First Day of School for Apollo 20 Secondary Schools
Today, we kicked off the new school year at our Apollo 20 secondary schools. I had the chance to visit three of those campuses today, and even though they start classes a week earlier than the rest of the district, the students and teachers were clearly excited to be back in the classroom. I asked Brandon Bonilla, a student at Fondren Middle School, what he thinks about having an extra week of school, and he told me, “It’s actually good because you get to learn more.” That’s exciting! We have students who are eager to learn, and they know school is a place where they can be successful.
It was great to spend time at Fondren Middle School, as well as Jones and Lee high schools. We are changing the culture in our Apollo 20 schools. This is the second year of the school turnaround program and the outstanding principals and teachers are looking forward to building on last year’s progress. Student attendance was up, disciplinary problems were down, and students showed strong academic growth, particularly in math. Apollo 20 students in sixth- and ninth-grade receive intensive tutoring in math and there is no question that’s paying off. The results on the TAKS math exams in sixth- and ninth-grade exceeded our highest expectations.
This year, we will add eleven elementary schools to the Apollo 20 program. They will be built around the same key tenets of Apollo 20 secondary schools.
- An effective principal and effective teachers in every classroom
- More instructional time
- Use of data to drive instruction
- In-school tutoring
- A culture of high expectations.
We are seeing that HISD students can accomplish great things when we all pull together. Now it is time to stay the course, work hard, and ensure that we provide a high quality education for every child.
HISD Students Outperform Peers on Stanford and Aprenda Exams
Today, I sent a message to the hard-working principals, teachers, and staff in HISD to recognize and congratulate them on their outstanding efforts to boost student achievement. We just got new data that shows HISD students outperformed their peers in four out of five subjects on the national Stanford and Aprenda exams. Our students showed phenomenal growth and we could not be more pleased or excited. Please take a moment to read the letter and watch the press conference that was held to share this great news.
Congratulations Lanier Middle School!
Congratulations to the Speech and Debate Team from Lanier Middle School! They have done it again, winning the national debate championship for the ninth year in a row! We are all so proud of Coach Franz Hill and his team at Lanier. They were recognized as the Overall School of Excellence and the Debate School of Excellence in the National Junior Forensics League Tournament in Dallas earlier this month. Lanier students also earned first place honors in the Impromptu Speaking, Extemporaneous Speaking, and Public Forum Debate competitions.
Earlier today, we had a crew from HISD TV out shooting interviews with the winning team. Their story will be featured on next week’s edition of HISD News. I want to congratulate Coach Hill, Principal Linda Smith, all the students, their parents, and everyone at Lanier Middle School. Way to go, Purple Pups!
HISD Schools Featured on Newsweek’s List of America’s Best High Schools
Congratulations to Carnegie Vanguard, DeBakey High School for Health Professions, and Challenge Early College High School! These three schools were just ranked on Newsweek’s Best High Schools list.
I want to give a special shout out to principals Ramon Moss of Carnegie Vanguard, Linda Lazenby of DeBakey, Justin Fuentes of Challenge Early College, and the hard working staff at all three of those schools. This is a significant honor. Newsweekonly chooses 500 schools from across the nation. They are selected based on their graduation rate, number of students going to college, and number of AP tests taken per graduate, among other criteria.
In recent years, we have seen a number of schools recognized for their great work. It’s always exciting to see Houston make “the list,” whether it’sNewsweek’s list, the Washington Post Challenge Index, which recently featured 25 HISD schools, or the National Center for Educational Achievement List of Higher Performing Schools with 93 HISD schools, more than Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and El Paso combined! We are proud of the great work going on across the district, and want to again say a special congratulations to Carnegie Vanguard, DeBakey, and Challenge Early College!
We received some great news today showing that more HISD students are graduating on time, and fewer students are dropping out. The latest numbers, which are from 2010, show the four-year graduation rate was 74.3 percent, a 4.3 point improvement over the previous year. HISD’s graduation rates improved among every racial and ethnic student group, and our drop rate declined. It’s now at 12.6 percent, down 3.2 points from 2009.
