Next week, students at some Houston-area schools will visit the Texas Renaissance Festival for its 10th Annual School Days, an event in which the festival is open exclusively to groups from public, private, and home schools. This year’s School Days will be November 4-5, 9am-4pm. While Renaissance Festivals are notRead More

It’s that time of year again. This Saturday, November 1, is the open date for the HISD magnet application. Before the application period ends on December 19, parents will submit tens of thousands of applications to HISD’s selective magnet schools. If you are one of those parents – and especiallyRead More

When I was a kid, my mom was constantly trying to find ways to make everything educational. From summer classes to seasonally appropriate readings, she was determined that her children should take every opportunity to learn more about the world. If you’re like her – and especially if you homeschoolRead More

For parents of high school juniors and seniors, the prospect of sending their proverbial babies out into the real world may seem daunting. Never fear, Thesis sat down with General Academic’s College Admissions Prep Counselor Annekah Hall, former Assistant Director of Admissions for Claremont Graduate University, to answer some ofRead More

If you have children in high school, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of the National Merit Scholarship and its qualifying test, the PSAT. Every fall, high school juniors across America sit for this test, which is essentially a shortened version of the SAT – five sections with no essay.Read More

School is just around the corner! HISD starts on Monday, August 25th, but many private schools have already started. Take advantage of the first, slow weeks of school to make sure your student has a strong framework for success. We will cover the following topics: Establishing a conducive study spaceRead More

It’s more difficult to get into Houston ISD’s (HISD) most selective schools than it is to get into Harvard; HISD’s top ten most selective schools accepted fewer than 5% of applicants. Nearly 48,000 applications were submitted to Houston Independent School District (HISD)’s 96 magnet schools by the December 20, 2013Read More

Can you feel the heat? Spring Break is over, Summer is coming, and your teenager needs to make a plan about how to make the summer productive and avoid bum status. In lieu of summer studies, working, interning, or volunteering are great ways for your teen to mature and stayRead More

Students decide to attend colleges for a number of reasons. Maybe a group of high school friends all want to go to the same school. Perhaps location is the determining factor: either wanting to be closer or farther away from home. With students applying to more schools that ever before,Read More

  The traditional vision of the college professor is that of the tenure-track faculty member: the guy with elbow patches and a tweed jacket who does research, lectures and has tenure – job security that allows them freedom to do research and teach controversial subjects. That vision is less trueRead More

Last month The Atlantic published an article by Amanda Machado, entitled: Why Teachers of Color Quit, which she followed up with an interview segment on NPR. In the article and interview, Machado outlines the three reasons she walked away from the profession of teaching: a lack of cultural sensitivity byRead More

Recently, major national news sources covered topics which Thesis has been following for some time now: teacher evaluations and national standardized testing norms.  First, on December 18th,  Al Jazeera America drew its readership’s attention to how schools all over the country have had to postpone (or even sacrifice) designing andRead More

Earlier this fall, in between writing for Thesis and teaching two community college classes, I enrolled in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC): “Central Challenges in American National Security, Strategy, and the Press.” The urge, while mostly compulsive, was driven by the immediate, fluid state of the international climate (SyriaRead More

The Texas legislature passed House Bill 5, which will introduce some progressive changes to the current education system. For example, the bill will create an endorsement plan for students to pick from five different areas of study (business and industry, arts and humanities, STEM, public services, and multi-disciplinary services), createRead More

Volunteerism can, often, seem like a patchwork practice: people showing up from different communities, backgrounds, and financial situations to lend their time for a cause or purpose. Passion leads to involvement, and this is certainly on display with political campaigns, environmental movements, and religious organizations. The human desire to improveRead More

As teachers have been put under increased pressure to “teach to the test” and boost their students’ performance scores, curricula have been grossly condensed. Depth of knowledge is sacrificed for cursory breadth of knowledge, and in lieu of spending additional time on a given subject to foster discussions, encourage creativeRead More