Western States

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the educational system. No state has experienced more growth in the number of K-12 students over the last decade than Texas. Although the majority of the growth is among the Hispanic student population, all ethnic groups except Caucasians experienced both numerical and percentage increases in enrollment during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years. These increases in minority enrollment and decreases in white enrollment continue a trend that dates back to the 1980s.

Enrollment Reflects Increasing Diversity

According to the Texas Education Agency, over the last decade, the state’s public school system has added over 820,000 students, which reflects a 19 percent increase in total enrollment. When viewed longitudinally, enrollment growth in Texas is even more pronounced: Since the 1987-1988 school year, enrollment has increased by a whopping 1.85 million students, representing a growth of over 57 percent.

In the 2012-2013 academic year, Texas public school students were:

• 51.3 percent Hispanic;
• 30 percent white;
• 12.7 percent African-American;
• 3.6 percent Asian, and
• 1.8 percent multi-racial.

These numbers are representative of the increasing ethnic and cultural diversity of students enrolling in Texas public schools. The Hispanic student population surpassed the 50 percent mark in 2011 and is the fastest-growing segment of Texas’ student population. Conversely, white enrollment, which has been decreasing for years, is projected to continue declining for the next several decades. In 2000, over 41 percent of Texas students were white, but that number now stands at just over 31 percent. By 2050, experts

As more parents voice concerns about the dangers of cyberbullying, one California school district has taken matters into its own hands. The Glendale Unified School District has hired an outside company to track students on social media and send reports of the results to school officials daily. The purpose of the new program is to protect students from potential trouble, including cyberbullying, suicidal thoughts, and even truancy. However, some are questioning whether the school district is blatantly infringing on students’ privacy rights in their quest to keep students a little safer.

Company to Analyze Social Media Posts

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Glendale district has hired Geo Listening, a social media monitoring service that specializes in tracking social media for school campuses. Glendale piloted the program on a smaller scale last year, hiring the company to monitor the social websites of students at Hoover, Glendale, and Crescenta Valley high schools. This year, the district will pay Geo Listening more than $40,000 to expand their services to eight high and middle schools.

According to the Geo Listening website, their monitoring service reports daily to school officials about social website activity. Those daily reports break down social media messages into the following categories:

• Cyber-bullying and bullying
• Hate, harm, and despair
• Crimes and vandalism
• Truancy
• Substance abuse

The report also shares the frequency and severity of student posts within these categories. All of the information is taken off of public social media pages; texts, emails,

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently recognized Denver Public Schools for their work on an innovative teacher evaluation system. The new system, known as LEAP, received a new $10 million grant from the foundation, which recognized three years of advancements by the school district. Denver Public Schools plans to use the money to continue improving and refining its evaluation model, which has become an example for other school districts nationwide.

Progress Rewarded

According to a press release on the DPS website, the grant was given based on the district's successful progress of the teacher evaluation initiatives. The grant is actually a renewal of an earlier $10 million grant provided by the foundation, which was used to launch the evaluation system in 2011. The system expanded to include all schools in the district by the 2012-2013 school year. The new funding will allow the program to reach full implementation throughout the school district.

“We are very appreciative of this additional investment in the important, collaborative work we’ve been doing to support our teachers and to help our students achieve,” Tom Boasberg, superintendent of Denver Public Schools, stated in the press release. “We have worked closely with our teachers and our school leaders to build a system that develops and recognizes high-quality teachers, and positively impacts our schools and students.”

This video reports on the LEAP grant.

About LEAP

LEAP stands for

Technology is coming to the Los Angeles Unified School District in a very widespread way this fall, as district officials have unveiled a plan to put an Apple iPad in the hands of every student in the district. The ambitious endeavor could eventually encompass more than 900 school campuses and 640,000 students between kindergarten and 12^th grade.

Coming Soon to a Los Angeles School Near You

MacWorld reports that the deal between Apple and one of the largest school districts in the country will total more than $30 million when all is said and done. More than the money, a distribution this widespread positions Apple as the technology leader in education, at least on the West Coast where students will now be using their device in mass. The partnership will begin with the distribution of 31,000 iPads, which will be distributed at 47 campuses throughout the district this fall.

According to TelecomTiger, the Apple iPad was chosen by the school district because it has been rated the highest in quality and will be one of the most cost-effective means for bringing technology into the district on such a grand scale. The review panel that chose the iPad over other devices included both teachers and students in the district. By 2014, the district plans to ensure every student has one of these devices in their possession. Apple executives believe that the distribution to the school district with match their corporate philosophy as

College and professional sports teams have a medical staff to screen players and keep them healthy on and off-season. However, high school athletes rarely have the same services available to them. Many cannot afford medical care on their own, and family physicians may not have the time or knowledge to help these young athletes achieve their top performance level in the safest way possible. In San Francisco, one organization hopes to change that by providing high school students with the medical care they need to stay at the top of their game.

About PlaySafe

According to the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital website, PlaySafe is a program provided by the Sports Medicine Center at the University of California, San Francisco. The program is designed as an outreach serving student-athletes throughout the Bay area. The program was created in response to the death of a San Francisco Unified School District football player in 2002. PlaySafe strives to avoid similar tragedies in the future through comprehensive screenings and medical care both on and off the field.

Services provided by PlaySafe include:

• Education – Training for coaches, parents, and officials, periodic conferences and community outreach programs, and internships for students interested in careers in sports medicine
• Sports Medicine Care – Both on-site care and coverage of sports events, as well as training room development
• Medical Screenings – Physical examinations, cardiac screenings, and wrestling weight management programs
• Referrals – Access to the UCSF sports medicine referral network, priority admittance to the sports