HISD Connect - Special Programs or Initiatives

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Special Programs or Initiatives

HISD supports a number of special programs designed to provide Houston students with the highest quality education possible and to help them grow into productive, well-adjusted adults. Explore the list below for brief descriptions of each, as well as details on who to contact for additional information.

Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID)

Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment—713-556-7190

The Advancement Via Individual Determination program provides in-school academic support to students in grades 5–12 who are academically average to prepare them for college eligibility and success. The focus is on minority, rural, low-income, and other students who do not have a college-going tradition in their families.

For more information, call 713-556-7190.

Algebra Initiative

Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment—713-556-7190

A collaboration between HISD and the Rice University School Mathematics Project (RUSMP), the Algebra Initiative was designed to improve students' understanding of algebra and to increase the number of students moving on to advanced mathematics courses.

For more information, call 713-556-7190 or click the link above.

BP Physics Challenge (NASA/Space Center Houston's Engineering/Physics Initiative)

Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment—713-556-7190

An ongoing collaborative effort between HISD, Space Center Houston, BP America, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), this rigorous science program is designed to stimulate students' interest and abilities in math and science.

Through this initiative, hundreds of students visit Space Center Houston and the Johnson Space Center each year to work with NASA astronauts and engineers from Houston's aerospace industry, watch scientific demonstrations, conduct interactive experiments, and even launch and track their own rockets.

For more information, call 713-556-7190.

Character and Leadership Initiatives

Manager of Character and Leadership Initiatives Karen Washington—713-556-7180

HISD’s nationally acclaimed Character Education Program was created in 1989 to incorporate social values into the district’s curriculum and schoolwide activities.

Students spend each month of the school year focusing on one of the nine values that form the basis of the program: self-esteem, honesty, respect, trust, loyalty, justice, commitment, self-discipline, and self-reliance. Lessons are incorporated into daily instruction as a part of all core-curriculum courses.

In 2004, HISD’s Character Education Program was named the inaugural winner of the Lighthouse Award for Large Urban School Districts by the Character Education Partnership (CEP) in its National Schools of Character Awards Program.

For more information, contact Manager of Character and Leadership Initiatives Karen Washington at 713-556-7180 or visit the links above.

Community Services

Community Services—713-556-7025

Also known as "the school without walls," Community Services was designed to serve students who need to receive special instructional services in places other than a regular school setting.

Community Services encompasses three different types of specialized services—for students who are homebound, in the hospital, or otherwise unable to attend regular classes.

For more information, contact Interim Principal Marilyn Weakley at 713-556-7025.

Connect With Kids

Manager of Character and Leadership Initiatives Karen Washington—713-556-7180

Connect With Kids (CWK) is a partnership formed in 2005 between HISD, KTRK-TV Channel 13, and the Atlanta-based company, Connect With Kids.

Designed to help teachers harness the power of television to better educate students and keep them in school, CWK creates character-education-based materials and programming for schools that can also be broadcast on local television stations.

The segments feature real students telling real stories about obstacles they have overcome or how they dealt with certain issues. All materials are designed to explore difficult subjects in a way that students can relate to and understand, with the objective being to foster greater communication between students and their parents, and ultimately inspire students to make better choices in their lives.

For more information, contact Manager of Character and Leadership Initiatives Karen Washington at 713-556-7180 or click the link above.

Cooperative for After-School Enrichment

Manager of After-School Programs Jonnelle Hollins-713-556-6927

Twenty HISD schools participate in the Cooperative for After-School Enrichment (CASE) program, which is sponsored by the Harris County Department of Education.

CASE offerings encompass a wide variety of activities-including tennis, fine arts, photography, and the culinary arts, and are designed to ensure that every child in Harris County has access to a high-quality after-school program.

For more information, contact Manager of After-School Programs Jonnelle Hollins at 713-556-6927 or click the related links above.

Drivers Education

Marketing and Business Development—713-556-6675

In 2007, HISD joined forces with DriversEd.com to provide a new fundraising program for high schools and a convenient way for students to complete their drivers' education.

Through a special arrangement, the online service provider offers HISD students $20 off the regular fee of $169, plus an additional 10-percent discount when they sign up through a special Web site (www.HISD.driversed.com) set up exclusively for district students.

In addition, high schools can receive up to $20 from DriversEd.com for each student who signs up for an online course through this offer.

For more information, contact HISD’s Marketing and Business Development Department at 713-556-6675 or click the link above.

