Author Archives: HISD Communications

Liberal arts colleges are focus of #EMERGEtour Day 3

Day 3 of four-day tour by HISD EMERGE students highlighted three of the northeast’s strongest liberal arts schools — Brandeis, Clark, and Boston College. The two private colleges and one private university consistently rank high on various higher education listings, including U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges.

The #EMERGEtour is taking more than 95 students from 15 HISD high schools to nine top-tier university campuses this week.

Here are the students’ impressions of tour Day 3, in their own words: Continue reading →

Burbank MS student named national finalist in ‘Do the Write Thing Challenge’

Fatima Menendez

Burbank Middle School student Fatima Menendez has her own ideas about what violence means.

“It’s everything from being impatient in morning traffic, [to] talking back to your elders, and not knowing how to simply apologize,” she says in an essay she submitted to the Do the Write Thing Challenge essay contest.

But the eighth-grader understands the importance of resisting the urge to lash out physically. “Violence is…like poison, it dominates and destroys,” she writes. “We are the United States of America, [and] we need to live up to that name. Stereotypes keep us from flipping the page and seeing past the cover and into the content. We need to looking past stereotypes and really…understand each other.” Continue reading →

Ortíz MS campus leader named regional Principal of the Year by TASSP

(Houston Independent School District)

Noelia Longoria

Noelia Longoria, who is one of HISD’s Principals of the Year for 2014, is now one step closer to being recognized at the state level for her exemplary campus leadership, after recently being named the Region 4 Principal of the Year by the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals (TASSP).

Longoria, who has led Ortíz Middle School since 2009, is a veteran educator with more than 30 years’ of experience. She serves as the lead principal for two other campuses, and her school was one of those selected to showcase the district’s best practices during the Broad Prize selection committee’s site visit in 2012. Continue reading →

HISD librarians code for literacy at ‘hackathon’

HISD librarians are participating in a new twist on the usual computer codefest this Saturday, from 12-7 p.m. when they take part in a “literacy hackathon” at the Houston Public Library.

At least six librarians, representing Lovett ES, Colter ES, Bonner ES, Scroggins ES, Johnston Middle School and the Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion School, have signed up to participate in Literacy Hack – a free, collaborative event where designers, writers, educators, software developers and other citizens work together on projects to help the literacy community. The event is sponsored by the Houston Center for Literacy.
Continue reading →

Children’s book inspires River Oaks ES teacher’s trip to Japan

Each year, students in Pia De Leon’s fourth-grade class at River Oaks Elementary School study Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, a children’s book about a girl who died from leukemia as a result of radiation poisoning during World War II.

This summer, De Leon will be traveling to the very Japanese city in which that story is set, Hiroshima, where she will visit the Children’s Peace Memorial in honor of the child for whom the book was named, Sadako Sasaki.
Continue reading →

Computer simulation is helping teachers refine instructional methods

Teachers at eight different HISD schools have been spending more time with avatars this spring—but it’s not because they’re playing on FarmVille, The Sims, or Second Life.

Instead, these educators have been fine-tuning their instructional skills using TeachLivE, a pilot program in which flesh-and-blood teachers deliver actual lessons to virtual students in a computer-simulated classroom. The students are programmed to respond in real time to the actions of the teacher, so instructors can identify ways to improve their lessons almost immediately.
Continue reading →

HISD honored by Texas Comptroller’s office for financial transparency

District recognized for participation in budget awards program

On the eve of one its busiest times in the annual budget process, Houston Independent School District’s financial team has secured two key awards. The team which is led by CFO Ken Huewitt and is currently preparing the district’s 2014-2015 budget proposal, earned one of the state’s highest awards for financial transparency. The team was also recognized for its long-term participation in a budget awards program. Continue reading →

EMERGE students tour nine top-tier universities in four days

In what can be described as a super-charged dose of college “realness,” EMERGE students from 15 HISD high schools completed a whirlwind tour of some of the top colleges and universities in the nation in only four days, from June 1-4. More than 80 sophomores and juniors toured Tufts, Harvard, MIT, Clark, Brandeis, Stonehill, Brown, Boston College and Northeastern University, talked to current students and found out what it takes to get in…and stay in.

Students, many of whom will be the first in their family to attend college or university, had the chance to eat in the dining halls with current Ivy Leaguers, attend panels on subjects such the role of cultural centers on academic success, and even engage in time-honored traditions such as “painting the cannon” at Tufts University. They also received advice from current students and admissions counselors on financial aid and the affordability of higher education.

More importantly, the trip gave many high-schoolers a renewed sense of purpose. “Knowing that I have a real chance of attending one of these amazing schools, such as Harvard or Tufts, has created a sense a hope that I didn’t have three days ago,” said junior Giovanna DeLeon. “Realizing that our economic background is not something that needs to define us or whether or not we should or can go to college is powerful.”

The EMERGE program encourages and prepares talented HISD students from underserved communities to successfully attend and graduate from Ivy League and other top-tier colleges.

HISD will soon be launching an EMERGE blog to highlight these students’ journeys throughout the next year. In the meantime, you can read the first few entries from Day 1 and Day 2, and visit the HISD News blog at https://blogs.houstonisd.org/news/ for regular updates. You can also follow the students on Twitter using the hashtag #EMERGETour.

HISD TAKS recovery program aims to help students earn overdue HS diplomas

The search is on for 1,200 current and former HISD students who may be just one test short of earning their high school diplomas to take advantage of a free, drop-in program that could help them earn that valuable document.

All HISD high schools are offering teacher-conducted tutoring for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test that will be administered July 7, and HISD will also offer the coaching at three city of Houston Multi-Service Center sites. This second-chance program will be held from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, June 9-July 3, but special hours may be arranged. No advance enrollment is required for the scheduled sessions.
Continue reading →