As more than 210,000 students head to the first day of the school year today, there’s a lot that’s new awaiting them.
- All elementary students will jump into Literacy By 3, finding more books than ever in their classrooms and schools to accompany the district’s new reading movement.
- Fourteen elementary schools will become dual-language campuses, making sure their students are bilingual and biliterate. Superintendent Terry Grier is planning to visit Shearn Elementary, one of the new dual-language schools, in the morning.
- Eight high schools and their 32 feeder campuses are launching the district’s new Linked Learning approach that will blend college and career readiness from K-12th grades.
- Two new high schools, the Middle College High Schools, will open on Houston Community College Gulfton and Fraga campuses. Jones High School will open Futures Academy programs in construction and health professions, and Westbury HS will become HISD’s first campus to adopt a rigorous Advanced Placement (AP) focus.
Weather forecasters are warning that this will be the first 100-degree day of the year, with temperatures peaking mid- to late afternoon, and that there is the possibility of air quality alerts.