Articles tagged with Texas

The week in blogs

Pundits made a big deal about Rick Perry forgetting the name of one of the three federal departments he plans to eliminate if elected president– for the record, it was the Department of Energy — but blogger Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute is more concerned about just what the Texas governor means when he says the Department of Education would also be “gone.”

“It isn’t clear that abolishing the Department would itself end any federal education programs (since they can migrate elsewhere),” Hess wrote. “So, specifically, which programs and activities will you eliminate?”

Then – wouldn’t you know it? – it gets complicated.

Would Perry try to eliminate federal funding for special education? Hess asked. How about Pell grants or Title 1?

“Many will think there are obvious right and wrong answers to these questions,” Hess writes after posing a few other queries “But I do want to know what the GOP candidate’s bold promises really mean.”

Remember nearly 10 years ago when Connecticut went to court over No Child Left Behind, claiming it would cost millions in unfunded mandates? Well, just look at what it could cost California in required “reforms” in order to be granted an NCLB waiver by the Obama Administration, writes This Week in Education’s John Thompson, and Connecticut’s decade-old legal gambit doesn’t seem that out of line.

Lastly, we turn to two timely blogs from NSBA’s Center for Public Education.  In one Mandy Newport, a former teacher, Center intern, and graduate student at George Washington University, takes the Heritage Foundation to task for it’s ill-conceived idea that paying teachers less will result in education improvements.

Then there is Research Analyst Jim Hull’s blog on Tennessee’s new teacher evaluation system, the title of which I absolutely love:

“Using research to inform policy without understanding the research.”

Sort of like, “Vowing to eliminate the Department of Education without understanding what the Department of Education does?”

Lawrence Hardy|November 19th, 2011|Categories: Center for Public Education, Educational Research, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Federal Programs, Week in Blogs|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Successful reform efforts often begin with attitude adjustment

One comment stood out a few weeks ago when I interviewed Patricia Holubec, a high school principal in the small, rural Skidmore-Tynan Independent School District.

A largely Hispanic district in the flatlands of south Texas, Skidmore-Tynan is not wealthy by any means: Sixty-five percent of its students qualify for free and reduced lunch, and many of its graduates must leave the area to find employment in the oil fields or state prisons that ring the district.

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Naomi Dillon|June 14th, 2011|Categories: Dropout Prevention, Leading Source, NSBA Publications, Policy Formation|Tags: , , |

One trend creating another?

column-chart-mdYesterday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced a new initiative he hoped would encourage school districts in the state to share costs and ultimately savings in the business of public education. His incentive: money.

I think it’s brilliant. And while I pinpointed the proliferation of partnerships and consolidation of services for this year’s Education Vital Signs, I could not have seen and did not guess it would spawn yet another education trend, though at the moment Texas seems to be only one offering state funds— a grant equal to 10 percent of a district’s first-year savings—for districts that pool their resources. But I can see that changing quickly.

After all, it doesn’t take rocket science— some basic business sense, perhaps— to understand the economies of scale that can be achieved by buying in bulk and spreading the cost out among multiple parties.
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Naomi Dillon|September 1st, 2010|Categories: Budgeting, Governance, Leading Source|Tags: , , , , , |

Corporal punishment still, inexplicably, being meted out some school districts

SpankingIn many cases, a wide sweeping federal mandate is not the best solution for setting policies in schools.  Individual school boards are much better able to evaluate and work with their schools on a personal, local level that national programs just can’t match.

But what about schools that refuse to mandate a change that seems so pressing, and so obviously necessary, that it is a wonder they didn’t do it decades ago? A Washington Post report tells the story of Temple—a city in central Texas that still uses corporal punishment on misbehaving students.

New York Congress member Carolyn McCarthy plans to unveil legislation to put a federal ban on paddling students. One would hope a national ruling against educators striking kids would be unnecessary in modern times (even prisons have outlawed physical forms of punishment), but apparently not. Twenty states still allow corporal punishment and, in Temple, that means paddling.

