The latest public education news from The Texas Tribune.
In this week's edition of the Trib+Edu newsletter: Survey shows adults can't agree on what to prioritize in K-12 education, turning to alternate tools to help English language learners and an interview with Ted Graf of the Headwaters School in Austin. Full Story
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Texas has deemed an increasing number of schools as property-wealthy, requiring them to give up a share of their local tax dollars to help buoy poorer districts. Full Story
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A state representative who has passed legislation aimed at reeling in Texas’ standardized testing regime is calling on the state to ditch required STAAR exams while it “tries to iron out STAAR’s many kinks.” Full Story
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The Texas Education Agency is slapping the New Jersey-based company that develops and administers the state's controversial STAAR tests with a $20.7 million fine over widespread logistical and technical issues. Full Story
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On the first day of a new school year, Bryan Adams High School teacher Krystal Morrow greeted the next crop of students she will try to help overcome the financial and confidence hurdles that keep many of the school's students from attending college. Full Story
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After a group of parents sued the Texas Education Agency over the 2016 administration of STAAR exams, state lawyers argued they had no standing and asked the courts to drop the case. A Travis County district court judge has denied their request. Full Story
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A federal judge in Fort Worth has blocked Obama administration guidelines directing the nation’s public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and other facilities that align with their gender identity. Full Story
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After five years of landing on the state’s list of low-performing schools, a tiny South Texas district that drew national headlines for cutting its sports program to ward off closure is now meeting state academic standards. Full Story
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In this week's edition of the Trib+Edu newsletter: New statistics show public school enrollment is up over last year, a former principal acts after finding a correlation between school attendance and access to clean clothes and failing Texas schools are set to face tougher state intervention. Full Story
At an education committee hearing Tuesday, Republican state senators debated whether a $118 million pre-K initiative championed by Gov. Greg Abbott is worth the money. Full Story
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Education Commissioner Mike Morath on Tuesday outlined plans to crack down harder on chronically low-performing schools, saying he wants to cut in half the number of them that end up on the state’s failing list over the next five years. Full Story
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More Texas school districts and charter schools are failing in 2016, though the number of individual campuses that received that label decreased. Full Story
Tense debates have raged at Texas schools over the proper place of Confederate names in the public landscape. But many other districts have not considered any changes. Full Story
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State Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, wrote to his constituents about school finance and used these phrases along the way: statewide commercial property tax, consolidated funding districts, and statewide property tax. Yikes. Full Story
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In this week's edition of the Trib+Edu newsletter: A new tool for special education classrooms comes via NASA, a new voice emerges in school choice fight and an interview with John Bartholomew of the University of Texas at Austin. Full Story
The fault lines that will define efforts to improve the state's system of funding education came into sharp focus Wednesday as a Senate panel began studying how to improve the "efficiency" of public schools in Texas. Full Story
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Should Texas fund public schools based on their academic performance rather than just giving them a certain amount of money per student? State lawmakers are beginning to explore that idea. Full Story
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A special panel recommending changes to the state’s public school testing and accountability system has stopped short of proposing that Texas scrap the controversial assessment regime known as STAAR. Full Story
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An ambitious new player has emerged in the controversial effort to use taxpayer dollars to help Texas parents send their kids to private or religious schools. Full Story
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In this week's edition of the Trib+Edu newsletter: Teachers help students heal in communities affected by recent violence, a proposed Mexican American studies textbook is lambasted; and an interview with Araceli Martinez Ortiz of Texas State University’s LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research. Full Story