Campus principals face unique challenges, as they balance running a school while making sure the needs of their teachers and students are being met.
That’s why HISD has all new principals attending the annual New Leaders Institute (NLI), a 10-day intensive training event that gives them many of the tools and resources they’ll need to hit the ground running when the 2016-2017 school year begins. The NLI started July 6 and wraps up on Thursday, July 21. Continue reading
Make your voice heard regarding STAAR testing, school ratings, and other state accountability programs.
The State Board of Education has launched an online survey to get public feedback, concerns, and suggestions on the state’s current programs.
The survey is available in English here and in Spanish here through June 30.
HISD students in grades 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10 will be taking portions of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) beginning Tuesday, March 29.
Students in grades 4 and 7 will be taking the writing portion, while students in grades 5 and 8 will be taking the math and reading portions. High-school students who are either currently enrolled in or have completed English I or II will also be taking the end-of-course (EOC) exams associated with those subjects.
The first spring test administration concludes on Friday, April 1. Additional testing will take place in May and July.
Questions? Visit HISD’s updated STAAR website, which has a list of FAQ, a complete schedule of spring testing dates, and other resources.
Last April, HISD’s Board of Education voted to accept $8.5 million in grants to support the district’s college readiness programs. One of the initiatives those funds made possible was the creation of a 28-person corps of college success advisors, whose ambitious goal is to boost college application, attendance, and completion rates among HISD graduates.
After just one semester of having the corps in place, HISD is already seeing a significant increase in the number of students applying to college — and that has caught the attention of local news media.
The corps’ success is the subject of a Jan. 22 article on Houston Public Media’s website, in which reporter Laura Isensee notes the district’s college application rate has jumped the most among Hispanic students.
“The program so far is making a pretty significant difference,” said Ruth Lopez Turley, a Rice University professor quoted in the article.
Click here to read the full story.
Campuses receive every distinction designation available from the state.
Twenty-nine schools from across the Houston Independent School District earned the maximum number of distinction designations from the state for their top performance throughout the 2014-2015 school year.
The campuses – 17 elementary schools, six middle schools and six high schools – earned every distinction designation awarded by the Texas Education Agency. Schools are eligible for distinctions if they are rated as having “Met Standard” — the highest rating under the state accountability system — and meet various other performance standards.
Almost 80 percent of HISD campuses also receive “Met Standard” designation.
The Houston Independent School District earned an overall “Met Standard” rating, according to 2015 state accountability data released Friday by the Texas Education Agency.
The district received the rating — the highest offered under the state’s current accountability system — despite increasing performance targets on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, test.
HISD’s Office of the Controller has won the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting award for the 40th consecutive year.
The district received the award for the exemplary quality of its comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR). The certificate is considered the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting. Continue reading
Fostering a culture of respect among the city’s youth has long been a consideration of HISD. In 2006, the district strengthened its Code of Student Conduct to reflect more severe penalties for bullying, and in 2008, the Board of Education expanded its definition of bullying to include comments or teasing about a child’s weight.
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Now, the district has taken steps to protect the emotional and physical well-being of its adult team members, by passing one of the first comprehensive anti-bullying policies in the nation for public school employees. Continue reading
Thousands respond to annual district survey to offer views on rigor, safety
HISD thanks the more than 110,000 parents, students, teachers and administrators who submitted responses to the annual Your Voice district survey this year.
Although mailed results are still being tallied by RDA Group, more than 4,000 parents took the survey online, answering questions about their perceptions of rigor, consistency and safety in HISD.
Complete results of the Your Voice survey are expected to be available online by July 11. Principals and other campus decision-makers will use these survey results to help guide campus improvement plans.
Once again, thank you to all who submitted survey results. With your support and participation, we can make changes that will impact the educational future of Houston’s children.
It’s that time of year when parents and students may be concerned about whether they have met requirements to advance to the next grade, and HISD is making promotion standards – as well as a series of frequently asked questions – easily accessible to find answers.
In addition to appearing here, the standards can be located on each school website, in the Student Requirements section of this www.houstonisd.org website, and on the Plan Your Path web section that addresses overall education planning and requirements for graduation. The FAQs are available in the Student Requirements section and on the Plan Your Path area, by clicking the Questions bar.
Here are HISD promotion standards:
| Grade Level | Promotion Standards |
| 1 and 2 |
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| 3, 4 and 5 |
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| 6, 7 and 8 |
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| 9 – 12 |
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*Sufficient attendance: A student’s total number of unexcused absences cannot exceed 10% of class meetings.