The Klein ISD board of trustees approved the submission of a waiver to exempt four classrooms from the state’s maximum class size requirement and received a Statement of Impact Application from a proposed charter school during their regular monthly meeting on Jan. 14.  The board approved submitting a class size waiver request for a Klenk Elementary second grade class and three Nitsch Elementary School kindergarten classes.  The waiver application requests exemption from the 22 students-per-teacher limit for those classes due to financial hardship, one of the factors considered by the Texas Education Agency commissioner when deciding if the class size limit unduly burdens a school district. view article

It's never too early for high school students to start preparing for college and the LHS College and Career Center is hosting events to help spur students to consider their options now that the school year is underway.  LHS seniors (and their parents) are invited to attend a program on financial aid options for college-bound students and college admission testing.”  Session 5: Wednesday, January 15, 2020, 6:30 PM, outside the LHS College and Career Center on the second floor of the main building   Topic:  “The PSAT, SAT, ACT and Getting Juniors Ready to Apply to College” view article

Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath has decided the fate of the struggling Snyder Junior High School. According to Snyder Daily News, Morath has approved parent petitions to close the school but has rejected Snyder ISD’s proposed plan to re-open the school as the Inquiry Based Learning Academy.  view article

Freshmen in Greenville High School’s engineering-centered Early College High School program Thursday gained a new level of understanding of the product design, production, marketing and the sales process as they toured Innovation First’s facility in Greenville. The tour was led by John V-Neun, president of Innovation First’s RackSolutions division. The tech company’s other two divisions are HEXBUG and VEX Robotics. view article

My school district uses the Fundamental 5 as its primary instructional delivery system. In the book, The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) there are some examples of elementary Lesson Frames. But I teach Kindergarten. Lesson Framing seems overwhelming because on any given day I teach reading, writing, handwriting, math, science, social studies, social skills, etc.  Are there any time saving ideas to change each subject’s frame daily in kindergarten? view article

Garland ISD recently launched a new spelling bee, and for the first time in the district’s history they hosted a Spanish Spelling Bee in addition to the English Spelling Bee Tuesday.  The Spanish Spelling Bee offers Spanish-speaking students the opportunity to compete in a bee conducted in their native language. There were 31 participants from 22 campuses from third to eighth grade, and five Rowlett-based campus winners competed at the district level Tuesday. view article

West Midland apartment complex to provide 200 units, mainly for taxing-entity employees - The Midland City Council unanimously passed an ordinance – on first reading -- that will allow the Midland Community Development Corp. to build a 200-unit apartment complex that is expected to provide affordable housing for Midland ISD, hospital district and city of Midland first responders.  The approval came in the face of opposition from residents in a west Midland neighborhood. Neighbors, most of whom live on Princeton Avenue west of Midland Drive, cited traffic, the possibility of lower property values, privacy and the desire to see single-family housing rather than apartments as reasons for their opposition. Some even said they opposed the project because they didn’t want it in their own backyard. view article

Pre-K classes at Plano ISD will see a shift to a full-day-only program as well as an expansion in the number of classes and host campuses in the 2020-21 school year.  Barron, Boggess, Hughston and Mathews Elementary schools will be holding pre-K classes for the first time next school year, according to a presentation by Ashley Davis, director of childhood services, at a PISD board meeting Jan. 14.  Christie Elementary will add one class to its two existing classes. The other 14 pre-K campuses will remain at the same class amount as this year. view article

If you even in the least bit doubt the wisdom of E. Don Brown’s advice, “Leaders Do Not Have The Luxury of Having A Sense of Humor,” let my recent failure serve as an example. The following is a note I received and my response.  Up front, I am not the aggrieved party in this exchange. I share this as an object lesson… view article

At the age of 37, Frank North has parlayed his Houston ISD education and entrepreneurial spirit into an accomplished resume: clinical pharmacist, small business owner, adjunct professor, recipient of three college degrees.  With his fast-changing career calming down, the Booker T. Washington High School graduate now wants to help create more academic opportunities for students in his hometown district. Late last year, North applied for a spot on the replacement Houston ISD school board the Texas Education Agency is expected to appoint, confident his personal background and work history could well serve children in Texas’ largest district.  “I bring a real-time experience of what a student in that environment thinks, what they want and what they hold dear in terms of their future,” said North, who now lives in Houston’s Third Ward. “A school board (member) doesn’t necessarily need to be someone with extensive experience in education, but someone who understands and takes their experiences to make better outcomes for students.” view article

Mesquite ISD recently announced that MISD students who entered ninth grade before the 2011-2012 school year and have met all graduation credit requirements for the year they entered ninth grade — but did not perform satisfactorily on the TAAS or TAKS assessments — may still qualify to graduate and receive a high school diploma due to a new resolution. view article

