National K-12

Picture Provided Courtesy of Ky Wilson.

New Report Suggests Causes, Solutions for Graduation Rate Gaps

National K-12, Policy, Research, & Analysis May 22, 2015 at 7:30 am

The sixth annual Building a Grad Nation report, released last week, showcases an encouraging trend. According to the most recent data, the United States is still on track to achieve a 90% high school graduation rate by 2020. The 2013 graduation rate of 81.4% was a record high. More importantly,Read More

Teach for America Losing Ground in Recruiting

Teach for America Losing Ground in Recruiting

Best of the Web, National K-12 March 5, 2015 at 4:10 pm

Teach for America, or TFA, is a program which recruits high-achieving college graduates to teach for two years in low-performing or underserved public schools. Some Houstonians may know it as an organization whose alumni went on to found Houston’s YES Prep and KIPP charter schools. Many others may know TFARead More

Gates Foundation Education Grants Favor College Prep & Common Core Initiatives

Gates Foundation Education Grants Favor College Prep & Common Core Initiatives

Best of the Web, Education News, National K-12 February 5, 2015 at 1:38 pm

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation annually awards millions in funding to education initiatives aimed at impacting both students and policy. One of the goals stated by the Gates Foundation in regards to education are to support innovation that can improve U.S. K-12 public schools and ensure that students graduateRead More

PreK and K-12 Education in the State of the Union: Recap

PreK and K-12 Education in the State of the Union: Recap

Best of the Web, National K-12 January 28, 2015 at 8:30 am

President Obama’s State of the Union address last week has already received much media attention, and the policies discussed in it have drawn considerable commentary from both sides of the aisle. On the topic of education, most attention has been focused on the President’s ambitious plan to make community collegeRead More

30% of HISD Schools Require Improvement According to Texas Education Agency

30% of HISD Schools Require Improvement According to Texas Education Agency

The Texas Education Agency published its annual Public Education Grant list which is used to rate which schools across the state require improvement. Houston ISD, the state’s largest district, topped the list with 86 different elementary, middle and high schools requiring improvement due to low test scores and other factors contributingRead More

Study: Arts Education has Measurable Positive Effects

Study: Arts Education has Measurable Positive Effects

As an undergraduate at Rice – an excellent school across the board, but particularly known for its STEM programs – I had many encounters with engineering students who disliked studying the arts. They would tell me they simply didn’t see the point – where were the practical applications? With theRead More

Texas Public School Enrollment Numbers Soar in 2013-2014 School Year

Texas Public School Enrollment Numbers Soar in 2013-2014 School Year

The 2014-2014 school year brought Texas its highest ever number of students enrolled in public schools throughout the state.  According to a November 2014 report published by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), Texas public school enrollment has increased by almost 19% since 2003. Currently, there are over 5 million studentsRead More

Source: iStock

Later School Start Time Debate Continues

Exhausted teenagers may soon see their dreams come true at a later morning hour. The school start time debate has shifted as proponents of later school start times now have greater scientific evidence to back up their claims. In August of this year, the American Academy of Pediatricians recommended thatRead More

What You Should Know About President Obama’s ConnectED Initiative

What You Should Know About President Obama’s ConnectED Initiative

It’s been a big week for President Obama with the announcement of his executive action on immigration. This hot-button new policy and the buzz surrounding it have eclipsed many other national policy issues for the moment, so you may not have heard much about what else the President has beenRead More

EdX High School Initiative is Groundbreaking Expansion into Online APs

EdX High School Initiative is Groundbreaking Expansion into Online APs

On Monday, the massive open online course (MOOC) platform edX opened registration for AP Biology: Part 1, the first course on the site which explicitly focuses on preparing students for an AP exam. The course has been made available in partnership with Rice University’s Center for Digital Learning and ScholarshipRead 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

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

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

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

Non-profit urges expansion of charter schools

Non-profit urges expansion of charter schools

Houston Schools, National K-12, Profile March 19, 2014 at 5:05 pm

Democrats for Education Reform have set up shop in Austin, Texas, and they are planning on adding to the educational dialogue across the state. To begin with, it must be mentioned that there is a lot of difficult rhetoric and political language to wade through when discussing education reform. ButRead More

More schools closing in Houston ISD

More schools closing in Houston ISD

Houston Schools, National K-12 March 17, 2014 at 1:28 pm

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