For Immediate Release
Contact: HISD Press
Office,
Four HISD High Schools To Receive $1.6 Million
Four of HISD’s large high schools will receive $200,000 a year for two
years, or a total of $1.6 million, from Houston A+ Challenge to serve as models
for how to create a comprehensive high school where students can be given
individualized, personal attention and a rigorous and relevant learning
experience.
The schools--Reagan, Waltrip, Westside and Wheatley--submitted plans to
move from a traditional high school model to one that meets these goals.
The awards are part of the HISD strategy in partnership with Houston A+
Challenge to create a system of high schools that provides students with a
variety of options to earn a degree.
These options include early college schools, small high schools, magnet
schools, International Baccalaureate schools, comprehensive schools, an
international high school, a college preparatory school, and a newcomers
school.
“These funds provide another opportunity for the district to fulfill
its commitment to creating a system of high schools that ensures every student
graduates college ready,” said HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra.
Called Houston Schools for a New Society, Houston ISD embarked on the
initiative to create a system of high schools three years ago. Funding for HSNS and the grants awarded today
comes from the Carnegie Corporation of
“These four schools were selected because they have strong, motivated
leadership teams that submitted realistic plans to redesign their schools into
small, theme-based academies that can make real improvements in giving students
personal attention and a strong curriculum,” said Harry Reasoner, chairman of
the Board of Trustees of Houston A+ Challenge and senior partner at
Vinson&Elkins LLP.
As part of the HSNS initiative, each of the district’s 23 comprehensive
high schools receives $100,000 per year from Houston A+ Challenge to pay for a
school improvement facilitator and half the cost of a literacy coach. The schools also take part in a network that
regularly shares the best ideas for improving student achievement.
Another piece of the district’s high school strategy was announced two
weeks ago when HISD was awarded the $5 million Small Learning Communities
Special Competition Enhanced Reading Opportunities in Freshman Academies grant
from the U.S. Department of Education for Chavez, Furr, Sharpstown, and
Westbury high schools. That grant
addresses the HSNS focus on literacy, beginning with the 9th grade.
About Carnegie Corporation
Carnegie Corporation of
About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is building upon the
unprecedented opportunities of the 21st century to improve global health and
learning. Led by Bill Gates’ father,
William H. Gates, Sr., and Patty Stonesifer, the Seattle-based foundation has
an endowment of approximately $24 billion.
On the web at www.gatesfoundation.org.
About
Houston A+ Challenge is an independent, public-private education
organization working to create lasting improvements in classroom instruction
and student achievement. On the web at www.houstonaplus.org.
Editor’s note: A summary of each
school’s plan is attached.
HOUSTON SCHOOLS
FOR A
School Plan
Summary
Reagan’s redesign plan includes:
°
Piloting a study
skills course for all incoming 9th graders.
°
Training student
leaders as peer advocates.
°
Designing and
instituting four innovative courses for the existing career academies where the
curriculum directly relates to the academy’s theme.
°
Providing
professional development for faculty that focuses on mentoring students,
questioning strategies and cross curriculum literacy strategies.
Waltrip’s redesign plan includes:
°
Creating a
Coordinator of New Initiatives position to bridge with the middle schools in
the feeder pattern, to develop and implement an inclusion model for special
education and English Language Learner students, to engage counselors in the reform
model, to establish student involvement in the decision making progress.
°
Creating a
freshman seminar and/or Strategic Reading course for all 9th
graders.
°
Developing
business and community partnerships within each academy to provide relevant
experiences to students related to their career pathway choice. Examples are
Service Learning, internships and job shadowing.
°
Expanding the
variety of advanced courses and the number of students enrolled in those
courses, including those who are ELL, minority and special education.
Westside’s
proposal includes:
°
Implementing five
semi-autonomous small schools with its own governing structure and parent
involvement.
°
Create a summer
transition camp for incoming students, where they will receive reading and
study skills credit.
°
Developing
strategies to address gaps in student learning across the curricula.
°
Addressing 9th
grade literacy through mandatory tutorials and a reading and study skills
course for students reading two grades below grade level.
Wheatley’s plan
includes:
°
Developing
Critical Friends Groups on campus to help 9th and 10th
grade teachers examine student data and determine which instructional
strategies are best to improve student achievement.
°
Continuing the
small learning community structure in which teachers follow the same students
for four years as they move from 9th to 12th grade.
°
Creating an Adult
Advocacy coordinator to implement the curriculum and activities of the adult
advocacy class.
°
Continuing
after-school electives for students such as karate and commercial photography.