HPPY BDAY ;)

Text messaging celebrates its 20th birthday, but is it already facing techextinction?

Texting turns 20 years old!!
The Orbitel 901 in all its glory.
WUSA 9/Facebook

It was 20 years ago today when one man single-handedly changed the course of spelling forever . . . and sent the first text message.

Without the aid of emoticons or Internet slang, 22-year-old London engineer Neil Papworth bravely texted the words "Merry Christmas" on Dec. 3, 1992 to a colleague across town at a holiday party.

Without t he aid of emoticons or Internet slang, 22-year-old Neil Papworth bravely texted the words "Merry Christmas" on Dec. 3, 1992.

Texting was no small feat back then, of course.

Working as a researcher for cellular giant Vodafone, Papworth punched out those famous 15 characters on a big desktop computer. On the other end, his friend received the message with an Orbitel 901 — a handheld mobile device roughly the size of today's office telephones (see image to right).

"For me it was just another day's testing, it didn't seem to be anything big at the time," Papworth tells ABC News.

The fact that cell phones in 1992 couldn't yet send reply messages certainly took the fun out of the now-monumental Christmas greeting. The team would have to wait another year for tech firms to catch up with phones featuring text capabilities.

"Years went on and people were able to start to send text messages," the engineer explained. "It took quite a few years for it to take off, but by the 10th anniversary it was fairly big by then."

Yet, as popular as texts have become in the 21st century — an estimated six trillion are sent each year — a recent study cited by the New York Times is already marking the end of texting as we know it.

The culprit? Smartphones integrated with email, social media and instant messaging . . . options that are not only free, but include that all-important spell check to make sure those Saturday night texts are at least vaguely coherent.

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quality education

This Houston K-8 school ranks No. 1 in Texas for 2027, per U.S. News

Spring Branch Academic Institute students

sbai.springbranchisd.com/

Spring Branch Academic Institute is the No. 1 best K-8 school in Texas, according to U.S. News.

U.S. News and World Report's new list of ranking the best K-8 schools in Texas for 2027 has hailed one Houston ISD school — Spring Branch Academic Institute — the No. 1 best elementary and middle school statewide.

In all, 12 Houston-area elementary and middle schools were named among the top 25 most brilliant beacons of Texas early education in U.S. News' annual Best Elementary and Middle Schools rankings.

Over 70,000 public schools were analyzed on the state and district level using publicly available data from the U.S. Department of Education. Schools were analyzed based on students' proficiency in mathematics and reading while accounting "for student background and absolute performance on state assessments." To break ties in overall scores, schools with a lower student-teacher ratio prevailed.

"By incorporating direct state data across all proficiency levels, the 2027 rankings offer a richer, more complete picture of how elementary and middle schools are driving student growth," said Eric Brooks, U.S. News director of education data analysis. "This refined approach gives families, educators and community leaders an even clearer view of academic achievement, helping them identify standard-setting schools and support continued success for all students."

Spring Branch Academic Institute made its debut this year after being unranked last year. According to its U.S. News profile, the school has a 5 to 1 student-teacher ratio, and 100 percent of students scored at or above the proficient level in both math and reading.

"Spring Branch Academic Institute did better in math and better in reading in this metric compared with students across the state," the profile said. "In Texas, 52 percent of students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 42 percent tested at or above that level for math."

SBAI and T. H. Rogers School in Houston ISD were the only two local schools that ranked among the statewide top 10 elementary schools for 2027. T. H. Rogers School ranked as the No. 4 best elementary school in Texas this year, up from its previous No. 13 rank last year, and it ranked No. 5 among the best Texas middle schools.

The other Houston-area schools that appeared among the top 25 best elementary schools in Texas include:

No. 14 – Creekside Forest Elementary, Tomball ISD (down from No. 7 last year)
No. 15 – West University Elementary, Houston ISD (up from No. 28 last year)
No. 19 – Stafford STEM Magnet Academy (down from No. 16 last year)
No. 21 – Commonwealth Elementary, Fort Bend ISD (down from No. 9 last year)

Among the best middle schools in Texas, two Houston schools ranked among the top 10: Cornerstone Academy in Spring Branch ISD (No. 7), which ranked six spots higher than it did the previous year, and Houston ISD's Briarmeadow Charter School (No. 10).

Five more Houston-area middle schools ranked among Texas' top 25 for 2027:

No. 13 – Fort Settlement Middle School, Fort Bend ISD (up from No. 20 last year)
No. 15 – Stafford STEM Magnet Academy (down from No. 12 last year)
No. 18 – Seven Lakes Junior High School, Katy ISD (up from No. 19 last year)
No. 19 – Beckendorff Junior High School, Katy ISD (up from No. 31 last year)
No. 24 – Memorial Middle School, Spring Branch ISD (up from No. 40 last year)

Three local schools that previously ranked in the top 25 last year but have since dropped in the 2027 rankings are: Houston ISD's Mandarin Immerson Magnet School (No. 30, down from No. 18); Houston Gateway Academy - Coral Campus (No. 70, down from No. 21); and Smith Middle School in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD (No. 53, down from No. 22).

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