A lesson from a third grade classroom has been making the rounds on social media this week. You’ve probably seen it – little notes in children’s handwriting, simple and powerful statements about students’ lives. Denver, CO teacher Kyle Schwartz, perceiving her students’ life experience to be significantly different from herRead More

Houston students benefit from a wealth of summer enrichment opportunities, including everything from test prep to day camp at the natural science museum. Today, we’d like to spotlight a summer program hosted by Rice University: the Tapia Math-Science Scholars Program. This is an all-costs-paid, one-month residential program in which risingRead More

A large portion of the STAAR tests, which are mandated for public school students in grades 3-12, will be administered next week for the elementary and middle school levels. Students in grades 3-8 will be tested in math. Students in grades 3-4 and 6-7 will be tested in reading, andRead More

In the one year since its launch, over 70,000 inquisitive users have visited HoustonSchoolSurvey.com. A publication of Rice-village academic consulting firm General Academic, Houston School Survey provides expert analysis, research, school profiles, and reader-submitted reviews on more than 80 private and select public schools in the greater Houston area. Top 10Read More

For high school seniors and magnet school applicants, acceptance season is here. Universities have issued their  initial round of acceptance offers; students with offers from multiple schools have until May 1 to decide where they will attend. Meanwhile, in HISD, students were notified of their magnet admission status in mid-March;Read More

Houston is home to many elite private schools. And in its 2015 ranking of “The 50 Smartest Private Schools in the US,” Business Insider affirmed that two of Houston’s schools are among the very best in the nation. The Kinkaid School and St. John’s School are both known for theirRead More

Two weeks ago, the eleventh annual ExxonMobil Texas Science and Engineering Fair was held at UTSA. Each year, students from all over the state come to showcase research projects in the STEM fields. The event is open to students in grades 6-12 who compete and score well in a qualifying regionalRead More

Earlier this week, CBS New York reported that a Long Island senior, Harold Ekeh, had been accepted to all eight Ivy League schools. And over the past few days, reports have trickled in about four more students who also achieved the Ivy League sweep this year. This is a truly amazingRead More

The newest school to be profiled on the Houston School Survey is the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (HSLECJ). HSLECJ was founded in 1981 by Dr. Judy Morris. The institution was originally designed to serve students interested in law enforcement careers and to encourage recruitment of more minoritiesRead More

If your child was accepted to an HISD magnet school this year, congratulations! And don’t forget – this Friday, April 10, is the deadline to claim their spot. To get details on how to secure your child’s spot, visit HISD’s magnet application page or login to your online application. ToRead More

If you’re the parent of a teenager, you’ve probably spent a fair bit of time thinking about college tuition. One thing which may be much on your mind is that it can’t possibly have been this expensive in your day – and indeed, the cost of a college education has increasedRead More

If you’ve been reading Thesis for a while, you’ve probably heard about our sister site, The Houston School Survey. You may have used it to look up details about a prospective school or read up on PreK-12 school choice advice. But did you know that the Houston School Survey alsoRead More

Finland has one of the top educational systems in the world. And now, it’s considering a major overhaul that administrators hope will make it even better. Teaching by subjects – a curriculum element so fundamental most of us take it for granted – is to be phased out and replacedRead More

Earlier this year, we told you about the Student Privacy Pledge which Google, Microsoft, and other major infotech companies signed in a gesture of goodwill toward keeping students’ data safe. The pledge was put forward as part of President Obama’s broader agenda on education technology, an agenda in which dataRead More

“He’s such a smart kid! I don’t know why he isn’t getting better grades. I know that he could do great in school if he worked at it.” It’s a common sentiment among parents: children and teenagers who are otherwise very bright and talented, yet are consistently getting a BRead More

It’s a sad fact that socioeconomically disadvantaged students are less likely to attend college than their wealthier counterparts. Not only that, but when they do pursue higher education, they’re less likely to apply to and attend elite schools. A recent feature on NPR addressed the phenomenon of “undermatching,” the tendencyRead More