K-12 Funding and Administration

Mike Miles and Bernadette Nuttall Slap Leather

Yesterday morning Dallas school district cops forcibly removed school board member Bernadette Nuttall from Billy Earl Dade middle school on Grand Avenue in South Dallas after Nuttall told them, "Go ahead and arrest me." They didn't. They just put her out of the building. But both Nuttall and a scho ... More >>

SMU Academics Speak Out Against Political and Relgious Bias in Texas Social Studies Textbooks

Social studies textbooks have been under increasing scrutiny this year, as the successor to the science textbook controversy last year. For the first time in 12 years, the State Board of Education will review social studies textbooks, this time under social studies standards put in place in 2010. Th ... More >>

Hey, Dallas City Council, Instead of Lecturing DISD, Why Don't You Fund Your Libraries?

Last week Dallas school board member Dan Micciche had an op-ed essay in The Dallas Morning News urging people to push their City Council members and the mayor about the chronic under-funding of public libraries in the city. The numbers he cited for the city's support of libraries were abysmal -- the ... More >>

New AP U.S. History Test Infuriates Texas State Board of Ed Members

America is the best place ever. Everyone knows that except, it seems, our educators. The College Board is rolling out new guidelines this year for the Advanced Placement U.S. history exams that has some Texas School Board members crying foul. Ken Mercer, noted conservative school board member, says ... More >>

A Cease Fire at DISD

Texas Might Finally Approve a Mexican-American Studies Course Today

High school students in Texas can take, and get credit toward, electives like floral arrangement, team sport officiating, and turf-grass management. But not for Mexican-American studies, something activists, education groups, and several dozen state lawmakers are pushing to change. They came out in ... More >>

Not All DISD Reformers Are Elitist, Public Ed-hating Zombies

The Feds' Investigation Into Garland ISD's Visa Problems Could Cost the District Serious Cash

The outcome of the federal investigation into Garland ISD's H1-B program, which recruited dozens of bilingual teachers from foreign countries and is now sending many of them back, is uncertain. But if past federal H1-B cases involving school districts are any indication, it could cost the district. ... More >>

Creationists Score Tentative Victory in Delayed Approval of Biology Text

The creationists didn't win Friday when the State Board of Education took up new biology textbooks in an ideologically fraught, historically contentious adoption process. Most of the materials sailed through. But they didn't exactly lose, either. Biology, one of the top two or three most widely u ... More >>

Creationists' Last Stand at the State Board of Education

Will anti-evolutionists be able to adapt and survive in a new textbook market?

Mike Miles and the Bad Annual Review Issue: More Bullshit from The Dallas Morning News

Right away let me say: no one is more troubled than I am by my own knee-jerkism concerning Dallas superintendent of schools Mike Miles. How the hell did I ever find myself in the role of predictably apoplectic apologist for a public official? Please, somebody free me from my own alliteration! But n ... More >>

Children of Haltom City, Please Stop Tormenting Caine Smith

Caine Smith, an 11-year-old from Haltom City, seems legit. He's thoughtful, eloquent, and self-aware, moreso than many adults you'll encounter. In spite of, or probably because of all that, he's tormented daily by classmates, who push, punch, choke and otherwise abuse and humiliate him. So, he made ... More >>

DISD Joins Five Districts Across U.S. to Push for Serious Cafeteria Changes

Dora Rivas has a really important role at DISD. And though her curriculum doesn't involve reading, writing or arithmetic, her job is as essential as all of those. She's the executive director of Food and Child Nutrition Services, and she's continually raising the bar on what's acceptable in Dallas s ... More >>

Who's to Blame for all Those Top Defections at DISD? Not Mike Miles.

Lots of news the last two weeks about people fleeing the "cabinet" of Dallas school Superintendent Mike Miles, a reference to his executive team. It so happens I have been pursuing a story in that area, which I will convey in full in a column in the paper next week. But I can't keep my mouth shut ab ... More >>

Here Are All The Reasons Why Texas Teenagers Can't Seem to Stop Getting Pregnant

Congratulations, Texas! After a lot of hard work and many long nights, we're number one in the nation for repeat teen births. According to the Centers for Disease Control, which released a new report on April 2, in 2010, 22 percent of Texas teenagers aged 15-19 who gave birth were delivering their ... More >>

Months After Prime Prep Hired Former State Board of Education Member, A Lawmaker Aims to Shut the Revolving Door

Sometimes it seems like all we ever do here at Unfair Park is bitch about the dastardly and frivolous legislation our elected representatives concoct down at the capitol. But not every bill sends us lunging for the bottle. Take this measure, filed by Sen. Bob Deuell of Greenville, barring State Boar ... More >>

Texas Public Schools are Still Teaching Ridiculous Things About the Bible

Six years ago, SMU religious studies professor Mark Chancey teamed with the Texas Freedom Network to produce a report on the Bible classes that were proliferating in the state's public school classrooms. Chancey's not-very-surprising finding was that these classes were not so much even-handed, acad ... More >>

No, Six-Gun-Toting Teachers Will not Rove DISD Campuses (Updated)

As we reported earlier, newly elected state Representative Jason Villalba announced his intention to file legislation allowing Texas school districts to arm trained faculty and staff members. "School marshals," I think he calls them. In case you were wondering whether we might see ol' Coach prowlin ... More >>

Texas Lawmakers Beware: The American Federation of Teachers is Coming for You

Last spring on the steps of the State Capitol, it was possible to buy a highly metaphorical cupcake, one that would cost you just $100 million. The "Billion Dollar Bake Sale" was put together by an outfit called Save Texas Schools, and it was meant to draw attention to the $5.4 billion Texas lawmak ... More >>

Gail Spurlock, the State Ed Board Candidate Who Thinks Pilgrims Were Commies, Didn't Graduate from College

You know Gail Spurlock for finally revealing to the world that the Pilgrims were not only a persecuted religious minority who established a beachhead of European settlement in North America but were, more importantly, communists. It's why they died. This wouldn't have been terribly newsworthy were S ... More >>

The North Dallas Plot to Take Over DISD

Rich, white, North Dallas businessmen are plotting to take over Dallas' schools. Maybe this time it'll work.

Jennifer Sprague, DISD's New Communications Chief, Will Make $185,000 a Year. Yes, That's Too Much.

Big front-pager in today's Morning News about how Mike Miles, Dallas ISD's new superintendent, will pay his new communications chief, Jennifer Sprague, $185,000 a year. The general consensus among those interviewed for the story: Holy hell that's a lot of money for that job. Which makes sense becaus ... More >>

Mike Rawlings Endorses DISD Candidates, Continues His Wade into District Politics

Much has been made of Mayor Mike Rawlings' foray into Dallas Independent School District politics in recent months. Depending on who's talking, his involvement is either the leadership and commitment this city needs to save its schools; another sign of the business community's hostile takeover of th ... More >>

DISD (And A Whole Lot of Other School Districts) Not Buying Cheating Allegations From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

On Monday, we told you the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had published a broad investigation concluding that hundreds of school districts, including Dallas Independent School District, displayed "troubling test patterns" that could indicate widespread cheating. That day, DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander ... More >>

Survey Says Texas Schools Are Now a Little Less Awful at Teaching Students Sex Education

​Just three years ago, 94 percent of the state's school districts told their kiddos: Just say no to sex. And that was that when it came to sex ed -- abstinence only and nothing but, which was working out real well considering that Texas's teen-pregnancy rate was the third-highest in all the land. ... More >>

Dallas ISD Versus the World: Playing Around With the Bush Institute's "Global Report Card"

From the Global Report Card/George W. Bush Institute​The George W. Bush Institute this morning unveiled its Global Report Card, which compares and contrasts 13,636 U.S. school districts with their in-state peers and national and international counterparts. Long story short: U.S. school districts, ... More >>

New Texas Education Law Could Help Render Board of Ed Culture Wars Obsolete

The State Board tried to save McCarthy's legacy, and this is how we treat them?​The jury's still out, but the fact fetishists at the Texas Freedom Network seem to think that the recently enacted Senate Bill 6 may help neuter the historically science-averse state Board of Education. The law pr ... More >>

Maybe DISD Super Hinojosa Is a "Rock Star"?

Patrck Michels​Back in September, when Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa was being considered for the Las Vegas gig, trustee Edwin Flores told Unfair Park: "He's a hot commodity. Outside of Dallas he's a rock star." A few Friends of Unfair Park with long memories ... More >>

DISD Super Testifying in Austin This Morning

​At this very moment, the state Senate Committee on Education -- which includes chair Florence Shapiro, John Carona and Royce West -- is hearing testimony related to these seven Senate bills, most of which would let school districts increase class size and give teachers furlough days and further f ... More >>

DISD Trustee Eric Cowan On "Mass Layoffs," "The New Reality" and How We Got Here

Patrick MichelsEric Cowan​Dallas Independent School District trustee Eric Cowan's first blog entry of 2011 is a sobering follow-up to Superintendent Michael Hinojosa's budget-gutting presentation to the board on Thursday: "The Economics of Public Education." There's no easy way to sum it up, as Co ... More >>

In Light of Budget Shortfall, Dallas ISD Trustees' Resolution to "Make Education a Priority"

​Earlier this afternoon, over on the DISD Blog, Matthew Haag posted a memo Dallas Independent School District sent to district employees Friday, in which the super warned: The state's mammoth budget shortfall could result in "a staggering $180-$200 million" being excised from the district's budget ... More >>

Dallas ISD One of Five U.S. Districts to See Slice of $3 Mil Aimed at Feeding Kids Breakfast

​This morning, the D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center released a report -- School Breakfast in America's Big Cities 2011 -- that takes a look at the free-breakfast programs in 29 of the nation's largest school districts, including the Dallas Independent School District. Says the study, dur ... More >>

Dallas ISD Just Announced Its New Chief Financial Officer On the Facebook

​And his name is Alan King. My mom'll be thrilled -- she's a big fan of the late comic. Ah, wait. Wrong one, of course. No, this is the current deputy superintendent of the Lewisville Independent School District, who replaces the headin'-back-to-Austin Larry Throm. Before he was up in Lewisville, ... More >>

The Bush Institute Wants to Train Half the Country's Principals. D.C. Schools' Ex-Supe Kerri Briggs Tells Us How They'll Do It.

