Spotlighting Some Great Achievements

Today I had a very productive discussion with our schools’ principals—sharing some of the progress and recognition the district has received while also discussing what we can do to keep moving forward in our pursuit to keep all kids in school and on track toward graduation.

Some of the progress and achievements at HISD:

• The number of HISD students taking the SAT has nearly doubled in 2 years.
• HISD one of only 35 districts nationwide to receive a $7.7 million TIF grant from the U.S. Department of Education to attract, reward, and retain strong math and science teachers.
• HISD has 14 schools recognized as Texas Honors Circle Schools by the Texas Comptroller.
• Last, but not least, are the winners of our TEAM HISD hats:
  o Jose Covarrubia, Principal at Project Chrysalis, and Tamera Bolden, Principal at East Early College High School—Both schools were selected as National Blue Ribbon Schools by the U.S. Department of Education.
  o David Terrell, Principal at Frost Elementary—Apollo turnaround principal is highly structured and motivates students to achieve. Frost Elementary was the 8th lowest achieving school in the state of Texas, according to Children at Risk, but now has posted a 21% improvement on Stanford reading and 28% improvement on Stanford math scores.
  o Jane Crump, Principal at Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center—Helped lead the Voter Registration Drive, which was done in partnership with Univision. SHMSTC was the top high school to register voters with close to 200.
  o Angie Miranda, Principal at Seguin Elementary—Under Angie’s leadership, Seguin ES has been exemplary for the last 5 years. She “hires tough” and has gotten the most highly effective teachers to commit to the campus.

We have much to celebrate, but we still have miles to go. We know that retaining a child multiple times in elementary and middle school is a sure indicator that child will not make it to graduation. Our team will be working with principals to coach them on strategies to get our kids moving forward to the next grade level.

We have to become responsible as leaders for every child. I know that Team HISD has the drive to continue to achieve great things for our kids.