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The Stanley Marcus Collection of Christmas Books on Loan to The University of Texas at Austin, Academic Center, Christmas 1968

The Stanley Marcus Collection of Christmas Books on Loan to The University of Texas at Austin, Academic Center, Christmas 1968

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Tags: 1968, Academic, Austin, Books, Center, Christmas, Collection, Loan, Marcus, Stanley, Texas, University

21st Century Border Video Spotlight: Jose Rodriguez, State Senator, El Paso, Texas

NDN was at the Border Security Conference In El Paso, TX, while there we sat down with members of the border community for a series of video interviews.

Jose Rodriguez is a Texas State Senator representing the city of El Paso. He is an outspoken critic of those who attempt to demonize both immigrants and the southwest border region.

Rodriguez on the importance of including border communities in national discussions of policies regarding the region:

Rodriguez, on how border rhetoric hurts El Paso

Rodriguez on poll conducted of border communities and safety

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Tags: 21st, Border, Century, Jose, Paso, Rodriguez, Senator, Spotlight, State, Texas, Video

Focus on Texas Ag Border Report Erroneous Statement One: Mexico’s Drug Violence is Spilling Over Into The United States

In the midst of running for Lieutenant Governor, Texas Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples released a report claiming that the border between Mexico and Texas was an out of control war zone. The report’s claims have already been confronted with skepticism. This week we will scrutinize highlight and debunk the most erroneous statements in the report.

From the Texas Ag Report: The spillover effect of increased violence in Mexico increases the violence on the U.S. side.

Despite incessant claims to the contrary there is little to no evidence of spillover violence from Mexico. NDN has refuted such allegations many times. While the report never cites claims about spillover, it references a study by the Congressional Research Service that addresses spillover violence. Ironically, the COLGEN report blatantly ignored the main conclusion of the report it cites:

“Currently, no comprehensive, publicly available data exist that can definitively answer the question of whether there has been a significant spillover of drug trafficking-related violence into the United States. {…] anecdotal reports have been mixed”

The writers themselves are hard pressed to substantiate these claims beyond anecdotal claims, Jeremy Schwartz, of the Austin American-Statesmen noted:

“During a news conference after the report was released, McCaffrey raised eyebrows when he spoke of “hundreds of people murdered on our side of the frontier,” a statistic that far exceeded the 22 killings between January 2010 and May 2011 identified by the Department of Public Safety as being related to drug cartels. When asked about the number, McCaffrey pointed to statements from a Brooks County rancher, who told reporters that hundreds of bodies had been found in the county in recent years.”

In fact  Brooks County, Tx Sheriff’s Department told the Austin Statesmen: “Most of the bodies were those of illegal immigrants crossing the brush trying to avoid the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias and not victims of direct assaults…”

Overall violence along the Southwest Border has been in decline for some time:

When compared to their respective state averages murder rates for cities within 50 miles of the border have been lower almost every year nearly every year from 1998 to 2009. For example, during that period, California’s lowest murder rate (5.3 people per 100, 000 residents in 2009) was still higher than the highest murder rate in border cities (4.6 people per 100, 000 in 2003).

Robbery rates for cities within 50 miles of the border were lower each year compared with the state average. In Texas, from 1998 t0 2009, the robbery rate ranged from 145 to 173 per 100,000 people in the state, while the robbery rate throughout Texas’ border region never rose above 100 per 100,000.

With thanks to Dante Perez for his help with research for this report.

NDN blogs

Tags: Border, Drug, Erroneous, Focus, Into, Mexico’s, Over, Report, Spilling, Statement, States, Texas, United, Violence

The Great White Shark Online Texas Hold’em Poker System

The Great White Shark Online Texas Hold’em Poker System
The system used by this online poker professional to net an average of 0 per day playing online poker.
The Great White Shark Online Texas Hold’em Poker System

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The plan of the state of Texas for energy conservation grants available to schools, hospitals, units of local government, public care institutions

The plan of the state of Texas for energy conservation grants available to schools, hospitals, units of local government, public care institutions

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Tags: Available, Care, Conservation, Energy, Government, Grants, Hospitals, Institutions, Local, Plan, Public, Schools, State, Texas, units

The Yellow Rose of Texas [VHS]

The Yellow Rose of Texas [VHS]

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Participation in Texas Schools’ Advanced Placement Program on Increase but Minorities Underrepresented

The rigorous coursework in the Advanced Placement (AP) program has proven to build a good foundation for high school students, who plan to attend college after graduation. Most college and universities give course credit for AP exam scores of three or higher — students score from one to five on the exam. Even students who score one or two on the exam have proven to be better prepared for college-level work, than students who do not participate in the program.

