Help HISD get dropouts back in school by volunteering for the 2014 Grads Within Reach walk.
This year’s event will be held at 24 high schools from 8 a.m. to noon on Sat., Sept. 6, 2014. Volunteers will be placed in teams and fan out across the city, based on the school to which they are assigned, and visit the last known address of students who dropped out or didn’t show up for the first weeks of school. Continue reading
Teachers at eight HISD high schools are preparing their coursework for the upcoming year a bit differently than they have in the past. Campus teams from Chavez, Eastwood Academy, Furr, Lee, Milby, Reagan, Sterling, and Westside are refining plans to teach core subjects through project-based learning — a part of the district’s commitment to the Linked Learning approach. These campus teams shared their plans at the Linked Learning Summer Institute during June.
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Educators from eight HISD high schools — Chavez, Eastwood Academy, Furr, Lee, Milby, Reagan, Sterling, and Westside — are spending their summer designing industry-themed programs of study intended to make learning exciting, challenging and relevant to real-world experiences. The program, known as Linked Learning, will help students build a strong foundation that leads to fulfilling and successful college and career experiences.
“It’s amazing. It’s awesome,” said Linked Learning superintendent Adam Stephens.
Linked Learning pathways differ from Texas House Bill 5’s mandated pathways. Continue reading
Kody Ford
For recent Reagan High School graduate Kody Ford to even be alive today is nothing short of a miracle.
The Class of 2014 member not only confounded doctors by proving virtually every grim prognosis about him wrong as a baby, he also managed to graduate last month with a perfect 12-year attendance record—less than nine weeks after being ejected through the sunroof of his own car during a collision with a drunk driver.
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Students from Chavez, Westbury, Yates and Sharpstown high schools spent a sunny day completing a 24-foot ladder extension, hoisting equipment and rescuing a dummy named Randy. The exercises were part of the CASEY Club’s physical ability test for students interested in becoming firefighters. The Houston Fire Department’s CASEY Club — which stands for cultivate, advise, support, empower and youth — creates and fosters a career path to become a firefighter/EMT for high school sophomores, juniors , and seniors.
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HISD’s Business Operations department is rolling out a new customer service initiative that will transform the way the district connects with its customers.
The Business Operations department includes about 7,000 employees in the areas of transportation, police, food services, construction and facilities services, and business assistance. The goal is to get all employees to work together to contribute to the business operation department’s new service philosophy:
“We improve lives and build trust by providing exceptional service that creates a safe and caring environment.”
Reagan, Washington HB 5 sessions show what’s in store for next year’s ninth-graders
High school is changing in a big way for next year’s ninth-grade students, and dozens of HISD families got a jump on finding out how at two community meetings Monday night at Reagan and Washington high schools.
The changes are coming as a result of state legislation known as House Bill 5 – and HISD has rebranded the process for its students and their families as “Plan Your Path.”
“Plan Your Path” is all about guiding students to “dream big,” explained Alejandro Morua, HISD’s general manager of Family and Community Engagement, by combining career awareness and selection with a rigorous academic curriculum from pre-K through graduation.
Last year, almost two dozen HISD students became members of the city’s inaugural group of “Posse Scholars,” after a national non-profit called The Posse Foundation expanded its programming to Houston.
That organization will be sending its second group of students off to higher education this fall—and the majority (70 percent)—come from HISD.
The Houston branch of the Posse Foundation announced the 61 members of its Class of 2014 at a special celebration held on Jan. 6, and 43 of those students will be graduating from 18 HISD high schools this spring.
Thirty-one of the Houston area’s best prep teams will begin three days of action Thursday in the 74th annual HISD Boys Basketball Tournament at nine district locations – and they’ll combine play with holiday giving.
Fans bringing two nonperishable food items and one unwrapped toy will gain free admission, with no re-entry permitted. The toys will go to the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots Drive, and the food will benefit the Houston Food Bank. Collection points will be located at each site for those who want to contribute additional items.
To familiarize them with life on the campus of a select school, HISD’s EMERGE program took a group of rising seniors on a tour of northeast campuses over the summer. Here, they’re at Harvard University.
The acceptance letters for select colleges and universities are rolling in for HISD seniors working with the district’s EMERGE program – 22 letters so far, as of Dec. 18. On Dec. 16 alone, three HISD seniors were notified they had been accepted to Yale University.
All students are either receiving full rides or are having 100 percent of their financial need met by the school accepting them, according to Rick Cruz, assistant superintendent of college readiness and co-founder of EMERGE.