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I'm proud to announce a new initiative aimed at aggressively lowering the dropout rate and increasing the graduation rate. Set to launch in January, the Online Credit Recovery Initiative will provide computers, software, and graduation coaches for high-school students who are at risk of dropping out of school.
Graduation coaches and credit recovery labs will be established in every large, traditional high school. The labs will feature flexible hours and computers to deliver SAT and TAKS tutoring as well as provide access to online courses to help students recover lost credits. Other high schools will have computers and software and use existing staff to implement the initiative. The graduation coaches will help identify highly at-risk students as early as ninth grade and provide ongoing academic, social, and emotional support.
I'm really excited about the potential of this type of program, where the appropriate use of technology and staff can help transform the way we teach and the way students learn.
Our goal for the initiative is simple: help students stay in school and graduate on time. A similar credit recovery initiative was very successful in San Diego, where the dropout rate was cut in half—to 9 percent from 18 percent—in just one year, and I am confident HISD's initiative will produce equally positive results.
Hard-Working HISD Students Rewarded for Reaching Graduation:
In 2004, 50 at-risk HISD students from Lee, Madison, Sterling, and Worthing High Schools made a pledge, promising Houston Mayor Bill White that they'd graduate—and those students have been rewarded by the Hashoo Foundation for keeping that promise and taking a big step toward creating a better life for themselves and their families.
Board of Education Run-off Elections Scheduled for December 12: Candidates Anna Eastman and Alma Lara will face off in District I after receiving 42 and 44 percent of the total votes (respectively), while Adrian Collins and Lawrence Marshall will vie for the District IX seat after receiving 31 and 44 percent of the votes (respectively). Mike Lunceford won the District V seat with 69 percent of the vote.
Award-Winning West Briar Middle School Teacher Featured in Newspaper: The October 30 issue of Friday eNews announced that West Briar Middle School teacher Eileen McClellan had been named the 2009 Outstanding Middle-School Art Educator by the Texas Art Education Association. Read more about HISD's award-winning teacher in the October 31 Houston Chronicle article link above.
Notice of Destruction of Special Education Records 2009: The Special Education records of students who are no longer receiving Special Education services as of the end of the 2001–2002 school year or prior years will be destroyed in accordance with state law unless the parent/guardian or eligible (adult) student notifies the school district otherwise by Friday, December 18, 2009.
Alcott and Whidby Elementary and Bellaire High Schools were just two of the many that staged mock mayoral elections to teach students about the American political process. Alcott's and Bellaire's took place on Election Day, while Whidby's took place about a week earlier. Here, a Whidby student casts his vote on October 26.
Burbank Middle School hosted its annual Family Literacy Night on October 28, and more than 250 parents and students attended. This year's theme was "Traveling the World Through Literacy," and students traveled (passport in hand) through the various countries represented, engaging in literacy activities at work stations along the way. Every family in attendance was also able to have its portrait taken for free.
Students from Cullen and Ryan Middle Schools and Yates High School got a visit from Houston-area physicians and medical students on November 5 as part of the Doctors Back to School (DBTS) program. Created in 2002, DBTS hopes to spur interest in medical careers and increase the number of minority physicians serving Americans by introducing students to physicians from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.
Farias Early Childhood Center conducted a "build-a-book" workshop on October 7 to nurture family connections and a love for storytelling. More than 160 parents participated, using blank wire-bound books, glue sticks, and simple craft materials to create storybooks together with their children. At the end of the workshop, the students read their creations aloud, representing a wide range of topics such as "My Family," "Dinosaurs Looking at the Sun," and "My Cat Loves Playing with Fish."
Fondren Elementary School was the beneficiary of Acergy's annual work day on October 3, when volunteers from that company came to the campus to landscape the front of the school, tidy up the grounds, create flower beds, remove posts, add gravel and fill potholes in the parking lots, and clean, sand, prime, and paint some tables. They also distributed school supplies and backpacks to needy students.
Highland Heights Elementary School students took turns showing off their costumes during the second annual "Not So Spooky Vocabulary Parade" on October 30, in which children, teachers, and other school staff members dressed up as vocabulary words in lieu of Halloween costumes. The event was inspired two years ago by Debra Frasier's children's book, Miss Alaineus, A Vocabulary Disaster.
