The Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions, the prestigious HISD magnet ranked 33rd in the nation, will be moving into a new downtown facility in the fall of 2016. Last night, the HISD Board of Trustees officially voted to accept the TexasRead More

Magnet programs – specialized academic offerings open to any student living in the district – are one of HISD’s notable strengths. More than 40% of HISD schools have schoolwide or school-within-a-school magnet programs. Some magnets focus on STEM; some on the arts; some on world languages; some on specific careerRead More

HISD’s annual Ivy Plus event – to be held at Reagan High School on Monday, October 6, from 5pm to 8pm – is a great opportunity for high school students to learn more about their prospective colleges. The major highlight of Ivy Plus is a college expo featuring some ofRead More

As  a follow-up to our previous article profiling Reagan High School’s Rachel Alexander, here’s an op-ed Rachel wrote last year while teaching computer science. In this piece, Rachel discusses how she incorporated unorthodox programming technology to teach her students about computer science.  I have been a Computer Science (CS) teacherRead More

When deciding on how to best utilize the skills she gained as a bioengineering undergraduate at Rice University, the possibilities seemed endless. But for Rachel Alexander, there seemed to be no better fit than teaching high school students how to use engineering and computer science principles in their everyday life.Read More

One of the highlights of the Houston Independent School District’s recently passed 2014-215 budget is a renewed focus on reading instruction. Much public attention on the $1.74 billion plan has focused on the district’s decision to standardize funding for magnet schools based on the type and level of the school.Read More

As part of the $1.74 billion budget, a sharply divided Board of Education approved a new magnet school funding formula for the Houston Independent School District. The board split 5-4 over the program, with board members Juliet Stipeche, Harvin Moore, Michael Lunceford and Anna Eastman voting against the proposal. TheRead More

As part of its $1.68 billion budget unanimously approved by the Board of Education last week, the Houston Independent School district allocated $30 million to increase pay for teachers. A new teacher with the district will earn $49,100, a raise of 4.9 percent over the current $46,805 paid to newRead More

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) posted mixed results on the latest standardized test results. According to a district press release, HISD tended to show more improvements on the math sections of the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test, particularly for grades 3 through 8. Scores on theRead More

Administrators at the Houston Independent School District have made some slight adjustments to finalize their new magnet school funding mechanism. The new plan keeps the broad outlines of the revised plan presented at a budget workshop in May, keeping  proposed per-student allocations the same for most programs including the VanguardRead More

The Houston Independent School District has delayed a scheduled vote on a proposal to change its Magnet school funding program. The vote was scheduled for tonight’s  HISD Board of Education meeting, but will take place at next week’s meeting, when the board will vote on the district’s proposed 2014-15 budget.Read More

The Houston Independent School District has earned the platinum seal from the Texas State Comptroller’s Office Leadership Circle Program last week, recognizing its efforts to maintain financial transparency to taxpayers and voters. Sixty-two districts out of more than 1,000 in the state received platinum certification from the state. Other localRead More

HISD’s Scarborough High School is now offering a retail immersion course entitled “Etail/Retail,” which includes an on-campus Walmart mockup, as the class is sponsored by the well-known big box chain. The product of an idea from Tracy Davis, Director at University of Houston-Downtown’s Center for Retail Management, Etail/Retail includes lessonsRead More

Under its May 15 budget proposal, the Houston Independent School District recommends a 3.4 percent raise for new teachers. The plan includes smaller raises for experienced teachers and eliminates elevated salaries for advanced-degree holders. During the current school year, teachers with less than four years’ experience are in step 1Read More

The Houston Independent School District has modified a controversial proposal to standardize future magnet school funding. During the April 24 budget workshop, HISD administration proposed eliminating extra funding for Vanguard programs that serve gifted and talented students to redistribute funding more equally across non-magnet schools. On May 15, the administrationRead More

According its recent budget proposal, The Houston Independent School District will eliminate local magnet funding for its Vanguard schools that serve gifted and talented students in the district. The $3 million will be redistributed among zoned non-magnet schools to expand programming. “There are some schools that don’t receive any fundingRead More