankings of More Than 5,800 Public Schools

By Morgan Smith April 24, 2011

The Texas Tribune has updated Children at Risk's rankings of more than 5,800 public school campuses with 2011 figures. Explore them for yourself here. Full Story
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

By Evan Smith April 9, 2011

Tan on the budget standoff between the House and Senate, Ramsey on budget cuts that cost us money, Philpott on Hispanics and redistricting, Stiles visualizes speed limits by state, Grissom on a liberal social justice organizer who became a conservative hero, M. Smith on even more student social security numbers at risk, Ramshaw on whether family planning equals abortion, Aguilar on what circumcision has to do with citizenship, Murphy on how much Texas university adminstrators are paid, Hamilton on the latest in the higher ed reform saga and Galbraith on Texas energy lessons from the 1970s: The best of our best content from April 4 to 8, 2011. Full Story
More Student SSNs Were at Risk, TEA Says

By Morgan Smith April 7, 2011

The Social Security numbers of 164,406 students who graduated from eight Texas school districts over the past two decades were placed at risk for identity theft, according to Texas Education Agency documents obtained by The Texas Tribune. Full Story

Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman
House Budget Shrinks Spending, Slashes Services

By Brandi Grissom, Reeve Hamilton, Ross Ramsey, Emily Ramshaw, Morgan Smith and Thanh Tan April 3, 2011

The Texas House started with a $164.5 billion budget and ended with the same total. But lawmakers spent the better part of a weekend making changes inside the budget for 2012-13 before giving it their approval, 98 to 49. Full Story

Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera
Texas' Complicated School Finance System: A Primer

By Morgan Smith March 31, 2011

The Texas public school finance system, responsible for underwriting the education of the nation’s second-largest student population, is notoriously byzantine. Here’s our layman’s guide to figuring it out. Full Story

Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

By Evan Smith March 26, 2011

M. Smith on the continuing controversy over Beaumont's school administrators, Tan on the deepening divide over the consequences of the House budget, Hamilton on the latest in the fight over higher ed accountability, Grissom on young inmates in adult prisons, Aguilar on the voter ID end game, Tan and Hasson's Rainy Day Fund infographic, Ramsey on the coming conflict over school district reserves, M. Smith and Aguilar on Laredo ISD's missing Social Security numbers, Galbraith on environmental regulators bracing for budget cuts and Ramshaw on greater scrutiny of neonatal intensive care units: The best of our best content from March 21 to 25, 2011. Full Story
Deep Rift in Beaumont on School Administration

By Morgan Smith March 25, 2011

Beaumont's Carrol A. Thomas, who makes $347,834 annually, is the highest-paid superintendent in Texas, even though his district of about 20,000 students is considerably smaller than those in other Texas cities. Full Story

Credit: Callie Richmond