Leadership Winner Announced
We established inaugural leadership awards that will now become part of the annual leadership summit. They represent our collective commitment to academic excellence, service, and leadership in public education. They inspire hope, cultivate possibility by mentoring, they respond to people, and will leave a legacy for future generations.
Huge congratulations to our inaugural award winners:
Dr. Martha Salazar-Zamora, Tomball ISD, TALAS Superintendent of the Year
Dr. Steven Gutierrez, Ed.D. Gutierrez, Chief Operations Officer, Tomball ISD, TALAS Central Office Administrator of the Year
Dr. Jessica Meléndez-Carrillo, Ed.D. Melendez-Carrillo, Canutillo ISD Principal of the Year (now serving as Director of Bilingual Education and Professional Development).
Summer Leadership Summit Recap
We closed the 3rd Annual Summer Leadership Summit inspired by our speakers, Dr. Miguel Cardona, Ed. D. and Mr. Robert Alfaro, the presenters, the sponsors, and attendees from all over the state. We extend our deepest gratitude to our summit and annual sponsors for making the event possible. Summit K12 brought us Dr. Miguel Cardona, who opened the summit and set a powerful tone for the uplifting experiences that our presenters provided. Mr. Alfaro delivered a moving keynote message reminding us of the “Roberts” who are still in our classrooms waiting to be seen and heard – grounding us in our work!
We applauded the inaugural student scholarship winners and wished them the best with future endeavors. We celebrated the TALAS L3 (Latino Leverage Leadership Program) Cohort 12. They completed year one of program study and embark on year two of mentoring with a TALAS Board member.
3-2-1: On the power of trees, celebrating others, and how to have better ideas
I.
“Your first attempt might not be very good, but nobody’s early work is good. There will always be a gap between where you are and where you want to be. And the bridge between that gap is courage. The courage to look foolish in the beginning. The courage to show up again when your early work is criticized. The courage to look yourself in the mirror and say, “I realize I’m not good enough yet, but the only way to get better is to keep working on it.”
II.
“One of the more effective ways to force yourself to have better ideas is to create an artificial constraint.
For many years, I wrote two articles per week and it would often take me over 20 hours to complete each article. Then I said, “If I only had 2 to 4 hours per week to write my newsletter, what would I do?”
That artificial constraint led to the creation of the 3-2-1 newsletter, which has become an incredibly popular format. Sometimes you can improve by cutting your options off.”
Strong early math skills equal later algebra success
Algebra I is known as a gateway class: Students who pass the course are more likely to take advanced math courses, graduate from college and earn more money as adults.
But for many children, their path to success in Algebra I is formed years before they take the class. Third grade math scores can strongly predict which students will go on to pass Algebra I and which ones may struggle.
A recent working paper analyzing test scores of over 1.7 million Texas students explored the phenomenon. It found that the gaps in Algebra I pass rates between low-income, Black and Hispanic students and these students’ more affluent, white and Asian peers can largely be traced to how well students master early, foundational math skills.
How to find the leadership talent already in your classrooms
Many districts approach leadership development reactively. A principal retires, an assistant principal leaves, or a department chair position opens, and only then does the search for leadership begin.
The problem is that by the time vacancies appear, districts are often competing for a limited number of candidates while overlooking leadership talent already developing inside their own schools.
In many cases, future school leaders are not first identified through formal applications or administrative internships. They are identified through responsibility. Leadership often begins quietly inside classrooms long before educators ever hold official titles.
How much each US state spends on public school students, ranked
For many students in the US, the ZIP code they live in can shape the quality of education they get.
And while a lot of disparity can exist between wealthy suburbs and under-resourced urban school districts, differences can also show up dramatically when comparing education across US states.
In 2024, US public schools received nearly $995 billion in funding, with state and local sources combined providing nearly 90% of the total, according to Census data. Nationwide, local governments provided $429.8 billion for primary and secondary education funding, while state governments provided $450 billion.