Campus leaders from HISD’s Burbank Middle School will be sharing the wisdom of their experiences with hundreds of other educators at the Texas Alliance of Black School Educators’ Demonstration Schools Symposium on Feb. 27.

The campus is one of only eight from across the state that will present some of its best practices at the event. Burbank was selected in part because of its success in closing the achievement gap. The school matched or beat both the district’s and the state’s averages on all students’ reading and math scores in every grade on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) in 2013–2014.

Principal Rosa Hernandez cites weekly “learning walks” (or classroom walk-throughs), regular positive coaching, a summer leadership conference, and the use of data to drive instruction as some of the factors that have contributed to her school’s success.

“I strongly believe that instructional consistency counts, and it’s the key to student and teacher success,” said Hernandez. “We believe in achieving success as a team—110 percent, no excuses. At Burbank, we make a schoolwide commitment to high expectations every day, every period, and every minute we are with the students. We want to be known as a school that demonstrates and promotes instructional excellence, systematic interventions, and positive learning opportunities and experiences for all students.”