A report by the national College Board, which oversees the AP program across the nation, was recently released. It showed the number of students taking the exams and the diversity representation, though it concentrates only on Hispanic, African American, and Native American student groups.

For the Texas schools, participation in the AP exams has increased by 61 percent since the year 2001. Hispanics and African American students, however, were underrepresented in the AP exams.

Texas schools African Americans students had the biggest gap between total student population in the state and the percentage taking the AP exams. The African American students make up 13.5 percent of the total population, but only 6.8 percent took the exams — a disparity of almost half of the African American students opting not to participate in the AP program.

The Hispanic gap is closing in the Texas schools with 35 percent Hispanic students in the total population and 32.2 percent taking the exams.

The Texas schools have totally eliminated any gap for its Native American students with 0.3 percent of the population and 0.5 percent taking the AP exams.

Texas schools’ Commissioner of Education Shirley J. Neeley stated that they need to do a better job encouraging its minority students in middle school, so that they elect to take the AP classes and exams in high school.

The Texas schools students taking AP exams last year were 54,706 Caucasians, 34,976 Hispanics, 10,007 Asian Americans, 6,826 African Americans, 514 Native Americans, and 5,234 who marked “other” or gave no response for ethnicity. Minorities and “other” made up about 49 percent of the Texas schools testing population, as compared to the national average of 33.5 percent.

There were 204,403 AP exams taken by Texas schools students last year, many taking multiple exams. They scored three or higher on 99,428 of them. The Texas schools designated:

• 8,861 students as AP Scholars for scoring three or higher on three or more exams;
• 3,152 as AP Scholars with Honors for:
 An average score of at least 3.25 on all exams, and
 Scores of three or higher on four or more exams;
• 4,447 as AP Scholars with Distinction for:
 An average score of at least 3.5 on all exams, and
 Scores of three or higher on five or more exams;

The national College Board named 752 Texas schools students as National Scholars for earning an average score of at least four on all exams, with scores of four or higher on eight or more AP exams.

Though these results are impressive, the Texas schools know they must continue to expand the overall enrollment, as well as increase the diversity levels in the AP program. State incentives make the AP program more accessible to students by lowering the per exam fee by $30, so that no student pays more than $52 for an AP exam. Further, combined funding from federal, state and local subsidies reduces the per exam fee to only $5 for low-income students.

Additionally, the Texas schools have expanded its course offerings to entice more students to participate and used state incentives to train more teachers for the AP program.

With post-graduation success depending so much on a college degree, the AP coursework and exams are essential for all students to succeed in college. Minorities must be equally represented in Advanced Placement classes. The Texas schools still have work to do.

For more information on Texas schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Texas/index.html

Tags: Advanced, Increase, Minorities, Participation, Placement, Program, Schools, Texas, Underrepresented

All Employees in the Texas Schools to Submit to Criminal Background Check

Since 2003, the Texas schools have required background checks for all newly hired teachers and certified employees. Anyone not falling into these two categories or hired before 2003 were not included in the background checks, though some school districts included them on a local basis.

In the fall of 2006, several newspapers investigated the quality of these background checks and found that the information was often incomplete or received weeks or even months after educators were hired. Here are some of the problems with the previous Texas schools system, according to an article on March 27 by the Dallas Morning News:

• The Dallas school district conducts checks, but they did not report the criminal histories of educators to a state agency within the required seven days. One teacher had received a deferred adjudication probation in 2002 for indecent exposure. A teacher’s aide had received probation in 2002 for endangering a child.
• Since 2003, more than 200 people, who sought to be certified as educators within the Texas schools, were found to have serious offenses in their pasts. These included sexual misconduct and crimes against children.
• As recently as the 2004-2005 school year, 66 certified Texas schools teachers were found to be registered sex offenders by the State Board for Educator Certification.

Senator Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) was appalled by the fall news articles that cited some Texas schools teachers had been arrested on sex charges and others with criminal records. Knowing that nothing is more important than the safety of Texas schools’ children, she decided to do something about the situation.

Shapiro introduced a bill that the legislature passed at the end of March. Now, all employees of the Texas schools must pass a national criminal background check. They all must submit to being fingerprinted for this procedure — new hires, all current employees, teachers to bus drivers, and administrators to janitors. Any employee with a sexual offense or felony against a child on their record will lose their job. New applicants with such records will not be considered. Anyone with a history of crimes against children will be barred from employment within the Texas schools.

The new law also establishes a new statewide clearinghouse for criminal background information. All state agencies and all districts within the Texas schools will have access to the database, which must be current within three years. The database will be housed in the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The new criminal background checks for all employees of the Texas schools and the creation of the clearinghouse is estimated to cost about $34 million. The state will pick up the tab for this one.

