Tag Archives: schools

Charter schools

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

There’s good and there’s bad, and if we’re smart about it we can maximize the former while minimizing the latter. Fifteen years into the Texas charter school experiment, some charters have brought impressive innovation to public education, saved dropouts and … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Bad projections

Posted on July 10, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Just go read this Trib story about how the Texas Education Agency’s Texas Projection Measure, which purports to measure student academic growth as a way to evaluate school districts, is basically a load of hooey. It was the subject of … Continue reading →

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Ars Lyrica school outreach

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Ars Lyrica is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that produces a yearly series of concerts of early music, primarily Baroque, for general audiences. Part of their mission is a school outreach series. The following is from a press release I got … Continue reading →

Posted in Music | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Who wants to answer for Rick Perry’s policies?

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

There was a hearing of the House Public Education Committee yesterday to discuss the Texas Education Agency’s controversial methodology for rating school districts, but the person responsible for that metric declined to show up to explain it. Rep. Scott Hochberg, … Continue reading →

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HISD strategic direction meetings

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

From an HISD press release: HISD will be holding two interactive, live TV shows to gather comments and feedback from the community. The first will be on Monday, June 28, from 7:00–8:00 p.m., on the HISD channel, and will be … Continue reading →

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Rhetoric is the easy part

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

There are two things that I wonder about as I read this story about poverty and the Texas schools and the alarming trends we’re seeing in things like the dropout rate. First and foremost, will anyone ever listen to former … Continue reading →

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Response from Randle Richardson regarding the CEP report

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

As noted before, Randle Richardson, the CEO of Community Education Partners (CEP), left a comment on the Hair Balls post in which Houston’s LULAC chapter and the Texas ACLU raised concerns about that report evaluating CEP’s effectiveness. He left a … Continue reading →

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Personality matters

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Lisa Falkenberg, writing earlier this week about longtime teacher Jamie Simmon leaving HISD after 27 years to take a job with YES Prep: The decision, she says, has nothing to do with the daunting challenges of educating Lee’s largely at-risk, … Continue reading →

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The cupcake controversy

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I recently came across an interesting blog about children and food, particularly school food, called The Lunch Tray that’s worth your time to take a look at. I especially liked this post about the habit of bringing cupcakes to school … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, glorious food | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Not everyone was impressed by that CEP report

Posted on June 12, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Last week, a Texas A&M researcher released a report that evaluated the effectiveness of Community Education Partners (CEP), the provider HISD uses for its disciplinary alternate education program. The evaluation was very positive for CEP, saying it did a good … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

CEP gets a good grade

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

As reported by Hair Balls, the Texas A&M consultant that was brought in by HISD and Superintendent Terry Grier to evaluate Community Education Partners (CEP), its provider for the disciplinary alternate education program, has now issued his long-awaited report. You … Continue reading →

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What people who (mostly) don’t have kids in the schools think about the schools

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

In addition to their horse race survey, the UT/Texas Trib poll asked some questions about the state of public education in Texas. There’s a lot in the poll, ranging from confidence levels in the public schools (not so good) to … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

HISD to keep CEP

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

HISD Superintendent Terry Grier has been pushing for months to get HISD out of its contract with Community Education Partners (CEP), its provider for the disciplinary alternate education program. He ran into opposition from HFT President Gayle Fallon, who has … Continue reading →

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More on our Hispanic future

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

It’s not looking as good as it should. Data from a variety of state and federal sources show the Hispanic population in Texas is economically stagnating and may be falling behind Latinos in other parts of the United States: • … Continue reading →

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Get ready for larger class sizes

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Back in 1984, one of the school reforms that resulted from the Perot Commission was a mandate that elementary school classes could have no more than 22 students in them. Many things have changed since then, but that standard has … Continue reading →

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Gallegos versus Grier

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

State Sen. Mario Gallegos is not a fan of HISD Superintendent Terry Grier. He has made this clear through two letters he has released. This one, from April 8, raises questions about Grier’s past record in other school districts, while … Continue reading →

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Lawsuit over grading policies

Posted on April 27, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

A number of school districts, mostly in the Houston area, have a policy of not giving kids a grade lower than 50 in any grading period. The idea is that by setting a floor on grades, it gives kids the … Continue reading →

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Where does your school rank?

