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Texas News
Dallas ISD wins 2021 TAEA District of Distinction Award
The Texas Art Education Association (TAEA) announced the 40 winners of the 2021 District of Distinction Award. Among the list of honorees is Dallas ISD. The districts received the honor for providing a well-rounded education that advocates and integrates visual arts curriculum to inspire creativity and build social emotional learning that connect learners to their community and beyond.

TAEA is the leading advocate for the visual arts in the state. The organization has previously honored outstanding TAEA members for work in their classrooms and districts. This is the third year that TAEA is honoring districts that meet rigorous criteria as evidenced from data.
Excelencia in Education taps TWU PIONERAS program as finalist for national award
Excelencia in Education, the nation’s premier authority on efforts accelerating Latino student success in higher education, has selected Texas Woman’s University’s PIONERAS program as a finalist for its 2021 Examples of Excelencia award. 

“Examples of Excelencia identifies evidence-based programs that show, with intentionality and impact, what it means to truly serve Latino students and not just enroll them,” said Deborah Santiago, co-founder and CEO, of Excelencia in Education.
The pandemic’s toll on educators has made Texas’ teacher shortage worse
Teachers report being spread thin by the demands of remote learning and exhausted by the constant health concerns.

Toward the end of the last school year, Tomas Garcia made the difficult but, in his mind, right decision to leave teaching after 15 years.

Like countless other educators, Garcia has loved the profession since he began teaching in Mexico back in the early 1980s. He came to the United States in the late ’80s and worked odd jobs before deciding to return to the classroom. Garcia was a second grade bilingual teacher at Rucker Elementary in Houston Independent School District. He did a little bit of everything from teaching Spanish to social studies to math.
Texas attorney general warns school districts with mask mandates: ‘rescind now or see you in court’
In a Facebook post, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warned school districts with mask mandates to “rescind now or see you in court.”

There are several school districts in Central Texas with some sort of mask mandate in place.

Late last month, Waco ISD Superintendent Susan Kincannon announced the school district would require face masks inside all facilities.
Dr. Johnny E. Brown remembers the challenges of being Texas State’s first Black student-athlete
Dr. Johnny E. Brown (B.S. ’70) remembers that day in 1966 when Coach Vernon McDonald sat on his family’s porch on Austin’s Emerson Street and told his parents why Brown should play basketball for the Bobcats.

Despite being recruited by several other colleges, including the University of Texas at Austin and some historically black colleges, Brown would select Texas State University and become its first Black student-athlete. He was also the only Black basketball player until the 1968-69 season when Perry Jackson joined the team.
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Career Advice
Hiring managers’ top 3 resume pet peeves—and how to avoid them
Resumes are a vital part of the job search — but even one small mistake on your CV could cost you an interview.

Some mistakes may even compel a recruiter to toss your resume into the “no” pile before they finish reading it. Nearly 70% of recruiters said resume deal-breakers like missing contact information or an unprofessional email address could cause them to immediately dismiss a candidate from the hiring process, according to a 2018 survey conducted by TopResume, a resume writing service.
National News
Los Angeles schools mandate vaccines for students 12 and up
The Los Angeles Unified School District has ordered all students ages 12 and older to be vaccinated against the coronavirus

Students age 12 and older in the Los Angeles public school system soon must be vaccinated to attend classes on campus under one of the toughest anti-COVID mandates enacted in the nation.

The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District voted Thursday to require students age 12 and up to be fully vaccinated — with those who take part in sports and other extracurricular activities receiving both of two shots by the end of October and all others by Dec. 19.
Parents of Children With Disabilities Join the Legal Battle Over Masks In Schools
In a wave of lawsuits in nearly half a dozen states, families of students with disabilities are joining the legal battle over masks in schools. Some parents say it’s a matter of life and death for immunocompromised students.

Brittany Schwaigert says her 13-year-old son, Greyson, needs his peers to wear their masks.

Greyson has tuberous sclerosis complex, a rare genetic disorder, which means contracting COVID-19 could send him into renal failure among other complications. He is also behind in school due to developmental delays.
‘They Created a Space For People Like Myself’: How an Online Community of Rhode Island Educators of Color Supported Each Other Through the Pandemic
Although navigating school during a global pandemic presented new challenges for almost all K-12 staff nationwide, some educators, like Jeffrey Wright of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, faced an additional difficulty that many others did not.

As the only Black male educator at Blackstone Valley Prep, where two-thirds of the student body is Black, Hispanic or Asian American, students and parents often would come to Wright with school-related questions and concerns — seeing him, perhaps, as an easier point of access than other teachers or the administration.
Few Latino and Black Students Made Editors of Top College Newspapers
For students of color, early academic achievement is crucial. Faced with the obstacle course of studying in a country like the United States, any achievement in those early years is a unique and unforgettable incentive.

One of the most frequent goals is to become editor-in-chief of their university’s student newspaper.

According to research by the Asian American Journalists Association’s Voices program, of the 73 editors-in-chief of college newsrooms awarded in the spring 2021 semester, less than 6% were Black, and approximately 10% were Latino, a significantly lower proportion than the college population.
These mostly Latino crews cleaned up after Sept. 11. They still seek residency.
“Some cleanup workers I knew died of cancer,” one cleanup worker said. “We should all be remembered for what we did.”

Franklin Anchahua cleared thick layers of dust in offices, apartments and even in a chapel in lower Manhattan for weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

At first, he treated his heartburn and acid reflux with herbs his mother would send from Peru. He avoided available health programs because he lives illegally in the U.S. and feared deportation.
Las Tienditas
This Week’s Featured Sponsor
TALAS sponsors make this newsletter and other TALAS activities possible. Please support them. Click on the logo to learn more!
Founded in 1998 and based in Dallas, Texas, Istation (Imagination Station) has become one of the nation’s leading providers of richly animated, game-like educational technology. Winner of several national educational technology awards, the Istation program puts more instructional time in the classroom through small-group and collaborative instruction. Istation’s innovative reading, math and Spanish programs immerse students in an engaging and interactive environment and inspire them to learn. Additionally, administrators and educators can use Istation to easily track the progress of their students, schools and classrooms. Istation now serves over 4 million students throughout the United States and in several other countries.