Category Archives: HISD: Our Story

New special education parent liaisons providing support for families

Office of Special Education Services Parent Liaison Marina Garcia (left), parent Rachel Wilson, and liaisons Benjamin Jules and Wilson Renteria.

National Parental Involvement Day is Nov. 16

When you ask Wilson Renteria to explain what it’s like to assist the families of students with special needs at HISD, he can’t help but get a little emotional.

“It’s almost an indescribable emotion to explain what it feels like to help our HISD families,” Renteria said. “To be able to serve our parents in what feels like an impossible way has been extremely rewarding.”

Renteria and two other colleagues, Marina Garcia and Benjamin Jules, serve as Office of Special Education Services Parent Liaisons, a new position that was added for the 2017-2018 school year. The liaisons provide personalized campus- and community-based services to HISD’s special needs students and their parents. Continue reading →

Achieve 180 schools using new resource for student interventions

Universal screener allows teachers to identify struggling students and provide targeted plan of action

All HISD schools are using a new resource to ensure students who need interventions in reading and/or math receive the support they need.

The resource, called a universal screener, allows teachers to measure the current skillset of a student using a brief assessment that is conducted three times per school year. The data gathered from those assessments allows teachers to identify students who need interventions, plan a course of action to target their academic needs, and monitor their progress throughout the school year.

“By using the universal screener and the immediate data it provided, we were able to start interventions week one, we didn’t have to wait,” said Lysette Cooper, principal of Cook Elementary. Cook is one of 45 schools that is part of Achieve 180, a research-based action plan to support the district’s most historically underserved and academically challenged schools. Continue reading →

HISD Board of Education approves inclusive practices for special education students

The Houston Independent School District Board of Education on Thursday approved a resolution to strengthen current services provided to HISD students with special needs to succeed in the general education classroom.

This resolution lays out a set of best practices for increasing the time that special education students spend in the general education classroom, while providing additional services and the support needed.  The district recognizes the need to raise expectations for students with disabilities and educate them in the least restrictive environment.

“As the district focuses on equity in every classroom, we understand our special needs students deserve every resource we can offer to ensure they succeed,” Superintendent Richard Carranza said.  “This resolution is a necessary next step to delivering the services they need.” Continue reading →

Achieve 180 campuses providing literacy and wraparound supports for students 

Leaders from Dogan ES and Henry MS provide progress update to board 

Students at Patrick Henry Middle School are getting intense support and specialized interventions to improve their literacy skills as part of the district’s Achieve 180 initiative. The campus has added a literacy specialist, is utilizing a universal screener to determine student reading levels, and is providing literacy report cards for every student.

“We will be having meetings for all of our parents to go over the report cards so they can understand what level their child is at,” said Principal Kenneth Brantley. “Plus we are going to provide them with free resources and things they can do at home to directly support their child in reading and writing.”  Continue reading →

HISD teachers receive Hurricane Harvey relief grants 

This week, more than 140 teachers  across the district were awarded grant money that will go toward putting classrooms back together in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

Thanks to the HISD Foundation and many philanthropists and corporations locally and nationally, nearly $178,000 was awarded to teachers in partial or full grants of up to $1,500. The grants were awarded based on need, the number of applications, and available funds.

The storm left many HISD schools across the city damaged, and many teachers had limited resources to get their classrooms back up and running before the start of school. In September, teachers were encouraged to submit an application to request funds that would cover the costs of replacing classroom supplies, technology, and other resources that were lost as a direct result of Hurricane Harvey.   Continue reading →

Special needs students return for second year of transitional work program 

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With the beginning of a new school year, there are new classes underway in HISD’s transitional programs for students with cognitive disabilities that train them to find meaningful work and sustainable life situations after graduation.

HISD students participate in classes within the community at the Houston Food Bank (HISD/H.E.A.R.T.), Houston Community College, and Texas Children’s Health Plan (Project SEARCH).

In honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, we revisited the Houston Food Bank to see how students are doing (see last year’s story here). The second-year pilot program is underway, with four students returning from last year to experience real-world employment, working 40 hours a week from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. They are responsible for finding their own rides to work, and they use METROlift or get rides from family members.  Continue reading →

Mandarin Immersion Magnet School, Sterling Aviation HS recognized for design excellence

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Two schools in the Houston Independent School District’s 2012 Bond Program received national recognition this month in Learning by Design magazine’s 2017 Awards of Excellence.

Mandarin Immersion Magnet School, which opened in August 2016, and Sterling Aviation High School, which opened in January 2017, were among just 17 schools and university facilities from across the country to receive the top designations from the magazine.

Continue reading →

‘Communities of Practice’ visits kick off at Achieve 180 campuses 

Weekly visits by district departments part of centrally provided supports

Leaders from various HISD departments visited Patrick Henry Middle School on Oct. 12 for the first “Communities of Practice” visit under Achieve 180 , the district’s plan to increase student achievement at underperforming schools.

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Achieve 180 is based on six pillars that will guide the transformative work across the district and includes centrally provided resources, support, and staffing for the 44 campuses in the program.

Each week, staff members from various HISD departments will visit a different school to tour the campus, observe classroom instruction, and view staff collaboration and instructional planning. The group then will meet to debrief what they saw and have a frank “think tank” discussion with campus and district leadership on instructional alignment at the school, teacher effectiveness, and specific problems of practice observed during the classroom visits.  Continue reading →

HISD Trustees approve policy reinforcing commitment to wraparound services

The Houston Independent School District Board of Education on Thursday approved a policy designed to reinforce the district’s commitment to providing students with wraparound services to better support their social and emotional needs outside the classroom.

The new policy – titled Student Support Services – outlines the Board’s belief that wraparound services are rooted in strong communities and directs the Superintendent to develop the framework for implementing community-based services.

The services are designed to address critical issues such as mental health, physical needs, food insecurity, violence at home, parent incarceration, and legal and crisis support. Continue reading →

Number of Family Friendly Schools more than doubles in second year of program 

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Sixty-one HISD schools took the Family and Community Empowerment (FACE) Department’s challenge to get their campus certified as a Family Friendly School for the 2016-2017 school year, and they did it.

Campuses worked diligently during this past school year to offer their families and communities research-based activities and strategies to expand and build relationships, link events to student learning, and build capacity and support efforts for family and community empowerment.  Through these efforts, schools attained one of the three Family Friendly School Certification levels:   Continue reading →