TALAS Summer Leadership Summit will be in El Paso!
Call for Proposals Texas Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (TALAS)State Summer Leadership Summit Theme: “Elevating Your Voice Through ACTions and LEADership”Dates: Friday, May 16, 2025, and Saturday, May 17, […]
Trump’s Deportation Plans Threaten Millions of Families. Who Is Protecting Them?
Parents showing their children where passports and other important legal documents are hidden at home.
Mothers and fathers signing affidavits outlining who their childrens’ caregiver would be.
Guardians making arrangements with schools for dismissal in the event they have been picked up by federal agents in a deportation sweep.
These are the daily conversations and heartbreaking realities mixed-status families — where not all kids, parents or grandparents hold American citizenship or legal status to reside in the U.S. — are rehearsing in case children come home to an empty house.
Fix What’s Broke About Feedback
Improvement always begins with feedback. People never improve until they know how they’re doing. Self-defeating behaviors persist in low-feedback environments.
The feedback sandwich is filled with baloney.
A spoonful of sugar before corrective conversations dilutes compliments.
Marus Buckingham said, “People don’t want feedback, they want attention.”
Chronic absenteeism continues
Attendance Works recommends student engagement and decision making based on data analysis to boost attendance.
Attendance Works defines chronic absenteeism as when a student misses 10% or more of school days over a school year — or about 18 days — due to absence for any reason, including those that are excused, unexcused and suspensions.
The 28% chronic absenteeism rate for the 2022-23 school year — when calculated by the average-sized school — means there were at least 88 chronically absent students in each elementary school, 113 in each middle school, and 139 students in each high school.
By comparison, the chronic absenteeism rate prior to COVID-19 in 2018-19 was 16.2%.
Voucher plan revealed
Senate Bill 2 starts a new debate on a school voucher program in Texas. A funding proposal would allow up to 100,000 K-12 students who want to enroll to a private school to participate.
The Texas Senate revealed a bill on Friday to create an education savings accounts program, a top priority for Gov. Greg Abbott and top lawmakers after a similar bill failed to pass last legislative session.
The bill, co-authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Republican from Conroe who chairs the Senate Education Committee, would provide families with $10,000 a year per student in taxpayer dollars to fund their children’s tuition at an accredited private school and additional expenses like textbooks, transportation and therapy. The legislation would provide $11,500 per student for children with disabilities. It also would provide at least $2,000 a year per student for home-schooling families who participate in the program.
“Texas families are rejecting the status quo and calling for an education system that prioritizes their children’s success. Senate Bill 2 places parents at the center of their child’s education, empowering them with the freedom to choose the educational path that works best for their families,” Creighton said in a statement.
3.2.1: On what it takes to be consistent, how to make a bad situation worse, and noticing small joys.
I.
“Nearly everything awesome takes longer than you think.
Get started and don’t worry about the clock.”
II.
“In theory, consistency is about being disciplined, determined, and unwavering.
In practice, consistency is about being adaptable. Don’t have much time? Scale it down. Don’t have much energy? Do the easy version. Find different ways to show up depending on the circumstances. Let your habits change shape to meet the demands of the day.
Adaptability is the way of consistency.”
