21 April 2007
For the Chron, all news is not local
Yesterday an unusual item was posted in the Metro section of Chron.com: a directory, which included a listing of the Chronicle's bureaus. Of note are the Chron's international bureaus:
• Mexico City Dudley Althaus, Bureau Chief
Privada Gomez Farias 21, Col. San Angel, 01060 Mexico, D.F.• Bogotá, Colombia John Otis, Bureau Chief
E-mail: [email protected]• Europe and Middle East Gregory Katz, Bureau Chief
E-mail: [email protected]
Why in the world does the Chronicle need international bureaus? Who knows. It's certainly a waste of precious resources that would be put to much better use locally...which leads us to Banjo Jones' latest ruminations on the current state of our lone major daily paper, and its inability to keep up with some local publishing upstarts:
We've noticed recently that just cause The Chron is the only daily paper in Houston, it still gets beat to the punch by the little local freebie weeklies.
Case in point: The Examiner News that covers West University, Bellaire, River Oaks and Memorial.
The weekly, a recent acquisition of Houston Community Newspapers, employs, for the most part, young journalists freshly minted from academia who don't make much money and usually could use a shoe shine. They are so new to the business, they have yet to become disillusioned and jaded and hopelessly depressed like their older brethren.
Moreover, even though they only publish once-a-week, they still whup up on the big-swinging-weenie Chronicle on a fairly regular basis.
Here are two examples, carefully documented by our research staff:
Be sure to read the rest, and wonder along with me why our local paper is wasting money on a pathetic Washington, D.C., bureau, and three international bureaus, when much of the time it uses wire service stories anyway.
Wouldn't it be nice to see some local bureaus added?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/21/07 08:23 PM |
A little revisionist history, courtesy of Metro's Frank Wilson
Here's Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson yesterday, explaining why he delayed putting bike racks on Metro buses (via the Chronicle):
He said he had postponed installing the racks until maintenance crews could bring the aging bus fleet into better operating condition.
Er, that does sound better than Wilson's reasoning last August:
"We look at this like we look at any other expenditure of funds, an investment in service," Wilson said. "We've heard all the arguments, we've done all the research, and to summarize as best I can, we're going to spend a significant amount of money to carry very little ridership in our estimation."
Whoops!
What's even more amusing is seeing Rad Sallee's bullet-point facts in the margin:
• Cost : $1,580 per device, almost $1.3 million for the fleet of 800 buses.
• Money source : 90 percent from federal air quality funds; 10 percent from Metro funds.
Metro will pay a whopping ten percent??? That's just pocket change for Metro these days! What was Wilson griping about last year? Because we know the fed money was available then, as BikeHouston's Woody Speer (also a commenter in our forum) pointed out to Metro's Board.
At least bike riders can now say Metro followed through on a Solutions promise.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/21/07 06:59 AM |
20 April 2007
An end to the "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream?
A KTRH-740 newsbreak reported that a settlement has been reached between the city and the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation. Details are to be announced at a press conference this afternoon, according to KTRH.
A Friday afternoon press conference -- of course!
UPDATE (4:20 p.m.): The Chronicle's Melanie Markley has more:
The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation will pay the city $6 million for prime inner city property it now uses in exchange for the services it provides, city officials said today.
Mayor Bill White and officials of the facility are announcing details of the transaction, which involved 6.2 acres at Shepherd and West Dallas, during a news conference this afternoon.
Details of the deal were not immediately available, but it involves a favorable interest rate and a discounted price based on the city's declaration that the land is intended for public service rather than commercial use, according to a news release from the city.
MORE: Don't you love the wording above from the city (which I have now bolded)? It isn't hard to figure out that the "discounted price" is nowhere near as favorable as the previous arrangement, which had been honored for decades, by previous Houston mayors.
Nice going, Mayor White: You've squeezed millions of dollars from the folks who provide a service the city couldn't provide nearly as efficiently or effectively. That's quite an achievement!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/20/07 02:42 PM |
HPRA hosts Randal O'Toole today
Here are details of today's Houston Property Rights Association lunchtime meeting:
On Friday, April 20, the members and guests of the Houston Property Rights Association will assemble to hear Randal O'Toole, a nationally known critic of urban planning and urban rail systems, speak against the idea of Houston adopting a General Plan which is currently being drawn up in Houston city hall.
