Lynn Walsh

A video story for Texas Watchdog:

A renovation may soon be coming to the way teachers are hired and retained in Houston. With the help of a national program, some private donors and money from the district, the Houston Independent School District is set to launch a project to change how the district hires and retains teachers.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Houston ISD superintendent Terry Grier discusses his plan to tie teacher evals to test scores (w/ video)
Tue Jan 12 19:05:07 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh
Houston Independent School District Superintendent Terry Grier spoke about his plan to tie teacher evaluations to their students’ test scores at a school board agenda review meeting Monday. The performance-based review would be one of more than 30 factors considered when a teacher’s contract is up for renewal.

The Houston Chronicle broke the story earlier this week and reports that eight of the nine trustees have expressed support for Grier’s plan, which is up for consideration by the school board Thursday.

“We’re not talking about the majority of teachers in HISD. I’m not talking about creating a process to have a witch hunt or to go out and create massive morale problems with our teachers,” Grier said at the Monday meeting.

We’ve also traded messages with Gayle Fallon, the president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, which opposes the plan. If we can reach her tomorrow, we’ll post a clip from her as well.

Also check out coverage by:
Houston Press
KIAH-TV Channel 39
KTRK-TV Channel 13

Contact Lynn Walsh at lynn@texaswatchdog.org or 713-980-9777.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier says no ‘time to tinker’ at meeting discussing small schools plan (w/ video)
Thu Jan 21 18:03:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Here’s another video from a Houston ISD board workshop held Thursday morning, where trustees heard about a plan to create small schools within the existing large high schools.

The New York-based Institute for Student Achievement said its model would create high schools of up to 400 students each. Each small school would have its own principal but share a building and resources with other small schools.

The plan is aimed at improving graduation rates.

“We need a model that is research-based. We do not have time to tinker,” said Terry Grier, Houston Independent School District superintendent. “We have failing schools that are not serving our children.”

Some trustees compared the small schools plan to an existing program that places ninth-graders in a school with other ninth-graders before going on to high school. But the ninth-grade academies have drawbacks, Grier said.

“It’s one more transition for kids to make,” he said.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

See what’s coming Monday at Texas Watchdog
Fri Jan 22 20:02:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Check back Monday at www.texaswatchdog.org for a story about influential lobbyists, a caucus of state legislators and one building in Austin. They’re causing quite a stir.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Coming Monday at Texas Watchdog: Millions of stimulus dollars have been spent to weatherize houses in Texas … See how it was spent
Fri Jan 29 22:11:00 2010 CST
By Trent Seibert

It’s no surprise, I suppose, that millions of dollars in federal tax cash has been spent to weatherize homes in Texas.

The surprise to us was how few houses were caulked and retrofitted and how much was spent on the government bureaucracy to oversee this program. Come back Monday to see how many homes were actually protected against harsh weather… and how much of that money went down the drain.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

An overseas trip paid with public funds? No way? Yes… Norway. Come back Monday to Texas Watchdog to read the story
Fri Feb 5 20:19:00 2010 CST
By Trent Seibert

Public money: It paves your streets, educates your kids and pays for the bullets in the gun of the cop on the corner.

But if you live in Houston, public dollars also helped a bevy of oil executives ride a mechanical bull.

That’s not all… Public bucks helped a bunch of Norwegian oil executives ride a mechanical bull — in Norway.

A review of records by Texas Watchdog suggests that a city hall insider helped host a party in Norway that featured then mayor of Houston Bill White, as well as pricy beer, barbeque and rides on a mechanical bull.

And it was underwritten with public funds.

No bull.

Come back to Texas Watchdog Monday.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs discusses public data, check registers with Texas Tribune
Mon Feb 8 13:12:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Government transparency is something Texas Watchdog works toward every day. Through public records requests, phone calls and e-mails we encourage all forms of government to make documents available to the people who own those records, the public.

One issue governments face is deciding how best to make information public, especially the massive data sets of information they control. Texas Comptroller Susan Combs spoke about this issue last week at the The Texas Tribune’s TribLive event in Austin.

“We’ve gotta figure out how you can dump it, get it to folks,” Combs tells the crowd in this video posted by the Tribune. She said making information available puts the onus for searching it on the public, not just officials. “When you give the public the information, then the sort of, ‘Shame on you,’ passes to the public. The public had better go search the information.”

Combs also discussed efforts to put check registers for local governments in Texas online, so that the public can see each payment made by a government agency.

The Combs event was helpd as part of the online news organization’s TribLive conversation series with newsmakers.

A story written for Texas Watchdog

Video: Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier says a year-round calendar could help retain good teachers
Tue Feb 9 16:03:12 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

The days of a long summer break would be over for students under a year-round calendar plan the Houston Independent School District board discussed Tuesday.

But don’t go canceling summer camp just yet. In order for any HISD schools to adopt the calendar, trustees would still need to vote twice on the overall plan, and any individual school adopting the change would have to seek an additional OK from the board.

The year-round calendar option, up for vote Thursday, would allow schools to lengthen the academic year to 190 instructional days for students and 200 workdays for teachers. The year would be broken into four quarters, with two-week break periods between. Students would get a month off from school in the summer.

Superintendent Terry Grier stressed the possible academic gains the district could see under a year-round school calendar.

Some trustees said they were concerned about the costs, which Grier said could total at least $150,000 per school. Grier said some of the costs would come in the form of salary increases, which could help the district retain good teachers. He also said if any schools adopted the calendar in the next two years, the district could seek federal stimulus funds to help pay for the change.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Houston ISD Trustee Harvin Moore asks crowd not to boo, hoot during debate over teacher firings for test scores
Fri Feb 12 11:14:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Houston ISD Trustee Harvin Moore asked some in the crowd of hundreds at last night’s school board meeting to listen quietly, even if they didn’t agree with what other speakers were saying. The packed-house crowd included educators and parents there for the vote on whether to tie teacher evaluations more closely to student test scores.