Ed-Tech Innovation Exchange Announced
Sponsorship Packages September 10-11, 2025 Hyatt Regency Downtown Houston, Texas TALAS’s Education Innovation Exchange (EIE) allows executive leaders to influence the development, refinement, and delivery of the products and […]
3-2-1: On making the most of shortcuts, how to reduce worry, and the kindness of mastery
3 Ideas From Me I. “Shortcuts tend to accelerate effort, not replace it. Supplements and cutting edge recovery methods might speed up your progress in the gym, but they don’t […]
How can school leaders smooth student transitions to middle, high school?
Offering multiple orientation opportunities is one of the key ways to make the transition smoother, according to Paxton, whose school has implemented several intentional supports for incoming 6th graders throughout the school year.
Mountain Vista Community School offers a “6th Grade Sneak Peek” day in the spring, a “Rise Up Rams” program on the last day of school, and multiple check-in days over the summer for families before the 6th-grade orientation on the first day of school.
These create opportunities for students and families to tour the building, meet their future teachers and learn about the school’s academic and athletic programming.
3 Questions That Can Transform School Culture
“In your perfect world, what would happen?” “What barriers might we face in achieving this vision?” “What is the first step we can take?”
In my 25 years as an educational leader, I have found these three questions to be powerful tools for fostering collaboration and creating a collective vision. They shift leadership from a top-down directive to a shared responsibility model, encouraging educators to think critically, problem-solve proactively, and engage in meaningful change.
The PERFECT-WORLD Protocol: A Real-World Example
Our middle school faced a challenge: Changes to the electives schedule due to personnel and district priority shifts meant additional teaching loads for already busy staff. Instead of presenting this change as an administrative decision, I framed it as a collective problem-solving opportunity.
Judge blocks Trump from shutting down Department of Education
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday issued an injunction to block President Donald Trump from shutting down the Department of Education and is requiring fired employees to be reinstated.
Note: This story will be updated with future developments.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun delivered a major blow to Linda McMahon’s efforts to “put herself out of a job” by eliminating the agency.
“The record abundantly reveals that Defendants’ true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department without an authorizing statute,” Joun wrote, adding that “the Department cannot be shut down without Congress’s approval.”
Joun added that the injunction is necessary because “the supporting declarations of former Department employees, educational institutions, unions, and educators paint a stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America’s most vulnerable student populations.”
Texas House, Senate lawmakers reach $8.5 billion school funding deal
House and Senate lawmakers have struck a deal on an $8.5 billion funding package for Texas public schools that will preserve the upper chamber’s push for a modest $55 per-student increase to districts’ base funding, while giving schools more than $1 billion to pay for fixed costs like utilities and teacher pensions.
The deal, announced by legislative leaders Thursday, appears to strike a face-saving compromise for both chambers, which had been divided by the House’s bid to give schools a bigger increase in base per-student funding and the Senate’s desire to more narrowly prioritize teacher pay raises.