IDRA Newsletter
This issue of the IDRA Newsletter commemorates Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel's career and 42 years at IDRA as she prepares for retirement in January. Articles include a tribute – crossing borders with faith, courage, insight & persistence; commencement address – Our Lady of the Lake University; the quotable Dr. Robledo Montecel; a letter from Dr. Robledo Montecel; a collection of thanks and farewells; three decades of groundbreaking dropout research – reflections – an excerpt; a letter to children; and a video slideshow.
Learn More
IDRA eNews
IDRA's latest annual attrition study found that the Texas high school attrition rate has declined from 24 percent last year to 22 percent in 2017-18 – the lowest rate in over three decades. In 1985-86, when IDRA conducted the state’s first attrition study, the rate was 33 percent and grew as high as 43 percent in later years. It has taken over three decades to improve by 11 percentage points.
At this pace, Texas will not reach universal high school education for another two decades and stands to lose over 2.3 million more students.
Learn More
Podcast
Classnotes Podcast (November 27, 2018) Communities and schools across the country are becoming more segregated across racial, ethnic and class lines. But … read more
Listen Now
Employment Opportunity at IDRA
IDRA is seeking a National Director of Policy who will lead, develop, integrate and coordinate IDRA’s state and national policy reform efforts impacting the education of all students, with special emphasis on minority, low-income, English learner and recent immigrant populations.
Learn More
New Report
A new IDRA report outlines the contributions of IDRA's 15 years in teacher preparation through six multi-year Transition to Teaching grants, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. IDRA partnered with universities and more than 55 school districts across Texas to prepare a new generation of skilled, effective teachers to lead and innovate in schools that need them most.
Learn More
Announcement
IDRA is pleased to announce that Celina Moreno, J.D., has been selected as IDRA’s new President & CEO. Ms. Moreno will begin the new role on February 1, 2019. She succeeds Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel who will retire at the end of January 2019 following 42 years of remarkable service to IDRA, including 26 years as its leader.
Learn More
eNews
In these turbulent times for children, we need leaders who never forget what we can do together to keep our promise to children. IDRA’s annual report for 2017, Keeping the Promise: Profiles in Leadership and Education, highlights the experiences of seven such leaders.
Learn More
School Opening Alert
As schools are opening their doors for a new school year, this alert is a reminder that public schools, by law, must serve all children. The education of undocumented students is guaranteed by the Plyler vs. Doe decision, and certain procedures must be followed when registering immigrant children in school to avoid violation of their civil rights. See our alert and useful tools and share them with others.
Learn More
Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program
Six students received prizes in a national competition among participants in the Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program, a nationally-recognized cross-age tutoring program of the Intercultural Development Research Association. Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program tutors wrote about how the program helped them do better in school and how they had helped their tutees to do better.
Learn More
IDRA eNews
Study on the Impact of Texas' New Weakened Graduation Requirements in HB5 Released by IDRA
The class of 2018 is the first to graduate under the new graduation requirements put in place in 2013 by the Texas legislature. Many advocates raised concerns that lowering graduation requirements could possibly affect college readiness and preparation. With funding from the Greater Texas Foundation, IDRA conducted a mixed method study to examine the early effects of the new graduation requirements. See the study findings.
Learn More
Call for Applications
IDRA is inviting research applications for the IDRA José A. Cárdenas School Finance Fellows Program. This will be the third round of this fellows program to support research that will inform efforts to secure equitable funding of public schools across the country. Under the leadership of Dr. María "Cuca" Robledo Montecel, IDRA President & CEO, the program was established by IDRA to honor the memory of IDRA founder, Dr. José Angel Cárdenas.
IDRA will select one or more fellows who will dedicate themselves to a period of intense study and writing in school finance. We will hold a symposium that includes the release of the fellow's program paper. The paper and findings will be published in the symposium proceedings and disseminated to the education research and policymaker community.
Learn More
IDRA eNews
Across the country, school doors are now open. Families have gathered supplies. Teachers have arranged their rooms. Principals have organized their staff. The sights and sounds are familiar, just like every year. But some things need to be different if we are going to better serve our diverse students and lead them to success.
See a few examples of our new and most popular packages:
• English Learner Literacy Coaching
• Instructional Strategies for Building Inferencing Skills
• Effective Dropout Prevention through the Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program
• Use Semillitas de Aprendizaje™ to Support Bilingual Early Childhood Literacy Development
Video
IDRA’s Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program is a research-based, internationally-recognized dropout prevention program that has kept 98 percent of its tutors … read more
Watch Video
Watch Video
Contact
5815 Callaghan Road, Suite 101
San Antonio, TX 78228
Phone: 210-444-1710
Fax: 210-444-1714
