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Superintendent of the Year: LaTonya Goffney, Aldine Independent School District |
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The Houston-area district leader says her district must tell and own its story — and she absolutely doesn’t want it to be in a way that lowers expectations.
“If you know my story, you know … no one would’ve expected me to be a superintendent or educator at all,” says LaTonya Goffney, now going on her fourth year leading Aldine Independent School District in Houston, Texas, and her 15th overall as a superintendent in the Lone Star State.
Though her grandmother and grandfather, who raised her, had only a 5th grade and 3rd grade education respectively, Goffney says they — along with her teachers and others — instilled “the power” of education in her from an early age.
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Three Corpus Christi ISD principals honored by state association |
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Superintendent Roland Hernandez: “Our district is fortunate to have these highly regarded and talented administrators leading our schools.”
The best secondary principals of the year in the Coastal Bend come from schools in Corpus Christi ISD, according to a state professional organization.
This week, the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals announced its selections for Principal of the Year and Assistant Principal of the Year for middle school and high school for each of the state’s 20 Education Service Center regions.
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Plainview ISD receives TABE recognition for bilingual program |
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Superintendent H.T. Sanchez honored the bilingual teachers with a plaque after being recognized by the Texas Assocation of Bilingual Educators (TABE). The plaque was presented during a regular scheduled school board meeting last week.
Plainview ISD was among the school districts at TABE’s 50th annual conference to be recognized for an outstanding bilingual program, according to Sanchez. Plainview ISD has made strides to expand upon the bilingual program over the past couple years.
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Katy ISD is growing faster than any Houston-area school district, new data shows |
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Katy ISD has experienced the most growth of all the school districts in the Houston area, demographic reports show. Demographers from the Population and Survey Analysts detailed their findings on the district’s growth at the Nov. 14 board of trustees meeting.
Among the 15 school districts found within the Greater Houston area, Katy ISD tops the list with the largest number of student gains.
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New Course to Guide Superintendent Evaluations |
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It’s easy for a school board to get mired in the minutiae of meeting agendas and policy updates but looking at the big picture can help boards support student success. Evaluating the superintendent’s performance is a critical board governance function that can assess opportunities and pinpoint challenges for the district as a whole, as well as the superintendent specifically.
“Selecting and hiring a superintendent is a school board’s most important decision and action. Second, is being clear with the superintendent about performance expectations,” said Robert Duron, TASB’s executive leader for member support.
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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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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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Hispanic students are enrolling in college, few are completing their degrees |
The American Dream is a belief in the U.S. that anyone, regardless of where they were born or their economic status, can move up the ladder of success. For many Hispanic students, attending a university to earn a degree is the only way to get there.
Typing away on his computer, Gerardo Chapa, business management junior at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, always knew he would go to college.
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After school programs work to close pandemic-driven achievement gaps for students of color |
Elementary-aged students hop out of Anna Jones’ car and race inside to avoid the rain. They head into an unassuming yellow brick building. It’s the home of Centro Latino de Salud and it’s also where the kids get free transportation to and from almost every day after school.
The kids dump their backpacks around the room, and for a while they blow bubbles, play the piano and generally make themselves comfortable. They shout and play, their voices rise and fill the room until Jones shouts “it’s time for tutoring!”
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What Superintendents Say They Need More of to Help Them Manage Districts |
Despite being awash for decades in student test scores, nearly all superintendents feel they need more useful data to comfortably make decisions about the future of their schools, according to a new survey.
In a recent survey issued by the Data Quality Campaign and AASA, The School Superintendents Association, 98% of the 253 superintendents who responded said if they had access to better information, they’d be “more confident in their abilities to make decisions for their district.”
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Low retention, diversity among school principals sparks need for long-term strategies |
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Reports about the crisis facing public school teachers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic are widespread, though a parallel crisis among the ranks of school leadership has also been quietly unfolding. While staffing has always been an uphill battle in high-need settings, challenges have been exacerbated in recent years.
According to a report from the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), the principal workforce is potentially facing a retention crisis, with large spikes in reported extra work and intentions to leave the workforce raising red flags about the sustainability of the status quo. And with the teacher labor market simultaneously under historic stress, unstable leadership could compound the problem by making retention worse.
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COVID-19 is robbing Latino community of a secret weapon behind their success: grandparents |
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COVID-19’s relentless death toll is robbing the Latino community of what has long been viewed as a secret weapon behind its impressive growth and rising prosperity: grandparents.
Multigenerational households have played an especially important role in helping Latinos as they’ve grown into California’s largest ethnic group and the second-largest in the nation.
Elder Latinos, who are more likely than average to remain in the workforce past retirement age, often provide an additional income to the shared household.
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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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Energia®, a nationwide energy-savings engineering firm, turns school district energy liabilities into educational assets. They are a team of Energy Performance Contract (EPC) experts and manage the process from start to finish for school districts. From scope evaluation, to ESCO (Energy Services Companies) selection, to construction oversight, to validating results, Energia represents YOU, the school district, making sure the entire EPC project goes as planned, and the savings are maximized. |
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