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HISD Breaks Another Record on Superintendent’s Last Day

August 31, 2009 is Dr. Abelardo Saavedra’s last day as HISD superintendent of schools—and just in time for his departure, the school district has set yet another record.

The Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC) has released its 2009 list of Texas Honor Roll Schools and 21 HISD schools are on the list. That’s new record for the district, which had 18 schools on the list in 2008, 16 in 2007, and 14 in 2006.

The TBEC Honor Roll recognizes schools that have demonstrated three years of consistent high performance in all subjects compared to other schools serving similar student populations. The TBEC Honor Roll schools have the highest percentage of students performing at the state's most rigorous standard, "commended" performance, in every subject. Less than five percent of the more than 8,000 public schools in Texas earn the honor. This year, only 254 Texas schools made the grade.

HISD has about three percent of the schools in Texas, yet this year it has 8.2 per cent of the schools on the Honor Roll list.

“The TBEC Honor Roll is the Gold Standard of academic excellence, so I can think of no better parting gift than to set a new record for Honor Roll schools,” said Dr. Saavedra.

Here are the HISD schools that made the grade on the TBEC Honor Roll this year. An asterisk denotes two consecutive years on the list.

2009 TBEC Honor Roll Schools

Bush Elementary
Briarmeadow Elementary
Carnegie Vanguard High School *
Condit Elementary *
Cornelius Elementary *
DeBakey High School
East Early College
Energized for Excellence Middle School *
Kennedy Elementary *
Kolter Elementary *
Lanier Middle School *
Lovett Elementary
Lyons Elementary
Oak Forest Elementary
Project Chrysalis Middle School
River Oaks Elementary
Roberts Elementary
T. H. Rogers Elementary *
T. H. Rogers Middle School *
West University Elementary *
White Elementary *

When Dr. Saavedra became HISD superintendent, the district had seven TBEC Honor Roll Schools, and each year the district set a new record. Many records were broken under Dr. Saavedra’s leadership and the list of accomplishments is long. Here are some highlights:

• Achieved a record-breaking number of highly-rated schools: 200 Exemplary and Recognized schools under the state’s current accountability system
• The number of Exemplary schools grew from six in 2005 to 84 in 2009
• Made more progress on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills than the state average, while closing the achievement gap by 56 percent for disadvantaged students
• Created a college-bound culture throughout the district
• Increased the rigor in the classroom, with record numbers of HISD students taking and passing Advanced Placement exams and dual-credit courses to earn college credit while they are still in high school
• Established full-day prekindergarten program
• Implemented the biggest teacher-performance-pay system in the country
• Increased academic performance by rewarding teachers and staff more than $60 million in performance pay based on increased student academic growth
• Created Reach Out to Dropouts to go door-to-door to get students back into school, which has been replicated nationally, encouraging students to return to class
• Passed the third school bond construction program in a decade, which will result in the construction and renovation of nearly $3 billion worth of schools over 15 years—the largest public works program in Houston history—providing an important stimulus to the local economy and benefitting students with an improved learning environment
• 2008 Region IV Superintendent of the Year
• 2008 eSchool News Tech-Savvy Superintendent of the Year
• 2009 Texas Association of Bilingual Educators Public Educator of the Year
• Record-breaking 21 schools on the 2009 TBEC Honor Roll List. This record was broken during each year of Dr. Saavedra’s leadership

When he announced his decision to retire in February 2009, Dr. Saavedra said, “My parents taught me to leave a place better than what it was when I arrived. I think I will have done that when I leave HISD. With the support of the board and the dedication and hard work of our central and regional administrators and their staffs, the tenacity and brilliant work of our principals, and the unwavering dedication and extraordinary work that our teachers perform in their classrooms every day, I am able to leave behind a school district that five years ago had six Exemplary schools and today has 84, a district where being an Exemplary or Recognized school is the norm and not the exception, a district that beats the state in the percentage of Exemplary/Recognized schools, a district that improved commended TAKS test performance in science by 87 percent, in math by 36 percent, and in reading and social studies by 35 percent over a period of just two years. During the same two years, HISD’s growth in college-readiness has surpassed the state, closing the gap between the district and the state to just five points in English and one point in math. We accomplished this by focusing on individual student academic growth instead of chasing accountability ratings, and by our doing so the accountability ratings improved dramatically.”