40 Developmental Assets

Safe and Drug-Free Schools—Peter Messiah, 713-556-7020

Manager of Character and Leadership Initiatives Karen Washington—713-556-7180

Nurturing students into healthy, happy, productive citizens is the goal of all public school districts—and the Search Institute's research-based 40 Developmental Assets has been helping HISD pursue that worthy goal since 2002.

40 Developmental Assets is a list of qualities found to be shared by successful students. Compiled in 1990 by Search Institute President Peter L. Benson, Ph.D., it includes such things as “family boundaries,” “honesty,” and “reading for pleasure,” which result in fewer risky behaviors and greater overall well-being when present in significant quantities in a child’s life.

For more information about 40 Developmental Assets, contact Safe and Drug-Free Schools Manager Peter Messiah at 713-556-7020 or visit the links above.

For training information, contact Character and Leadership Initiatives Manager Karen Washington at 713-556-7180.

Houston Chronicle Classroom

Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment—713-556-7190

The Houston Chronicle Classroom program gives HISD high-school seniors hands-on, on-site experience in journalism at a big-city newspaper.

Debuted in August 2006, the Chronicle Classroom is modeled after the New Visions program in Albany, New York, which was started by Houston Chronicle Editor Jeff Cohen a decade earlier.

Participating students visit the newspaper's headquarters for a few hours every weekday afternoon during the school year, and learn from professional journalists how to interview sources, research facts, and write their own stories.

The students also publish their own newspapers during the school year, in which they generate ideas, conduct interviews, provide photographs, and write and edit stories. In addition, they contribute to a Web site dubbed “Insight,” and some students have their stories published in the Chronicle.

For more information, call 713-556-7190.

International Baccalaureate (IB) Program

The International Baccalaureate (IB) program is an advanced academic curriculum that focuses on problem-solving and independent critical-thinking skills, which better prepare students for college and a lifetime of learning.

Four HISD elementary schools are certified to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program to students: Northline, River Oaks, Oran Roberts, and Mark Twain.

River Oaks, Oran Roberts, and Mark Twain Elementary Schools, which became the first three to offer the Primary Years program in 2005, are either Magnet or Vanguard campuses. Northline became certified in August of 2008, and is the only Title I school in the group.

The only HISD middle school certified to offer the IB Middle Years Program is Sidney Lanier.

HISD high schools that offer IB diploma programs are Bellaire and Mirabeau B. Lamar.

For more information, visit the links above or contact the schools listed directly.

Junior Achievement

Strategic Partnerships—Gwen Samples, 713-556-7214

Junior Achievement (JA) programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to apply the concepts they use in class to generate wealth and effectively manage it, create jobs that enrich their communities, and apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace.

JA programs are available for students in kindergarten through the twelfth grade and are taught almost entirely by local volunteers, some of whom are provided exclusively by particular HISD community partners at certain campuses.

Students in grades 4–6 may also participate in a special eight-week program at the Albert and Ethel Herzstein BizTown (formerly known as Exchange City, 3710 Dacoma, 713-680-4745), a hands-on lab in which they apply learned business practices to a simulated city scenario managed entirely by students. The Houston BizTown location is one of fewer than two dozen similar facilities in the entire country.

In 2007, Junior Achievement had programs in more than 80 HISD schools, and since the program’s inception in 1945, JA programs have benefited more than a million HISD students through after-school activities and college scholarships.

In honor of its longstanding commitment to Houston’s children, in 2004 HISD inducted Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas into its Partnership Hall of Fame.

To learn more about Junior Achievement programs in HISD schools (including how companies can form partnerships with particular campuses), contact Strategic Partnerships Coordinator Gwen Samples at 713-556-7214 or Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas at 713-682-4500.

Contact your child’s school directly to find out if Junior Achievement programs are offered there and how your child can participate.

Kids2College

P-16 College and Career Readiness―713-556-7019

Kids2College is one component of a partnership between HISD and the Sallie Mae Fund (also see SuccessExpress) designed to show middle-school students that obtaining a college degree is an achievable goal.

Kids2College offers a six-week curriculum for sixth-graders that combines hands-on activities with information about career options and college life. Students also have the opportunity to spend a day on a college campus to gain a better understanding of all the exciting career opportunities that are available to college graduates. Texas A&M University is also a partner in this program.

For more information, call P-16 College and Career Readiness at 713-556-7019.

Lexiles for Learning

Manager of Adolescent Literacy Tina Angelo—713-556-6823

The Lexile Framework® for Reading is a system created by MetaMetrics, Inc. to measure the ability of students to read and to understand what they have read.

