Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT) set the stage for student success

This year, in nearly 200 classrooms at nine HISD elementary schools, parents are experiencing a new kind of parent-teacher conference that gives them the tools both to expand their children’s learning and to monitor their progress.

Schools in their second or third years of implementing the Academy Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT) program are continuing to perfect and expand the new model of meetings to empower parents to help their children learn outside of school.

Eliot, Gallegos, Kennedy, Mitchell, Piney Point, Shadowbriar, and Tijerina elementary schools, as well as Fonwood Early Childhood Center and the Wharton Dual Language Academy, all recently completed their first round of fall APTT meetings.

The model replaces traditional parent-teacher conferences with three 75-minute group meetings involving all parents in the class, and one 30-minute individual session with the student, teacher, and parents. During group meetings, teachers share student performance data and expectations for the class, review skills, and model hands-on activities parents can do at home to help their children master skills. Parents practice the activities at home with their kids over a 60-day period until their next meeting, when they can again review the data and see how their child has progressed. Continue reading →

New schools in North Forest making construction progress

Driving along Mesa Road in the North Forest neighborhood in HISD, steel columns can be seen rising from the sites of North Forest High School and North Forest Early Childhood Center, as both projects have begun vertical construction and are proceeding on schedule.

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Free dyslexia screenings available Nov. 7

HISD’s Office of Special Education Services will offer free dyslexia screenings at a Family Learning Academy event at Burbank Middle School (315 Berry Road, 77022), on Nov. 7, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, and poor spelling and decoding abilities. Continue reading →

DiscoverU expands the number of educational travel opportunities for HISD students

DiscoverU has increased the number of partnerships it has with HISD schools to seven for the current school year, allowing even more students to expand their horizons through foreign travel, college campus residencies, business internships, and more.

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HISD students earn top award for summer rocket launch

This summer, while many high school students were still enjoying their vacation, students from HISD’s Booker T. Washington High School were traveling with their teacher to White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico to attempt to launch a rocket they built as a classroom assignment.

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Only five high schools qualified to travel to WSMR this summer, and this was Washington’s fifth attempt. But for the first time this year, the students’ vehicle successfully left the launch tower — marking only the second time a high school has ever reached that milestone. The students received the SystemsGo Goddard Level Diamond Award for their achievement at a special ceremony held on Oct. 16. Continue reading →

New Jordan HS for Careers to feature modern career labs

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The early designs of a new Barbara Jordan High School for Careers showcase a building that would give students the tools and labs to learn the latest skills for professions as diverse as welding and marketing.

“We want to use all of this building,” Principal Ross McAlpine told a small gathering of parents and alumni Tuesday night. “We don’t want any wasted space. We really need this school to work for the kids.”

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Davis HS culinary students sharpen their skills at charity event

Davis High School students had the opportunity to help raise money for charity and put their culinary skills to use at the Ronald McDonald House Charities Red Shoe Chef Challenge 2015.

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Dozens of students in the school’s culinary arts program spent hours making about 1,300 hors d’oeuvres on Oct. 8 that would be served to the approximately 350 attendees. More than 20 students were involved in the morning shift, and a second crew of students came in to complete the dishes.

Chef Tim Mehne and his wife, Kim, who supervised the students during the preparation of the hors d’oeuvres, said he has worked in the food industry for more than 40 years and described the students as “rock stars.” Continue reading →

HISD schools participate in attempt to set reading world record

Ninety-two HISD schools participated in Read Across the Globe on Oct. 19, an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of children being read to in a 24-hour period. The goal was to read the same book, “Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table” by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, to 300,000 children simultaneously.

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Hundreds of generous Houstonians, including former First Lady Barbara Bush, volunteered to be a classroom reader, timekeeper, or witness of the event. Many HISD schools tweeted photos during the event, and you can see a collection of those at the end of this article. Continue reading →

HISD Board of Education to vote on proposed attendance boundary changes

On Thursday, the HISD Board of Education will  vote on a plan to adjust attendance boundaries at 10 elementary schools for the 2016-2017 school year to address classroom overcrowding.

The proposal affects these elementary campuses: Bastian, Hartsfield, Highland Heights, Kelso, Smith, Stevens, Wainwright, Young, Frost, and Law.

Community meetings regarding the proposals took place in October.

Complete details, including maps and frequently asked questions, can be found here.

New tool determines which magnet schools students qualify to attend

Parents who are looking to choose a magnet school for their children now have a new tool to help them make their selections. The Magnet Matrix Calculator determines whether a student is qualified for inclusion in the lottery for some magnet secondary non-vanguard and fine arts schools. The calculator is based upon the matrix many schools use to determine student eligibility.

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