Tag Archives: HISD

HISD teachers and campus staff earn $35 million for boosting student achievement

Superintendent Terry Grier will Visit Two Top Teachers on Wednesday

 January 24, 2012 – Students across the Houston Independent School District achieved unprecedented success in the classroom in 2010-2011, and the educators most responsible for the gains will receive their financial awards on Wednesday.

HISD is paying a total of $35 million to 12,390 campus employees under the ASPIRE Award program that aims to recognize those whose hard work resulted in students making more progress in one year than their peers elsewhere.

HISD students showed significant academic progress in 2010-2011. The number of students not just passing, but scoring at the tougher “commended” level on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills has never been higher. The district’s dropout rate has never been lower under the state’s current reporting system, and the percentage of students graduating from high school on time has never been higher.

Classroom teachers in HISD are receiving the bulk of the ASPIRE Award money – $30.5 million spread among 9,162 teachers. The average ASPIRE Award for teachers is $3,324.26.

This year, four teachers at four different campuses received the highest payout of $10,300. Those teachers are Debra Bunton (Highland Heights Elementary), Marcos Giannotti (Hobby Elementary), Chavis Mitchell (Osborne Elementary), and Stephanie Spurling (Hartsfield Elementary).

“These teachers personify the firmly held belief shared by all members of Team HISD that every child has the ability to excel in the classroom under the guidance of quality teachers working in schools led by great principals,” said HISD Superintendent Terry Grier. “The value that HISD educators bring to our city is immeasurable and these ASPIRE Awards are one way of recognizing the impact they have on our children.”

Two HISD Schools Win Chance to Test Projects in Space

Two HISD student science projects are cleared for lift off. Johnston Middle School and Parker Elementary School students will have their microgravity experiments included in Mission One to the International Space Station through the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.

More than 1,000 students submitted proposals and 12 U.S. school communities were given the chance to compete. Johnston and Parker students recently learned that they were among a handful of winning schools whose projects will fly aboard a Soyuz rocket in the spring of 2013.

“The students are just ecstatic,” said Parker science teacher Rebecca Mitchell. “It’s a dream come true. They feel like they can do anything, that any dream can be realized.”

Johnston eighth-grader Emily H. Soice led her school’s winning project. Soice’s experiment explores whether a bioscaffold infused with the TGFB3 protein grows and forms cells faster in microgravity than in normal gravity. Bioscaffold is an artificial structure that can be implanted in the body to serve as a base where tissue can grow.

Soice’s research could lay the groundwork for the growth of replacement tissue, joints, and even organs.

At Parker Elementary School, fifth-grade students Maxx Denning, Michael Prince, and Aaron Stuart will test to see if liquid Vitamin C can preserve bone density in microgravity, which could be helpful to astronauts who stay in space over a long period of time.

Mitchell said the students worked after school, during their lunch break, and even on weekends to create their winning proposal. The students will conduct their Vitamin C experiment using a chicken bone.

“We are splitting a wishbone,” Max said. “Part of it will fly in space and part of it will stay here. It will float in a solution that includes Vitamin C for six weeks.”

Researchers, biologists, physicists and many others from institutions including Baylor College of Medicine, NASA, Rice University, University of Houston and Texas Southern University provided support for the project.

For more information, please visit www.ssep.ncesse.org.