[snip]
Mr. O'Toole's message is that planning brings ruin to much of what is good about city life. He has launched a blog to advance his ambitious agenda for the country:
http://www.ti.org/antiplanner/?p=90
The Houston city council is moving toward creating a General Plan to impose zoning type planning restrictions on our communities that are likely to increase housing costs, taxes, and traffic congestion. Mr. O'Toole will explain exactly why Houston should not do that.
HPRA meets at noon at the Courtyard restaurant, 1885 St. James Place. Cost is $20 and includes lunch. If you attend, please let us know how it went. It sounds very interesting!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/20/07 09:44 AM |
19 April 2007
Nonprofit fears "Boot The Deaf" revenue stream is coming next
The Chronicle's Melanie Markley reports that another nonprofit organization fears the city may try to scrap longstanding legal and moral commitments in order to squeeze more money out of valuable real estate:
The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation isn't the only nonprofit that faces an uncertain future because of a 99-year lease the city now says is invalid.
Next door, the Center for Hearing and Speech shares a building with the Harris County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority on city property leased for 99 years in 1965. The building sits on a prime 3-acre tract at the corner of West Dallas and Shepherd.
Renee Davis, executive director of the center that teaches deaf children to speak without using sign language, said she has not been contacted by the city, but she worries that her facility could face the same scrutiny as the neighboring center for the mentally retarded.
Representatives of the center for the mentally retarded are in ongoing talks with the mayor's office. The city had threatened to sell the 6 acres that the center leased because the directors would not agree to pay closer to market-value rent for the land near River Oaks.
[snip]
Davis said her lease with the city sets $31,065 annual rent, which is waived if the nonprofit provides at least that much in services to the community.
Davis said her center provides more than $1 million a year in services to at least 1,000 hearing-impaired children. The center is staffed with teachers, audiologists and speech pathologists who help deaf children learn to communicate verbally.
"We believed that this was a partnership with the city," Davis said. "They would lease the land to us and we would provide very difficult kinds of services that need professional expertise for deaf children, and the taxpayers did not have to bear the burden of providing those very specialized services."
Ms. Davis described the utility of such arrangements beautifully in that last paragraph, underscoring the human/moral component of the contractual arrangement.
The following spin is just strange:
White said he wants to develop a uniform policy to reduce the risk of lawsuits against the city claiming the leases are not valid, which could disrupt the nonprofits' operations.
Huh?
Let me take a stab at parsing that: The City of Houston needs to disrupt the nonprofits' operations by breaking its longstanding legal and moral commitment to some of the weakest members of our community (people most in need of a helping hand!), in order to reduce the virtually nonexistent risk of someone other than the City of Houston suing the city, and potentially disrupting the nonprofits' operations.
Well, that certainly makes sense!
Seriously, assuming there is a legal risk of some local developer suing the city over these contractual arrangements (which have never been a problem before), in the hopes of eventually getting hold of valuable real estate -- does anyone think a local developer would go there?
Putting it slightly differently -- can you imagine the firestorm that would erupt in the local media and from bloggers (many of whom have sat this one out) if, say, Perry Homes decided to sue the city in an effort to boot the deaf and retarded and grab their land? That wouldn't fly. That's why it's a virtually nonexistent risk.
But the risk posed by the city under this mayor, for whatever reason, is real.
As we've been saying all along, Mayor White needs to back off on this one.
PREVIOUSLY: City readies "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream, "Please help save my home", If only Tilman Fertitta were on the board of directors..., Baker Botts takes on White's "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream, Former city attorney elaborates on leases, center.
BLOGVERSATION: Red Ink: Texas, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Off the Kuff.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/19/07 08:52 AM |
18 April 2007
Chron.com adds comment functionality to articles
Dwight Silverman pointed out to me earlier that Chron.com has added comment functionality to articles on the site.
That's a nice addition! Well done.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/07 10:59 PM |
Metro's installing bike racks on buses...finally
Since 2000, Metro has been dangling the promise of bike racks on buses before Houston's biking community, but never following through. Metro CEO Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson said last year that there was too little ridership to justify the cost, as if THAT'S ever been a concern of Metro's!
