Thousands of ninth-graders across HISD began taking the PSAT college-readiness exam this fall as a part of the “PSAT for All” initiative.
Launched in 2003, the program was originally designed to give all tenth-graders a chance to take the test for free. It was expanded in 2010 to include all ninth-graders. All test administration fees are paid for by the district.
Programs such as HISD’s ASPIRE program improve teacher attendance, retention and increased students’ test scores, according to a study released by Rice University.
The study evaluated award-eligible teachers from HISD’s 279 schools to determine if receiving a monetary reward during the 2009-2010 school year positively influenced teacher outcomes in 2010-2011, according to a news release.
The complete report is available on the website for Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
The ASPIRE program (Accelerating Student Progress: Increasing Results and Expectations) began during the 2006-07 school year.
New exams measure whether students are on track for college and career readiness
Most Houston ISD students who took the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) in grades 3-8 for the first time in 2011-2012 met the tougher academic challenge.
The Texas Education Agency released the STAAR passing rates by grade level and subject nearly a year after students took the tests during the 2011-2012 school year. Because this was the first time students were tested under the new STAAR system, the state will not use these scores to rate schools and they were not used for student grade-level promotion decisions last summer.
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June 28, 2012 – Houston ISD students this year matched or beat the average scores posted by students across the nation on the Stanford and Aprenda exams in reading, math, science, and language, according to data released Wednesday.
Forty-seven percent of HISD’s students exceeded the average national score in the fifth tested subject, social science. Texas school districts are not required to administer the Stanford and Spanish-language Aprenda exams, but HISD does so to track how students compare to the rest of the country.
HISD students in grades 1-8 took the exams this spring. The number of students exceeding the national average increased from the 2010-2011 school year in the subjects of reading (50 percent) and language (53 percent). However, the percentage of HISD students scoring above the national average in math (61 percent) and social science declined (47 percent). The percentage of students scoring above the national average in science was unchanged (63 percent). HISD scores in all five subjects are higher than they were in 2009.