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Messages from FOTPS Supporters
"Big Thank You! I was so excited to discover your organization. As a school administrator, I am frustrated by the constant assault on educators. It is refreshing to read something that supports what I have known for years and would lecture anyone on who would listen. Thank you!"
Shannon Fisch
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
"I certainly appreciate your support of public education. In the last legislative session, teachers were treated as though they were the threat to the Texas economy."
Debbie Tribble
HEB ISD
...read more
Share your testimony with us
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Help spread the good news about Texas public education
Texas students' graduation rate soars
The Texas high school on-time graduation rate for the Class of 2010 climbed 3.7 percentage points to 84.3%. This is the highest rate posted during the TAKS-testing era. In addition to overall gains, each of the state's four major ethnic groups showed strong gains with rates for African-American and Hispanic students increasing five percentage points or more over the past year.
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Friends of Texas Public Schools Scott Milder P.O. Box 1568
Rockwall, TX 75087
smilder@fotps.org214-497-6411 |
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Texas Graduation Rates
BE PROUD is a campaign started by Texans who are fed up with the incessant, mean-spirited criticism and attacks on our public schools, most of which is leveled with flawed and corrupted data. Our public schools are achieving extraordinary results in spite of seemingly overwhelming challenges, yet those who work in our schools rarely receive praise for their hard work and accomplishments.
Friends of Texas Public Schools is proud to host this group's work, which is kicking off with a series of one-minute visualizations illustrating the real story about public school performance.Visit www.fotps.org/BEPROUD to find out more.
Click below to watch a short video about graduation rates in Texas public schools.
 | | Be Proud of Texas Graduation Rates |
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Visualization produced by Mesquite ISD
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By Daniel Pink 
One of the hottest ideas in education policy these days is tying teacher pay to student performance on standardized tests. The theory is that offering up cash bonuses will prompt unmotivated and unaccountable teachers to get their acts together and do better by our kids.
The first comprehensive study of this approach, from the Nashville public schools, showed an effect somewhere between minuscule and nonexistent. The students of incentivized teachers did no better than the students of teachers paid regular salaries.
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U.S. Education is still the best in the world
"Learning Leadership" column, January 2012 edition of eSchool News
By Daniel A. Domenech 
Defending public education in America is a daunting task. The fact that we have to defend public education in the first place is puzzling. Here we sit as the most powerful country in the world, with the largest economy, and the system responsible now and in the past for the education of close to 90 percent of our children is under attack. It makes you wonder how we ever became so prosperous.
Last year, I developed a PowerPoint presentation I named "The 95/5 Dilemma." It is available on the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) website. In it, I provide benchmark statistic after benchmark statistic that prove conclusively: America's public school system today is the best it has ever been. Graduation rates are the highest. Dropout rates are the lowest. Reading and math performances on the National Assessment of Educational
Progress are the highest. College attendance rates are the highest. The rigor of the high school curriculum
is the strongest ever.
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Ambassador Training
Congratulations to the first graduating class from Lewisville ISD.
Lewisville ISD recently wrapped up its first cohort of the Friends of Texas Public Schools Ambassador Training Academy. More than 75 Lewisville ISD educators representing every campus and department in the district completed the four-session program.
The ambassador training academy is a professional development program designed to change the conversation about Texas public schools from the inside out. It addresses attitudes and mindsets, helping each member of the profession step up as ambassadors for themselves, their classrooms, campuses, district, and their profession. It is designed to unite campus and district staff around the organization's purpose and strengthen the culture of brotherhood among those who work in the schools.
The academy prepares participants to act and communicate professionally and with heart and purpose... helping them avoid common issues rooted in ineffective communication practices that inadvertently undermine parent and public confidence in their work.
Participants learn how the power of professional unity profoundly impacts the profession and why this culture of brotherhood is an essential element of any successful organization. The forces that weaken public trust and confidence in public education are discussed, as well as strategies for restoring public pride, hope, optimism, and confidence in the profession.
Contact Leslie Milder at 214-498-7680, or lmilder@fotps.org for more information.
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