Category Archives: High Schools

Twenty-nine HISD schools awarded by TEA for top performance in 2014-2015

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.

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Sterling HS to add welding to course offerings

Sterling High School will offer a new course in its airframe engineering and design program in the 2015–2016 school year: welding.

The school is able to offer welding through a new partnership with Houston Community College. Students who successfully complete all of the necessary courses will earn a certificate as a welder’s helper. If they go on to study at Houston Community College, they will be able to take advanced welding courses there. Continue reading →

Washington HS students achieve liftoff in New Mexico

It took them five long years to do it, but the High Altitude Rocketry Team from Washington High School has finally achieved success.

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On their fifth visit to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico this July, the team managed to launch its 23-foot suborbital rocket. Continue reading →

HISD earns “Met Standard” rating from state for the 2014-2015 school year

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.

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Secondary teachers gear up for new school year at Transformation Institute

More than 2,000 teachers attend professional development focused on transforming instruction

Nearly 1,000 middle and high school teachers spent the last week of July gearing up for the start of the school year at the district’s Summer Transformation Institute—one of five professional development sessions held this summer by the Office of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction. The fifth and final Institute at Chávez High School featured sessions on the use of technology for content development and classroom instruction, as well as sessions on project-based learning, classroom management, and reading and writing workshops.

“Teachers are loving the opportunity for choice,” said Chief Secondary Curriculum and Instruction Officer Annie Wolfe. “We designed the Institute so that teachers could start off the morning with their peers in core-content areas, but then have the opportunity to choose late morning and afternoon sessions based on their skill level and needs.” Continue reading →

HISD officials attend ‘Rethink School Discipline’ gathering at White House

White House convening

From left, Shadowbriar ES Principal Mark Samuel, Davis HS Principal Julissa Alcantar-Martinez, and HISD Chief Student Support Officer Mark Smith at the White House.

HISD representatives traveled to the White House on July 22 to participate in “Rethink School Discipline,” a convening on how to improve school discipline policies and practices. HISD Chief Student Support Officer Mark Smith, Davis High School Principal Julissa Alcantar-Martinez, and Shadowbriar Elementary School Principal Mark Samuel attended the conference.

Across the country, there is concern that zero-tolerance policies in schools are resulting in more student suspensions and expulsions, which places students on the streets when they should be learning in school. According to the Civil Rights Data Collection, more than 3 million students across the country are suspended or expelled every year.

“The convening was a great starting place to discuss the need for a change to the zero-tolerance approach to discipline,” Dr. Alcantar-Martinez said. “They prompted us to re-evaluate our code of conduct and to work with students to include their insight into discipline options at all levels. We plan to share with our peers and work toward exploring alternatives that keep kids in school, thus reducing suspensions.”

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STEM fields come to life for ELL, migrant students at Rice

Twenty-eight students in HISD’s English Language Learner and migrant programs spent two weeks of their summer participating in hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities at the STEM Leadership and Design Fabrication Academy at Rice University.

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The students, who attend Austin, Chávez, Davis, Furr, Kashmere, Liberty, Lee, Sam Houston, Sharpstown, and Waltrip high schools, got a taste of what careers in a STEM-related field could be like. Continue reading →

Austin High School alumnus now gives back as a teacher

In this week’s I am HISD, which features district students, graduates, employees, and other team members, José Saenz explains why he just can’t stop coming back to his high school. Saenz attended Austin High School and participated in the school’s teaching program. He graduated in 2003, and is now a teacher there. Given the fact that he also met his wife there in the ninth grade, it is clear that for Saenz, all roads lead to Austin.

Jose Saenz

Jose Saenz

You graduated from Austin HS in 2003, and you have returned as a teacher. What did you do after graduating, and what brought you back?

I had made up my mind to become a teacher towards the end of my senior year. I began attending the University of Houston in the fall of 2003 and majored in history. I went through the education program at UH as well. Students were required to do a set number of observation hours and a semester of student teaching. I requested Austin as the location for both. Since graduating, I was very interested in coming back to Austin to teach and having the opportunity to student-teach there helped me make that decision. I felt that I could connect with the students coming from the same neighborhood and having many of the same life experiences. I began working at Austin in 2008 and even returned to UH while working in 2010 to obtain my master’s in curriculum and instruction in social studies education. Continue reading →

Museum features nine students’ artwork in teen exhibition

Artwork created by students from Carnegie Vanguard High School and the High School for Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) is on display at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston through July 19.

The museum’s Teen Council organized the exhibition, titled Perspectives 189: From the Margins, which focuses on marginalization and its personal, political, and social manifestations.

Nine HISD students created pieces that were selected for the exhibition. The following students are participating: Continue reading →

Futures Academy seniors get valuable industry experience through Walgreens internship

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Sometimes, opportunity dwells just down the street. Twenty-two rising seniors from the Futures Academy at Jane Long Academy are discovering this truth through pharmacy technician internships at Walgreens locations across the city.

The Long students involved have all taken dual-credit pharmacy classes at Houston Community College (HCC). They will receive additional credit from HCC upon completing their internships at Walgreens, which could easily lead to pharmacy technician jobs or scholarships to attend pharmacy schools. Two interns, rising seniors Marilyn Mendoza and Jonathan Urguilla, have already received job offers from the stores at which they are interning.

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