The Texas schools join 43 other states that require national criminal background checks for all educators.

Tags: Background, Check, Criminal, Employees, Schools, Submit, Texas

Proposed Policy for Texas Schools May Do More Harm than Good

There is a proposal on the table by Governor Rick Perry and the Texas schools. They share a commitment to provide a high quality education for every child in the state of Texas. A commendable goal to be sure; however, their latest proposal for the Texas schools is drawing some opposition in high places.

The governor and the Texas schools recently proposed a new policy to require all school districts in Texas to spend at least 65 percent of their operating budgets on “direct classroom instruction.” The goal is to limit administrative costs and to spend more of their budgets on actual instruction.

The problem is with the definition of “direct classroom instruction.” The Texas schools define it as “activities associated with interaction of teachers and students.” This includes teaching staff salaries and benefits, as well as classroom supplies, such as textbooks and teaching materials. The broad definition also includes transportation of athletic teams to their events.

What is not covered are teacher professional development and curriculum, student counseling, and some library expenses.

Texas representative Joe Straus (R-San Antonio for District 21), according to the Austin-American Statesman, stated that teacher professional development is essential to delivering a quality education to Texas students. With the proposed policy, he said you can get an athletic team to an event, but the coach will lack the expertise and training to win the game. Straus believes this proposed policy will shortchange the teachers and ultimately shortchange the students, too.

More opposition is coming from former Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who addressed the “65 percent proposal” recently in The New York Times. He believes the policy will limit educators at a time when they need to innovate the most. They need more freedom — not less. He wants the Texas schools to stress teacher professional development, Internet content to supplement lessons, and after-school tutoring opportunities for the students. None of these would be considered related to direct classroom instruction.

Straus further stated that if the teachers are not prepared to do their jobs well, then any other efforts to improve student academic achievement will be a waste of time.

The Austin-American Statesman article of July 21, 2006, noted that one in every two teachers in the United States will quite teaching within five years, and that more than 200,000 teachers will not return to teaching next fall — that is nearly six percent of all teachers across the nation. It was further noted that research has proven that new and effective forms of professional teacher development, along with powerful instructional methods, do improve teacher retention — not just in a particular school, but within the career field as well.

Retention of quality teachers is essential for the Texas schools, as well as for student academic achievement. Retention requires training and development for the Texas schools’ teachers. Without it, the goal of a quality education for every Texas schools student is lost.

For more information on Texas schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Texas/index.html

Tags: Good, Harm, More, Policy, Proposed, Schools, Texas, Than

Texas Schools See Increase in Number of AP Exams Taken and Improved Results

The Texas schools released figures in September 2006, showing substantial increases in the number of Texas schools students taking Advanced Placement (AP) exams, as well as their resulting scores.

High schools across the nation are allowed to teach college-level coursework that is first approved by the College Board, the national administrator of the AP exams. Under current rules, a high school need only sign a form promising to teach the specific curriculum for any class to be designated AP.

When Texas schools students take and pass an AP exam with a high enough score, they receive college credit for the course, which they will not have to take when they attend college. Not only does this allow college-bound students to take fewer courses in college to fulfill their degree requirements, but it also means that they and their parents save money on the cost of college tuition.

Many Texas schools districts see this as a win-win situation that encourages students and provides incentives for them to attend college after graduating high school. Here is some of the information released by the Texas schools:

• The number of high school students in the Texas schools that took AP exams increased from 80,240 in 2002 to 122,969 in 2006 — more than a 50 percent increase;
• The number of Texas schools students, who scored high enough to earn college credit in 2006, increased by more than 40 percent from 2002;
• There was a total of 224,168 tests taken in 2006 and 49 percent of these scores were three or higher — this is a slight drop from the 53 percent of three of higher scores in 2002;
• English language, English literature, and U.S. history remain the most popular of the 35 AP exams available; and
• Italian, Latin literature, French literature, microeconomics, and physics of electricity and magnetism were the least popular.

To encourage students to participate in AP coursework, as well as to take and pass the exams, many Texas schools districts provide cash incentives to both their students and teachers. They partner with nonprofit donor organizations or use foundation grants to fund their AP incentives. Some students and teachers earn from $100 to $300 for each exam passed. The incentives must work, since all of the schools using them have seen a dramatic increase in the number of students taking and passing the exams. Galveston’s Ball High School, for example, expects to receive $15,800 this year in student-earned incentives.

The Texas schools attributed their improved results for 2006 to the cash incentives, incentives to reduce exam costs for students (up to $80 for each exam), increased teacher training, and the overall push by the Texas schools to create a college-bound culture within their high schools.

For more information on Texas schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/texas/index.html

Tags: Exams, Improved, Increase, Number, Results, Schools, Taken, Texas