The Texas Education Agency has announced an extension of its takeover of Houston ISD. A letter sent out by TEA head Mike Morath on Monday morning states that the state's takeover of the district will now be extended until June 2027. view article

A legislative effort to scrap the STAAR test to respond to concerns that the test puts unnecessary pressure on students died in the last days of the legislative session.  House Bill 4, authored by state Rep. Brad Buckley, would have swapped the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test for three shorter tests given throughout the school year.  The Senate and House failed to come out of closed-door negotiations with a compromise in time, missing a key legislative deadline this weekend.  Legislators in the House and Senate agreed that Texas schools needed to do away with the STAAR test. But in the end, the two chambers could not close the gulf over what they wanted to see out of the new test and from the A- ratings system, which uses standardized test results to grade schools’ performance.  Tensions had come to a head in recent years when a dispute over how ratings should be calculated led to two years of scores to be held up in court.  The Senate wanted to solidify the Texas Education Agency commissioner’s authority to set stricter standards for the ratings system. And to discourage schools from taking legal action again, the upper chamber’s version of the bill gave the TEA commissioner authority to appoint a conservator to districts that initiate lawsuits.  The House version, meanwhile, required the TEA to get approval from the Legislature before making major changes to the ratings system. And it left an avenue for districts to sue to challenge the TEA in the future, while setting up a fast-track court process so those lawsuits would not halt the release of the ratings.  The two chambers also differed over whether to keep or do away with a mandatory social studies test, with the House in favor of less testing.  Keep tabs on Texas politics and policy with our morning newsletter  Keep tabs on Texas politics and policy with our morning newsletter view article

The state takeover of Houston ISD will continue for two more years before the Texas Education Agency announces the timeline for the transition back to elected board members overseeing the district. TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said in a letter that HISD has made "tremendous" improvements in student academic performance during the first year of state intervention, as well as gains in finance, operations, special education compliance and school board governance. view article

Faizan Zaki, 13, stood as the final contestant Thursday night in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and contemplated the word that could make him champion: éclaircissement.  The Plano ISD student went through the word, the excitement in his voice growing letter by letter and his breath catching slightly as he finished it perfectly and the judges declared him the winner.  Faizan dropped to the floor exhausted and triumphant as the confetti rained down on him. view article

Faizan Zaki — who was last year's runner-up — is the winner of the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The 13-year-old received the coveted Scripps Cup Thursday night after correctly spelling éclaircissement — a French word that means clarification, explanation or enlightenment in English. He outspelled more than 240 other competitors from across the country, including runner-up Sarvadnya Kadam. view article

AUSTIN -- School boards could pull books from school library shelves if they deem them profane or indecent under legislation given final passage Wednesday in the Texas House.  Librarians, who are charged with curating the book collections, would need to seek the school board's approval before buying books under Senate Bill 13, by Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney.  District officials could appoint local advisory councils, composed of parents, educators and community members, to review books and make recommendations to the school board. view article

Get ready San Antonio. More high school students are seeking workforce training and certifications. view article

RAVALLI COUNTY, Mont. — After years of putting it off, Montana’s Florence-Carlton school district had to decide: Would it join the many smaller districts in the state with a four-day school week, or stick with a five-day schedule?  This story also appeared in Chalkbeat and Montana Free Press  Until recently, some local education leaders thought the four-day week was a poor fit for the town of Florence. Staffing problems, including having to cut nine employees, the end of pandemic-era education funding, and the loss of 50 students this school year, however, put the district of about 730 students in a tight spot. view article

The Texas House gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would eliminate STAAR, the high-stakes standardized test that the state and school districts use to monitor student learning and teacher performance. The STAAR test “leads to anxiety in our classroom with our teachers, and it leads to absolutely no information that a parent can understand,” said Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado. “Assessment should be instructionally relevant and actionable.” House Bill 4 got a near unanimous vote in the House on Monday, but faces a tough road in the Senate. The upper chamber has its own idea for what an overhaul of the state standardized test and the accountability system should look like. The gulf between the proposals is wide — one lawmakers will need to close in the final weeks of this year’s legislative session.  Both the House and Senate versions of the legislation would swap the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, with a shorter test to free up time for more instruction. Students would be tested at the beginning, middle and end of the school year so teachers could use test results to identify areas for improvement and shape their lesson plans. The proposals would also change the state accountability system that grades districts on an A-F scale. view article

