The debate over whether cell phones should be allowed in classrooms is something state lawmakers may weigh in.

Mike Morath made the recommendation as concerns rise that phones are harmful to students’ mental health and distract them from learning.

House hearing focuses on a curriculum plan and on school vouchers.

Public education advocates opposed the new charters, which would launch in Arlington, Austin, Big Spring and Manor.

"While we continue to see progress in other areas - which is a testament to the dedication and skill of our Texas educators - it’s clear that math performance is not where students need it to be for success after graduation,” TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said.

Test results showed a steady performance compared to previous years, but showed slight declines in meeting grade-level percentages for U.S. History.

Proposed lesson plans could improve student performance and help teachers, Texas education officials say. Not all district leaders and education advocates are convinced.

A state lawmaker and Houston residents urge the Texas Education Agency to investigate whether the state-appointed superintendent improperly sent public funds to out-of-state charter schools.

The transition at the Waco-area school district will shed light on how a democratically elected school board resumes control after a takeover.

Madison High School students aren’t backing down over their dislike for the school’s new cell phone ban policy.

Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath spent time at Houston ISD for the first time since the state takeover.

Plaintiffs claimed that the 2023 law, which required book vendors to rate the explicitness of sexual references in materials sold to schools, was unconstitutionally broad.

Representatives of several school districts have filed a lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency following the recent changes to the state public school accountability system.

The state recently took over the Houston school district. The new officials restricted the number of people allowed in the board room, requiring many people to watch from an overflow space.

The events will be held at school sites throughout the district.

The former Dallas ISD superintendent and a state-appointed board of managers will replace Houston’s elected school board in response to years of poor academic outcomes at a single campus in the district.

The Texas Education Agency announced the appointment of the nine-member Board of Managers for the Houston Independent School District and the selection of a new superintendent Thursday.

See how the TEA takeover of Houston ISD was years in the making.

The Texas Education Agency hosted its final informational as it prepares to take over Houston ISD. Many people tell KPRC 2, they still have plenty of questions.

The Texas Education Agency announced on March 15 that it would replace the current superintendent and its democratically elected school board with a new board of managers as soon as June 1.

The Texas Education Agency is hosting its first of four community meetings Tuesday night, nearly a week after the state announced it would move forward with a takeover of its largest school district.

When do state takeovers of Texas public schools or districts happen? How long can they last? We provide answers to some of the questions surrounding the takeover of Houston ISD.

The Texas Education Agency announced Wednesday that it is moving forward with a takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student public school district, the eighth-largest in the country.

The announcement comes almost four years after the agency first moved to take over the district.

The Texas Education Agency is moving forward with a takeover of the state’s largest school district.

Texas’ education agency first moved to take over the district in 2019 after years of low student performance at a single Houston ISD high school. Critics said the district has made improvements since then.

A march against the planned state takeover of Houston ISD by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) was held Saturday at Wheatley High School.

The bill, introduced months after the Uvalde school shooting, also allocates more funds to the state’s school safety allotment, which is money given to districts to improve campus security.

The Texas Education Agency has been in a legal battle to take over the state’s largest school district since 2019.

Senators in the finance committee asked questions Monday about the pros and cons of basing the amount of money that schools get per student on enrollment instead of attendance. Districts say the change could mean millions in additional funding.

The decision from the state’s highest court would allow the TEA to move forward with its plan to replace Houston ISD’s school board members over low academic scores.

Among other issues, the court will consider whether a law that updated the education code last year has any bearing on TEA Commissioner Mike Morath’s attempt to replace HISD’s board members over low academic scores.

This year’s TEA ratings were done differently than in previous years. Instead of the usual A-F ratings, which were last given in 2019, the agency gave only A-C ratings. Districts and schools that would have received a D or F instead received a “Not Rated” label this year.

There had been fear that after another school year of COVID-19 disruptions, scores would not improve.

Texas has more than 1,200 school districts, but the education commissioner promised plans for the review will be completed this summer.

The Educative Teacher Performance Assessment was designed to better prepare new teachers, but faced pushback from people who thought it would create barriers for people of color to enter the profession.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday that he sent a letter directing the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath to create the new position of Chief of School Safety and Security.

School districts are not required to adopt the agency’s recommendations but can use them as guidance as they develop new procedures or alter their policies for selecting or removing library books.

Teaching demands during the pandemic have exacerbated the nation’s teacher shortage. Abbott wants a task force to investigate.

Gaps in student learning because of pandemic disruptions could impact students in the long term.

The number of students failing to meet grade-level went up statewide across all grade levels and nearly all subject areas according to results of the Spring 2021 STAAR test released Monday by the Texas Education Agency.

The drop was more significant in districts that had most of their instruction online, compared to districts with more in-person classes.

An education leader from Tennessee is set to become the superintendent of the Houston school district, the largest in Texas.

