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.
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.
Posted inHigher Education, Public Education
Visualizing Days of Lege Debate: Education
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.
Posted in
Higher Education
Report Questions How Texas Schools Mete Out Discipline
Almost 55 percent of recent Texas public school students were suspended at least once between their seventh and 12th grade years, according to a statewide report released today.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Interactive: Visualizing the Key Debates in the Lege
The Trib captured every debate, tirade and joke uttered into the mikes in the House and Senate during the 82nd legislative session in our online transcripts. Our latest data apps help you identify when important debates occurred by visualizing the frequency of keywords.
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Inside Intelligence
Inside Intelligence: If Perry Runs for President…
For the latest installment of our unscientific survey of political and policy insiders, we asked what state issues will get national play if Gov. Rick Perry runs for president, how his record will be used for and against him and whether all the attention might affect races here.
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Public Education
Judgment Day
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.
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Criminal Justice
This Will Be on the Test
This week, Secretary of State Hope Andrade conducted a lottery that determined the order of the 10 new proposals on the November ballot. Each amendment already won approval from two-thirds of the House and Senate and now needs a nod from a majority of the voters. Here’s the rundown…
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Public Education
A Battered Texas Education Agency Faces Competing Demands
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.
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Public Education
School Counselors Face More Duties with STAAR
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.
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Public Education
And Then There Were Taxes
A week has passed since school districts bracing for the worst at last got what they’ve been waiting for throughout the legislative session: finality.