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

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

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

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

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

A data analysis error has led to large revisions in the Texas non-profit advocacy group Children at Risk’s annual rankings of schools. The Houston Chronicle reported on May 19 that a miscalculation in the organization’s “growth index” rating led to the errors in the final rankings. The growth index measuresRead 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

The Spanish Embassy has honored Wharton Elementary School’s Dual Language Program as its School of the Year for the United States and Canada in 2013. The award for academic excellence in Spanish is given by the Education Office for the U.S. and Canada, which is a technical body of theRead More

A cheating scandal at two Houston Independent School District Elementary School deepened on Thursday, May 8, as the HISD Board of Education terminated five teachers from Jefferson Elementary School accused of “improperly assisting” students on statewide standardized tests, including the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness. The five dismissalsRead 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