For some reason, Metro has now decided it can spare the funds needed to make buses more bike-rider-friendly, per this announcement on Metro's website:
METRO would like to invite all biking enthusiasts to attend a news conference and celebration for the launch of our new Bikes On Buses program. METRO will soon equip its local fleet with bike racks to help you navigate congested streets on your way to bike trails, work, school or other destinations.
Join us as we kick off this new chapter in METRO transit history.
When: Friday, April 20th
Where: 1900 Main St. (in the lobby)
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.For additional information, please contract the METRO Community Outreach Department at 713-739-4018.
Are there bike racks outside the Lee P. Brown Building, for all the riders who might show up for the big announcement?
And will Metro follow through this time?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/18/07 09:16 PM |
Chron: Freeway gunbattle ends in death
Chronicle reporters Robert Crowe and Kevin Moran report on a gun battle that took place along the Southwest Freeway yesterday:
One man was killed and at least two were wounded when rival immigrant smuggling gangs engaged in a noontime gunbattle that started on the Southwest Freeway and ended on the feeder road, police said.
Authorities suspect one gang was trying to steal a load of immigrants from the other.
"It's unknown if it was a 'coyote' operation or a rip of some sort," Sgt. C.E. Elliott of the Houston Police Department's homicide division said. " ... We're still looking at that."
Police worked into the evening in an attempt to sort out what happened at the "chaotic" scene, which also ensnared an innocent bystander, left at least one other person critically injured and tied up traffic for hours.
It was hardly the city's first smuggling-related violence. For decades, Houston has been considered a major distribution hub for human traffickers, who sometimes hold immigrants in "stash houses" while family members try to raise thousands of dollars for their release.
Last April 24, one man was wounded in a shootout at a house in northwest Houston in what federal authorities described as an apparent battle between rival smugglers over control of the immigrants. Police found 10 Mexicans, three Hondurans and two Guatemalans in a locked closet inside.
A month earlier, gunfire erupted at a southwest Houston neighborhood, and two men were wounded in an apparent turf war between rival smugglers. Twenty-one immigrants were arrested at that house.
Yesterday's Chron coverage (timestamped 5:15 PM) indicated that the Feds had not yet been called in:
A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the federal agency had not received a call from HPD asking for its involvement.
"If they call us, we will respond," said Luisa Deason, ICE spokeswoman in Houston.
Today's story indicates that the Feds have been called in:
A local spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday night that she had no information about whether smuggling was involved, but said the agency will help HPD in the case.
"They have asked us for our assistance," said Luisa Deason, ICE spokeswoman in Houston.
Mayor White and proponents of Houston's sanctuary policy have previously argued that immigration matters are a federal concern (never mind THIS non-federal, city-funded office). KTRH-740's Bill O'Neal reports today that at least one member of City Council seems tired of hearing that canard:
Speaking to that shooting, District C's Anne Clutterbuck said she has reached a very stark conclusion. "I agree with the concerns that we can no longer say it's just a federal problem."
Clutterbuck wants to open a wider discussion on what's being done at the local level to address human smuggling. "It makes people wonder how many other such crimes are taking place, how many other crimes such as this are being addressed that we may or may not know about," Clutterbuck said.
After a gun battle on one of Houston's busy freeways, you'd think it would be at least of as much concern as citywide wifi, hobo parks, renegade downtown jaywalkers, taking care of Yellow Cab, and delivering the land of nonprofit organizations to local developers.
UPDATE (04-19-2007): And now, the first linked Chron story has been completely replaced by a story by two different authors! It's so annoying when the Chronicle does that. In any case, the blockquote above is accurate. And here's an interesting blockquote from the new story:
Houston police tried to handle the immigration issue carefully on Wednesday, declining to answer even basic questions involving people smuggling in Houston.
``We're not going to get into that; it's a federal issue,'' said spokesman Victor Senties.
Obviously it's more than just "a federal issue." It's so nice when public officials stick their heads in the sand. But maybe Chief Hurtt had already retired to Arizona, and couldn't comment himself.
BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC, Blogs of War.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/07 02:51 PM |
What Yellow Cab wants, Yellow Cab usually gets (cont'd)
KHOU-11's Doug Miller shines some light on how the City of Houston bends over backwards to help out big cab companies:
Houston hasn’t handed out any new taxi licenses since 2001.
Mayor Bill White’s administration figures a city ordinance will require the city to hand out another 211 permits this year.
But city officials want to delay issuing those new permits.
