Articles by: patrick o'mahen

photo by UT-Austin

UT regents force Powers to step down

College, Education News July 10, 2014 at 7:07 pm

University of Texas at Austin Present Bill Powers has agreed to step down next year, ending a years-long struggle between him and the UT-system’s governor-appointed Board of Regents. Powers offered to resign next June 2 after UT system’s Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa threatened to force him out during a July 4Read More

HISD budget includes more cash for literacy

HISD budget includes more cash for literacy

HISD July 4, 2014 at 4:57 pm

One of the highlights of the Houston Independent School District’s recently passed 2014-215 budget is a renewed focus on reading instruction. Much public attention on the $1.74 billion plan has focused on the district’s decision to standardize funding for magnet schools based on the type and level of the school.Read More

From Turner Construction

HISD approves final magnet plan

Education News, HISD June 29, 2014 at 12:10 pm

As part of the $1.74 billion budget, a sharply divided Board of Education approved a new magnet school funding formula for the Houston Independent School District. The board split 5-4 over the program, with board members Juliet Stipeche, Harvin Moore, Michael Lunceford and Anna Eastman voting against the proposal. TheRead More

HISD approves teacher pay hike

HISD approves teacher pay hike

Education News, HISD June 27, 2014 at 5:47 pm

As part of its $1.68 billion budget unanimously approved by the Board of Education last week, the Houston Independent School district allocated $30 million to increase pay for teachers. A new teacher with the district will earn $49,100, a raise of 4.9 percent over the current $46,805 paid to newRead More

UT innovates to close graduation gap

UT innovates to close graduation gap

College June 19, 2014 at 12:14 pm

The University of Texas-Austin is on the national forefront of efforts to improve college completion rates of entering students from traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds. The scope of UT’s program is outlined in a long-form article by Paul Tough in the June 8 issue of the New York Times Magazine A briefRead More

HISD STAAR performance may show slight improvements

HISD STAAR performance may show slight improvements

Education News, HISD June 18, 2014 at 4:14 pm

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) posted mixed results on the latest standardized test results. According to a district press release, HISD tended to show more improvements on the math sections of the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test, particularly for grades 3 through 8. Scores on theRead More

Rice at Boston College in 2006

Discuss: College students protest commencement speakers

Education News, Opinion June 16, 2014 at 4:05 pm

  This college graduation season has been abuzz with protests against commencement speakers. Portions of the student body have weighed in against invitations to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at Rutgers, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Legarde at Smith and former University of California Chancellor Robert Birgeneau at Haverford,Read More

Lanier Middle School will see increased funding under HISD's new magnet proposal, while other schools will see cuts

HISD tweaks magnet proposal again

Education News, HISD June 13, 2014 at 2:47 pm

Administrators at the Houston Independent School District have made some slight adjustments to finalize their new magnet school funding mechanism. The new plan keeps the broad outlines of the revised plan presented at a budget workshop in May, keeping  proposed per-student allocations the same for most programs including the VanguardRead More

HISD delays magnet vote to June 19

HISD delays magnet vote to June 19

Education News, HISD, Houston Schools June 12, 2014 at 4:36 pm

The Houston Independent School District has delayed a scheduled vote on a proposal to change its Magnet school funding program. The vote was scheduled for tonight’s  HISD Board of Education meeting, but will take place at next week’s meeting, when the board will vote on the district’s proposed 2014-15 budget.Read More

Obama eases college debt burden for some borrowers

Obama eases college debt burden for some borrowers

College, Collegiate, Education News June 10, 2014 at 12:52 pm

On Monday, President Obama signed a new executive order intended to ease debt burdens for 5 million students. The centerpiece of the initiative will allow students to cap their monthly payment of Federal direct student loans to 10 percent of their annual income under a program called “Pay As YouRead More

HISD earns state financial transparency honor

HISD earns state financial transparency honor

HISD June 7, 2014 at 3:56 pm

The Houston Independent School District has earned the platinum seal from the Texas State Comptroller’s Office Leadership Circle Program last week, recognizing its efforts to maintain financial transparency to taxpayers and voters. Sixty-two districts out of more than 1,000 in the state received platinum certification from the state. Other localRead More

Montessori schooling may advantage low-income Latinos

Montessori schooling may advantage low-income Latinos

National K-12, Policy, Research, & Analysis June 6, 2014 at 11:49 am

Montessori-style programs have long been a popular choice among upper-class parents for their children,  but recent research suggests that Montessori-style pre-kindergarten may particularly beneficial for low-income Latino children – especially for acquiring language skills. Ayra Ansari of UT-Austin and Adam Winsler of George Mason University examined 13,000 low-income black andRead More

Three ways to make saving up for college easier

Three ways to make saving up for college easier

College, Collegiate June 3, 2014 at 11:21 am

When is the best time to start saving for college? If you have a child, the answer is now, or perhaps yesterday. Due to many factors including increasing capital spending, expanding administration and the withdrawal of state funding from public universities over the last 20 years, tuition is increasing atRead More

Teens are engaging in fewer risky activities, CDC says

Teens are engaging in fewer risky activities, CDC says

Health & Science May 29, 2014 at 2:36 pm

The kids are all right — at least that’s what a new wave of data from the Centers for Disease Control  reporting that teenagers are engaging in fewer risky activities strongly suggests. The figures stem from by the CDC’s annual Child and Adolescent Health study, an ongoing survey which justRead More

New research questions use of Value-Added-Measures to rate teachers

New research questions use of Value-Added-Measures to rate teachers

National K-12, Policy, Research, & Analysis May 27, 2014 at 5:28 pm

A new research paper has found little connection between teaching quality and improvement of standardized test scores. At issue is the idea of value-added measures (VAM), evaluating teachers by seeing how much students improve on standardized test scores and using deviations in expected improvements to rate teachersDistricts highly rate teachersRead More

Rankings at Risk: Data error leads to change in school ratings

Rankings at Risk: Data error leads to change in school ratings

A data analysis error has led to large revisions in the Texas non-profit advocacy group Children at Risk’s annual rankings of schools. The Houston Chronicle reported on May 19 that a miscalculation in the organization’s “growth index” rating led to the errors in the final rankings. The growth index measuresRead More