Now used in all HISD libraries, HISD textbook selections, and TAKS and Stanford test reporting, the framework uses a single scale to measure both the reading ability of individual students and the degree of difficulty of books and other documents.

For more information on Lexiles, visit the link above or contact Manager of Adolescent Literacy Tina Angelo at 713-556-6823.

Middle School Golf Program

School Support Services—713-556-6800

The Middle School Golf Program is the brainchild of 2007 HISD Board of Education President Manuel Rodríguez Jr. and Houston attorney Bill King.

Designed to keep kids active and involved in sports, each year the program provides 100 sets of new golf clubs and play experience to students in seven HISD middle schools: James Deady, Thomas Edison, Charles Hartman, William Holland, Stonewall Jackson, Daniel Ortíz, and William Stevenson.

For more information, contact School Support Services at 713-556-6800.

NASA Sports and Exploration

School Support Services—713-556-6800

Launched during the 2007–2008 school year, the NASA Sports and Exploration pilot program is a partnership between HISD, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), and the Houston Dynamo.

Designed to teach science and physical education to elementary-school students, the idea is to use two common interests of children—space and soccer—to teach both subjects. Lessons for physical education will complement and reinforce the science lessons.

In its first year, third-grade students at George Sánchez Elementary School will explore concepts such as how a human body on Earth engaged in sports would be similar to and different from one in space. The program will incorporate soccer activities and information about space exploration to help students comprehend the physics behind force and motion. The goal is to eventually make the program available in all HISD elementary schools.

For more information, contact School Support Services at 713-556-6800.

Prepared 4 Life

Community Engagement Director Lucy Bremond—713-556-7211

Prepared 4 Life (P4L) is a non-profit organization founded by Michael and Lisa Holthouse that provides innovative after-school programs for Houston-area middle-school students.

Based on the 40 Developmental Assets, this program became active at six HISD middle schools (Thomas Edison, Walter Fondren, James Hogg, John Marshall, Daniel Ortíz, and William Stevenson) during the 2006–2007 school year.

Participants engage in rock-climbing, tennis, cooking, theatre, martial arts, and other fun yet challenging activities that help them develop problem-solving skills, self-confidence, and self-reliance.

Students also experience amazing opportunities through the program. In January 2007, a group of P4L students completed the Aramco Houston Half Marathon, and in April 2007, another group met the former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as part of the Brilliant Lectures Series’ “Conversations With Brilliance.”

For more information about Prepared 4 Life, contact HISD Community Engagement Director Lucy Bremond at 713-556-7211 or visit the links above.

Project GRAD

P–16 College and Career Readiness—713-556-7016

Project GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) is a collaborative effort between HISD and the community to help ensure that children in economically disadvantaged communities succeed in graduating from high school and have an opportunity to go to college.

Founded in Houston in 1988 by former Tenneco Chief Executive Officer James Ketelsen, the program originally was designed to offer four-year college scholarships to graduates from HISD’s Jefferson Davis High School.

Now active at Davis, Sam Houston, John Reagan, Phillis Wheatley, and Jack Yates High Schools, the program is guided by the philosophy that all students in prekindergarten through grade 12 can be effective learners, regardless of demographic background.

For more information, call 713-556-7016 or click the link above. A history of Project GRAD is available here.

PSAT for All

P-16 College and Career Readiness―713-556-7019

PSAT for All is a districtwide initiative started in 2003 by former Superintendent of Schools Kaye Stripling. It allows all HISD tenth-graders to take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQAT) for free as a way to enroll more students in Advanced Placement classes and prepare them for the SAT reasoning test required by most colleges.

For more information, contact P-16 College and Career Readiness at 713-556-7019.

Rachel’s Challenge

Manager of Character and Leadership Initiatives Karen Washington—713-556-7180

Rachel’s Challenge was developed by the family of Rachel Scott, one of the 13 people killed during the massacre at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. It is based on a philosophy that the 17-year-old espoused in a school essay, namely that “if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it may start a chain reaction of the same.” Rachel attempted to live her life according to this belief, noting that “people will never know how far a little kindness can go.”