Big cab companies do not want new cabs on the streets of Houston.
They argue their industry has barely recovered from the terrorist attacks of 2001.
And they contend that more cabs on the streets of Houston could actually cause a recession in the taxi industry.
“The taxicab industry, the visits to the airport, is really down. Do we really want to throw a lot of permits on them now and cause them to go down more,” said Toni Lawrence who sits on Houston’s city council.
But a lot of smaller cab operators think the city just needs to change the way it distributes permits. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re trying to monopolize the business. They’re trying to run all the mom-and-pops out.”
As we've noted previously on the little blog, what Yellow Cab wants from the Mayor, Council, and/or the Airport Director, Yellow Cab usually gets.
Hey, at least give credit to Councilmember Lawrence for admitting that the interests of the taxicab industry are of greater concern to her than, say, the public interest. And give credit to Miller for running such an illustrative quote.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/07 12:05 PM |
Beware of loon-induced traffic hazards on Southwest Freeway
The Chronicle runs a story by Eyder Peralta on liberal activists who have taken to making pests of themselves on the Southwest Freeway bridges during the evening rush hour:
Back in the day, many of the activists gathered at the Mecom Fountain, a natural place for a protest: next to a university and a park with plenty of green space.
But here they are today, gathered on the Montrose bridge over U.S. 59 South, one of the most trafficked highways in the U.S.
"I really don't know what else to do," said 60-year-old Robert Graham. "I tried writing our congressmen; I tried having candlelight vigils over at the Mecom Fountain, gone and taking over Kay Bailey Hutchinson's [sic] office. Nothing works."
So he and others stand over the freeway, holding signs about the war, about President Bush, about the environment and about the situation in the Middle East.
It's called freeway blogging, a term that emerged out of California, where protesters hung signs on overpasses and then took pictures to be posted on the Web.
In Houston, where hanging a sign is illegal, freeway blogging has turned six bridges — at Hazard, Woodhead, Dunlavy, Mandell, Graustark and Montrose streets — into Houston's premiere political forum.
"We have to stand here holding our signs," said Don Cook, who organizes anti-war protests. "And people who've seen us from down there stop by to support us or to argue with us."
Peralta's Chronicle colleague Ken Hoffman has complained about the activities in his column and on the radio several times, because of the fact that motorists tend to get distracted by the signs, creating a hazardous traffic situation. Councilmember Michael Berry hinted on one of those occasions that perhaps Council could do something to regulate the signs, on public-safety grounds.
Given the current state of first-amendment jurisprudence, it seems unlikely Council will be able to curtail these activities. And it seems just as unlikely that 60-something hippie activists are ever going to grow up. So, if you're driving on the Southwest Freeway during the evening rush hour, you might want to drive extra-defensively, since some of your fellow motorists may be watching the public spectacle above instead of the road.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/18/07 11:38 AM |
17 April 2007
New columnists on the Chron metro/state pages
With Rick Casey finally away on sabbatical, the Chronicle runs a story today by new (temporary?) columnist Lisa Falkenberg.
It's one that should have the right people at the newspaper nodding their heads in approval.
Falkenberg isn't the only new columnist who will be appearing in Casey's place for a while. Lisa Gray will be joining her. Here's the Chronicle's description:
While columnist Rick Casey is on sabbatical for the next few months, we are delighted to bring Chronicle readers two sharp new voices:
• Lisa Falkenberg, a fifth-generation Texan from Seguin who joined the Chronicle's Austin bureau in 2005, will appear on Tuesdays and Fridays. Falkenberg has worked for The Associated Press, where she was Texas AP Writer of the Year, and has covered everything from scandals in the state lottery to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
• Lisa Gray, who has been arts editor of the Chronicle since 2005, will appear on Sundays and Thursdays. Gray is a talented columnist and editor who has also worked at the Houston Press, Washington City Paper and Cite: The Architectural and Design Review of Houston.
Here's hoping we eventually get some good, gritty city writing out of the new columnists. Houston is a huge, diverse, quirky city with many stories that ought to be told, but too often with Rick Casey, we got tales from his glory days in San Antonio or tales he ripped off from the Washington Post. The two newbies could benefit from the bar being set so low!
UPDATE (04-18-2007): Today, new columnist Lisa Gray tells us that $1 million won't buy the home it once did in Houston.
