Self-assessment identifies strengths, weaknesses in HISD’s community engagement efforts

Analysis of district’s effectiveness at communicating with stakeholders is part of new HB5 requirement

One of the requirements House Bill 5 now makes of public school districts is an annual assessment of their efforts to reach out to parents, students, employees, faith-based leaders, corporate partners, taxpayers, and any other group of community stakeholders who might have an interest in their students’ success.

This report must be complete and made available to the public no later than Aug. 8, and 2014 marked the first year that the assessment was generated in HISD.

Overall, the district received high marks for its community engagement efforts, earning “recognized” status in seven of nine categories, and “acceptable” status in the other two.

At the campus level, only eight of the district’s 282 schools ranked their efforts as “unacceptable” in any given category, with most earning “exemplary” status, and smaller numbers earning “recognized” or “acceptable.”

“The community and student engagement requirement is an opportunity for districts and campuses to showcase areas of excellence and success,” said Assistant Superintendent of Research and Accountability Carla Stevens. “It also helps us identify areas in need of improvement and set goals to bring about the changes we’d like to see.”

The assessment rubric was created using criteria developed by a committee of representatives from parent groups, teachers, students, the superintendent, local business leaders, higher education representatives, school trustees, principals, counselors, accountability and curriculum personnel, nurses, and others.

Each school was assessed by campus-based personnel, while the district as a whole was assessed by a committee of administrators from each of the indicator areas.

Click here (.pdf) to view a copy of the complete report.