Students in HISD schools began attending presentations based on Rachel’s theory in the fall of 2006, in which they learned how to translate her philosophy into action. At the end of each, students were asked to consider accepting “Rachel’s Challenge” by doing the following things:

Eliminating Prejudice by Looking for the Best in Others
Daring to Dream—Setting Goals—Keeping a Journal
Choosing Influences Carefully—Input Determines Output
Remembering That: Kind Words + Small Acts of Kindness = Huge Impact
Starting a Chain Reaction with Family and Friends

Rachel’s Challenge is closely aligned with HISD’s anti-bullying initiative, Safe and Drug-Free School programs, the establishment of a college-bound culture, and its character-education curriculum.

For more information, contact Manager of Character and Leadership Initiatives Karen Washington at 713-556-7180.

Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities

Manager of Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Peter Messiah—713-556-7020

Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) is a federally funded entitlement grant that helps schools to plan and implement violence and drug-use prevention and intervention programs in prekindergarten through grade 12.

Just a few of the programs that SDFSC sponsors in HISD schools are:

Drug Prevention Month—school-based prevention activities encourage students to live a drug-free lifestyle; activities are ongoing throughout the school year.
No Place for Hate Youth Summit—formerly known as the Prejudice Awareness Summit, this annual event for eighth-graders (and one accompanying faculty sponsor) teaches students the dangers of bigotry and hatred; attendees develop post-summit strategies to increase tolerance on their campuses, which are implemented with the help of their sponsors
Do the “Write” Thing Challenge—encourages seventh- and eighth-grade students to submit essays in which they respond to thought-provoking questions about youth violence, its causes, its effects on them, and what they feel they can do about it. County Judge Robert Eckels is the chairperson for the committee supporting this activity.

For more information about these and other SDFSC programs, call Manager of Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Peter Messiah at 713-556-7020 or visit the link above.

Soccer After School

School Support Services—713-556-6800

A partnership between HISD, Minute Maid, and the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, the Soccer After School (SOS) program debuted in spring 2007 at three HISD middle schools: Albert Sidney Johnston, Jane Long, and Sharpstown.

In SOS, students learn about soccer and participate in competitions while also becoming better students. The program includes weekly tutorial sessions and skill-building soccer games and is designed for students who do not qualify for University Interscholastic League competitions.

The Minute Maid Soccer After School program will continue at Johnston, Long, and Sharpstown Middle Schools, with plans to bring it to three more HISD campuses during the 2007–2008 school year.

For more information, contact School Support Services at 713-556-6800.

Sound Investment

Fine Arts Strategic Initiatives—713-556-7210

Sound Investment is a partnership formed in January 2004 between HISD and the Texas Music Project to purchase musical instruments for HISD schools.

Thousands of HISD students wish to participate in band or orchestra programs at their campuses each year, but with more than 75 percent coming from economically disadvantaged households (based on 2006–2007 figures), many cannot afford to purchase their own musical instruments.

The Sound Investment initiative enables generations of these students to participate in district music programs, as instruments purchased through the campaign remain at their respective schools for successive classes to enjoy.

Funding for Sound Investment comes from concerts, corporate sponsorships, individual donations, music CD sales, the Winter Fest fundraiser, and other sources of revenue.

For more information, call 713-556-7210.

SuccessExpress

P-16 College and Career Readiness―713-556-7196

This mobile college-counseling center made its debut in March 2007 at HISD’s César Chávez High School through a partnership with the Sallie Mae Fund.

Designed to provide information year-round to students who may not have considered college a possibility, the SuccessExpress is a colorful school bus equipped with desks, laptop computers, and a Smartboard for instructional workshops. It visits neighborhoods, community events, and businesses throughout Houston, delivering information to students and their families about how to apply to and pay for college.

For more information, contact P-16 College and Career Readiness at 713-556-7196.

Writers in the Schools

Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment—713-556-7190

The mission of Writers in the Schools (WITS) is to engage children in the pleasure and power of reading and writing. Its primary goal is to provide literacy programs to the widest possible range of children.

Since 1983, WITS has sent professional poets, fiction writers, and playwrights into classrooms in the Houston area to share their love and knowledge of the written word with students and teachers. WITS is also involved in national initiatives, such as mentoring other writers-in-schools programs, serving as a model for multidisciplinary arts educators, and designing curricula for use in schools.

Students at participating HISD schools visit a local art museum or gallery for inspiration as part of the program, and each student receives a published anthology of his or her work, a single visit from a visual or performing artist to help emphasize the connection between writing and art, an opportunity to read his or her work at the city-wide Young Writers Reading held each May, and most importantly, a weekly creative writing workshop led by a professional poet, fiction writer, or playwright for a full year.

For more information, visit www.writersintheschools.org or contact Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment at 713-556-7190.