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

How good is your neighborhood school? Not just in terms of its Texas Education Agency’s rating, but in comparison to other schools? Here’s a way to find out. The greater Houston area is home to some of the best — … Continue reading →

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Wrapup from “Houston Have Your Say: Education Crisis”

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I thought last night’s broadcast of Houston Have Your Say: Education Crisis went very well. You can see rebroadcasts of the show on Thursday, April 22, at 1:00 am; Friday, April 23, at 8:00 pm; and Sunday, April 25, at … Continue reading →

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Join the chat for Houston Have Your Say

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I’m here at the KUHT studios for Houston Have Your Say: Education Crisis. There’s a Cover It Live chat available, so head over and let us know what you have to say about it. There’s a lot of brainpower among … Continue reading →

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The coming train wreck

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Two local school superintendents – HD Chambers from the Stafford Municipal School District and Louis Stoerner from the Alief Independent School District – wrote an op-ed for the Chron about the financial catastrophe that school districts are facing. With a … Continue reading →

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“The school-to-prison pipeline”

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Read this. When it comes to discipline, Aldine ISD doesn’t mess around. The large suburban district expelled more students last year — 525 — than any other district in Texas, despite being a fraction of the size of large urban … Continue reading →

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Everybody’s talking about Terry

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

HISD Superintendent Terry Grier, that is. A few things I’ve noticed lately: From Rick Casey: For all his controversies in previous districts, Grier earned a reputation for improving the performance of all children, but especially of low-income and minority children. … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

White and Perry argue about the dropout rate; White wins

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

See for yourself. The major-party candidates for governor on Tuesday waded into one of the oldest and hottest debates in public education — what’s the real high school drop-out rate? — producing the kind of fireworks that suggest the state … Continue reading →

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Fort Bend ISD layoffs

Posted on April 7, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Unfortunately, I expect we’ll hear more stories like this in the coming months. On Thursday, many teachers in the Fort Bend Independent School District got the letter they had dreaded. It was notification from Rhonda McWilliams, the district’s chief human … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Two trustees speak about CEP

Posted on April 3, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

This week, Carl Whitmarsh forwarded to his list a pair of articles written by HISD trustees on the subject of CEP and the changes that have been proposed by Superintendent Terry Grier. Since that has been such a contentious topic, … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Interview with HISD Superintendent Terry Grier

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

On Monday I published an interview with HFT President Gayle Fallon in which we covered a number of topics relating to HISD, many of which are a source of contention between the HFT and HISD Superintendent Terry Grier. Yesterday, I … Continue reading →

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More on K12RadioHouston

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron writes about HISD’s plan for an Internet radio station. While the station will be professionally run, students will have a role in producing content. Music will dominate the waves, but school performances, athletic events and news announcements will … Continue reading →

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More on Grier’s alternative to CEP

Posted on March 30, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron has a story about HISD Superintendent Terry Grier’s recent proposal to replace Community Education Partners (CEP) with a school swap program for some students with discipline issues. The transfer program, meant to give students a second chance in … Continue reading →

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Interview with Gayle Fallon

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

As you know, I’ve been following the news in HISD lately, in particular the political struggle going on between new HISD Superintendent Terry Grier and the Houston Federation of Teachers, over things like the proposal to dump CEP as the … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

It’s the “I am rubber, you are glue” election

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron notes that some of the charges that the two gubernatorial campaigns will lob at each other could easily be lobbed right back at themselves. Perry slammed White for not ruling out new taxes, pointing to 2003, when state … Continue reading →

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HISD disciplinary data

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Last week, I noted some differences of fact between HISD Superintendent Terry Grier and HFT President Gayle Fallon over the cost and use of alternate school CEP, which Grier wants to dump. Fallon left a comment in that post, and … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Fact check on Aisle 5, please

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

As we know, HISD Superintendent Terry Grier has proposed ending HISD’s relationship with Community Education Partners (CEP), which provides alternate schools for kids with discipline problems. Following that, the Chron editorialized in favor of Grier’s stance. Grier contends that CEP … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The school district squeeze

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Everywhere you look there’s bad budget news. “This is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Fort Bend ISD Chief Financial Officer Tracy Hoke, who’s worked in school finance for two decades. “I could turn out every light, and we’d … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments