Free Republic

EL PASO, Texas -- Lorenzo Garcia, the former superintendent of the El Paso Independent School District, pled guilty to federal charges in court Wednesday afternoon. Garcia pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud contained in two separate charging documents. The first charge, count one of a federal grand jury indictment returned in July 2011, alleged that from February 1, 2006, until March 11, 2007, Garcia and others conspired to defraud EPISD by securing a $450,000 sole source contract under false pretenses. According to court documents, the government has agreed to a recommended sentence in this case...

Higgin's eight-year-old daughter Destiny was called over the loudspeaker into the Bastrop Middle School Library, February 8. Inside, according to Bastrop ISD, Principal Teri Watson told every African American student in the school -- 24 students -- their TAKS test scores were too low, putting the school at risk to fail state standards. Higgins says her daughter now sees a counselor to deal with the humiliation at the hands of school administration. Since the incident the school has released numerous apologies to the community both in print and in person. Still for some, it has been too many words and...

FORT WORTH — Students who had been planning to walk across the stage at graduation ceremonies this weekend were instead walking a picket line Thursday morning. The Trimble Tech High School seniors marched in front of Fort Worth Independent School District headquarters to protest Wednesday's decision by trustees to bar students who failed the TAKS test from commencement exercises. About a dozen young people, carrying signs and chanting, began picketing at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. They represent the 613 Fort Worth seniors who did not pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam. Crystal Martinez complained that while she finished...

FORT WORTH — Students who had been planning to walk across the stage at graduation ceremonies this weekend were instead walking a picket line Thursday morning. The Trimble Tech High School seniors marched in front of Fort Worth Independent School District headquarters to protest Wednesday's decision by trustees to bar students who failed the TAKS test from commencement exercises. About a dozen young people, carrying signs and chanting, began picketing at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. They represent the 613 Fort Worth seniors who did not pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam

AUSTIN – House members tentatively voted Monday to scrap a 22-year-old requirement that high school students pass a standardized test to graduate – acting just days after a record number of seniors were told they won't get diplomas this month because they failed the test. A student testing bill approved by the House would shift schools to a new assessment program that would require students to take a dozen end-of-course exams in core subjects, with scores counting for 25 percent of the grade in each subject. Unlike an earlier Senate version of the legislation, however, students would not have to...

EVERMAN, Texas — A high school principal has left her position two weeks after singling out black students' poor test scores over the school's intercom system. The Everman Independent School District announced Kathy Culbertson's departure in a Tuesday statement. It said her comments had overshadowed district achievements. During an address on the first day of classes at Everman High School, Culbertson said black students who failed math on the state's accountability test had caused the high school to be rated unacceptable. The remarks set off a racially charged debate at the suburban Fort Worth campus, which is about 59 percent...

TRY, TRY AGAIN Thousands of former students in Texas and other states are still trying to pass old high school exit exams to earn their diplomas -- some for as long as a decade or more -- even though the tests have been replaced by newer, tougher ones. "I knew that if I wanted to make something of myself, I had to have a high school diploma," said Kimberly Howard of Fort Worth, who took the old Texas Assessment of Academic Skills exam 15 times before passing it. "I just kept going because I didn't want to be defeated," said...

Gubernatorial candidate Bell pays visit to Hub City BY BETH AARON AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Texas schools focus too much on standardized testing, and teacher salaries should be increased, gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell said. Speaking before members of the Texas Sheriff's Association on Monday, Bell, D-Houston, said the state needs to focus on reforming public education and health care and discussed why he supports stem cell research. "We do live in a big state with big dreams, but right now we face big challenges, he said from a podium in the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Theater. "It's about a new way versus an...

IMAGINE being 11 years old in an unfamiliar school. Imagine that your home has been destroyed, that relatives are missing, that you have spent days on a roof or in a dark and terrifying stadium. Imagine knowing your new teacher could be fired and your new school closed if you and others like you don't score high enough on the statewide test. U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings should regard this scenario as she mulls whether to exempt some 200,000 displaced schoolchildren from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. That is the national law requiring school districts to...

Students may have been helped By Cynthia L. Garza Star-Telegram Staff Writer FORT WORTH - Two A.M. Pate Elementary School teachers are no longer working at the school after a district investigation revealed that they may have provided students with answers to TAKS tests last year. Students said the teachers gave fifth-graders answers to the reading and math portions of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge of Skills in 2004, Fort Worth school district officials said. Fifth-grade reading scores at Pate plummeted this year after the two teachers were placed on administrative leave. This year's math scores have not been released....

DALLAS -- Dozens of Texas schools appear to have cheated on the state's redesigned academic achievement test, casting doubt on whether the accountability system can reliably measure how schools are performing, a newspaper found. An analysis uncovered strong evidence of organized, educator-led cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills at schools in Houston and Dallas, along with suspicious scores in hundreds of other schools, The Dallas Morning News reported. Texas education policies on student accountability became the model for the federal No Child Left Behind law enacted after President Bush's election in 2000. The newspaper analyzed scores from...

Consultant helps LISD prepare for TAKS testing By RAY GLASS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Rhonda Tue emerged from a three-hour workshop on state-mandated curriculum, student expectations and assessment tests earlier this month as excited as a youngster on the first day of school. "I was blown away," said Tue, who teaches fifth- and sixth-grade reading at Guadalupe Elementary School. Tue was among about 700 Lubbock Independent School District teachers and administrators who, with consultant Margaret Kilgo, explored strategies to raise student scores on the annual Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test. Tue expects to see improvement after bench-mark testing in December. "I'm...

Letter to the Editor, Laredo Morning Times: If Daniella Morin, the senior high school student who oppses state testing, decides to run for political office, she should run as a liberal Democrat. She fits right into the "look for the easy way out" or "run and hide" philosophy that liberals use when faced with a challenge. Once in office, she then could take money earned from her fellow students that decided to work hard to graduate and give it to her friends who decided to drop out. I will agree with Daniuella that the TAKS is unfair. But life is...

AUSTIN -- Heeding warnings that tens of thousands of students could fail the new assessment test, the State Board of Education on Thursday tentatively adopted lower passing standards for all grades. The board voted 7-6 to phase in passing standards for the new Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. The number of correct questions required to pass would be lower for 2003, but would gradually become tougher over the following two years. However, the passing standards could change today when the board takes its final vote. Two members were absent from the vote Thursday, and one member said she intended...