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MISD names new district leaders |
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The Midland Independent School District Board of Trustees approved the hire of several new district leaders at its school board meeting this week.
In a recent news release, those named to new positions were Dr. Serrano, Kristin Albaugh, Cristina Rivera, Emily Roberts, Krista Daniel, and Morgan Robertson.
The new School Improvement Officer is none other than Dr. Serrano. In this role, Dr. Serrano will oversee MISD’s, Achievement Zone, schools of choice, and System of Great School’s work.
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Latina Group Organizes in Wake of Uvalde Tragedy, Creates ‘Fierce Madres’ Movement |
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It has been a month since one of the worst tragedies in U.S. history, when an 18-year-old opened fire at a school in Uvalde, leaving 19 students and two teachers dead.
The community, preeminently Latino, has decided to turn the pain into action, creating a movement to ensure that this type of tragedy does not happen again.
It is “Fierce Madres,” a movement created by dozens of Latinas in Texas to advocate for gun control and denounce the slow police action during the massacre, according to EFE.
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‘Student management’ over discipline, Dallas ISD’s next superintendent says |
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Dr. Stephanie Elizalde has been an educator for more than three decades.
She’s worked for some of the largest school districts in Texas, spending the last couple of years leading the Austin Independent School District.
She’ll soon move north after being named the sole finalist for the Dallas ISD superintendent job, which would be her second stint with the district.
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Beyond demographics, UTEP aims to redefine what it means to be a Hispanic-Serving Institution |
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A new institute is dedicated to developing strategies and sharing information on Hispanic student success.
Dozens of Texas colleges and universities currently meet the threshold to be defined as Hispanic-Serving Institutions. It’s a designation based primarily on undergraduate enrollment. At least 25% of undergrads need to be Hispanic to qualify.
The University of Texas at El Paso far exceeds that threshold at 84% of students identifying as Hispanic. It’s a figure that’s reflective of the area’s overall population. But it wasn’t always that way.
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Will We Ever Know the Truth About Uvalde? |
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Texas authorities bungled the facts about the law enforcement response at Robb Elementary School. Then they went silent.
More than three weeks have passed since the terrible events in Uvalde. What was once a torrent of appalling facts about the police response—many of them misleading or false—has now slowed to a trickle of leaks and lawyer-mediated, self-serving narratives. Governor Greg Abbott has pivoted to talking about the border again. Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw, last seen slipping into a closed-door meeting of a state House investigative committee, has gone quiet. The Uvalde schools chief of police, Pete Arredondo, finally emerged from hiding last week, lawyer at hand, to contradict reports that he had made the call to wait around for more than an hour while the gunman lingered in the classrooms with dead and dying children and teachers; hours later, key parts of his story were contradicted by evidence reported in the New York Times.
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Schools are spending millions on new virtual tutoring. Is it working? |
Superintendent Scott Muri knew his students needed extra help with math and reading. But before he could launch a tutoring program, he needed tutors.
This was no small challenge in a district that already faced a staff shortage. Shortly before the pandemic began, one in five classrooms didn’t have a permanent teacher.
“I didn’t need just five or 10 tutors, I needed hundreds,” said Muri, who leads Ector County schools, a district of some 32,000 students in West Texas. “Virtual was our only option.”
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Tech Can Open Doors for English-Language Learners to Express Themselves |
When Meaghan Martin first started teaching in 2007, her classroom had just a few desktop computers. But she still found that tech could be an effective way to help her English language learners. For instance, it was easier for kids who didn’t know the word “volcano” to grasp the concept by watching a video of an eruption on screen.
These days, Martin has become even more convinced of the power of tech to help kids who are still working to master English. That belief informs her work as a technology instructional coach at Coles Elementary School in Prince William County, Va., where a little more than a third of the students are classified as English learners.
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How principals can re-energize this summer after a difficult year |
Principals should use summer to reaffirm their school’s goals and vision after a few turbulent years.
Summer is the ideal time for principals and other school leaders to reset and focus on self-care. That’s particularly important in the summer of 2022 as educators look to establish a new normal and families adjust to life with COVID, says Angela Allen, the incoming superintendent of the Toutle Lake School District in Washington.
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How Libraries Came to be Sanctuaries for LGBTQ kids |
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After Stonewall, librarians were the first profession to organize for gay rights. Meet the pioneer who led the charge — and now fears for his legacy
In May 2021, as efforts to ban books on LGBTQ topics from school libraries were gaining political steam, “Two Grooms on a Cake: The Story of America’s First Gay Wedding” was published. It is a children’s story about Michael McConnell’s 1971 marriage to a man, which was upheld as legal by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015.
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Carlos González Sierra Makes History As First Latino President of Harvard Graduate Council |
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When Carlos González Sierra, a graduate student at Harvard studying law and public policy, was elected president of the Harvard Graduate Council, it marked the first time the council had been led by a Latinx student.
González Sierra arrived at Harvard as an undocumented student and has made his way to the forefront of Harvard graduate students as their representative, all while obtaining a law degree. “When I graduate next spring, I’ll get a JD [Juris Doctor] and an MPP [Master in Public Policy] from the law school and the Kennedy School of Government,” he shared with mitú over Zoom. “Right now I’m in D.C. doing a legal internship.”
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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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