When the state closes a decade’s worth of testing under the TAKS exams in April, it will mark the end of a period that saw students’ scores on the standardized tests soar. But that success hasn’t translated to improvement on national measures.
Public Education
Explore The Texas Tribune’s coverage of public education, from K-12 schools and funding to teachers, students, and policies shaping classrooms across Texas.
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Public Education
SXSWedu Video: Keeping Schools Safe
At SXSWedu, reporter Morgan Smith discusses ways to keep schools safe with Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas; Texas Association of School Boards attorney Joy Baskin; Texas School Safety Center Director Victoria Calder and Barbara Beto, the Texas PTA’s legislative action chairwoman.
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Public Education
Agenda Texas: STAAR Standards
On this week’s Agenda Texas from KUT News: How many tests are too many? State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, is leading the charge to reduce the number of high school STAAR tests from 15 to five. But critics worry that cutting tests could also cut standards.
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Public Education
Charter School Expansion Effort Faces Big Hurdles
Sen. Dan Patrick’s Senate Bill 2 is the most ambitious attempt to expand the state’s charter school system since it was established in 1995. It will have to pass a Legislature that defeated more modest proposals two years ago.
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Health care
With Deadline Looming, House Sends Medicaid IOU Bill to Perry
House members unanimously approved a bill largely devoted to addressing a shortfall in Medicaid. Health providers for poor children and the disabled in Texas won’t get paid starting Thursday unless Gov. Rick Perry signs the bill soon.
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Public Education
Video: Educators Visit Capitol, Push to Restore Cuts
Ask any of the estimated 2,700 members of the American Federation of Teachers who came out Monday for the group’s lobby day, and they’ll tell you their top priority is restoring the $5.4 billion in cuts made last session to public education.
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Politics
The Evening Brief: March 11, 2013
Your evening reading: at education rally, Davis knocks Combs over revenue estimate; committees hear $2 billion water plan proposal; Garcia sworn in to Senate seat
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
The results of the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll on everything from the top race of 2014 to the gun debate, Aaronson on Medicaid expansion, Aguilar on a financial thaw in the Mexican oil patch, Batheja on cents and sensibility, M. Smith on school choice, Rocha and Dehn on TWIA reform, Galbraith on water and fracking, Murphy’s interactive map of poverty in the state, E. Smith’s TribLive interview with House Public Education Chairman Jimmie Don Aycock and Root on a lobby couple living large and reporting small: The best of our best content from March 4-8, 2013.
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Public Education
Patrick Presents Details of Tax Credit Scholarship Plan
State Sen. Dan Patrick has filed legislation to create an Equal Opportunity Scholarship Program, which would allow economically disadvantaged and at-risk students who attend public schools to transfer to private schools.
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Public Education
TribLive: A Conversation with Jimmie Don Aycock
Full video of my 3/7 conversation with state Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen, the chairman of the House Public Education Committee.