As we all know, Hurricane Harvey had a devastating impact on our communities. Houston’s students, parents, teachers, and staff were impacted in one way or another, and the effect on classroom performance has yet to be determined. We’ve worked hard to fill the gaps and make the 2017-2018 school year as normal as possible, but many factors are simply out of our control.

This is the first week of STAAR testing statewide. The Texas Education Agency has not informed school districts of the cut scores or “goal post” of student achievement in the new accountability system. In addition, we learned this week that the TEA will announce in June how they will respond to Harvey-affected school districts for accountability purposes.

We need your help asking TEA for a one-year pause on accountability ratings and sanctions post-Harvey for all districts in the governor’s disaster-declared areas.

We have created the #HISDStrong Toolkit for you to contact the governor and TEA officials, along with key state leaders. We hope you utilize this toolkit to reach out to state leaders via email, regular mail, or Twitter. It is a guide to help you and others effectively ask our state leaders for a one-year pause in state accountability and reprieve from state sanctions.

We are not afraid of accountability. But our children deserve relief as our communities still recover from one of the worst floods in American history. In addition, the state did a one-year pause after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike.

We cannot successfully impact the policy decisions of our elected and appointed leaders without the support of our communities. They need to hear from you.  Your voice moves the needle.

We are #HoustonStrong and #HISDStrong because of your support. There is no greater tool for effecting change than the unified voice of a community.

For a digital version of the toolkit, visit HoustonISD.org/HISDStrong.

For a downloadable version of the toolkit, click here.