Governor Greg Abbott today congratulated 31 Texas schools that have been recognized as National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2024. This recognition by the U.S. Department of Education highlights schools that excel in academic performance or make significant strides in closing achievement gaps. “Being chosen as a National Blue Ribbon School is a special distinction that reflects the hard work of teachers, staff, administrators, students, and parents in striving for academic excellence,” said Governor Abbott. “These schools represent the very best of what Texas education can offer. Texas will continue to be a national leader in education because we ensure our schools have the resources and support they need for young Texans to receive a high-quality education. Together, we will chart a course toward a bigger, brighter Texas.” view article

A new list of the country's best colleges is in, and some notable Texas schools made an appearance.  U.S. News & World Report has released its rankings for the 2025 Best Colleges, evaluating nearly 1,500 colleges and universities across 17 factors with an emphasis on social mobility and success after graduation. With this in mind, the majority of these factors relate to various outcome measures.  "Now in its 40th year, the Best Colleges rankings continue to be a trusted source of information for students and their families," said LaMont Jones, E view article

29 more Killeen ISD schools have been recognized for serving military families. Killeen ISD has announced that 29 schools in the district have been recognized as Purple Star schools by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in honor of their "strong school support for military-connected students and families." view article

The Socorro Independent School District on Monday celebrated its 39 Purple Star Designated Campuses for the 2024-2025 school year, a designation granted by the Texas Education Agency. This year, 38 schools were redesignated while Options High School was newly designated as a Purple Star campus. view article

Dozens of districts sued Texas saying the ratings painted an unfair picture of their schools. Others voluntarily have released their own. view article

The Navarro ISD’s commitment to serving military families is not going unnoticed. The Navarro Independent School District (NISD) is proudly announcing that all four of its campuses have been awarded the esteemed Purple Star Designation by Governor Greg Abbott. The Purple Star designation is a program established by the Texas Legislature through Senate Bill 1557, with the goal of highlighting schools that go above and beyond to meet the unique needs of these students. view article

Upgrades to the system Texas uses to collect student, staff and financial data from school districts are causing serious concerns among school administrators and data specialists across the state who say the changes have led to thousands of unresolved errors that could potentially cause them to lose out on state funding. Each of Texas’ more than 1,200 school districts is required to regularly submit data to the state, including information on attendance, enrollment, students who receive special education, children experiencing homelessness and the number of kids who have completed a college preparatory course. State officials use the information to determine whether schools are meeting performance standards and how much funding they receive each year. view article

A Travis County judge has again blocked the state from releasing A-F accountability grades. Judge Daniella DeSata Lyttle on Wednesday granted a coalition of school districts a temporary injunction preventing the Texas Education Agency from making the scores public. Five school districts – including Forney ISD and Crandall ISD – sued state Education Commissioner Mike Morath last month to challenge the rollout “because those ratings are based on a flawed assessment instrument (the new STAAR test) that is not valid and reliable,” the lawsuit read. view article

In Leander ISD, third grade student performance in math and reading declined on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness last school year, according to district data. District officials presented the early childhood testing data at a Sept. 19 board of trustees meeting alongside data showing improved performance in college, career and military readiness, or CCMR, for high school seniors.  House Bill 3, passed in 2019, requires Texas school districts to adopt five-year goals for early childhood reading and math as well as CCMR indicators. view article

Prosper ISD’s National Defense Cadet Corps program has transitioned to a full U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. The gist: The program transition became effective Aug. 12, according to a district newsletter. What it means: The U.S. Army JROTC is a leadership and citizenship program that helps high school students develop life skills and values. The program’s curriculum is focused on leadership, citizenship, and personal responsibility, according to the district’s website. view article

Six years after state legislators created a path for high-performing teachers to earn raises and in some cases six-figure salaries, Conroe ISD has expanded its program to include more than 200 educators and is looking to add more campuses and teachers. Terral Jackson, Teacher Incentive Allotment Program coordinator for Conroe ISD, said the district has 26 campuses and 267 teachers participating in the incentive program designed to recruit and retain teachers at economically disadvantaged campuses view article