Multiple investigations have been launched against the state’s largest school district over allegations of electioneering after it already faced criminal fraud charges and federal, state and county investigations over the years. The latest allegation against Houston Independent School District is that board members again violated state law by using taxpayer money to urge voters to support a $4.4 billion bond last November. view article

The schools were closed last week after years of declining enrollment. The school communities said increased choices were to blame.  LUFKIN — Kurth Primary’s campus was quiet as parents pulled their cars into line to pick up their kids on Wednesday, the last day of school. The peace didn’t last long. As noon approached, teachers began helping kids to their parents' cars for the last time. Kids waved goodbye to their friends and teachers. Wednesday wasn’t just the last day of the school year at Kurth. It was the last day, for the immediate future, the school will be open at all. The Lufkin Independent School District board earlier this year voted to close it and another school, Coston Elementary. Jupiter Collins, 7, had big plans for the lake over Memorial Day weekend, she said as she waited to crawl into her dad’s car. As excited as she is for her summer plans, Jupiter is also nervous about going to a new school next year.  Schools are more than brick and mortar in Deep East Texas. They are the places where students experienced historic events with their peers. They are a common ground for generations of families who walked their halls. They are evenings spent performing plays and days spent taking tests and playing tag at recess. view article

The Angelina College Law Enforcement Academy on Monday held a ceremony honoring its Class 118 graduates as they head into their respective law enforcement careers. view article

A day after Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath toured multiple Houston ISD campuses, an elected trustee for the district asked him to restore local control of the state’s largest public school system. Savant Moore, who has no voting power on the HISD school board because of ongoing state intervention, told Houston Public Media that he sent an email to Morath on Thursday asking the commissioner "to respectfully urge that the transition back to local control begin on June 2025." view article

With weeks until the deadline to announce a potential extension of the state takeover of Houston ISD, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath expressed strong support Wednesday for the “spectacular” reforms that have occurred in the district since June 2023. view article

Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath is visiting Houston on Wednesday to tour several Houston ISD campuses; however, the visit is already stirring controversy among parents. Ahead of his scheduled press conference with HISD Superintendent Mike Miles—set to take place at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts—parents are expressing frustration over what they describe as a last-minute effort to make schools appear cleaner and better maintained than usual. view article

Officials in the Fort Worth Independent School District say that closing and consolidating more than a dozen campuses would save the district millions of dollars over the next five years, allowing them to redirect more money toward academic priorities. District officials presented a proposed five-year facilities plan at a school board meeting Tuesday. The plan includes the closure and consolidation of 18 small and under-enrolled schools, including S.S. Dillow Elementary School, which is scheduled view article

Gathered together in bright blue school caps, parents from Fairmont’s De Zavala Elementary School made their case against Fort Worth ISD’s plan to shut down their school in 2027. “We were told by the district no decisions to close De Zavala would be made anytime soon. That does not seem to be the case,” said one parent. De Zavala scored an A on the latest TEA A–F ratings. It was one of the few A-rated schools in Fort Worth ISD. The district is at risk of state takeover for having too many failing schools. view article

The Texas House gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would eliminate STAAR, the high-stakes standardized test that the state and school districts use to monitor student learning and teacher performance.The STAAR test “leads to anxiety in our classroom with our teachers, and it leads to absolutely no information that a parent can understand,” Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Salado, said on the House floor Monday. “Assessment should be instructionally relevant and actionable.”  House Bill 4 got a near unanimous vote in the House on Monday, but faces a tough road in the Senate. The upper chamber has its own idea for what an overhaul of the state standardized test, and the school rating system largely based on that test’s outcomes, should look like. The gulf between the proposals is wide — one lawmakers will need to close in the final weeks of this year’s legislative session. view article

House Bill 4 would make the test shorter and base scores on how students’ performance compares to national averages. view article

The Texas education commissioner is now officially weighing his options for Fort Worth ISD after a now-closed school triggered the state’s school intervention law. In a May 5 letter to Superintendent Karen Molinar and board President Roxanne Martinez, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said the district’s accountability ratings triggered a state law that requires him to intervene.  The issue: The Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade failed to meet state standards for five straight years — a threshold that mandates either a campus closure or the appointment of a board of managers to govern the entire district.This former Fort Worth ISD campus placed the entire district on state's potential takeover list view article

