Delivering his annual HISD State of the Schools address to a sold-out crowd of 2,000 today, Superintendent Terry Grier said the district took significant steps in 2011 toward raising the level of academic achievement at every campus and meeting parents’ expectations.

And while HISD lays claim to some of the top-performing schools in the nation, Dr. Grier said, too many of Houston’s neighborhood schools are not improving fast enough.

“We’re proud of the schools that reliably produce graduates prepared to excel in college and in the workplace. But we also know that too many of our schools don’t fit into that category,” Dr. Grier told the crowd of community leaders, educators, and business organizations. “We must be able to look every parent in the eye and tell them we’d be proud to send our own children to any school in Houston. That’s the kind of consistency I’m talking about.”

Continue reading →