Charters and Public Schools Team Up in Texas

English teacher Cindy Rivera works with small group of student on classical mythology at Southwest High School in Pharr, Texas.

—Joel Martinez/The Texas Tribune

By Morgan Smith and Sarah Butrymowicz, Hechinger Report

It was almost lunch time on the day before Thanksgiving break, but Gustavo Corrales, a math teacher, was not ready to let his students out the door at the San Juan campus of IDEA Public Schools , a network of charter schools in the Rio Grande Valley.

“I’m not going to pass you if you don’t know what to do—but it’s not because I’m being mean. I’m not being gacho ,” he said, using a Mexican slang word for “unkind.” “It’s because I want you to learn.”

Earlier that same morning, across Highway 83 at Southwest High School in Pharr, Cindy Rivera, a language arts teacher, passed out copies of Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology” to about 18 ninth graders. “This is a college level book, guys,” she said encouragingly, introducing a unit on classical gods and goddesses. “The material is perfect for high schoolers. You love violence,...