In HISD, our goal is to prepare all our students for college and meaningful careers, and three weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending several graduation ceremonies and recognizing students as they crossed the stage. That’s such a proud moment for those graduates and their families. A number of principals told me that some of their students who have struggled in high school were able to earn their diploma by working in HISD Grad Labs. Those computer labs, in every one of our schools, give students who have fallen behind an opportunity to take classes at their own pace online. This year, more than 4,000 courses were completed online.
I want to give a big shout out to our all students, parents, and staff. We’re all working together and can be proud of these improvements.
It has been busy this week! Read my weekly e-News message to learn about many of the exciting things happening in HISD this summer.
Today, we held our monthly principals’ meeting and thanked our outstanding school leaders for the great work they have done all year. We make it a point every month to recognize different administrators and highlight some of the things they are doing to create and support successful schools. Those principals get a special shout out and a Team HISD baseball hat. It’s just one small way of showing them how proud we are to have them working in our district.
This morning, we focused on some of the principals who are helping to raise the level of academic rigor in HISD. We know that students need to score at the Commended level on the TAKS exams, if they are going to be on a path that prepares them for college and meaningful careers. I was proud to recognize principals who have significant numbers of Commended students. Take a look at these results. We have schools where as many as 92 to 93 percent of students are scoring at the Commended level in reading and math. We also have schools that have produced a dramatic increase in the number of Commended students—ranging from a 17- to a 30- percentage-point gain.
Today, we also thanked our retiring principals who have given so much to this district. They received hats and will always be valued members of Team HISD. Finally, we recognized three other outstanding school leaders: Rosa Hernandez, who has helped to secure $200,000 in grant funding for Burbank Middle School; Meilin Jao, who is engaging the community and creating a groundswell of support for Frank Black Middle School; and Peter Heinze, who has established a rigorous hiring process at Briarmeadow Charter School. We showed this video about Briarmeadow at today’s meeting.
Thanks to all our principals for their hard work during this past school year!
Principal Bertie Simmons with Furr High School graduates
I hope you will take a moment to read this column that Gaston Caperton, the President of the College Board wrote in the Huffington Post about HISD’s Furr High School and the phenomenal work that Principal Bertie Simmons is doing there. Last month, Furr was one of three schools in the country to receive the College Board’s Inspiration Award for providing a higher level of academic rigor and preparing students for college. This year, 78 percent of the students at Furr took AP or Pre-AP courses, that’s up from 8 percent just five years ago. Congratulations to Dr. Simmons and everyone at Furr High School!
This is the first day of summer vacation for our students and I had a chance to talk to a couple of them this morning. The girls had just come from the swimming pool with their mother, Sue Deigaard. She and a number of other parents and children joined us for a press conference calling on the State Legislature to properly fund Texas schools. Paula Harris, the president of our Board, Gayle Fallon, president of the teachers union, and every single one of us in that room is concerned about what the proposed cuts will mean for public education. HISD stands to lose $78 million next year and $127 million the following year. Our parents recognize the impact that would have in our classrooms, and I want to thank them for all that they are doing to fight for adequate funding for our schools. Click here to read more about today’s news conference.
Wow. What a year this has been! I wrote this letter highlighting some of our achievements because we have so much to celebrate. Right now, the students have all gone home, and our high schools are busy getting ready for graduation ceremonies this weekend.
In the Central Office, the work doesn’t really slow down during the summer—I’m sure a lot of you can relate. Even so, I’m looking forward to visiting family, playing golf, and reading. Today, second-graders at a dozen of our schools each received a free book thanks to our friends at Jack and Jill of America. Reading is one of the most important components of the foundation for education. I hope all our students will join me in reading this summer. Click here for information about the Millionaire Club Summer Reading program, which gives students an opportunity to earn prizes for reading five or more books.
I hope we all can take some time to recharge our batteries over the summer. I am excited about the upcoming school year, and important planning is already underway!
