For parents with students looking to enroll in college this fall, one elephant in the room is affording massive tuition bills. Despite ever spiraling cost, there is still considerable aid available to students and parents, both through government and private sources. The first step toward tapping these sources of financialRead More

Last month, Rice University reported that its total applications for its incoming freshman class had reached an all-time record of 17,715 – which represents an increase of 15 percent over 2013. The number of applications has roughly doubled since 2007, the college reported in a press release. Rice is seekingRead More

Last August I interviewed for a one-year visiting professor position at Texas A&M’s political science department.[1] The position involved teaching three courses each term in introductory American Politics and Texas politics. The courses were large lectures, with 300 students apiece without teaching assistants. The lacks of TAs surprised me, becauseRead More

At a March 13 meeting packed with community members, the Houston Independent School District Board of Education voted to close Dodson Elementary School and repurpose Jones High School. The vote to close Dodson divided the board 5-4, with board members Anna Eastman, Rhonda Skillern-Jones, Wanda Adams and Paula Harris opposedRead More

  The traditional vision of the college professor is that of the tenure-track faculty member: the guy with elbow patches and a tweed jacket who does research, lectures and has tenure – job security that allows them freedom to do research and teach controversial subjects. That vision is less trueRead More

In 2014, the Houston Independent School District Superintendent will be drastically increasing the number of dual-language programs in the district, adding 14 schools to the existing programs, HISD Superintendent Terry Grier announced during his Feb. 25 State of the Schools Address. HISD currently has two dual language programs. One, atRead More

The internationalization of Houston schools continues its rapid pace, both in the number of existing schools that are offering International Baccalaureate curriculum and in new schools that are under construction dedicated to the concept. Currently there are 10 high schools in the Houston area that offer an IB program, upRead More

At the beginning of January, the Texas Education Agency issued its new statewide summary of schools that failed to meet state standards for 2013 and whose students are eligible to seek transfer under the state Public Education Grant program. The feature of the summary that grabbed the most headlines wasRead More

On January 31, the Houston Independent School District announced annual instructor bonuses through its ASPIRE program, a merit pay program for teachers funded through state and federal grants and partly through local funds. Statistical analysis suggests that schools with the highest bonuses on average were wealthier, whiter and more selectiveRead More

Imagine if applying to college worked like a 50-50 raffle.  You pay your application fee, get a ticket and watch the admissions officer at Really Elite Fancy Pants University pull numbers out of a hat to determine who gets a spot in the entering freshman class. It seems unfair, right? Read More

During his fifth State-of-the-Union address on Jan. 28, President Obama announced no major new educational initiatives. Instead, he spent the modest amount of time he dedicated to education highlighting and defending his existing record on education, Obama also announced several modest expansions of existing programs and encouraged Congress to takeRead More

The 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress Scores for math and reading are in, and the results for Houston are definitely mixed. Locally, the conventional wisdom is that Houston continues its steady improvement in math, but lags behind in reading. HISD Superintendent Terry Grier is working with administrators and (presumably)Read More

When the Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees tentatively voted to ban the use of racially based mascots and nicknames at its schools during its Dec. 15 meeting, its actions joined a several-decade old trend of American schools and sports franchises de-emphasizing or eliminating logos and nicknames associated withRead More

Three things are certain in life: death, taxes, and rapidly increasing tuition costs –or at least that’s probably how many college students and their parents feel.  According to long-term data gathered by the College Board Annual Survey of Colleges and the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES), college tuition costsRead More