Just as the initial group of Teach Forward Houston fellows successfully finished its first year at University of Houston, the HISD Board of Education approved a second group at its June 8 board meeting.

A new group of graduating HISD seniors are just now being notified of their acceptance into the program. The second cohort is a strong group and includes salutatorians from Liberty and Worthing high schools. They will attend a Summer Bridge program at UH in late July. Their names and high schools are listed below.

Teach Forward Houston is a partnership between HISD and the University of Houston in which district graduates enroll in a teacher preparation program with $20,000 in free tuition over four years. In return, the students pledge to teach in HISD for four years after graduation. The program is specifically designed to equip teachers with the skills they need to be successful in large diverse urban school districts like HISD. In addition, students receive additional professional development and internship opportunities, as well as coaching and mentoring throughout the fellowship.

Many of the first cohort of students are acting as tutors this summer at Holland Middle School. TFH Fellow Laura Martinez is returning to Westbury for her summer internship, thanks to an ongoing relationship with campus leaders.

Key academic highlights regarding the current 51 TFH Fellows include 13 making Dean’s List in the fall semester and 12 in the spring semester. Fellows are expected to complete 30 credit hours by the end of the summer, and so far they have completed 1,324 credit hours. All but a handful have scored a GPA of between 2.5 and 4.0.