The International School at Sharpstown received a visit from retired ballet star Li Cunxin on November 5, thanks to an arrangement with Writers in the Schools (WITS). The best-selling author talked to students about Mao's Last Dancer, his autobiography, which details his childhood in rural China, subsequent defection to the United States, and time as a principal dancer with Houston Ballet. Cunxin was the guest speaker at WITS' 25th-anniversary celebration that evening.
Jackson Middle School sixth-grader Jelina Salinas is one of dozens of HISD students to be recognized through Luby's Inc.'s ACT Program (Achieving Character Together), which promotes and rewards outstanding character achievement in middle-schoolers. Jelina was chosen as the "bronze" winner at her campus and the "silver" (or overall) winner among all participating schools for the first six weeks. She will get a chance to be named the "gold" (or grand prize) winner when one is selected from among the silver winners at the end of the school year. Last year, a student from the E. O. Smith Education Center won the top prize.
Milby High School senior health-science students Michelle Arredondo and Clara Estrada put their skills to work while attending a clinical rotation at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital on Tuesday, October 13. They noticed an elderly woman in the cafeteria in respiratory distress and informed their teacher, who alerted hospital personnel. Both students helped keep the woman comfortable until emergency assistance arrived.
Mount Carmel Academy added another trophy to its ever-growing list of state championships when its Math Olympiad teams won first- and third-place prizes in the Texas Charter School Academic & Athletic League finals held in Austin on October 24. Mount Carmel's two teams were among the final 28 from across the state of Texas that participated in the intense competition, and the third-place team earned its rank despite being short one member. Participating students were: José Almaguer, Nicholas Martínez, Alex Nettles, Stephen Sombillo, Maggie Vargas, Coryn Wolf, Nicholas Wolforth, Joe Young, and Lauren Young.
Park Place Elementary School has welcomed a new business partner, 84Lumber, which will work with the campus' parent-teacher organization to build bleachers for the SPARK Park so that parents can sit and enjoy soccer games. The company has also offered to build garden boxes for kindergarten students so that they can plant and cultivate vegetables.
The Pro-Vision Academy held its fourth annual golf fundraiser on October 19 at the Westcreek Golf Club. The event raised $50,000 for Pro-Vision, Inc., and the 130 participants included celebrities such as former Philadelphia Eagle Roynell Young, who founded Pro-Vision. Pictured is attorney Gerry Desrochers, teeing off.
Reagan High School students' artwork has been on display at the Lawndale Art Center since October 19 as a part of the Día de los Muertos exhibit promoting cultural awareness of the Mexican folk-art practices associated with this celebration of family, life, and community. The show ends November 7.
Ryan Middle School hosted its inaugural art gallery on November 3, in the choir room. The first installation focused on the Hispanic tradition of El Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) and featured pieces created by students in art and Spanish classes.
The Rusk School's chess club (L–R: Ashley Durbin, Jonathan Gonzales, Enjoli Orozco, Nasario Rocha, Patsy Chew, and Carlos Saucedo) pose with Superintendent of Schools Terry B. Grier during a citywide chess tournament held at T. H. Rogers on October 24. The school hosted 375 chess players in what continues to be the largest local K–12 scholastic chess tournament in the Houston area. Of the 94 schools represented, 16 came from HISD, and district winners were: Bellaire (second place), high-school level; T. H. Rogers (first), Long (fourth), and Rusk (fifth), middle-school level; and T. H. Rogers (second), elementary-school level.
Shearn Elementary School welcomed representatives from Mission Houston and the Westwood community to the campus on October 10, when volunteers painted the building's exterior, watered gardens, created bulletin boards, worked in the library, helped teachers prepare classrooms, and landscaped the campus.
Valley West Elementary School Magnet students and their parents celebrated Astronomy Day by participating in a scavenger hunt for constellations at the Houston Museum of Natural Science's George Observatory in Needville, Texas, on October 24. Armed with telescopes, binoculars, night-vision goggles, flashlights, and a star map of the October sky, the amateur astronomers settled themselves atop the observation deck to complete their assigned tasks: recognizing craters on the moon's surface, locating Jupiter and its moons, and identifying various constellations.
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Westbury High School students in the JROTC program took a trip to the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi on October 16. Forty-two cadets toured the museum and learned more about the aircraft carrier and its role in World War II, then listened to ghost stories and participated in a scavenger hunt during their overnight stay on the ship. From left to right are: Katy Garcia, Selena Ruiz, Dominique Haller, Catiz Martínez, and Chris Garcia.
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