Texas will fully fund school districts that have seen student attendance drop during the pandemic, as long as they maintain or increase the rate of students learning in person, Gov. Texas funds its public schools based on the number of students who attend, whether they are learning in person or virtually. AdAs of this January, 56% of Texas public school students were learning in person. School districts will be funded based on the number of students who attended before the pandemic, according to the release. AdBetween October and January, nearly 3,000 students returned to public schools, according to a state survey.

Feb. 18, 2021. Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas TribuneWhen the winter storm hit Texas last week, the overhead sprinklers across the hall from Valerie Malone’s first-grade classroom broke and flooded rooms on both sides. School districts must look to insurance and federal emergency relief agencies to fund repairs and losses, with the state as a final resort. Those costs could be significant, especially as districts are already paying extra to educate students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Austin ISD estimated its schools suffered $15 million worth of damage from the storm, according to a KUT report. More importantly, some students learning in person may not be able to go back to their normal classrooms for weeks, if at all.

“It’s not opting out of the STAAR test. Texas has said fifth and eighth grade students who don’t pass required STAAR exams this year may move up to the next grades. But high school students must pass five subject-specific courses by the time they graduate, a requirement that will not be waived this year. “This is about STAAR testing and forcing students to come in for STAAR testing. “I think the TEA has tried to create some flexibility with the STAAR test.

HOUSTON – Texas students in remote learning won’t be required to take the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam, according to Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath. This option will be available for parents who are concerned about sending their children to school. “The kid won’t take the test and they won’t have access to that information,” said Morath, during a virtual conversation with The Texas Tribune on Thursday. Morath said that the state decided not to cancel the STAAR test because schools need the data from the tests to measure the student’s learning. He added that the state did not have the “logistical ability to do the STAAR remotely.”Students must attend school in-person to take the standardized test.

Join The Texas Tribune at noon Central time Feb. 11 for a live interview with Texas education commissioner Mike Morath, moderated by Tribune CEO Evan Smith. In this role, he heads the Texas Education Agency, which oversees pre-kindergarten through high school education for more than 5 million Texas students. The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. This conversation is presented by Lone Star College and Texas State Technical College and supported by Harmony Public Schools, Educate Texas, Philanthropy Advocates, TEXAS 2036 and Pastors for Texas Children. Though donors and corporate sponsors underwrite Texas Tribune events, they play no role in determining the content, panelists or line of questioning.

Evan Smith, CEO of The Texas Tribune. (Audio unavailable. Click here to listen on texastribune.org.) In the latest episode of our podcast about the Texas Legislature, Evan Smith talks to state Sen. Larry Taylor, chair of the Senate Education Committee, about whether it’s possible to fully fund last session's school finance bill, learning loss, broadband access, the STAAR test and what he really thinks of Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.

Credit: Alejandra Casas for The Texas TribuneThe 2019 Texas legislative session ended on a high for public education, with more money spent on schools than had been in more than a decade. State officials haven’t announced what they plan to do with the $5.5 billion in additional federal stimulus dollars Texas was awarded for public education. Currently, 26% of secondary school students and 17% of elementary school students are failing one or more classes, according to Superintendent Brian Woods. Dan Patrick and the Senate’s lead budget-writer, state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, released statements welcoming the news and mentioning the Legislature’s commitment for public education funding. Eva DeLuna Castro, state budget analyst for the progressive think tank Every Texan, thinks the state could likely be climbing out of the economic recession for years.

Texas school superintendents and education advocates are asking the state not to cut funding next semester for districts seeing enrollment declines because of COVID-19. But as January approaches, the reprieve is nearing its end, and school administrators say they're about to fall off a funding cliff. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said at a conference last week that he was still considering what to do next. Texas recently decided to allow school districts to require remote learners posting Fs to return in person. About 40% of the enrollment decline is in pre-K and kindergarten, which are optional for Texas students, Morath said.

HOUSTON – The Texas Education Agency has announced some major changes to the grading system for the current school year. According to a news release, the TEA will be pausing the A-F ratings for the 2020-21 school year due to the ongoing difficulties brought on by the coronavirus. “The issuance of A-F ratings for schools has proven to be a valuable tool to support continuous improvement for our students, allowing educators, parents, and the general public to better identify and expand efforts that are working for kids,” said Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath. “But, the pandemic has disrupted school operations in fundamental ways that have often been outside the control of our school leaders, making it far more difficult to use these ratings as a tool to support student academic growth.”However, despite the change in grading, the TEA said the STAAR test will proceed as planned in order to “provide critically important information about individual student learning that teachers and parents can use to help students grow. For those schools that incorporate STAAR results into teacher evaluations, TEA is providing flexibility to allow them to remove that component this school year.”The TEA said that while the state exam will not be used for accountability purposes this year, it will help teacher and parents evaluate the progress of individual students while also providing education leaders and policymakers a “comprehensive picture of what are likely to be sweeping impacts of the pandemic on student learning, helping policymakers craft solutions for the years ahead.”