Here's hoping the subject matter improves considerably from these debut efforts, or we might actually start missing The Plagiarist.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/17/07 08:25 AM |
16 April 2007
New county judge wants Grand Parkway to be completed
Rad Sallee's Q & A with Harris County's new (appointed) judge Ed Emmett contained this depressing bit of info:
Q: What projects do you especially want to push through?
A: The completion of the Grand Parkway (outer freeway loop) has got to occur, and the northeast section of Beltway 8, and the Hardy Toll Road into downtown.
That's not going to win him many votes in the Spring/Tomball area. If he even cares.
PREVIOUSLY: blogHOUSTON's Grand Parkway archives
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/16/07 08:06 PM |
Pulitzers have been awarded
This year's Pulitzer Prize winners have been announced.
The Chronicle still is Pulitzer-free, as no Chron Eyes were deemed worthy of the honor (although a Chicago Tribune series that raised questions about a death-penalty case in Texas was a finalist).
The Chron's Nick Anderson, a winner with a different newspaper, was a finalist in the editorial cartoon category.
Congratulations to the winners (and finalists)! Better luck next year to the newspapers that missed out.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, TBIFOC.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/16/07 02:46 PM |
15 April 2007
Former city attorney elaborates on leases, center
The Chronicle has published a long letter from former city attorney John Wildenthal, criticizing the White Administration's legal efforts to dishonor an agreement with the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation in order to boost local developers and city coffers.
We're reproducing it in the extended body section in its entirety, since it is likely to disappear from the Chron.com site at some point:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/07 10:29 PM |
METRO sits and spins recent news stories
Two news items this week gave METRO an opportunity to try to shape views via its $76,622 Sit and Spin blog.
As Rad Sallee reported for the Chronicle, Richmond rail opponent Daphne Scarborough has filed suit against METRO:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/07 10:13 PM |
The week: People who don't like Dan Patrick still don't
As he promised during his campaign, state senator and Houston talker Dan Patrick made news this week in the capital with his high-profile efforts to draw attention to the growth of state government.
Various lefty blogs have blasted Patrick for his theatrics, which saw the senator release a list of proposed budget cuts to the press, address his colleagues on the floor on the matter of cutting government spending, and ultimately read from his list of proposed cuts when directly challenged by a colleague to pony up.
Now, it's not exactly news that Patrick provokes strong reactions, certainly from his opponents and sometimes from supporters and colleagues (on that last, I have some experience). But that's just the point -- it's not a secret. That journalists seem surprised that Senator Patrick, whose insurgent-outsider campaign was a big story for them in 2006, has taken his insurgent-outsider approach to Austin as promised is... well, surprising!
Whether folks agree with Patrick's political philosophy or not, nobody should be surprised that instead of making quiet backroom deals to cut a few thousand dollars'-worth of spending here and there (as Hart and some lefty bloggers seem to prefer), Patrick took to the floor and the press last week to push his notion of limited-government conservatism in a high-profile, incendiary way.
This probably won't be the last time Senator Patrick upsets the Austin establishment (Democrats, press, and probably even some fellow Republicans) with his insurgent brand of conservatism -- especially since it seemed to work so well this time! We rather doubt that Patrick is overly disappointed that lefty bloggers still don't much like him, but we suspect this played pretty well in his district.
What do blogHOUSTON readers think? Specifically, I'm more interested in your thoughts on the media/blog coverage of the Patrick affair and Patrick's tactics than whether you agree/disagree with Patrick's position on budget specifics (there are many other places where that can be debated).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/07 09:29 PM |
Chron editorial raises an interesting question
Several days ago, a reader called our attention to the latest foray by the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists into international politics. In particular, this excerpt caught our reader's eye:
Zambia's 11-million population has been decimated in recent years by AIDS and drought. More than 1 million children have been orphaned, largely by AIDS; many adults are too sick to work and feed their families; and life expectancy has plummeted to 38 years, The New York Times reports. The United Nations World Food Program, which struggles to feed about half a million Zambians, is at risk of running out of food in a matter of weeks if steps are not taken to hasten delivery of rations.
Racing against time, the World Food Program appealed in February for cash donations to enable it to buy corn from Zambia itself, which had a bumper corn harvest last season, and has more than adequate supplies warehoused in Lusaka, the capital.