Austin ISD is looking to hire dozens of experienced teachers with proven track records in the classroom to help turn around three under-performing schools. The school district says it's looking for "transformative teachers" who can have an immediate impact on student achievement at Dobie, Webb, and Burnet Middle Schools. Those schools have received multiple "F" ratings from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) state accountability rating system. view article

Houston ISD's Board of Managers and state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles heard the concerns of more than 60 HISD high schoolers in a report presented at a board meeting Thursday as the district nears the two-year anniversary of its state takeover. While some students pointed to improvements after HISD implemented new programs and reforms, including the district's college, career and military readiness programs, others shared concerns about poor student morale, teacher fear and burnout and inflexible instruction, according to a new report from the board's Ad Hoc Community Engagement Committee. The committee's second report came as Houston ISD's Board of Managers approved its district-developed curriculum materials for the 2025-26 school year Thursday. view article

Dallas Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde told a theater full of educators on Tuesday that Texas could be “standing on the precipice” of eliminating the STAAR test. During her annual State of the District address, Elizalde lauded a legislative proposal to scrap the state’s much-derided standardized test and replace it with a series of shorter exams that would be given to students throughout the year. view article

Klein ISD maintained its B rating with the release of the 2022-2023 Texas Education Agency accountability ratings. Serving 54,000, Klein ISD has 50 schools from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. view article

Fort Worth ISD will have to make aggressive and immediate improvements after a district school repeatedly received failing scores in the state's accountability ratings, the Texas education commissioner warned district leaders this week. Why it matters: The school shut down in 2023, merging with a middle school, but Fort Worth ISD will have to successfully appeal the most recent rating to avoid being taken over by the Texas Education Agency. view article

Students who are behind in third grade rarely catch up. Texas lawmakers want to intervene earlier. Texas lawmakers want to help young learners who are lagging behind in math and reading, an early setback that threatens to derail their path to high school graduation.  More than half of third graders in the state are not at grade level in reading or math, meaning they lack the key foundational skills they need to thrive as learners. Students who are behind in third grade rarely catch up, which can lead to serious consequences later in life. Research shows students who struggle to read by third grade are more likely to drop out of high school. Math proficiency is tied to economic mobility as an adult.  The Texas House gave final approval Wednesday to House Bill 123, which aims to provide struggling students extra learning support as early as kindergarten, before learning gaps compound. view article

The Texas Education Agency is warning Fort Worth ISD that it is at risk of a potential state takeover. This comes after the 2023 school accountability ratings were released a few weeks ago. view article

Dallas Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde told a theater full of educators on Tuesday that Texas could be “standing on the precipice” of eliminating the STAAR test. During her annual State of the District address, Elizalde lauded a legislative proposal to scrap the state’s much-derided standardized test and replace it with a series of shorter exams that would be given to students throughout the year. view article

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath notified officials in the Fort Worth Independent School District that the district is at risk of a state takeover after a single campus received five consecutive failure ratings. view article

Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday accused Austin ISD of using materials to teach critical race theory. His office plans to depose the superintendent and school board as part of an investigation. The AG’s office alleges the district is using curricula related to the “The 1619 Project,” which recenters U.S. history around the impact of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans. It was created by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. view article

Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde used her state of the district Tuesday night to address the district’s recent accountability rating and point to accomplishments she said the grade can’t reflect. Speaking at the Winspear Opera House, Elizalde declared the district strong because of its employees. “I don’t believe it’s ever been stronger,” she said. view article

TX Education Agency warns FWISD of potential takeover view article

Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath sent a letter Monday to Fort Worth ISD warning it faces a possible state intervention amid concerns over the failure of one specific school. Morath said the possible intervention is required under the law, and not something over which he has flexibility. Leadership Academy at Forest Oak's sixth-grade campus has not had a passing performance rating for eight years. view article

The Texas Education Agency sent Fort Worth ISD a letter this week in response to one of its schools earning its fifth consecutive unacceptable rating, which could lead to the school's closure. The Leadership Academy at Forest Oak's 6th-grade campus earned an F rating for 2023, its fifth consecutive unacceptable rating since 2016. No schools received ratings in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, and no ratings in 2022 due to state legislation. view article

Similar to other Texas school districts, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD dropped a letter grade with this week's release of the 2023 Texas Education Agency’s accountability ratings, barely earning a B rating. With more than 90 campuses and nearly 119,000 students, Cy-Fair scored an 80, 10 points down from its 2022 rating. view article