WESLACO, Texas (KGBT) — A new initiative at Weslaco ISD is working to keep children reading.  The initiative called “Anytime, Anywhere, Reading,” allows students to read digital books on their school bus while on the way to and from school.  “Some of our students end up riding on the bus for an hour, hour and a half or longer sometimes each day, both ways to school, so we wanted to make the opportunity to read books that they’re interested in available to them anything that they’re interested in a reading,” said Rene Dyer, Librarian at Weslaco East High School. view article

LAREDO, TX (KGNS) - The new year brings a new opportunity for the former leader of a Central Texas and Laredo school district who resigned in 2019 following a drug arrest.  The City of Marlin has hired the former superintendent of Waco and Laredo Independent School District, Doctor Marcus Nelson.  In March of 2019, Nelson was driving through Robertson County when a DPS trooper caught him with marijuana and took him to jail.  He later resigned from Waco ISD.  Nelson will now serve as a consultant for the City of Marlin. view article

Citing a desire to strike the right balance between rigorous academics and students’ stress levels, North East Independent School District trustees voted Monday night to end calculating class rank for students below the top 10 percent. The policy will take effect when the district’s current class of seventh graders enters high school.  “It is really important we have just the right tension on social-emotional learning when we think about rank,” said Colleen Bohrmann, NEISD’s executive director of Learning Support Services, at a December meeting. “We want to be sure that we are pushing the students to a rigorous coursework, but when is it too much?” view article

The Beaumont Independent School District held a meeting at El Cristo Rey Catholic Church Monday to address Hispanic parents’ concerns about a lack of bilingual employees throughout the district and at school meetings.  Despite the growing Hispanic population in BISD, many parents in attendance felt their concerns are being ignored. “We are always feeling ignored because of the language,” Maria Perez, who attended the meeting and has three children who attend schools in BISD, said in Spanish. “At (school) meetings, they never have anyone who speaks Spanish who can help explain to us what is going on.” view article

The Crosby band, known as the Big Red Machine, received the Sudler Flag of Honor from the John Philip Sousa Foundation, “An International Award Recognizing High School Concert Bands of Outstanding Musical Excellence” whose purpose is to “identify, recognize and honor high school band programs internationally that have demonstrated particularly significant high standards of excellence in concert activities over a period of several years,” as per the Sousa Foundation website. view article

BOWIE (KFDX/KJTL) — In an effort to prepare the students at Bowie ISD for the workforce in the real world, the school and city are partnering for an internship program.  Learning how to work in the real world is what the internship program teaches.  “I work for all three different offices,” Bowie ISD junior Jolie Page said. “I travel with the mail. Anything that needs to be taken to a different office. I scan things to different computers. I copy, print, anything they need I do.” view article

The Coppell ISD board of trustees adopted at a Jan. 13 meeting the district’s 2020-21 academic calendar.  Students will start classes Aug. 12 and break for summer May 26, 2021, according to the district. Winter break will begin Dec. 21 and end Jan. 4, 2021, though students will not return until Jan. 6. Spring break will be March 15-19, 2021.  The 2020-21 calendar will be duplicated for the 2021-22 school year, according to CISD. Students will be in classes for a total of 176 days each year.  CISD published in November three calendar options on its website for parents, students, employees and other stakeholders to vote on their preferred option.   view article

PALMER — High school students in the Palmer Independent School District who are in the top quarter of their graduating class but might have a difficult time getting into college will soon find the door to matriculation wide open — and painted purple.  The Palmer ISD board of trustees formalized a memorandum of understanding at Monday night’s monthly meeting that creates a partnership between the school district and Tarleton State University starting with the 2020-2021 school year. view article

During the Fall of 2019, Winters ISD had the opportunity to present at two state-level conferences, TASA/TASB 2019 txEDCON Convention in Fort Worth, Texas, and Advancing Improvement Education (AIE) in San Antonio. At both of these conferences, Kathy Horner from Winters ISD presented on how Winters ISD partnered with engage2learn (e2L) through a process to define the principles of design for all classrooms that would best support their community-inspired vision for learning. Community stakeholders came together during focus groups and summits to share their vision for learning. One student said his vision for students in Winters ISD is to have the “Ability to work independently and collaborate with others.” view article

Domingo Morel is a professor of political science at Rutgers University who has studied school takeovers across the nation. He is the author of Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy.   In this post, he describes the proposed state takeover of the Houston Independent School District as a hoax.   It is a manufactured crisis. It is a theft of political power, and it is based on race. view article

A state judge Wednesday evening immediately blocked Texas from taking over the Houston Independent School District until she issues a final ruling on the case, complicating the state's plan to oust the district's school board by March.  In doing so, Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy preliminarily sided with Houston ISD, the state's largest school district, in a legal battle that will ultimately determine whether Texas can indefinitely seize power from its elected school board. view article