That would seem like a reasonable stopgap measure, but American law dictates that food donated by the United States must, with few exceptions, be grown in America and shipped to its destination, a process that can take up to six months and which adds up to one-third more to the cost. To its credit, the Bush administration has tried for three years to get the law changed, so that in emergencies up to 25 percent of the budget of its main aid program can be used to buy food in developing countries.
Our reader wondered -- and we're inclined to wonder as well -- why international donors need to buy food raised by Zambians and being warehoused by Zambians to feed Zambians. A record harvest nonetheless!
If there's a good answer that we're just missing, please feel free to comment.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/15/07 03:15 PM |
COH and Metro thank you for your support!
Via the Houston Business Journal we see that sales tax revenues are flowing in quite nicely:
Houston received a sales tax allocation of $35.7 million for April, a 13.5 percent increase over April 2006. Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority received $36.2 million, an 11.5 percent increase over the previous year, and one of the highest transit allocations for April.
So far this calendar year, sales tax allocations to local governments are up 6.4 percent.
No wonder Metro is confident enough to be venturing into the real estate market!
Meanwhile, with the city raking in lots of money and sitting on a surplus (last we heard), HPD has started a program where citizens can report petty crimes online (via KUHF-88.7):
Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt says they came up with the online reporting in an effort to save police man hours. Each report made online will save about 60 minutes of officer time.
"We think that if we can cut the number of responses to these types of reports in half, we will save about 50,000 man hours a year. Which equates to about 48 full-time employees."
That's good news for a heavily overburdened and stretched police force. Officers will no longer go to the scene, take testimony and file a report by hand.
That means on weekends Chief Hurtt will be able to keep an eye on "minor" crimes from his home in Phoenix, just by logging on. And wait 'til HPD expands the online crime reporting -- Chief Hurtt can stay in Phoenix seven days a week!
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/15/07 08:59 AM |
13 April 2007
Farewell, Ed Brandon
On the 6pm broadcast earlier, KTRK-13 had a nice farewell to longtime weatherman Ed Brandon, who closed out his career with the station tonight.
Brandon made his blogging debut as a guest on Mike McGuff's blog. Here's something that amused:
Ever tried to not think about something? If I tell you not to think about your mother, doesn't her saintly smile immediately come to mind? The subject arises as I sit here in the early morning hours of the last day of my 35 years at Channel 13. (Station big-wigs prefer that I use "brands" like "ABC13" or "Houston's News Leader." But no-one has ever asked me to tell them about my job at "Houston's News Leader." They always ask about "Channel 13.")
Ha, after 35 years, Brandon has more than earned the right to say to heck with the ABC marketing twits!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/13/07 11:10 PM |
12 April 2007
HISD officially endorses end-of-course exams over TAKS
As expected, HISD's board today voted unanimously in favor of a resolution that calls on the state legislature to end TAKS testing, and replace it with end-of-course exams.
Here is a snippet from HISD's press release on the vote:
The HISD school board unanimously approved a resolution Thursday calling for the Legislature to end the high-stakes TAKS test in high school and replace it with comprehensive “end-of-course” exams. Dr. Saavedra said students need a full, well-rounded education, and end-of-course exams could be used to better determine whether children are learning everything they need to learn.
“We urge the Legislature to take action to replace the TAKS with a strong end-of-course test system that will hold schools accountable and better show what children have learned,” Dr. Saavedra said. “A rich and varied curriculum plays a critical role in developing college- and workforce-ready students. End-of-course exams are better able to reaffirm concepts and knowledge learned in the classroom and to focus teacher efforts on subject areas that have the ability to increase student achievement.”
The resolution, in addition to calling for the replacement of TAKS at high school, calls for the Legislature to develop "a state model of accountability at all grade levels that focuses on student improvement and growth".
Earlier this week, HISD drew coverage from local television stations, the Associated Press, and even ABC's World News Tonight for its advocacy of substituting end-of-course exams for TAKS. Strangely, the Houston Chronicle chose not to cover the matter with original reporting until today, when it ran a story on the legislature's debate over the move. HISD's preference to substitute end-of-course exams for TAKS appears 17 paragraphs into the 26-paragraph story, and gets only superficial treatment.
It's not clear why the Chronicle didn't cover this local angle of the controversial TAKS debate more thoroughly. Sometimes, the Chronicle's priorities are just puzzling.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/12/07 10:49 PM |
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