The new head of Special Education, Tanya Browne, has come full circle in her career. The journalist-turned-educator started out in a Dallas ISD classroom in 1993. She later became a dean and associate principal before joining the Special Education department, first as supervisor of secondary programs and then director of curriculum and instruction. Following a stint as special ed chief in Austin ISD, she’s back home and looking forward to making a good program even better. One goal: ensuring that special education students share in the everyday school activities that make learning fun. “The district is making great strides in…

One thing Matthew Adesanya has learned from his eighth-grade Physics students at Fred F. Florence Middle School is that time flies when he’s trying to get them to complete an activity. “You give them 5 minutes to do something, and it takes 20,” Adesanya laughed. There were several times students needed refocusing, and he would belt out “Attention!” followed by a series of instructions. At the beginning of a recent class, the students were calculating velocity using a complex algebraic formula. The subject matter itself presents another hurdle: he estimates that about 70 percent of the students have yet to…

Dallas ISD is hosting upcoming meetings to discuss the proposed bond. If approved, the bond proposal is not expected to raise tax rates and the bonds proceeds would fund several new schools and a variety of school and facility improvements that support academic programs. Here are the scheduled upcoming meetings: October 5, 2015 Hillcrest High School 9924 Hillcrest Road Dallas, Texas 75230 6 p.m. Trustee District 2 October 7, 2015 W.H. Adamson High School 309 E. Ninth Street Dallas, Texas 75203 6 p.m. Trustee District 7 October 14, 2015 Francisco F. Pancho Medrano Middle School 9815 Brockbank Dallas, Texas 75220…

When the slide declaring Harry Stone Montessori and IB World School as a National Blue Ribbon School appeared on the screen, the 6th-8th graders in the auditorium erupted in cheers and applause. Meanwhile, teachers and students over at Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School at Mountain View College celebrated their school’s Blue Ribbon status by dancing with the school’s mascot and waving pom poms in the air. The festivities on Tuesday were well-deserved: by being named 2015 National Blue Ribbon Schools, Harry Stone and Garza ECHS earn one of the most prestigious recognitions in education. The National Blue Ribbon…