The U.S. Education Department is considering making restraint reporting mandatory for school districts nationwide, starting this school year.
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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Higher Education
The Tipping Point: Texas Textbook Politics Meets the Digital Revolution
Under new legislation, school districts for the first time can spend a portion of state “book” money on computer hardware and digital content. Some fear the explosion of choice will produce an erosion of quality content.
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Public Education
The World According To Don
So what if he’s no longer the chair of the State Board of Education? Self-described “religious fanatic” Don McLeroy has big plans for Texas education — and science is just the beginning.
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Public Education
TribBlog: Restraints in public schools — by disability
If you’ve been following this week’s series on kids with disabilities being physically restrained in Texas public schools, you may be interested to see how the restraints break down by disability.
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Public Education
Student restraints, Day 3: Jennifer Howson’s story
Jennifer Howson, 21, was restrained dozens of times at her school in the northeast Texas town of Kemp, often sustaining scrapes, bruises and black eyes.
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Health care
TribBlog: Restraints: A gut-wrenching case
Of all the tales of restraints gone wrong I heard while reporting this story on Texas special education students, this one is the worst:
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Public Education
Faulty figures: The great dropout debate
Despite years of research, the true picture of dropout and graduation rates remains elusive, even the subject of cross words between researchers. The consensus: Far too many Texas public school students, particularly those from poor and minority families, don’t cross the high-school finish line.
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Public Education
Dropout problem drags Texas down
“I represent a district that has 80 percent renters, 70 percent of people speaking a first language other than English, where there’s a high school with 42 languages and 40 percent turnover of the student body every year — now tell me how you plan to calculate the dropout rate,” Rep. Scott Hochberg said. “I will stipulate that it’s too big — let’s just start there. I wish we fought over solutions as much as we fight over the number.”
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Health care
Student Restraints Day 2: How Texas school districts compare
Texas school districts vary widely in how often they physically restrain students with disabilities – despite a shared state policy on when to use them. Use this interactive graphic to see how school districts compared during the 2007-08 school year, the most recent statewide data available.
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Demographics
Poll: What Texans are worried about
The economy clearly leads Texans’ list of concerns about the country in the inaugural University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.