Month: <span>April 2010</span>

HISD weighs in on social studies curriculum

TSTA and other educator groups, dozens of legislators and scores of authentic history experts all have urged the State Board of Education to either delay final adoption or revise the new social studies curriculum standards set for a final board vote in about three weeks. These, of course, would be the muchdebated (and ridiculed) curriculum […]

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The president has a name: it’s Barack Obama

TSTA President Rita Haecker created a stir among legislators today when she testified, at a hearing hosted by the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, that the State Board of Education, in its recent rewrite of social studies curriculum standards, had refused to name President Barack Obama. That bit of news seemed to catch several lawmakers by […]

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Another way to check how your school measures up

Teachers and parents who want to see how their schools stack up have another alternative to the state’s TAKSheavy accountability system. The online newspaper, The Texas Tribune, in a story published today, uses more broadbased criteria initially considered by Children At Risk, a Houstonbased, nonprofit advocacy and research organization. The rankings are based on the […]

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Updating Texas’ (still) stingy educational support

A couple of the statistical rankings I have been using (as recently as three days ago) to illustrate state government’s dismal commitment to Texas’ public schools are now officially outdated. Texas no longer is 33rd in average teacher salary. It has slipped to 34th. And, Texas no longer is 44th in perpupil expenditures on instruction. […]

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