Kerri Briggs Speaking of the Bush Institute ...Its new director for education reform, Kerri Briggs, has been on the job for about two weeks now, after abruptly leaving her old job as D.C.'s state superintendent of education -- jumping ship from lame-duck mayor Adrian Fenty's administration almost a ... More >>

Hinojosa "Humbled and Honored" to Be Finalist for Clark County Superintendent's Gig

Patrick MichelsPatrick took this photo this morning at the Jubilee Park event. I knew it would come in handy.​A few minutes ago, the Clark County School District announced: Sure enough, Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa's a finalist for the superintendent's job the ... More >>

DISD Superintendent Hinojosa Comments -- Kinda -- on Reports That He's Moving to Vegas

​I was on the phone with a Dallas Independent School Board trustee just seconds ago -- a trustee, mind you, who had not heard there were reports and a yeah-sure-maybe? that DISD Superintendent Michael Hinjosa's outta here, possibly as early as tomorrow, to take the Las Vegas gig -- when the follow ... More >>

On L.A.'s Skid Row, a generational war over how to teach the American children of illegal immigrants

So, Texas-Style Learnin' isn't Good Enough for Californee? We're So Proud.

What'll It Be, George Clayton? A Further Look at Education Board's "Wild Card."

Your newest member of the State Board of Education, George Clayton​It took a while for Patrick "Buzz" Williams to get State Board of Education candidate George Clayton on the phone before the GOP primary earlier this month, but he finally did -- long enough to ask the North Dallas High School teac ... More >>

Mary Kay Did Discover the Earth Was Pink

​Friend of Unfair Park The Big Guy just shot us an e-mail with the subject header "Mary Kay > Christopher Columbus." Also contained within his missive: a link to this Associated Press story about the brewing battle over State Board of Education's new social studies curriculum standards, for whi ... More >>

Civility is the Last Thing the DISD Board Needs

Sikh and Tired of School Bullies

​The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas just sent word that the organization, in coordination with a U.N.-affiliated advocacy group called United Sikhs, sent out a letter warning Texas school districts -- including DISD -- to protect Sikh students from discrimination or bullying. The miss ... More >>

State of the DISD Address, or: You Can't Have the Good Without Some of the Bad

Kimberly ThorpeAt the Belo Mansion this morning, Michael Hinojosa touched on everything from educational gains to the juvenile curfew.​Last time we checked, there wasn't much to laugh about when it came to the state of public education in Dallas. But leave it to Dallas Independent School Distr ... More >>

Chewing the Fat: Restraining Order for Ronald McDonald?

Research suggests that early teens tend to super-size when fast food is within a tenth of a mile (roughly one city block) of their schools. The most interesting bit of information, in this story from NYPolitics, comes further down, when it says a quarter-mile distance between the two locations show ... More >>

Bible Schooled

After the jump, courtesy the Texas Freedom Network, is SMU associate professor and chair of the school's Department of Religious Studies Mark Chancey's statement concerning the Texas State Board of Education's decision today to adopt vague standards when it comes to teaching elective Bible course in ... More >>

Teachers Wanna Get Paid

The Texas Association of School Boards and the Texas Association of School Administrators released a joint study yesterday revealing how much teachers are making across the state -- and for the first time, Region XI (which would be Fort Worth) has the heighest average salary, at least for the 2006-' ... More >>

Taking School Board Candidates to School

I'm not sure what's worse: that the once-respected Dallas Independent School District board candidate Walter Lewis Price thought he could hide a conviction for stealing $516 worth of women's lingerie from Neiman Marcus or that such a revelation could cost him the support of Dallas County Commissione ... More >>

DISD Takes Oriental Express

Last week, the Observer received and wrote about a copy of a letter Dallas school board President Lois Parrott sent to DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa in which she told him someone was purchasing frivolous merchandise in her name and charging it to the district. Parrott wrote that on two occass ... More >>

T for Tennessee

One of the few bright spots in the Dallas Independent School District is heading elsewhere. Deputy superintendent Jim Scales is taking the top job in Hamilton County, Tennessee, a beleaguered school district--which is putting it mildly. According to that school board's chairman, Chip Baker, "Forget ... More >>

Go Down Moses

Looks like former Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Mike Moses has another new job. Nice to see someone got something out of his tenure. --Robert Wilonsky