The Fort Worth Independent School District’s C rating remains unchanged after state education officials asked the district to re-check its math on self-calculated A-F scores it released last week. Fort Worth ISD leaders released A-F accountability ratings for each campus, as well as the district as a whole, ahead of the district’s Sept. 10 board workshop. District leaders said they calculated those ratings using the Texas Education Agency’s formula. But the district did so without first confirming their numbers with TEA, which is barred from releasing official ratings under a court order. On Tuesday, a week after releasing the grades publicly, Fort Worth ISD submitted its self-calculated scores to TEA for review. The agency flagged a number of areas where the district’s figures differed from TEA’s. Because of the court order, TEA officials couldn’t say publicly what the issues were. Fort Worth ISD spokesperson Cesar Padilla said Thursday that district leaders think view article

Copperas Cove Independent School District has earned a unique designation, one of only 13 districts in the state of Texas to do so. Copperas Cove ISD is now officially a 100% Purple Star district, meaning every campus in the district has been named a Purple Star Designated Campus in honor of their commitment to the unique needs of military students and families. view article

Fort Worth ISD officials touted that the district “kicked butt” in its unofficial, self-calculated A-F accountability ratings, but administrators’ math may be wrong, according to the Texas Education Agency. In a Sept. 18 email, TEA spokesperson Jake Kobersky told the Report that on Sept. 17 — a week after Fort Worth ISD publicly presented the scores — the district asked for verification of its self-calculated ratings. view article

A day after a judge blocked the release of the Texas Education Agency's A-F school accountability grades, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath discussed challenges and needs in Texas education during a stop in Corpus Christi. Morath was the keynote speaker at Tuloso-Midway Independent School District Education Foundation's State of the District lunch, an annual event that highlights achievements and raises funds for teacher grants in the district. view article

Lufkin ISD board members met this evening in their regular scheduled meeting to approve district and campus improvement plans aimed at getting students where they need to be academically. “What we’re looking for is academic growth on the individual level for every single student in those subjects,” said LISD Superintendent Dr. James Hockenberry. view article

The Bastrop ISD board of trustees approved a set of goals surrounding the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, and a range of other categories throughout the district, with the 2024-25 District Improvement Plan. view article

The College Station ISD Board of Trustees met Tuesday to discuss the district’s performance in the STAAR assessment and overview the district’s improvement plans for the 2024-2025 school year. view article

Mike R. Waldrip, Superintendent Frisco Independent School District | Official website  An extraordinary 133 Frisco ISD high school seniors have been named 2025 National Merit Semifinalists. FISD has the highest number of 2025 National Merit Semifinalists of any district in the entire state of Texas. "Frisco ISD’s high number of National Merit Semifinalists is a testament to the exceptional talent, hard work and dedication of our students,” said Dr. Christy Fiori, chief academic officer. “Their achievements reflect the strength of the District’s commitment to academic excellence and the supportive environment we foster for all learners. We couldn’t be prouder of their accomplishments and the bright futures they are building." view article

PORTLAND, TX — Gregory-Portland Middle School is taking a different approach to how students plan for their future careers. view article

Hutto ISD will launch a new data viewing platform for teachers, parents and students over the 2024-25 school year, providing a more detailed view of student information all in one place. What you need to know.  The district will soon begin using K-12 data platform Abre to view and analyze student data, identify trends and improve student achievement in a central location, saving administrators and teachers time when looking for student achievement data to build classroom strategies.  Brittany Swanson, HISD's associate superintendent of instruction and innovation, said this tool will provide teachers with a better way to drill down on classroom trends and begin offering feedback to improve student performance.   view article

As lawsuits hamper the release of official accountability ratings, Fort Worth Independent School District has released its unofficial accountability rating, revealing that the district earned a C.  view article

The portrayal of Jewish people became a main point of contention Tuesday during a state school board hearing about Texas’s new reading curriculum that predominantly features the Bible and Christianity over other faiths. During several hours of public testimony before the State Board of Education, multiple speakers noted negative or inaccurate representations of Judaism and a lack of attention to contemporary Jewish life or Americans. view article

First Liberty Senior Counsel Keisha Russell testified before the Texas State Board of Education this week. The hearing focused on a proposed reading curriculum that includes Biblical and religious references. If approved, the curriculum would be available for public schools to roll out in August 2025. Schools will not be required to use the curriculum. But a measure approved by lawmakers last year will offer more money to public school districts that do choose to adopt any of the material, with up to $60 per student in additional funding. view article

