INSIDER
More than two dozen Texas Democrats expressed concern about the elimination of a federal policy preventing immigration arrests at schools.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is considering replacing the elected board of South San Antonio ISD due to long-standing governance issues. Since 2016, the district has faced multiple challenges, including the appointment of a conservator, frequent superintendent changes, and controversial board decisions like reopening and then closing several schools.
The Texas Education Agency is considering whether to replace the South San ISD’s board of trustees with appointed board managers.
The conservator overseeing the South San Independent School District Board of Trustees has written a letter to the Texas Education commissioner, recommending that a board of managers be appointed to govern the district.
The Texas Education Agency found that checks mailed to Miles’ charter school network in Colorado were eventually deposited into the network’s Texas account.
Dozens of districts sued Texas saying the ratings painted an unfair picture of their schools. Others voluntarily have released their own.
The superintendents said they haven’t received enough support from the state or time to fix errors the system generated.
The Texas Education Agency says there’s time to fix problems before officially reported data is used to determine how much money districts get.
Students’ scores in a test that gauges their English skills have been low since a redesign introduced computer scoring.
The ruling marks the fifth consecutive year Texas families have not received a full picture of their schools’ ratings, which are used to determine how they are performing.
Some secular groups and members of other faiths say the curriculum could give schools too much control over how children are taught religion.
The proposal comes as part of a larger effort by officials in Texas and across the country to inject Christianity into public life.
Data released Friday showed Texas students’ math and science scores on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness continue to slip since the pandemic.
Proposed lesson plans could improve student performance and help teachers, Texas education officials say. Not all district leaders and education advocates are convinced.
A state lawmaker and Houston residents urge the Texas Education Agency to investigate whether the state-appointed superintendent improperly sent public funds to out-of-state charter schools.
A state-appointed board of managers overseeing the La Joya Independent School District is set to consider the policy this week.
The state will save more than $15 million by using technology similar to ChatGPT to give initial scores, reducing the number of human graders needed. The decision caught some educators by surprise.
The state had been investigating IDEA Public Schools since 2021 and raised questions on its spending on things like a luxury driver and private jet.
The transition at the Waco-area school district will shed light on how a democratically elected school board resumes control after a takeover.
Policy experts worry students will fall short of the state's future workforce needs. Educators hope the new curriculum will help them.
The TEA appointed a “board of managers” to replace the district’s school board trustees and named a new superintendent.
Dozens of school districts sued the Texas Education Agency last fall, claiming revisions to the state’s accountability system would hurt them.
Public schools got little help from lawmakers this year to address the state’s chronic teacher shortage, so they’ve turned to other creative solutions — like leaning on cultural exchange programs to recruit international teachers.
The expansion, which will start with a smaller pilot in four high schools between Texas and New Mexico, is being paid for by the Permian Strategic Partnership, a group funded by major energy producers.
The Texas Education Agency has given the South San Antonio ISD board one year to become more stable with the help of a conservator, or it will implement its own board of managers.
The ruling comes after dozens of school districts sued the Texas Education Agency, claiming the revised accountability system would hurt their ratings.
As tensions have flared in the escalating conflict and protests have spread across Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the Texas Education Agency would provide resources to schools to counter misinformation and antisemitism.
The new clinic met resistance from a vocal group of parents who raised concerns the district was overstepping its authority in caring for students.
Parents of Texas’ growing population of home-schooled students are split over whether education savings accounts would give them much-needed financial help or represent an unwanted government involvement in their kids’ educations.
For one reading class, Superintendent Mike Miles said instruction would focus on English, even if it meant risking state funding for dual-language programs. Parents say it goes further than that, adding that their kids are receiving no assistance in Spanish at all.
Miles said he should be held accountable and be fired if the district doesn’t improve academically in the next two years.
TEA said it needs to make adjustments to account for changes in students’ academic performance after the pandemic. The delay comes after several school districts sued to stop the agency from releasing school rankings produced under a new rating system.
Lawmakers failed to pass legislation on school vouchers or teacher raises this year, but they approved other education-related laws like an $800 million investment in high-quality instructional materials and new rules for students found vaping or using marijuana.
House Bill 900 requires book vendors to rate all their materials based on their depictions or references to sex before selling them to schools. Vendors say the law aims to regulate protected speech with “vague and over broad” terms.
Two Texas bookstores and three national bookseller associations file suit over House Bill 900, which requires private booksellers to rate books on appropriateness, and bans “sexually explicit” material from libraries.
Experts say many of the changes will bolster school safety but some requirements may be challenging for public schools to implement by the upcoming school year with limited funding and staffing constraints.
Mike Miles has wasted no time in restructuring schools and proposing administrative layoffs. The changes are designed to pay teachers at struggling schools more if their students show improvement.
Threat assessment teams were created to prevent the next school shooting. However, confusion surrounds how these teams operate and what they even do with a child exhibiting threatening behavior.
Lawmakers sacrificed school funding to block school vouchers, but the issue could be debated again in a special session. Districts will get new funds for school safety, though Uvalde families were ultimately left disappointed with inaction on gun restrictions.
The former Dallas ISD superintendent and a state-appointed board of managers will replace Houston’s elected school board in response to years of poor academic outcomes at a single campus in the district.
Both chambers have said school safety is a priority this session after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Uvalde elementary school last year.
The Texas House’s education committee is soon expected to discuss the new version of Senate Bill 8, which was heavily modified to sway votes in the lower chamber.
A bill passed by the Texas House on Wednesday would also help schools rehire retired teachers and offer other incentives in an effort to fight the state’s teacher shortage.
Lawmakers have said school safety is a priority this session, but it is still unclear whether they’ll listen to Uvalde families who want to raise the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic guns from 18 to 21.
