Texas education

The Texas Senate is focusing its attention on education as multiple education reform bills get announced in Austin.

By Mike Feinberg and Robert Sanborn

The Texas Legislature will delve into education this session, and there’s a lot of ground to cover. Issues like school finance, investment in pre-kindergarten and high school counseling are already grabbing headlines. As the co-founder of KIPP and the head of Children at Risk, we’re especially interested in one hot debate that’s beginning to boil at the Capitol: local control over school calendars.

I’d noted last week that the Texas Education Agency might be suggesting changes in the STAAR testing calendar for next school year. That proposal is now out. The agency is asking for comments.

Schools have long been in the business of assigning grades to their students, but now, new legislation in Texas might be turning the tables. Gov. Greg Abbott, who recently replaced Rick Perry as the most powerful elected official in the Lone Star State, has thrown his support behind a plan that would attach a letter grade to Texas public schools, based on their academic performance.

Senate Education Committee members Thursday considered legislation that would ease Texas’ high school graduation test requirement for the first time in 28 years.

Houston Independent School District may be the best urban school district in the country, as Superintendent Terry Grier bragged last week in his annual state-of-the-schools address. Unfortunately, the field is not very competitive. The Broad Foundation recently announced that it is not going to award its prestigious educational prize this year in part as a result of "sluggish academic results from the largest urban school districts in the country."

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday endorsed legislation that would for the first time assign letter grades to Texas public school campuses based on their academic performance.

Brookesmith ISD has received a status of Not Accredited-Revoked from the Texas Education Agency, and the district has been ordered to close effective July 1, 2015.

AUSTIN – Michael Williams said Monday he expects to be kept on as Texas commissioner of education through the 2015 legislative session.

The Texas Education Agency informed the La Marque school district earlier this week that it is revoking the district's accreditation.