Education News

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

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

Houston ISD's Carnegie Vanguard picture sourced from HISD: http://www.houstonisd.org/Page/75669

HISD eases Vangaurd cuts in latest budget proposal

Education News, HISD, Houston Schools May 20, 2014 at 11:34 am

The Houston Independent School District has modified a controversial proposal to standardize future magnet school funding. During the April 24 budget workshop, HISD administration proposed eliminating extra funding for Vanguard programs that serve gifted and talented students to redistribute funding more equally across non-magnet schools. On May 15, the administrationRead More

From Turner Construction

HISD redistributes some Vanguard funding in 2014-15 budget proposal

Education News, HISD, Houston Schools May 14, 2014 at 9:27 pm

According its recent budget proposal, The Houston Independent School District will eliminate local magnet funding for its Vanguard schools that serve gifted and talented students in the district. The $3 million will be redistributed among zoned non-magnet schools to expand programming. “There are some schools that don’t receive any fundingRead More

Spain honors Wharton elementary’s dual-language program

Spain honors Wharton elementary’s dual-language program

Education News, Houston Schools, Uncategorized May 12, 2014 at 9:14 pm

The Spanish Embassy has honored Wharton Elementary School’s Dual Language Program as its School of the Year for the United States and Canada in 2013. The award for academic excellence in Spanish is given by the Education Office for the U.S. and Canada, which is a technical body of theRead More

Sourced from iStock.

HISD dismisses five more teachers in test-cheating probe

Education News, HISD, Houston Schools May 9, 2014 at 12:40 pm

A cheating scandal at two Houston Independent School District Elementary School deepened on Thursday, May 8, as the HISD Board of Education terminated five teachers from Jefferson Elementary School accused of “improperly assisting” students on statewide standardized tests, including the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness. The five dismissalsRead More

From Wikipedia

Houston’s most sought-after magnet schools

Education News, HISD, Houston Schools, Recommendations May 8, 2014 at 12:45 pm

It’s more difficult to get into Houston ISD’s (HISD) most selective schools than it is to get into Harvard; HISD’s top ten most selective schools accepted fewer than 5% of applicants. Nearly 48,000 applications were submitted to Houston Independent School District (HISD)’s 96 magnet schools by the December 20, 2013Read More

U.S. high school graduation rates climb again

U.S. high school graduation rates climb again

Education News May 8, 2014 at 11:00 am

The nation’s public high school graduation rate hit its highest level in 40 years, according to the latest version of an annual report from the magazine Education Week. The magazine’s annual study of graduation rates, Diploma Count, reported that 74.7 of students in the United States graduated with a highRead More

Federal budget cuts force student loan fee hikes

Federal budget cuts force student loan fee hikes

College, Collegiate, Education News May 7, 2014 at 3:56 pm

Sequestration cuts from the Budget Control Act of 2011 will continue to bite students and parents borrowing to pay for college, according to a report from Clare McCann at Forbes Magazine. The Federal Department for Education announced today that student loan origination fees will slightly increase for all loans takenRead More

Seven teachers sue HISD over controversial evaluation system

Seven teachers sue HISD over controversial evaluation system

Seven district teachers and the Houston Federation of Teachers have sued the Houston Independent School District in Federal District Court, charging that the district inappropriately uses standardized test scores in teacher evaluations. The lawsuit has national implications as federal education policy encourages districts to increase their use of standardized evaluations.Read More

Another study suggests excessive homework increases stress

Another study suggests excessive homework increases stress

Education News, Policy, Research, & Analysis April 29, 2014 at 9:30 am

A recent study has added to the research challenging the widely accepted use of homework as an education tool, this time specifically focusing on the effects of large amounts of homework on the well-being of affluent students. The article, entitled “Nonacademic Effects of Homework in Privileged, High-Performing High Schools” wasRead More

Houston ISD's Carnegie Vanguard picture sourced from HISD: http://www.houstonisd.org/Page/75669

HISD’s Carnegie, Bellaire, Lamar high schools place well in US News rankings

Eleven schools in the Houston Independent School District were ranked in U.S. News and World Reports prestigious list of Best High Schools in the United States.  The rankings include more than 4,700 of the top high schools in the country. Carnegie Vanguard, the district’s flagship high school for gifted andRead More

HISD recruits for special programs at school-choice fair this weekend

HISD recruits for special programs at school-choice fair this weekend

Education News, Houston Schools, Schools April 24, 2014 at 7:00 am

Students interested in enrolling in a specialized program for the 2014-2015 school year and their parents can examine the offerings at the Houston Independent School District Choice Fair this weekend. The fair will take place this Saturday, April 26 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Northwest Mall, 9500Read More