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, […]
3-2-1: On grief and friendship, the value of reputation, and prevailing when you’re in a tight spot
I.
“When accessing all information is common, paying attention to important information is rare.”
II.
“On funerals, loss, grief, friendship, and support:
It’s not about knowing what to say. It’s about being there when nobody knows what to say. The only thing people need to hear is, “You are not alone.” And that doesn’t require words. It just requires your presence.”
How to Change People
Leaders change people.
Leaders fail because their ideas about changing people don’t work. Day-long training doesn’t change people. Information doesn’t shape character. Most of us have our minds made up.
Policies preserve the status quo. They don’t cultivate growth. Power and authority force compliance, but don’t change hearts.
What Latino Superintendents Say It Will Take to Grow Their Ranks
Being a superintendent can be lonely.
There are few others who understand the complex challenges and responsibility that come with leading a school district, its staff, and its students. The job can be even more isolating for leaders from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in the white male-dominated superintendency.
Just 3 percent of superintendents in 2022 identified as Hispanic or Latino, according to the most recent data compiled by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, compared with almost 30 percent of students nationwide.
Absenteeism spiked in the pandemic. Texas schools want the state’s help to keep students in the classroom.
n a typical school week, Delaila Constante makes more than a dozen calls to parents of students who are frequently absent from school. Last October, she made around 50 to 60 calls each week.
As a parental involvement assistant at Edinburg North High School in South Texas, Constante is responsible for checking with parents of students who miss too much school, whether their absences are excused or unexcused. Parents often tell her their families face medical or financial difficulties like not having running water or enough food to put on the table.
Constante came into her role in 2022, when schools were seeing absenteeism rates rise rapidly as a prolonged effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem lingers today. Texas school leaders and education experts say repeated absences can lead to worse outcomes for students and a risk of dropping out.
Which States Have the Fastest-Growing Achievement Gaps in 8th-Grade Math?
By now, most people have seen the headlines that scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress are continuing to nosedive.
Many stories also picked up on the fact that achievement gaps are growing, as lower-performing students have fallen further behind. For instance, in eighth grade math, the scores for the top 10% of students rose 3 points, while the bottom 10% fell 5 points.
But these national numbers are hiding the fact that achievement gaps are growing in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. While they vary in magnitude, the extent of the divergence playing out in schools across the country is alarming.