 John Hancock, the assistant superintendent of administration for Temple schools told the Washington Post, “the school system had banned corporal punishment about six years ago because a state law change made what was permissible uncertain. Follow-up made clear that schools could paddle.”
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Naomi Dillon|April 20th, 2010|Categories: Governance, Leading Source|Tags: , , |

ASBJ editor has a few suggestions for generating revenue, controversy

96px-SpaceneedleseattleWhew! What a relief. The Seattle Public Schools aren’t going to charge parents an “administrative fee” for donating money to their children’s schools.

Did you hear about that story? Someone in the school system apparently told parent groups that they might be charged a fee for the paperwork involved in handling money from the PTA and other parent groups.

Turns out, the brouhaha that followed was much ado about nothing. The school board says it knew nothing about the idea. And once parents began voicing their reaction, the central office quickly sent out word that such a fee “was not a productive suggestion.”

Okay. Somebody got ahead of himself (or herself). No big deal. Mistakes happen. Enough said.

And yet . . . I can’t help but think: Given the financial crunch facing so many school districts, perhaps such creative—nay, let’s say off-the-wall—ideas should be given more consideration.

So, trusting the Seattle school board has a sense of humor, I’ll share some of the ideas I’ve pondered in the last few days:
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Naomi Dillon|March 25th, 2010|Categories: Governance, Leading Source|Tags: , , |

Don’t mess with Texas— or its version of history

ist1_3162960-flag-of-texasThanks to the patriots on the Texas Board of Education, the words of Jefferson will long be enshrined in that state’s social studies curriculum.

Jefferson Davis, that is: defender of states rights, bulwark against unwarranted federal intrusion, and, incidentally, president of the Confederate States of America.

That other Jefferson? The one who lived down the road in Monticello? He’s not so popular with the conservative majority on the board, which voted provisionally last week to adopt the standards. Might have something to do with his little line about “separation between church and state.”

At any rate, according to the Washington Post, Thomas Jefferson has been cut “from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century” …” (Pssst: He was also a deist!)

So why, for example, will Jefferson Davis’ Inaugural Address be studied alongside Lincoln’s?
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Naomi Dillon|March 23rd, 2010|Categories: Curriculum, Governance, Leading Source|Tags: , , |

Recession displaces more, different groups of people

There are some stories where finding enough sources to talk to is difficult. My piece for June’s edition of ASBJ wasn’t one of them. News stories and reports had been trickling in that the homeless population had been soaring becaus0609asbjcvre of the recession.

And they weren’t your stereotypical image of homeless. More and more families were being displaced as they lost jobs, lost savings and eventually lost their homes. These were people who never dreamed of having to be in a position where their very livelihood was dependent on others.

“I had one parent call me and say, ’I used to volunteer at the food bank and now I have to ask for food,’” said Barbara James, the project director for the Texas Homeless Education Office.

James was one of nearly a dozen people I talked to that illuminated just how difficult it can be for homeless families to get back on their feet, let alone for a homeless student to maintain their education.

“I heard one time that a homeless family had to meet with 32 different agencies every week,” James told me. “How do you that when you don’t even have a car?”

Like all states, the Texas office that James runs is charged with implementing the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the federal law that requires school districts to remove as many barriers as possible to enable students to continue their education.

But unlike other states, with the exception of Virginia, the Texas office is operated out of a university, which James takes advantage of through numerous interdisciplanary collaborations within the University of Texas, Austin, including conferences with the school of social work and a current project by the school of public affairs that looks at what makes a good homeless liaison and what leads to their burnout.  

“We can’t compartmentalize homelessness, it transcends so many areas,” James said. “Yet in everything in education; in schools, in federal programs, we departmentalize everything and I think if we collaborated more we’d get a lot better performance.”

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor

Naomi Dillon|June 1st, 2009|Categories: Leading Source, Student Achievement|Tags: , |
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