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Texas News
Adriana Tagle to serve as interim Robstown ISD superintendent
During a special meeting Monday night, the Robstown Independent School District Board of Trustees named Adriana Tagle as the interim superintendent.

According to a release from Robstown ISD, the school board began searching for an interim superintendents after Jose Moreno was named the finalist for superintendent of Somerset ISD — a district south of San Antonio — to be closer to family.
PSJA ISD counselor nominated for national award
Violeta Cantu, a counselor at Carman Elementary of the PSJA Independent School District, is nominated for the 2022-23 National LifeChanger of the Year award.

The district’s news release said Cantu was nominated by Carman principal, Gisela Salinas Ramirez, for her consistent social and emotional support toward students, teachers, and staff throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
New Early Childhood Center in Gregory-Portland ISD will teach kids in immersive, museum-like classrooms
Young children learn through play, and this space is to help inspire a new generation of thinkers.

Gregory-Portland ISD is beginning construction on a $54 million Early Childhood Center.

The school will provide hands-on learning opportunities in museum-like classrooms. This will be the only campus of its kind in the entire state of Texas that supports both pre-kindergarten and kindergarten grade levels for early learning in one school. 
Dallas ISD Changed Some School Schedules to Combat Learning Loss. Did It Work?
With an infusion of federal dollars during the pandemic, Dallas ISD sought solutions for its pandemic learning loss. Now it’s time to figure out what worked.

When students returned to school in 2021 after months of virtual learning during the pandemic, Dallas ISD knew it would need to address learning gaps.

One of its experiments involved introducing two calendars that extended the school year for campuses that opted in. The goal was to provide more time for teachers to get kids back up to speed.
The Campaign to Sabotage Texas’s Public Schools
What seems like an outbreak of local skirmishes is part of a decades-long push to privatize the education system.

Joanna Day has never been a fan of horror movies, which is why she didn’t yet realize she was starring in one in real life. If you had to pick a turning point in her story, the part when everyone in the audience feels their jaws and shoulders tighten because they know—unlike the oblivious, trusting protagonist—that really bad things are about to happen, it would be when a member of the Hays County Sheriff’s Office showed up at Day’s home, in Dripping Springs. 
Affiliate Feature
RGVTALAS, TALAS’ Rio Grande Valley affiliate, commits to continue TALAS’ mission to improve learning outcomes for Latino learners by providing leadership development, collective impact, advocacy, and a proactive voice for Latino and non-Latino leaders who have a passion for serving the fastest growing student population in the state.
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National News
New higher ed data by race and ethnicity
Five charts document rise in college going and degrees but there could be trouble ahead

Students’ race and ethnicity affect their chances of earning a college degree, according to several new reports on higher education released in January and February 2023. However, the picture that emerges depends on the lens you use. College degrees are increasing among all racial and ethnic groups, but white and Asian Americans are far more likely to hold a college degree or earn one than Black, Hispanic or Native Americans. 
3 big shifts that can help you restore your teachers’ morale
Leaders say reimagining classroom instruction will boost teacher morale, but only a handful are experimenting with new approaches.

Whether you’re a superintendent, principal, or at another level of district leadership, you’re definitely not alone if you’re worrying about teacher morale. Almost all administrators said teacher retention and burnout are major issues that will, among other concerns, make recruiting new teachers more difficult in the future, according to a new survey from learning company D2L and District Administration. 
How Schools and Programs Around the Country Are Making Teaching More Diverse
A new FutureEd study identifies a range of programs with promising strategies for making the profession more representative of the nation’s students

As a little girl growing up in El Salvador, Aracely Valdes loved school and dreamed of becoming a teacher. Yet, when she enrolled in the Fort Worth, Texas, public schools at age 15, a new immigrant who spoke no English, the path to fulfilling her dream was far from clear. 
4 areas prime for education disruption
A University of Virginia report explores how districts and their leaders are challenging the status quo in order to advance student achievement.

The COVID-19 pandemic threw schools into crisis management mode but it also spurred bold efforts at innovation and creativity that can serve as models for sustained improvements, according to a report from the University of Virginia’s Partnership for Leaders in Education.

Using insights from nearly 50 superintendents and other education leaders, the report said the field is prime for disruption despite a “strong organizational inertia” to keep the status quo in education practices.
The English Learner Population Is Growing. Is Teacher Training Keeping Pace?
English learners are one of the fastest growing student populations in the country, yet the number of specialized educators for them is lagging behind.

The number of certified licensed English learner instructors decreased by about 10.4 percent between the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years, according to the latest federal data available. The national English learner population grew by 2.6 percent in the same time period.

“It just is a huge disconnect in terms of what we’re seeing with our student demographics and looking at projections of what’s to come,” said Diane Staehr Fenner, president and founder of SupportEd, a consulting firm focused on English learners’ education.
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