The future of the South San Antonio Independent School District is still uncertain, just over a week away from the one-year anniversary of a settlement between the district and the Texas Education Agency to avoid the ouster of elected trustees and the appointment of a board of managers. But Abe Saavedra, a conservator appointed by the TEA to oversee the board and guide them through corrective actions, told the San Antonio Report Thursday that the board has made substantial progress over the last year. view article

How did individual campuses perform in Fort Worth ISD’s self-reported and calculated A-F accountability ratings for 2023 and 2024? Fort Worth ISD released estimated A-F ratings Sept. 10, though grades remain preliminary due to legal issues blocking the Texas Education Agency from releasing official ratings. view article

Aspiring Texas psychologists hope to earn certification and start work faster under a new licensing examination that would be created by the state. The plan, which is catching the eye of other states, calls for Texas boards to conduct state certification tests, eliminating the need for more expensive and time-intensive national certification tests. view article

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issues new directives to increase D.E.I. scrutiny in higher ed. AUSTIN, Texas — Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has issued a second round of directives for the Texas Senate, asking lawmakers to consider legislation that could change how the state does runoff elections, prevent protestors from wearing face masks, and further eliminate any lingering D.E.I. policies that may still exist in higher education. Since the Texas Legislature only meets biennially, there's a lot of work to be done before the start of a legislative session. "We compress effectively two years of legislation into approximately five months," Rice University's Dr. Mark Jones said. "the legislature needs to get working on issues long before the session begins in January." view article

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issues new directives to increase D.E.I. scrutiny in higher ed. AUSTIN, Texas — Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has issued a second round of directives for the Texas Senate, asking lawmakers to consider legislation that could change how the state does runoff elections, prevent protestors from wearing face masks, and further eliminate any lingering D.E.I. policies that may still exist in higher education. Since the Texas Legislature only meets biennially, there's a lot of work to be done before the start of a legislative session. "We compress effectively two years of legislation into approximately five months," Rice University's Dr. Mark Jones said. "the legislature needs to get working on issues long before the session begins in January." view article

Aspiring Texas psychologists hope to earn certification and start work faster under a new licensing examination that would be created by the state. The plan, which is catching the eye of other states, calls for Texas boards to conduct state certification tests, eliminating the need for more expensive and time-intensive national certification tests. view article

Monitoring: Monitor the implementation of legislation addressed by the Senate Committee on Education passed by the 88th Legislature, as well as relevant agencies and programs under the committee's jurisdiction. Specifically, make recommendations for any legislation needed to improve, enhance, or complete implementation of parent-approved health education.  view article

A debate brewing all summer is expected to come to a head this week at a State Board of Education meeting when members will discuss the state-developed curriculum whose elementary grade lessons have come under fire because of the biblical stories mixed in the materials.  The reading curriculum has drawn criticism from parents and interest groups who say the content gives too much weight to Christianity over other faiths and handles the Christian faith in a preferential way. Texas Education Agency officials, on the other hand, have insisted that the materials offer students a balanced context of the cultures they’ll encounter in the world. view article

As Texas students were returning to classrooms last month, we school board trustees were anxiously awaiting the Texas Education Agency release of A-F accountability ratings. We were disappointed when the publication of the letter grades for our districts and campuses was halted by another lawsuit. It’s not because we were looking forward to showing off or competing with other districts. As board presidents for two of the largest public school districts in Texas, we are committed to transparency. In order to make the best decisions for the children we serve, it’s important we look clearly and honestly at education outcomes, even — especially — when data reveals we still have work to do. view article

All but one Castleberry ISD campus performed better during the 2023-24 school year than it did during the 2022-23 school year, according to the district’s self-reported accountability ratings certified by the Texas Education Agency. As the TEA faces ongoing legal battles preventing the release of A-F ratings across the state, some districts, including Castleberry ISD, have opted to disclose their results independently. view article

All but one Castleberry ISD campus performed better during the 2023-24 school year than it did during the 2022-23 school year, according to the district’s self-reported accountability ratings certified by the Texas Education Agency. As the TEA faces ongoing legal battles preventing the release of A-F ratings across the state, some districts, including Castleberry ISD, have opted to disclose their results independently. view article