Natalia ISD finalized a voluntary retirement agreement with its superintendent in early April after two years of service. It's the fourth superintendent to serve the district in just over 10 years.
At one elementary school, protesters chanted as the school day was about to begin. Parents sought petition signatures at a high school. The demonstrations are planned throughout the day.
The TEA recommended the move, citing the district’s failures serving special education students. The announcement comes two weeks after the agency appointed a board of managers to oversee Houston ISD.
The ACLU of Texas, the Houston NAACP and other groups say the takeover is a violation of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.
The Texas Education Agency announced on March 15 that it would replace the current superintendent and its democratically elected school board with a new board of managers as soon as June 1.
When do state takeovers of Texas public schools or districts happen? How long can they last? We provide answers to some of the questions surrounding the takeover of Houston ISD.
Parents and students of the Houston Independent School District decried the state’s decision to take control of the school system. Despite the news, many questions remain about how it would affect them.
Texas’ education agency first moved to take over the district in 2019 after years of low student performance at a single Houston ISD high school. Critics said the district has made improvements since then.
The bill, which has the blessing of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, will create new rules on how gender and sexual orientation is taught. It will face a tougher test in the House.
The bill, introduced months after the Uvalde school shooting, also allocates more funds to the state’s school safety allotment, which is money given to districts to improve campus security.
The yearlong review also recommends increasing the funds schools get per student, a measure already favored by lawmakers looking how to spend a historic state budget surplus.
Without the state’s safety net, districts with pending bond projects must now decide whether to pay more in interest or halt construction.
“School districts, what they have to do if they lose a student, [is] be smart about how they allocate their resources and maybe that’s one less fourth grade teacher,” Steve Lecholop, a TEA deputy commissioner, said in a call with a parent that was secretly recorded.
Senators in the finance committee asked questions Monday about the pros and cons of basing the amount of money that schools get per student on enrollment instead of attendance. Districts say the change could mean millions in additional funding.
Principal Mark Oberholtzer told parents in a letter on Tuesday that he had learned the day before about allegations of a teacher, Orlando Naumann, having engaged in “inappropriate communication” with a student. Naumann resigned in the face of an investigation, but has not been charged or arrested.
The decision from the state’s highest court would allow the TEA to move forward with its plan to replace Houston ISD’s school board members over low academic scores.
Records show James Dunn was convicted twice for defrauding federal government agencies. He registered his school board training, which he described as an alternative to “woke” programs, with the Texas Education Agency this fall.
State math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress dipped significantly between 2019 and 2022, but reading scores for fourth and eighth graders held steady.
Among other issues, the court will consider whether a law that updated the education code last year has any bearing on TEA Commissioner Mike Morath’s attempt to replace HISD’s board members over low academic scores.
Students had been pushing for the State Board of Education to adopt a new, more inclusive social studies curriculum this year. Instead, the board delayed their scheduled update until at least 2025.
An online survey of 1,291 teachers by the Charles Butt Foundation shows more teacher dissatisfaction as Texas school districts scramble to attract talent.
The Texas Education Agency has dismissed the notion that the accountability ratings are a poverty rating. As evidence, they point to districts like those in the Rio Grande Valley, which have achieved high marks while serving a high number of economically disadvantaged students.
The Texas Education Agency released grades this week for each school district and campus across the state, and that includes the charter districts in the area.
The Texas Education Agency released a list of A-F accountability ratings for districts — the first issued since the coronavirus pandemic caused learning disruptions and teacher shortages across the state.
This year’s TEA ratings were done differently than in previous years. Instead of the usual A-F ratings, which were last given in 2019, the agency gave only A-C ratings. Districts and schools that would have received a D or F instead received a “Not Rated” label this year.
Following a state report showing that almost 400 law enforcement officers showed up at the school on May 24, some Uvalde parents are doubtful over whether their kids will be safe in the district.
Texas schools have long had too few teachers. The pandemic made the situation worse — but issues like low pay, poor benefits and polarizing statewide politics all have an impact, too.
Almost half the money is going toward bullet-resistant shields for school police officers, a move that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on fellow state leaders to support.
Texas has more than 1,200 school districts, but the education commissioner promised plans for the review will be completed this summer.
Employees at multiple Northside Independent School District campuses have told the KSAT 12 Defenders in recent weeks that administrators relentlessly pressured them to vote on a May bond measure, tracked whether they had cast a ballot and in one instance threatened discipline if they failed to do so.
For the first time since the pandemic, Texas schools will again be rated based on standardized tests. But for one year only, schools that receive a D or F will get a “not rated” label.
Two states have dropped the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment, and three others passed on it or want it gone.
School districts are not required to adopt the agency’s recommendations but can use them as guidance as they develop new procedures or alter their policies for selecting or removing library books.
K-3 teachers in Texas have until 2023 to complete a 60-hour Reading Academies course to keep the job. It’s taking some 120 hours on their own time to finish.
Paxton equated the week of LGBTQ-inclusive activities with sex education in a letter to the district. Austin ISD says it’s about acceptance.
The Texas Education Agency says no school districts in the state have applied for available funds that would help with protecting students in high crime areas who walk to and from school.
The new requirement applies to charter schools set to open in August. The agency did not elaborate why this one law needed a separate assurance.
School district leaders are desperately trying to fill vacant roles to stay open and some say they have no choice but to close.
Seven of the city’s 16 school districts, including three of the city’s largest, have laid out the COVID-19 policies each has in effect as students, teachers, and staff who’d fallen ill prepare to return to campus.
Many schools are pushing through with plans for in-person classes despite a surge in COVID-19 cases as they try to reassure parents and students they are prepared to open safely this week.
The district appears to be the first one to be investigated since Republicans started raising questions in October about content in public school libraries.
