Education

The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education (TCLEOSE) is creating the Texas School Marshal Program that passed during the past legislative session, but there is an issue with where the marshals will get their training.

The law takes effect in Sept. for the start of the school year, but TCLEOSE has until Jan. 1, 2014, to finalize the curriculum and find a series of locations willing to teach the course.

Starting this year, all freshmen at San Antonio ISD's Highlands High School will learn how to code computer systems, the first program of its kind in Texas.

The web-based program that Highland is using is called CodeHS, but anyone can sign up to learn to code from home for a monthly access fee. Outside of the basic curriculum, the 400 incoming freshmen at Highlands will be required to take a course to learn the basics of coding.

A political nonprofit has filed a petition with the state alleging that creationists on the State Board of Education are planning to adopt textbooks that discount the theory of evolution.

Creationists believe that everything on Earth and in the universe was created by a supreme being.

The state has released this year’s school accountability ratings under the agency’s new rating system, which show 84 percent of all individual campuses and charter schools "met standard."

The new school accountability system, which was passed by the Texas Legislature during the regular session earlier this year, was designed to make it easier for parents to understand how each school district and individual campuses measured up.

San Antonio school districts taking part in the early education measure known as Pre-K 4 SA have until Friday to submit the names of the children who will attend classes.

Deputy City Manager Peter Zanoni credited the districts for their expertise in enrolling kids. Many of the districts are also concurrently enrolling children for their own pre-K programs.

He said Pre-K 4 SA needs to finalize its enrollment list to get ready for the first day, which is Aug. 26.

Texas State School Board Member Thomas Ratliff, who is a Republican, has answered the challenge from Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, agreeing to debate alleged problems with CSCOPE lesson plans.

CSCOPE is an online curriculum provider developed by the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative that was providing lesson plan resources for 877 school districts in Texas.

The Pre-K 4 SA master teachers and teaching assistants are hard at work training as the first day of school quickly approaches on Aug. 26.

The training this week consists of team building, social and emotional development in young children and building mathematical thinking.

At the Southside model education center, located at 2535 SE Military Drive, teachers got instructions on topics from dress code to keeping children engaged.

Amber Watson is a teacher's assistant who is going to school to be a kindergarten teacher.

The North East Independent School District’s Police Chief has resigned amid allegations of inappropriate sexual comments to his officers.

North East’s 59-year-old Police Chief, George Castaneda, resigned on Tuesday citing health concerns. His self-termination came shortly after one of his male officers brought forward allegations last week that the chief had made inappropriate comments on two separate occasions.

UTSA’s College of Business has been named the lead sponsor of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs Conference planned for San Antonio this year. 

The partnership will help attract top academic and professional talent to the national conference.

Gerry Sanders, dean of the UTSA College of Business, says the lead sponsorship for the 2013 conference offers UTSA the opportunity to showcase the school’s students to top national employers, and to build on current employer relationships.

A recent high-school graduate enrolled at Palo Alto College will be getting word Wednesday of a 4-year, full-ride scholarship.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas, Inc., will present the scholarship in support of STEM education.

Toyota and other manufacturers have partnered with the Alamo Colleges to educate students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, and to train them to work in their plants assembling products from trucks to solar panels.

This time, Toyota is focusing its energy on those who teach STEM courses.