Monthly Archives: June 2014

Thank you for using Your Voice

Thousands respond to annual district survey to offer views on rigor, safety

HISD thanks the more than 110,000 parents, students, teachers and administrators who submitted responses to the annual Your Voice district survey this year.

Although mailed results are still being tallied by RDA Group, more than 4,000 parents took the survey online, answering questions about their perceptions of rigor, consistency and safety in HISD.

Complete results of the Your Voice survey are expected to be available online by July 11. Principals and other campus decision-makers will use these survey results to help guide campus improvement plans.

Once again, thank you to all who submitted survey results. With your support and participation, we can make changes that will impact the educational future of Houston’s children.

Schools already gearing up for fall with ‘guided reading leveled bookrooms’

The summer break has just barely begun, but faculty and staff members at hundreds of schools around the Houston Independent School District are already getting a head start on the coming school year by setting up something called “leveled bookrooms” on their campuses.

The bookrooms are being stocked with some of the more than $8.5 million worth of reading materials the district purchased from Scholastic, Inc. with approval from the Board of Education. They are sorted by reading level and contain multiple copies of more than 5,000 titles in a wide variety of text types, themes, genres, topics, and content areas. The bookrooms will serve as an integral part of the Literacy By 3 (LX3) initiative by providing materials for teachers to use in guided reading exercises. The goal of LX3 to have all third-grade students reading at or above grade level by the end of the third grade.

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HISD offers free meals at more than 200 schools

The Houston Independent School District is serving free breakfasts and lunches to children ages 1-18 at more than 200 schools this summer.

Children do not need to be enrolled in summer school to participate in the program, and no paperwork, registration or proof of income is required. Adults may purchase breakfast for $2 and lunch for $3.25.

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Northeastern, Tufts students talk college experience on #EMERGEtour Day 1

Juniors and seniors in HISD’s EMERGE fellowship program got to hear firsthand Monday what attending a top-tier university is really like on the first day of a whirlwind tour of nine Northeast college and universities.

EMERGE students from 15 HISD high schools toured Tufts and Northeastern University and heard from students about what it is like to be the first in their family to go to college.

Here’s what EMERGE students thought of their initial day: Continue reading →

Video highlights how design is shaping up for new DeBakey High School

Renderings of the new DeBakey High School for Health Professions are featured in a new HISD video that highlights the planning and design of the campus.

The new facility’s transparent and collaborative design will provide students a 21st century academic experience in the heart of the Texas Medical Center. The school will be located in the medical center to better engage students in a medicine and research facility environment and provide them easy access to these resources.

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Students’ STAAR success = one shaved head for YMCPA teacher

Adrian Acosta

Adrian Acosta has been challenging his biology classes at Young Men’s Preparatory Academy for years with a singular offer: if 25 percent or more of them earn “commended” status on the annual state-mandated assessment test, he will shave his head.

Until now, he has never had to make good on that promise, but on May 29, Acosta closed his eyes, sat in a chair, and handed the clippers to a student, after learning that 14 of his students—or a whopping 41 percent of his biology class—had held up their end of the bargain.

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Helms ES fourth-grader earns perfect math score on STAAR exam

Natalie Nichols

Natalie Nichols has seen a lot of tragedy in her short life. Given up for adoption by her dying mother when she was just four years old, she lost both her mother and her younger sister in Guatemala before being adopted by a couple from the U.S.

Assimilating to life in a foreign country is a formidable task on its own, but that hasn’t stopped the plucky Helms Elementary fourth-grader from taking on additional challenges. Natalie wants to excel academically as well—and now, she has done so—earning a perfect score on the math portion of the recent STAAR exam.

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Video showcases progress on design for new Relief Elementary

HISD released a new video that shows staff, parents, and architects working together to plan the design of a new elementary school in the west Houston area that will be built to relieve crowding.

The school, known as Relief Elementary until it gets an official name, will be located on a 10-acre site on Old Farm Road near the Buffalo Bayou, less than a few blocks north of Westheimer Road between Hillcroft Street and Fondren Road. The school will be immersed in nature on a woody site that offers views of the bayou and allows learning areas such as science and art rooms to easily open to the outdoors.

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Pomp and circumstance for Class of 2014: 48 hours, 40 HISD graduations

Houston ISD’s Class of 2014 is big – the graduates attend a total of 42 high schools. In less than 48 hours between Friday and Sunday, the district held 40 graduation ceremonies.

Team HISD made sure that each ceremony was special for the graduates and their families. The district used 10 facilities across the city, including Reliant Arena, Reliant Stadium, and the George R. Brown Convention Center, to accommodate all of the celebrations.

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EMERGE students head east to tour historic colleges

Ninety-four Houston ISD juniors and seniors are touring nine historic college campuses this week, from June 1 through June 5, as part of the district’s EMERGE program for high-performing, low-income students.

Students from 15 high schools, who departed Houston early Sunday morning, are attending panel discussions, information sessions and workshops at:
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