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Project-based learning leads to community service |
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When Vicky Ramirez, a fourth-grade bilingual teacher at Hogg New Tech Center, is not busy mentoring two fellow teachers, leading a UIL chess club during lunch or supporting fourth- and fifth-grade robotics teams, she can be found instilling real-world lessons that will last her students a lifetime.
Hogg New Tech Center is a project-based learning school, so Ramirez is always looking for new ways to help her students make connections to themselves and to the world around them. So when her class began a unit on reducing, reusing and recycling last spring, she encouraged her students to dig deeper into the material.
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Texas Republicans Plan Tax Cuts for Massive Surplus, Some Education Spending |
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Texas ended up with a $30 billion budget surplus last year. How that extra money will be spent will be a big topic when the Texas Legislature meets in a couple of weeks. Top Republicans have already planned big tax rebates, but do have some education spending in mind.
“When you have this kind of money, you have to give it back to the taxpayers,” said Lt. Governor Dan Patrick in an address on the surplus.
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Abbott’s Task Force Takes On Texas’ Teacher Shortage Disaster: Will They Succeed? |
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It is no secret that the state of Texas is facing a teacher shortage crisis, the question is: will Texas lawmakers do what must be done to tackle this problem once they reconvene in Austin?
A recent poll by the Charles Butt Foundation found that 75% of Texas teachers have seriously considered leaving the profession. In addition, the largest teacher preparation program in the state is at risk of losing accreditation, which could further exacerbate the issue.
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High Schoolers’ Overdoses Leave a Central Texas Town Grappling With the Opioid Crisis |
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The deaths at Hays Consolidated Independent School District have sparked heartbreak, anger and calls for action
The hallways of Lehman High School looked like any other on a recent fall day. Its 2,100 students talked and laughed as they hurried to their next classes, moving past walls covered with flyers that advertised homecoming events, clubs, and football games. Next to those flyers, though, were posters with a grim message warning students that fentanyl is extremely deadly.
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Texas’s Doctor Shortage Is Bilingual |
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There aren’t nearly enough physicians in the state, especially for the more than 7.5 million Texans who primarily speak Spanish.
A few years ago, while loading discarded construction materials onto a truck, Jesus Antonio Lara Cuellar fell and hit his head. He injured his back too, but it was his fractured wrist that landed him in a Houston emergency room. Lara, from El Salvador, couldn’t string together enough English words to explain what had happened. The attending physician’s command of Spanish was no better, and there were no interpreters available to help the conversation along.
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The Garland Association of Latino Administrators is a group of dedicated leaders whose ultimate goal is to develop leaders to foster success for all learners. We know that sometimes all it takes to change the world is a little support. Since 2019, we have been determined to make an impact on our Latino communities. The core of our efforts is to bring our team’s fresh ideas and passion for the range of activities we’re involved in. Through all of our endeavors, we hope to display the conviction behind our beliefs. |
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Looking for a new opportunity? |
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Leadership opportunities available: |
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Take a look at who’s hiring: |
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Disparities in Advanced Math and Science Skills Begin by Kindergarten |
A child’s family background has a lot to do with how advanced their math knowledge is in kindergarten
Racial and ethnic disparities in advanced math and science skills occur far earlier in the U.S. than previously known. Our new study finds that 13% of white students and 16% of Asian students display advanced math skills by kindergarten. The contrasting percentage for both Black and Hispanic students is 4%.
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What Researchers Learned From Analyzing Decades of Civil Rights Complaints Against Schools |
More than 40 percent of all public school districts have had a complaint filed against them with the Department of Education for an alleged civil rights violation over the past 20 years.
But large districts where Black students are disproportionately represented have a higher likelihood of having complaints filed, not just for racial discrimination, but also for violations of civil rights statutes that protect against discrimination based on disability and sex.
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4 Ways to Make Your School Better for Black and Brown Teachers |
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Here’s what teachers of color need from their principals
We need Black teachers. We need brown teachers. We need Indigenous teachers. We need more teachers of color across the board.
More than half of public school enrollees are students of color, but teachers of color comprise roughly 2 in 10 of our teaching force.
Diversifying our teaching force to match the demographics of our students is an imperative shared by many school leaders. Doing so has benefits for students that any school leader would love: higher graduation rates, reduced dropouts, fewer disciplinary incidents, and increased student achievement to name a few.
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Growing vaccine hesitancy fuels measles, chickenpox resurgence in U.S. |
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Anti-vaccine sentiment has increased since the pandemic, driven by politicization around the coronavirus vaccine
A rapidly growing measles outbreak in Columbus, Ohio — largely involving unvaccinated children — is fueling concerns among health officials that more parent resistance to routine childhood immunizations will intensify a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases.
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While white students get specialists, struggling Black and Latino readers often get left on their own |
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Teachers trained in dyslexia remediation and private schools for language disabilities are out of reach for many
The worry nagged at Roxann Harvey from the time her children were in kindergarten. They couldn’t name all their letters, much less equate them with sounds. Teachers offered tepid assurances (some kids take longer than others) and frustrating advice (you should expose them to books).
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This Week’s Featured Sponsor |
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TALAS sponsors make this newsletter and other TALAS activities possible. Please support them. Click on the logo to learn more! |
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As a global leader in assessment, reading, and math solutions for pre-K–12 schools and districts, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. Renaissance solutions reach more than 40 percent of US schools and more than half a million students in other regions across the world. The Renaissance portfolio includes Star Assessments, for reliable, accurate insights into K–12 student learning; myIGDIs, for accurate assessment of early learning; myON, to increase students’ access to high-quality reading materials; Accelerated Reader, to support independent reading practice; Freckle, for teacher-led differentiated instruction; Schoolzilla, to give educators actionable insights into trends in student attendance and achievement; Lalilo, to develop critical foundational skills; and Nearpod, for teacher-facilitated instructional delivery. For more information, visit Renaissance.com. |
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