If ever the community of Marlin needed good news, it’s now: Marlin Independent School District has failed to meet rigorous state testing standards since 2010, longer than any other district operating in Texas; families are pulling their children out of Marlin ISD and sending them elsewhere; teacher morale is flagging in some quarters; reports suggest district leadership has been erratic; and indications are the Texas Education Agency is growing weary of giving second, third and fourth chances. view article

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS tweets from the past week when they were first posted.  And if you are on Twitter, you might want to check out the Tweeters who made this week’s list.  Public schools are the civic and moral formation centers of America. (By @pastors4txkids)  The moral argument for public education drives the trolls nuts. God’s truth is a stubborn and unavoidable thing. (By @pastors4txkids) view article

Spring ISD board members are in the middle of a process for approving new print, digital and online instructional material for next school year. The new material is part of a statewide initiative called Proclamation 2020. The initiative calls for new instructional material in English, language arts and reading courses to ensure all classes have the resources they need, said Spring ISD Chief of Curriculum and Instruction Khechara Bradford. “We also follow our guiding principle, which really does ensure we have an aligned curriculum with those corresponding progress measures or assessments and we really train teachers through differentiated professional development so that they can implement our curriculum with fidelity, and we believe that brings us to increased student achievement,” Bradford said. view article

BEEVILLE, Texas — A Beeville early childhood center is in the top 5 finalists of H-E-B's Excellence in Education Awards.  All 5 finalists receive $5,000 for their school and the winner will receive a $25,000 grant for their school. The Hampton-Moreno-Dugat Early Childhood Center in Beeville is in the early childhood category. view article

HOUSTON — Houston Independent School District teachers, support staff, and parents are urging the new school board to resist a state takeover.  Roughly 30 or so people, many who are part of the Houston Federation of Teachers, held a rally outside HISD headquarters Thursday afternoon. Many of them also planned to speak during the public comment period of the final meeting of the current school board. view article

A state judge Wednesday evening immediately blocked Texas from taking over the Houston Independent School District until she issues a final ruling on the case, complicating the state's plan to oust the district's school board by March. In doing so, Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy preliminarily sided with Houston ISD, the state's largest school district, in a legal battle that will ultimately determine whether Texas can indefinitely seize power from its elected school board. view article

CANYON, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Instead of having to make the trip to Clarendon College’s Amarillo Campus, it is now easier and more convenient for Canyon High School students looking to pursue a cosmetology career.  “This building is such a blessing, it’s a state of the art facility and the girls seem to be learning a lot as they work through their different phases of cosmetology,” said Decee Surratt, Canyon ISD Cosmetology Program Instructor. view article

Texas Education Agency officials said they filed an appeal Thursday to overturn an injunction by a Travis County judge blocking it from replacing Houston ISD’s trustees with a state-appointed board of managers.  The appeal was sent to the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals, and if a panel of judges sides with the agency, it could resume its work to strip Houston ISD’s board of power.  If the injunction is upheld, the TEA would not be able to move forward until a lawsuit by the Houston ISD board of trustees has been decided.    view article

In the latest twist in the ongoing battled between the Texas Education Agency and the board of trustees of Houston ISD, chalk up one for the school district's elected representatives.  A state district judge based in Austin late Wednesday stopped the planned takeover of the board by the state — at least for now. Judge Catherine Mauzy issued an injunction saying the TEA and its commissioner Mike Morath won't be going forward with their appointed board until after she has a chance to further review the case and issue a final ruling. view article

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Department of Labor has declared parents are covered under the law to take leave and attend their child's Individualized Education Program meeting. An IEP meeting usually takes place during the day, which makes it difficult for some working parents to get time off to attend. view article

ODESSA, Texas (YourBasin) – Schools back in session after the winter holidays for Ector County ISD. School officials are gearing up not only for next school year but for the next five. “We had a great start to our school year. I’m very happy with the things that happen the first semester. So as we think about second semester there’s a lot of work happening in our organization. We are focused on a strategic plan so, thinking big picture where we are heading as a school district. We’ll roll that out to our community in the month of March and so that provides a lot of excitement. That will provide clear direction for our district for the next five years,” stated ECISD Superintendent Dr. Scott Muri. view article

Frisco ISD expects increases in prekindergarten enrollment as it prepares to host a full-day pre-K in the 2020-21 school year. FISD began hiring for the program in December, said Melissa Ellis, FISD’s assistant director of early childhood instruction.  FISD’s Early Childhood School, where pre-K is currently offered, is expected to exceed capacity. As a result, FISD plans to use space at Boals, Hosp, McSpedden, Pink, Purefoy, Shawnee Trail and Sonntag elementary schools for the program. Carroll Elementary School will also participate, but for bilingual pre-K only. view article

For a school, thriving and surviving has little to do with state test scores.  You can have a thriving school, that based on state testing results, is barely keeping its head above water. This phenomenon is due to the fact that what state tests are most accurate at measuring is wealth of the families served... view article