Mike Falick's Blog

College.gov: A Very Good Resource for Information About Going to College

Regular readers of this blog know that 3 years ago, Spring Branch embedded being "the premiere college focused district in Texas" into our 5 Year Educational Plan.  There are tremendous resources available on the internet to support that goal, including the recently created College.gov website from the U.S. Department of Education. 

The website includes links to explain Why to Go to College, What to Do to Prepare to Go to College, and How to Pay for College, along with links for parents and families and teachers and counselors.

From the College.gov website:

college.gov is being built by the U.S. Department of Education in collaboration with students. This site is intended to be the go-to source for information and resources about planning, preparing and paying for postsecondary education (such as 2- or 4-year colleges and universities, and vocational or career schools).

Most importantly, college.gov is intended to provide inspiration and hope to all students, and encourage them to consider and pursue a postsecondary education.

In building this site, we asked students what information was most useful as they look ahead toward college.

Prepare for the New Year with 40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes

I found this inspirational.  The transcript appears below after the jump.

Bill of the Day: House Bill 420 Seeks to Make State Board of Education Elections Non-Partisan Races

Today's Bill of the Day is House Bill 420 by Representative Diane Patrick.  House Bill 420 seeks to make the election of State Board of Education members non-partisan elections by eliminating the ability for a political party to nominate a candidate.

The full text of the bill is below after the jump.

Animoto Video from Today's Building a Coalition for the Children of Texas Conference

Enjoy this Animoto from today's Building a Coalition for the Children of Texas Conference.

MySBISDTV: Spring Branch Adds Podcasts from Dr. Klussmann to the Website

Spring Branch has added a new (and very cool) feature to its website -- MySBISDTV.  This addition includes video podcasts presented by our Superintendent, Dr. Duncan Klussmann.  The first 4 podcasts are on the following topics:

• PreK Funding
• Uniform GPA
• 2007 Bond Update
• SBISD Campuses Recognized by TBEC

Each video is between 1 1/2 minutes and 2 1/2 minutes.

US News and World Report Issues Its Rankings of the Top High Schools in the Country: Spring Branch has 3 of the 32 Texas High Schools on the List

US News & World Report has just released its list of the best high schools in the United States.  From the US News & World Report website:

U.S.News & World Report—in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education and data research and analysis business that provides parents with education data on schoolmatters.com—analyzed academic and enrollment data from more than 21,000 public high schools to find the very best across the country. These top schools were placed into gold, silver, bronze, or honorable mention categories.

Nationally, out of 21,069 high schools, the top 100 schools (0.5%) were identified as Gold medal schools, and 504 schools (2.5%) were awarded Silver medals.  In Texas, out of  the 1,829 high schools 32 (top 1.7%) were identified as Gold or Silver medal recipients (10 Gold and 22 Silver respectively).  Of these 32, 3 are in Spring Branch -- Memorial, Stratford, and Westchester Academy.

		Award
	Memorial High School Harris County , Houston , TX Poverty-Adjusted Performance Disadvantaged Student Performance Gap College Readiness Index Minority Enrollment Disadvantaged Student Enrollment 1.22 14.2 54.1 13.9% 10.4%   Stratford High School Harris County , Houston , TX Poverty-Adjusted Performance Disadvantaged Student Performance Gap College Readiness Index Minority Enrollment Disadvantaged Student Enrollment 1.10 11.2 40.3 27.6% 20.5% Westchester Academy for International Studies Harris County , Houston , TX Poverty-Adjusted Performance Disadvantaged Student Performance Gap College Readiness Index Minority Enrollment Disadvantaged Student Enrollment 1.16 17.9 34.1 52.7% 42.9%	Silver

Bill of the Day: House Bill 367 Would Mandate a 10% Reduction in School District and Teacher Required Paperwork

Today's Bill of the Day is House Bill 367 by Representative Charles "Doc" Anderson (R-Waco).  HB 367 would require the Texas Education Agency to adopt policies to reduce the amount of paperwork a school district is required to prepare by 10%.  In addition, the bill would require the school district's board of trustees to adopt policies to reduce the amount of paperwork a teacher is required to prepare by 10%. 

The full text of the bill is below after the jump.

Spring Woods High School Varsity Choir Holiday Concert

This beautiful sample from last night's concert comes courtesy of Cyndi Whitten.

Robbery at the University of Texas

From Monday's University of Texas Campus Watch:

DKR-TEXAS MEMORIAL STADIUM, 2200 Robert Dedman

Robbery: Several UT staff members, faculty, students, and Texas Ex's discovered a fraction of a percentage point had been taken and was transported across state lines. The percentage point was discovered north of the Red River at the campus of another Big 12 South University.