Category Archives: District VII – Bridget Wade

Student Congress using literacy to cultivate readers, leaders

Students from North Houston Early College High School read to second-graders at Roosevelt Elementary School.

Students from North Houston Early College High School read to second-graders at Roosevelt Elementary School.

Literacy is so important to HISD’s newly formed Student Congress that the organization has already created its own mentoring program.

“Bring a Book” got its start last September, when Congress members began brainstorming ideas for possible service projects. After agreeing to focus on literacy, the group decided to pair high-school students with second-graders to develop the younger children’s reading comprehension skills.

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Scholars Banquet recognizes 90-plus high school seniors at top of their class

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The Houston Independent School District paid tribute to the top students from each high school’s graduating class during the annual Scholars Banquet on April 7.

In addition to their outstanding academic achievements, these 96 valedictorians and salutatorians have garnered more than $2 million year-to-date in scholarship and financial aid offers.

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Interactive bus to help students learn more about health, science, tech careers

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HISD’s completely revamped career bus is hitting the road.

The district’s Career Readiness Department unveiled the newly remodeled vehicle—known as the Career Ready Wagon—on March 26, when it made its inaugural visit to Atherton Elementary School.

The bus is designed to allow elementary school students in third, fourth, and fifth grades the chance to explore possible career interests before advancing to middle school. It features a robotics station, a flight simulator, and a welding simulator, as well as an electric station that allows students to build their own electrical circuits. Also inside are four touchscreen monitors where students can test their career knowledge with a short quiz and watch a career-related video.

The bus will visit another 10 elementary schools — Anderson, Dávila, Emerson, Field, Garcia, Helms, Jefferson, Mading, Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School, and T.H. Rogers — throughout April and May.

The bus is sponsored by HISD and CenterPoint Energy.

Also see this related story on HISD’s one and only Career Cowboy, Jake Breier, who was the subject of an “I Am HISD” profile last October.

Thousands of students taking advantage of STAAR EOC tutorials

Last week, HISD announced it had created online tutorials for the five State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) end-of-course (EOC) exams that every student must pass in order to graduate.

More than 33,000 high school students have already taken advantage of this valuable resource, with most (about 40 percent of that figure) using the tutorials to prepare for the English I and English II exams, which are scheduled for next week.

A number of forward-thinking students have also been using the STAAR EOC tutorials in biology (5,180), algebra I (8,870), and U.S. history (5,891), although those exams will not take place until the beginning of May.

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Contractor for Waltrip and Lee high schools holds pre-bid meeting

Satterfield & Pontikes this week held a pre-bid conference for sub-contractors interested in submitting proposals to work on building projects at Waltrip and Lee High Schools. The construction firm is the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) for the two schools and hosted the standing-room-only meeting to provide an opportunity for contractors to hear an overview of the projects and ask questions before submitting bids.

“We’re really pleased with the turnout,” said David Webb, Satterfield and Pontikes’ chief estimator. “We want to take as many bids as possible back to the district.”

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Construction ramps up at Sterling HS and other Group 1 schools

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The building site at Sterling High School is buzzing with activity these days as construction is progressing on the school’s new 21st century building.

To date, the drilled foundation piers are 95% complete; the underground electrical, plumbing, storm and sanitary sewer installation is in progress; and the building pad is complete and ready for concrete to be poured in the coming weeks.

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St. George Place featured in governor’s new video

When Gov. Greg Abbott outlines his emergency items as governor in a new video, early education takes the top spot, along with one of HISD’s elementary schools. Abbott toured pre-K, kindergarten, and first-grade classrooms at the School at St. George Place on Feb. 26, 2015, and met with district leaders afterward. Read more about his proposal to allocate $200 million to fund half-day pre-K programs throughout Texas here.

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Middle school girls get hands-on introduction to STEM careers

EYH 2015

Students from Burbank MS had a blast at the Expanding Your Horizons conference.

Hundreds of HISD middle school girls spent Sat., Feb. 21, learning about math and science careers at the Expanding Your Horizons conference.

Female professionals talked to students from Black, Burbank, Grady, Henry and Revere middle schools, and the Baylor College of Medicine Academy about a variety of STEM careers. The students worked with a 3-D printer, learned about storing DNA, created cement, and developed butterfly gardens.

The West Harris County Branch of the American Association of University Women hosted the conference.

HISD teams see district basketball playoff action

Teams from 12 Houston ISD high schools — including last year’s state champion Yates HS — launch district basketball playoffs this week.

North Forest, Sharpstown, Madison, and Sterling all have their first games Monday, with Yates, Sam Houston, Bellaire, Lamar, Westside, Scarborough, Worthing, and Wheatley seeing action Tuesday.

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