Texas public school students will still take the STAAR test this spring, but the state will not rate schools and districts based on their results, the Texas Education Agency announced Thursday. In normal years, Texas rates its schools and districts on a scale from A through F, based in large part on the scores students receive on the standardized tests. But he said in November that he was reviewing exactly how those student scores would be used to rate schools and districts. Last spring, Texas applied for and received a waiver from the federal government allowing it not to administer the STAAR test. Usually, student scores on the test determine whether high school students can graduate, whether some elementary and middle school students can move on to the next grade, and whether schools can remain open.

“Absent the STAAR test, you’re not going to have a valid, reliable view of grade-level mastery of student skills,” he said. Last spring, Texas applied for and received a waiver from the federal government allowing it not to administer the STAAR. Texas has already committed to allowing elementary and middle school students who fail the exams this spring to move up to the next grade, with district permission. Usually, student scores on the test determine whether high school students can graduate, whether some elementary and middle school students can move on to the next grade, and whether schools can remain open. The Texas State Teachers Association, which has been calling for a suspension of STAAR testing since June, quickly came out in support of the legislators’ letter.

HOUSTON – Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Monday that the grade-promotion requirement related to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test, for students in grades 5 and 8 will be waived in the 2020-21 school year. SCHOOLS: Follow all our latest coverage of what Houston-area school districts have planned for the upcoming school yearThe STAAR test begins in third grade and can stop poor-performing students from advancing to the next grade or graduating high school. Test scores are also used to evaluate teachers and are part of the state’s A-F grading system for schools. The test will be administered in May to coincide with the STAAR testing for other grades 3-8, officials announced Monday. And while he is at it, he should just suspend STAAR testing for 2020-21, period.

Local school boards in areas with a lot of community spread can also delay the start of the school year. That's on top of a previous promise to reimburse all school districts for up to 75% of their pandemic-related expenses, using money from a federal grant awarded to Abbott's office. It was unclear last week whether Texas would let those local mandates stand or overrule them. And many Texas school superintendents in areas with rapidly increasing COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have already made the decision to keep classrooms closed, without a local health order, and continue with online learning this fall. This past spring, Texas school districts struggled to get set up for remote learning, with many lacking enough computers and WiFi hotspots to send out to students.

Local school boards in areas with a lot of community spread can also delay the start of the school year. That's on top of a previous promise to reimburse all school districts for up to 75% of their pandemic-related expenses, using money from a federal grant awarded to Abbott's office. It was unclear last week whether Texas would let those local mandates stand or overrule them. And many Texas school superintendents in areas with rapidly increasing COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have already made the decision to keep classrooms closed, without a local health order, and continue with online learning this fall. This past spring, Texas school districts struggled to get set up for remote learning, with many lacking enough computers and WiFi hotspots to send out to students.

Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas TribuneTexas will give school districts more flexibility to keep their school buildings closed to in-person instruction this fall as coronavirus cases continue to rise, Gov. Public health guidance released last week indicated that school districts had to stay virtual for up to three weeks after their start dates, so they could get their safety protocols ironed out before bringing more students to campus. Public health experts have warned that reopening school buildings in areas where cases are rising precipitously will result in entire communities becoming infected. The political conflict on when to reopen schools has left teachers and parents terrified and uncertain about the best decisions for themselves and their families. But Abbott stopped short of saying in a separate television interview state officials would cancel next springs administration of the state standardized test.

HOUSTON With the coronavirus pandemic still going strong, Texas parents have been wondering what back-to-school will look like for their children in the fall. The key concern is ensuring the safety of students, teachers and school staff as students return to another year of learning. While school districts continue to finalize back-to-school plans, the Texas Education Agency issued its SY 20-21 Public Health Planning Guidance Tuesday afternoon that aim to provide all the guidelines required for students to safely return to campus in the fall. Both as Commissioner and as a public school parent, my number one priority is the health and safety of our students, teachers, and staff, said Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath. Read all the public health guidelines issued by TEA below:

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas public school districts haven't finalized their plans for a return to the classroom, but they know the state will resume its high-stakes standardized testing for millions of students. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told the state Board of Education on Tuesday that the annual State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, also known as STAAR, will return in the 2020-2021 school year. Days later, the federal government waived its standardized testing requirements. The STAAR test begins in third grade and can stop poor-performing students from advancing to the next grade or graduating high school. “Standardized testing should be the last priority for students, educators and policy makers.

AUSTIN, Texas Texas students will be returning to public schools in person this fall, Gov. Greg Abbott told state lawmakers Thursday morning. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath has determined it will be safe for students to return to their campuses this fall. The TEA will release additional guidance for school districts next Tuesday. According to state lawmakers on the 11 a.m. call with Abbott, school districts will be able to also offer instructional alternatives for students.

Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas TribuneTexas students will be returning to public schools in person this fall, Gov. Greg Abbott told state lawmakers Thursday morning. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath has determined it will be safe for students to return to their campuses this fall. The TEA will release additional guidance for school districts next Tuesday. According to state lawmakers on the 11 a.m. call with Abbott, school districts will be able to also offer instructional alternatives for students.

The Houston Independent School District has filed a motion requesting a federal judge issue a preliminary injunction on a recommended state takeover of the school district, KPRC 2 learned...