Podcast
Classnotes Podcast (May 21, 2019). Students at high school in San Antonio are taking a proactive role to promote student … read more
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Statement
At the start of the legislative session, IDRA highlighted several concerns with the Senate and House school finance proposals. Since then, there have been a number of changes related to how both chambers propose funding Texas schools equitably. Still, many of the concerns that IDRA raised at the beginning of the legislative session remain. As the school finance conference committee members meet to debate and resolve the differences in the bills, IDRA offers the following principles and related recommendations for their consideration.
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eNews
Dr. Cristóbal Rodríguez will study inequities in access to college readiness coursework. The fellows program honors the memory of IDRA founder, Dr. José Angel Cárdenas. The goal of the program is to engage the nation's most promising researchers in investigating school finance solutions that secure equity and excellence for all public school students.
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IDRA Newsletter
This issue of the IDRA Newsletter includes the current proposals for Texas’ investment in English learners, fixing asset-based early childhood education, building culturally-relevant libraries for young learners, Semillitas de Aprendizaje materials, Classnotes podcasts about early learning and more!
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eNews
Semillitas de Aprendizaje storybooks and materials for summer school!
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eNews
With the news of the Austin principal who was removed for penalizing immigrant parents, see IDRA’s resources on how public schools must, by law, serve all children
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Policy Brief
IDRA’s analysis of the Texas House school funding proposal (HB3) found that most English learners would not get the benefit of the proposed additional weight for dual language programs. Rather, most English learners would still be in programs that are severely underfunded.
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Data Dashboard
IDRA created this dashboard to show scenarios of how increasing the bilingual education allotment will impact schools within each Texas House or Senate district.
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Infographic
Along with IDRA's new policy brief, "Fair and Essential Education Funding Requires State Investment," IDRA released this infographic.
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Event Video
Grounded in our unique model of family leadership in education, the Annual IDRA La Semana del Niño Parent Institute is an event where families lead each other in advocating for equitable and excellent education in their communities. Watch the live stream video!
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Statement
Last week, the House and Senate education committee chairmen filed major school finance reform proposals. IDRA reviewed them with an eye toward equity and how they would impact students across the state, particularly those from low-income families, students of color and English learners.
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IDRA statement
When tests are tied to high-stakes consequences, they can deny capable, motivated students the opportunity to proceed to the next grade or graduate from high school. Such tests can negatively impact students' confidence, academic achievement and lifelong opportunities. A recent Texas Monthly article, Are Texas Kids Failing? Or Are the Tests Rigged? revealed that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) may have ignored at least two academic studies that questioned the reliability of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading tests. The researchers found that, for the exact same passages, the reading levels identified by TEA did not match the reading levels determined by the readability tools. On average, Texas students were being tested on reading passages that were two grade levels higher than they should have been.
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Joint statement
IDRA and 14 other teacher groups, school administrators, school board members, and public education advocates have come together to support a legislative agenda that will increase the transparency and efficiency of charter schools in Texas.
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Testimony
IDRA National Director of Policy, Morgan Craven, J.D., presented invited testimony before the House Public Education Committee on the recommendations of the Texas Commission on Public School Finance. "If we do not increase resources for English learners, we are compromising the academic success and life opportunities for one-fifth of the entire public school student population, just as we did in the 1980s."
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News Release
In an additional analysis to IDRA’s annual attrition study released in December, IDRA examined data from a national and statewide perspective on attrition rates of economically disadvantaged students and examined the issue in terms of school district property wealth.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Contact
5815 Callaghan Road, Suite 101
San Antonio, TX 78228
Phone: 210-444-1710
Fax: 210-444-1714
