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Texas Education Agency

The latest Texas Education Agency news from The Texas Tribune.

  • In Perfect Harmony?

    By Brian Thevenot

    Harmony Public Schools is the largest and fastest-growing charter school network in Texas, with eight new schools open this year and a total of 33 schools statewide serving about 16,500 students. Founded by Turkish academics, Harmony boasts small classes, a worldly faculty with advanced degrees and outstanding TAKS scores — which is why, perhaps, it's one of just three charter operators given permission by the Texas Education Agency to open new schools without going through the usual bureaucratic channels. Full Story 

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    Credit: Wenjing Zhang

  • HuTube: The SBOE Debate on Islam in 70 Seconds

    By Elise Hu

    For our latest HuTube post, we picked out memorable testimony from Friday morning's five-hour State Board of Education debate. SBOE members ultimately approved a resolution instructing publishers to limit a perceived "pro-Islamic, anti-Christian bias" in Texas textbooks. Full Story 

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  • Cutting School

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    The Texas Education Agency has submitted a proposal to slash 10 percent of its budget to help close the state's coming shortfall, which could be as much as $21 billion. Among the items on the chopping block: outside-the-classroom expenditures that, Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, could have a dramatic affect on student outcomes. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Should Everybody Go to College?

    By Mose Buchele, KUT News

    Ask anybody — from the president of the United States to your high school guidance counselor — and you'll probably hear the same, seemingly obvious thing: Higher education is the key to financial advancement. But is everybody going to college a realistic goal? And would the world really be better if we achieved it? Mose Buchele of KUT News reports. Full Story 

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  • TribBlog: The Bus Fuss

    By Brian Thevenot

    After a 2006 bus accident in Beaumont that killed two students and injured several more, parents and legislators successfully demanded the state finance seat belts in school buses. Today, four years later, the Legislative Budget Board finally gave approval for a grant program — but the rules the board set likely will exclude the Beaumont area from getting the money, even though the grassroots movement started there. Full Story 

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  • No Pass, No Play: The Back Story

    By Bill Hobby and Saralee Tiede

    As chairman of the Select Committee of Public Education in the '80s, Ross Perot took on high school athletics hammer and tongs: “If the people of Texas want Friday night entertainment instead of education," he said, "let’s find out about it." An excerpt from the forthcoming How Things Really Work: Lessons from a Life in Politics. Full Story 

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  • The Huddled Masses

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Five years after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana exiles have fundamentally changed Houston, and vice-versa. The uneasy arrangement was a shotgun marriage: Many evacuees had no choice in whether or where they went, and Houstonians had no choice, for humanity's sake, but to take them in. Full Story 

    'Astrodome' stadium filled with refugees from Louisiana in Houston, Texas, USA, on September 3, 2005.
    Credit: Ammar Abd Rabbo

  • The New Sex Ed

    By Nathan Bernier, KUT News

    Students are heading back to school this week, and some of them will begin learning about the birds and the bees. The Texas Education Code requires that abstinence be the focus of any sex education curriculum — but as Nathan Bernier of KUT News reports, there are some changes this year to how sex ed is being taught. Full Story 

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Galbraith on grass, federal money and efforts to prevent another dust bowl, Ergenbright on school suspensions and who gets punished; Aguilar's interview with Alan Bersin, whose job is to keep the U.S./Mexico border secure, M. Smith on why it would be harder than you think to ditch the 14th Amendment, Adler and me on whether controversy is politically contagious, Ramshaw on the flap over funding for the state's institutions for the disabled (it's not about the money), my meditation on the state's fiscal woes (including a $1.3 billion deficit in the current budget), Philpott on proposed cuts to the state's food stamp program, Grissom on the push by Hidalgo County officials for a special election that might not be legal; Hamilton on the seven Texas universities that are making a play for Tier One status and Stiles on the mid-year cash-on-hand numbers reported by campaigns and political action committees: The best of our best from August 16 to 23, 2010. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • Special Treatment

    By Kate Ergenbright

    Special education students in Texas are nearly twice as likely to be suspended as students in the general population, according to the Texas Education Agency — and though they make up just 10 percent of the overall enrollment, they account for 21 percent of expulsions. Full Story 

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  • GOP to Doggett: "Doggone It!"

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    The state's GOP leaders say the strings attached to $800 million in federal education funding by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, are not only too restrictive — they could be unconstitutional. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune has this report. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • The Weekly TribCast: Episode 41

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Ben, Ross, Evan and Matt talk about President Obama's visit to Texas and who didn't want to be seen with him, the battle over strings attached to federal education money, Bill White's donor-appointees and the legal and political definitions of residency. Full Story 

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  • Special Needs

    By Kate Ergenbright

    After a decade in which Texas has seen a 400 percent increase in the number of children with autism, lawmakers are wrestling with how best to educate the afflicted — and how to pay for it. Full Story 

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    Credit: Justin Dehn

  • The New Math

    By Brian Thevenot

    Despite just-released ratings that show huge improvements, a Texas Tribune analysis finds that the performance of the state's public schools — when decoupled from the controversial Texas Projection Measure — is little changed from 2008, the year before the accountability formula took effect. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva

  • TribBlog: Texas Schools Fixed!

    By Brian Thevenot

    In new public school ratings released this afternoon, three-fourths of the state's public schools — graded under a controversial formula called the Texas Projection Measure — now rank "exemplary" or "recognized," the highest two of four categories of performance. Less than two percent of schools are ranked "unacceptable." Full Story 

    Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott in March, 2010.
    Credit: Justin Dehn

  • TribBlog: Testing the Texas Projection Measure

    By Brian Thevenot

    The Texas Education agency plans to release school accountability ratings for every campus in the state on Friday. For the second year, the rankings will be filtered through the controversial Texas Projection Measure, which critics fault for inflating the school scores. Full Story 

    Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott in March, 2010.
    Credit: Justin Dehn

  • Texas Schools Have a Math Problem

    By Matt Largey, KUT News

    A new study suggests that while the state's English curriculum is among the best in the nation, our math curriculum doesn't measure up to a set of new national standards. Matt Largey of KUT News reports. Full Story