Category Archives: Early Education

HIPPY program launches districtwide for 2015–2016 school year

In early October, nearly 600 families across the Houston area began receiving free lessons in their homes to prepare their children to succeed in HISD schools, before they ever set foot in a classroom.

Parents began participating in the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program, which models simple educational activities for parents to practice with their three-, four-, and five-year-old children. Forty-four HIPPY home instructors are assigned to communities across the district to enroll families and deliver the HIPPY curriculum. The one-hour weekly lessons span 30 weeks and cover early literacy skills, mathematics, science, fine and gross motor skills, and language development. Research shows that HISD kindergarten students whose parents have participated in the HIPPY program significantly outperform their peers in reading and math. Continue reading →

District IX Early Childhood Summit scheduled for Sept. 19

HISD Board of Education member Wanda Adams is partnering with the Family Learning Academy to host the District IX Early Childhood Summit on Saturday, Sept. 19.

The free event will take place at Reynolds Elementary School (9601 Rosehaven, 77051) from 8:00 a.m. until noon, and will connect families with resources to help parents engage in early childhood best practices and support students’ success.

The event will feature a panel of HISD departments, administrators, and community leaders, workshops, and a community resource fair with information for parents. District representatives will also be signing up families to participate in HISD’s HIPPY program, which provides a school-readiness program for parents of 3- to 5-year-olds in the district. Continue reading →

State grant to expand reach of home visiting program for parents of preschoolers

HISD’s Family and Community Engagement (FACE) team has been awarded a $5,880,967 state grant that will help the district significantly expand the reach of its Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program.

The five-year Texas Home Visiting Program grant, a project of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, will provide funding for the district’s Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program to support an additional 500 families with children ages three to five. The grant will also support services for parents of newborns to three-year-olds via Collaborative for Children’s Parents as Teachers program and provide funding to support Adult Education classes offered by Houston Community College for parents who wish to further their education. Continue reading →

Registration is open for Pre-K students

Give your child a head start by enrolling them in prekindergarten now.

Pre-K is just as necessary for academic success as kindergarten or first grade, according to numerous research studies. Not only will your child be more successful in school, but later on, they are more likely to graduate high school and attend college, which leads, in turn, to a well-paying job and increased earning potential.

Continue reading →

HIPPY parent turned home instructor describes experience as ‘great opportunity’

As fall approaches, the Family and Community Engagement Department is busy recruiting 15 part-time home instructors to work with the HIPPY program for the 2015–2016 school year. The program was recently awarded a $6.5 million grant from the Health and Human Services Texas Home Visiting program to expand to schools across the district, serving almost 1,400 families.

Home instructors play a vital role in delivering the program. Over 30 weeks, home instructors visit the parents of preschool-aged children, delivering research-based curriculum in reading, math, and science to ensure students are ready to start kindergarten and succeed in school. We spoke with Veronica Herrera, a former HIPPY parent turned home instructor, to find out more about the job. Continue reading →

Texas legislative session yields victories for public education

The Texas Legislature convened from January to June of 2015. More than 100 bills passed related to public education.

According to Government Relations Director Ashlea Graves, one of the biggest victories for HISD was the passage of Senate Bill 1004, which gives all school districts in Harris County the ability to work with the four community college systems operating inside its boundaries: Houston Community College, Lone Star, San Jacinto, and Lee.

Continue reading →

HISD seeking home instructors for HIPPY program

HISD’s Family and Community Engagement department is recruiting 15 part-time home instructors to work with the HIPPY program for the 2015–2016 school year.

Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a school readiness program for 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children that helps parents prepare their preschoolers for academic success. Instructors visit parents in their homes for an hour a week over a 30-week period during the school year, and model research-based learning activities designed to help Pre-K children develop skills in reading, math, and science. Parents then practice the activities with their children over the week until they learn a new activity during the next lesson. Children whose parents participate in the program consistently outperform their peers in reading and math in kindergarten and first grade. Continue reading →

Books Between Kids expands its efforts to include Pre-K students

Children at five HISD early childhood centers to receive free books for summer reading

Pre-kindergarten students at Gabriela Mistral Early Childhood Center giggled with happiness as they picked out books to keep for their very own.

The children were digging through some of the 2,000 gently used books donated to that campus by Books Between Kids, so that each child could take home six books to start their at-home libraries. Continue reading →

Mobile literacy outreach program helps foster love of reading

Bess the Book Bus, a national mobile literacy outreach program, stopped in Houston recently to promote literacy and share a little story time with HISD students.

A student at Barrick ES shows off her selection. Photos courtesy Anthony Amirante.

A student at Barrick ES shows off her selection. Photos courtesy Anthony Amirante.

The bus, which makes its way across the U.S. every year, visited Barrick and Grissom Elementary schools on April 22. Jennifer Frances, the bus’ founder, read aloud to students at Grissom, and afterwards the children got to explore the bus and pick out a book to keep. More than 430 Pre-K and kindergarten students received a free book that day to start their at-home libraries.

“Many of our students come from low-income homes where books—particularly children’s books—are considered a luxury,” said HISD Literacy Director Cindy Puryear. “So it’s really exciting when children get to have a book of their very own to keep, especially when it’s one that they picked out themselves. We are very grateful to organizations like Bess the Book Bus for giving our students this experience.”

Bess the Book Bus is dedicated to sharing the joy of reading with underprivileged children. It was founded in Tampa, Fla., in 2002, and named in honor of Frances’ grandmother, Bess. The bus has traveled to all 48 contiguous states in the U.S. and is funded solely by generous donors, including CITGO Petroleum, which offsets the cost of gasoline.

In 2015, Bess the Book Bus served more than 25,000 kids in 25 states.

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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