What I'm reading

Tyler ISD Trustees Approve Security Steps

In an effort to make schools safer following the fatal stabbing of a John Tyler High School teacher on campus, the Tyler ISD school board Monday approved contracting with a security specialist as well as expanding TISD's alternative education program to house repeat and violent offenders for a longer period of time.

TISD trustees voted to allow the superintendent to enter into a contract with the Texas School Safety Center of San Marcos to review campus security measures, starting with John Tyler.

Special exemption helped push many Texas school ratings up

When school ratings came out this summer, officials across Tarrant County boasted about the number of schools that jumped to recognized or exemplary status.

In Fort Worth, 55 schools were rated either recognized or exemplary, up from 34 the previous year. In Arlington, the number of schools went from 18 to 38. Countywide, 304 schools earned the top two ratings for the 2009-10 school year, up from 217 the previous year.
But the numbers alone don’t necessarily tell the entire story. Almost half, or 145, of the 304 schools did not earn the top two ratings based solely on Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test scores, but instead on special exemptions, including a new provision that gives schools credit for how well students are expected to do in the future, according to a Star-Telegram analysis.

(This also affected campuses and districts in the Panhandle, and it's on my list of stories to do.)

Weather service anticipates more snow

Apparently, winters during El Nino often are cooler with more snow.