Gallegos Elementary School and Wheatley High School teachers and staff created videos to get their students focused on doing their best work on this week’s STAAR tests.
Fourth- and fifth-grade Gallegos ES students saw the videos at a STAAR Pep Rally on Friday, March 27.
Priority deadline for FAFSA/TASFA is March 15 for first-round consideration by many colleges, as well as a few Texas scholarships and loans
Six HISD high schools could win up to $750 for having the largest percentage of students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by March 15.
Thanks to Advise TX and Texas A&M University, 13 HISD high schools have college graduates on campus year-round advising low-income students on what is required to get into a good school and how to pay for higher education.
“HISD is very happy to partner with Advise Texas to ensure that our students receive additional support in navigating the college and financial aid process,” said Assistant Superintendent of College Readiness Rick Cruz. “They are one of our strong continued partners that do great work alongside our staff to support our students.”
These college graduates are working hard right now to get seniors at their schools (see list of schools below) to complete their FAFSA by the March 15 deadline. Submitting the FAFSA or Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TASFA) by the priority deadline is highly recommended for students seeking to qualify for any of the following: Top 10 Percent Scholarship, Texas Grant, and Texas B-On-Time Loan.
Advise TX College Advising Corps is similar to Teach for America or the Peace Corps in that it places graduates in a position for one to two years after graduation and pays them a salary. Advise TX is part of College Advising Corps, a national organization that works to increase the number of students who enter and complete higher education.
Five HISD boys’ basketball teams will play Monday and Tuesday in the University Interscholastic League regional quarterfinals.
Defending state champions Yates will see the tipoff for their games against Pflugerville at 6 p.m. Monday at Rudder High School in Bryan. The game was postponed from the weekend because of weather that made driving hazardous.
Teams from 12 Houston ISD high schools — including last year’s state champion Yates HS — launch district basketball playoffs this week.
North Forest, Sharpstown, Madison, and Sterling all have their first games Monday, with Yates, Sam Houston, Bellaire, Lamar, Westside, Scarborough, Worthing, and Wheatley seeing action Tuesday.
Comerica Bank awarded a total of $20,000 in community grants to five HISD schools in the Lockwood area to commemorate the bank’s 20th year of operation in Houston’s culturally rich Fifth Ward.
Pugh Elementary School was the big winner, with $10,000 for its proposal to put a tablet in every one of its classrooms. Wheatley High School received the second-place award of $4,000 and plans to invest in spirit incentives, as well as instructional improvements. McReynolds Middle School also took home $2,500, while Atherton Elementary School won $2,000, and N. Q. Henderson Elementary School won $1,500. The grants were awarded to these schools because they are located near a newly constructed Lockwood Banking Center.
More than 90 of HISD’s top student athletes committed to taking their academic and athletic talent to the college level as part of National Signing Day on Wednesday, February 4.
The HISD ceremony at the Region IV Education Service Center, aimed to recognize the students’ formal commitment to continue their education and sports careers at colleges and universities around the country. During the event, students signed symbolic certificates of intent to continue their careers in baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling.
[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWhey0s9TKc”]
Among the highlights:
Traditionally, National Signing Day has been reserved for senior high school football players completing their letters of intent with colleges and universities. But, for the past six years, HISD has included both female and male athletes from all sports to showcase the district’s athletic talent. Additional athletic commitments also are expected after Signing Day.
During the event, students heard from featured speaker Antonio Armstrong, a Kashmere High School graduate, former NFL player, and owner of Houston-based 1st Class Training, as well as HISD Director of Athletics Marmion Dambrino, HISD Board of Education President Rhonda Skillern-Jones, HISD Board of Education Trustee Wanda Adams, and representatives from the Houston Positive Coaches Alliance.
Click here to view a list of the 2014-2015 HISD student athlete signees.
Students at eight HISD high schools will now receive their first meal of the day right in their classrooms, thanks to a $64,000 grant from the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), funded by Kellogg’s corporate citizenship fund.
The money will be used to purchase equipment, food, labor, and marketing materials to implement the First Class Breakfast program at Kashmere, Lee, Madison, Milby, Sam Houston, Sterling, Washington, and Wheatley high schools. Continue reading
Annual survey inspires campuses to use valuable feedback
HISD campus administrators have been busy using the feedback from the district’s Your Voice survey to improve their schools and relationships with students and parents.
“After we realized the valuable data we would receive from the survey, we advertised it better,” said Neff Elementary Principal Amanda Wingard. “We did call outs to our parents to remind them to turn it in.”
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 and administrators from 21 high schools that are joining the PowerUp laptop initiative in the 2014-2015 school year have spent a chunk of their summer getting ideas as to how to best implement the program in their classrooms.
Eleven schools were part of the pilot program last year. They received help from the Mooresville Graded School District, which experienced great success in a similar program, and officials from Mooresville returned to Houston to help the second batch of schools.
“The PowerUp initiative puts technology in the hands of the kids and allows students to be reached in ways that we’ve never been able to do before,” said Scott Smith of Mooresville GSD. Continue reading