For Alvin Gibson, right, and Deshaun James, left, Literacy in the Middle is giving them voice and choice — plus a little friendly competition. More than half a million books were distributed to HISD middle schools to stock classroom libraries. “Some of them I have read several times because I like them so much,” Alvin said.

Editor’s Note: February 27 through March 3 is Texas Public Schools Week, and we are celebrating by sharing personal stories throughout HISD on how public education is helping students succeed. Tweet at us @HoustonISD and share how public education is positive force in you or your student’s life, using the hashtag #PowerofPublic.

The friendship between Alvin Gibson and Deshaun James is based on constant competition. The two teens challenge each other in nearly everything, including basketball, girls, and something a little out of character for middle school boys. Ask them who has read more books, and the two shout out in unison, “I have!”

But it wasn’t always that way. Both Alvin and Deshaun struggled to read in elementary school, and both were diagnosed with dyslexia. Both were also held back a grade. “At one point, I wanted to give up. I thought I was stupid,” Alvin said. “But my teachers and my grandfather pushed me.”

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Jose Guevara recruited players from his girls soccer team to join his AP computer science principles class at Northside High. HISD will double the number of computer science-certified teachers over the next two academic years and expand advanced computer science courses to all 38 high schools by the end of this year.

Editor’s Note: February 27 through March 3 is Texas Public Schools Week, and we are celebrating by sharing personal stories throughout HISD on how public education is helping students succeed. Tweet at us @HoustonISD and share how public education is positive force in you or your student’s life, using the hashtag #PowerofPublic.

Here’s a tip for schools hoping to get more female representation in computer programming classes: Make sure your computer science teacher is also the girls soccer coach.

“I started talking to my students on the team about computer programming — and really I talk to everyone — so that definitely helped in recruiting girls to the class,” said Jose Guevara, who teaches AP computer science principles at Northside High.

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Mother Rhonda Mayes, right, feels at ease putting her special-needs fifth-grader, LaDainian, on the bus with HISD driver Cynthia “C.C.” Cormier, left. HISD bus drivers safely transport more than 36,000 students to and from school every day, traveling more than 15,000,000 miles annually.

Editor’s Note: February 27 through March 3 is Texas Public Schools Week, and we are celebrating by sharing personal stories throughout HISD on how public education is helping students succeed. Tweet at us @HoustonISD and share how public education is positive force in you or your student’s life, using the hashtag #PowerofPublic.

Rhonda Mayes worries about her son LaDainian and the daily challenges facing the special-needs fifth-grader, who suffers from a disorder that often requires him to use a wheelchair and other medical, social, and emotional supports.

But when she puts LaDainian on the bus for the hourlong trip to Reynolds Elementary, Mayes can relax, knowing her son is under the watchful eye of HISD bus driver Cynthia  “C.C.” Cormier and her team.

“She’s been there since Day One,” said Mayes. “She’s got the mothering instinct, and she is just so protective of him.”

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Last May, Amanda Cruz’s children, including kindergartner Jazlyn, were among 36,000 students at 59 HISD elementary schools and early childhood centers who went home with six books from Books Between Kids. The group hopes to reach even more children and families in 2017.

Editor’s Note: February 27 through March 3 is Texas Public Schools Week, and we are celebrating by sharing personal stories throughout HISD on how public education is helping students succeed. Tweet at us @HoustonISD and share how public education is positive force in you or your student’s life, using the hashtag #PowerofPublic.

Amanda Cruz wants what’s best for her kids, but often that comes with a price tag she can’t afford. Providing books for her three children had been a challenge, until one day in the third grade, her son, Alexander, brought home a packet of six books from Scroggins Elementary and proclaimed that they were his to keep.

“I didn’t believe him. I thought he took them from the school library,” said Cruz. “But they came with a note telling me that they were a gift so we could start a library for him in our home and keep him reading over the summer.”

Having books in the home and being read to as a child are two of the most important indicators of academic and lifetime success. Yet nearly two-thirds of low-income families do not own a single children’s book. Continue reading →

Nataly Degollado was able to envision herself at a four-year college with the help of the college success team at Austin High. HISD has 32 college success advisers, who were put in place with matching funds from the Houston Endowment. The program has propelled the district’s college application rate from 59 percent to 79 percent, and the FAFSA application rate has grown by 10 percentage points.

Editor’s Note: February 27 through March 3 is Texas Public Schools Week, and we are celebrating by sharing personal stories throughout HISD on how public education is helping students succeed. Tweet at us @HoustonISD and share how public education is positive force in you or your student’s life, using the hashtag #PowerofPublic.

College Success Adviser Victoria Salinas holds court in the middle of a brightly painted classroom at Austin High, fielding inquiries about tax forms and deadlines as students with laptops occupy nearby couches. Others wander in with questions that could propel them to a very different future than the one they imagined for themselves.

One of those students was Nataly Degollado. Two years ago, the 18-year-old had a baby. She struggled to balance school and her daughter, but even on her hardest days, she never gave up.

“My mom would tell me, ‘You’re doing it for her,’ ” Nataly said.

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Ronald Canales is pursuing his flying dreams at Sterling Aviation High, which in 2017 debuted a new $72 million campus, rebuilt as part of the voter-approved 2012 bond program. It includes a 7,100-square-foot airplane hangar surrounded by career and technology education classrooms.

Editor’s Note: February 27 through March 3 is Texas Public Schools Week, and we are celebrating by sharing personal stories throughout HISD on how public education is helping students succeed. Tweet at us @HoustonISD and share how public education is positive force in you or your student’s life, using the hashtag #PowerofPublic.

Ronald Canales was 5 when he first spotted the large commercial airliner gliding through the sky. He was mesmerized and full of questions: How does that work? How does it fly?

He dreamed of becoming a pilot, but the idea seemed elusive. Though he lived just minutes from Sterling Aviation High, he didn’t give much thought to its aviation magnet and the doors it could open.

At least not until his sophomore year, when he met aviation history teacher Marvin Smith. Continue reading →

After his family immigrated to the U.S., Hla Aye found his home at Fondren Middle, where many of his peers are the children of immigrants. There are more than 100 languages spoken in HISD, which offers services such as counseling, tutoring, and health services to help newcomers settle in their new country.

Editor’s Note: February 27 through March 3 is Texas Public Schools Week, and we are celebrating by sharing personal stories throughout HISD on how public education is helping students succeed. Tweet at us @HoustonISD and share how public education is positive force in you or your student’s life, using the hashtag #PowerofPublic.

Hla Aye was 2 when his home in Myanmar, formerly Burma, was destroyed in the country’s decades-long civil war and his family was sent to a refugee camp with little food and no running water. His father applied for a visa to the U.S., and the family was greeted at the airport by a translator and a sponsor who gave them enough money to last one month.

“My parents found jobs,” Hla said. “My mom encouraged me. She said study as much as you can.”

When Hla enrolled in first grade, he didn’t know anyone, and he didn’t know the language. A practice website helped Hla teach himself English, but it was at Fondren Middle that he really found his voice — and a new home.

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