Five teams of students sit in tight circles on the stage in the Jane Long Academy Auditorium. It’s 9 a.m. on a school day, so the event is sparsely attended, but the few audience members watch in rapt attention as the teams make selections on tablets passed from hand to hand between them, quietly deliberating, until their 60 allotted seconds have passed.
Continue readingTag Archives: West University ES
West University ES celebrates Earth Day with Reduce, Reuse, Recycle initiatives
The students at West University Elementary School are recycling experts. They check the bottoms of plastic containers for identification codes. They know which items are eligible for curbside recycling and which need to be returned to the grocery store. They even know what to do to conserve water and energy. Their recycling know-how could give most adults a run for their money. West U staff and parents have made sure of this.
Continue readingTransportation Services is driving support for Souper Bowl of Caring and emergency food pantries
HISD Transportation Services has donated the use of four 20-foot school buses at West University Elementary School to help collect food donations for this year’s Souper Bowl of Caring.
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Scott C. Disch named new principal of West University Elementary School
Scott C. Disch has been selected as the new principal of West University Elementary School. Disch has served as a teacher and athletic coach at Grady Middle School. In his most recent role as Dean of Students at Westside High School, he supported the Westside Engineering and Geoscience Academy (WEGA), a prestigious magnet program that offers a unique chance for students to gain perspective and insight into the engineering field through a rigorous, hands-on, project-based math and technology curriculum. His recognitions include 2012 Grady Teacher of the Year and 2019 West Area Assistant Principal of the Year. He holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Rice University and a Master’s in teaching. He currently attends the University of Houston to pursue a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy.
HISD boasts half of 8-county region’s top elementary, middle and high schools
District is home to No. 1 schools at every level in statewide rankings
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Houston Independent School District campuses occupy half of the top 10 slots on the 2016 Children at Risk public school rankings of the region’s best public schools.
Additionally, HISD schools took the statewide No. 1 ranking in every category, with River Oaks No. 1 among elementary schools, T.H. Rogers No. 1 in the middle school category, and DeBakey High School for Health Professions No. 1 at the high school level.
The rankings were publicly released Monday at a ceremony conducted at HISD’s Pilgrim Academy, which received special distinction as a Gold Ribbon school, recognizing the region’s highest-performing, high-poverty campuses. Continue reading
Five HISD schools recognized for their efforts to fight hunger
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Five different HISD schools were recently named “Champions off the Field” by the Souper Bowl of Caring for their efforts to fight hunger.
This annual food drive and fundraiser, which ran from Jan. 20 – Feb. 7, generated more than $9.9 million in donations nationally this year, a portion of which came from the 33 HISD schools that participated.
Twenty-nine HISD schools awarded by TEA for top performance in 2014-2015
Campuses receive every distinction designation available from the state.
Twenty-nine schools from across the Houston Independent School District earned the maximum number of distinction designations from the state for their top performance throughout the 2014-2015 school year.
The campuses – 17 elementary schools, six middle schools and six high schools – earned every distinction designation awarded by the Texas Education Agency. Schools are eligible for distinctions if they are rated as having “Met Standard” — the highest rating under the state accountability system — and meet various other performance standards.
DeBakey tops Children at Risk’s list of best Houston high schools for sixth straight year
Reagan HS, Pilgrim Academy, and 20 other campuses also rated ‘Gold Ribbon’ schools
Children at Risk released its annual list of the top schools in the greater Houston area on April 27, and for the sixth consecutive year, HISD’s DeBakey High School for Health Professions was listed as number one.
Four other HISD high schools were included in the top ten: Carnegie Vanguard High School (#2), the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (#4), Eastwood Academy (#7), and North Houston Early College High School (#10).
T.H. Rogers, which serves students in grades Pre-K through 8, has held steady in the number one position among the top middle schools in Houston since 2011, and ranked first at the elementary level since 2012. Other HISD schools in the top 20 were: Wharton K-8 (#5), Pin Oak (#7), Lanier (#8), and Briarmeadow Charter (#15) at the middle-school level; and West University (#2), River Oaks (#3), Horn Academy (#6), Bush (#13), Condit (#14), Oak Forest (#17), and Roberts (#19) at the elementary level.
Young scholars rewarded for meeting literacy goals
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Usually, the benefits of reading include a bigger vocabulary, greater word comprehension, and better conversation skills, but dozens of HISD students received a different type of reward recently from two of the district’s community partners for focusing on literacy over the summer.
Most of the students were recognized for participating in the district’s Extended Primary Year program, which was offered at 29 elementary schools.
“The HISD Literacy Team joined forces with Strategic Partnerships and Elves & More to award bicycles to 100 children who met their literacy goals, had excellent attendance and conduct, and exemplified a can-do attitude,” explained Literacy Director Cindy Puryear. “The Literacy Team will partner with Elves & More again this holiday season to reward more that 7,000 scholars for their hard work and determination. One thousand of those will be rewarded for meeting or exceeding their literacy goals.” Continue reading
7 HISD Odyssey of the Mind teams earn trip to world finals
Seven Houston ISD Odyssey of the Mind teams advanced to the world finals after the state competition on Saturday.
Odyssey of the Mind teaches students how to solve problems creatively as a group with up to seven members.