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East Region School Programs

  • Academy of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology:
    The new Academy for Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology opened Milby in September 2008. Supported by IPAA, it gives students advanced academic and hands-on learning experiences with science, math, and emerging technology concepts that are needed to pursue careers in the oil industry. "The academy will offer an amazing opportunity for students to learn about careers associated with the petroleum industry, students leaving high school will be ready for success, and the petroleum academy will prepare these students for a bright, productive future. Paid internships, industry mentoring, scholarships, apprenticeships, and employment after graduation are also integral parts of this academy.
  • Accelerated High School Model:
    REACH Charter School:
    REACH (Realizing Educational Achievement in the City of Houston ), is designed to get dropouts back in class and help them acquire the knowledge and skills outlined in HISD’s graduate profile and to earn their high-school diploma.
    The program, which is located on the Furr High School campus. The program features an extended school hours (including night and weekend classes as needed), project-based learning, independent study, and individualized plans based on each student’s interests, needs, and learning styles. REACH Charter students also has the services of a social worker, a psychologist, and individual mentors.
  • AP Courses:
    For over 50 years, the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program has partnered with colleges, universities, and high schools to provide students with the opportunity to take college-level course work and exams while still in high school. AP provides motivated and academically prepared students with the opportunity to earn college credit or placement and helps them stand out in the college admissions process. AP courses help students develop the study skills, habits of mind, and critical thinking abilities that they will need in college. 
  • PRE-AP Courses:
    The purpose of Pre-AP courses is to engage students in active, high-level learning, thereby ensuring that every middle and high school student develops the skills, habits of mind, and concepts they need to succeed in college. Pre-AP is based on the following two important premises. The first is the expectation that all students can perform at rigorous academic levels.
    The second important premise of Pre-AP is the belief that we can prepare every student for higher intellectual engagement by starting the development of skills and acquisition of knowledge as early as possible. Pre-AP classes prepare students for success in AP classes.
  • Bilingual Services:
    Bilingual Education is an instructional program offered in elementary schools and selected middle schools for students whose native language is other than English (Spanish, Vietnamese, etc.) and who need to enhance English language skills. The program provides limited English proficient (LEP) students with a carefully structured sequence of basic skills in their native language, as well as gradual skill development in English, beginning at PK, through English as a Second Language methodology. In bilingual programs, the function of the native language is to provide access to the curriculum while the student is acquiring English; instruction in the native language assures that students attain grade level cognitive skills without lagging behind.
  • ESL Services:
    HISD serves elementary language minority students who speak languages other than Spanish and secondary language minority students through ESL methodology. ESL programs provide language minority students with English instruction that is commensurate with the student's level of language proficiency
  • Career and Technical Education (CTE)
    Is a program used to empower students with the academic and technical skills needed to strengthen the economic and social foundation of the city of Houston and beyond.
  • Dual Credit Courses:
    Are college courses that also count toward high school requirements. These courses may be taken at the high school or at a college and are taught by a high school teacher with appropriate credentials or by regular college faculty. The student earns college credit and high school credit for the course. The high school and college work together to determine appropriate high school credit to be awarded upon successful completion of the course. East Regions high schools collaborate with HCC to offer numerous dual credit courses.
  • Early Childhood:
    Providing Houston 's young people with the best education available anywhere requires beginning the learning process as early as possible.
    That’s why HISD began offering full-day prekindergarten programs to all eligible children in 2005.
    To be eligible for enrollment in a district prekindergarten program, a child must:
    • Be four years of age on or before September 1 of a given school year
    • Live within the boundaries of the Houston Independent School District
      AND meet at least one of the following criteria:
    • Be homeless
    • Be unable to speak or understand English
    • Be economically disadvantaged
    • Be the child of an active-duty member of the U.S. military or one who has been killed, injured, or missing in action while on active duty.
  • Early College High School Model:
    Early college high school is a bold approach, based on the principle that academic rigor, combined with the opportunity to save time and money, is a powerful motivator for students to work hard and meet serious intellectual challenges. Early college high schools blend high school and college in a rigorous yet supportive program, compressing the time it takes to complete a high school diploma and the first two years of college.  
    The East Early College High School is a small high school with personalized instruction for each student. EECHS provides an accelerated, college-preparatory learning program, allowing students to combine high-school and college-level classes tuition-free. In contrast, the traditional process takes six years--four years of "free" public high school and two years of college classes for which one has to pay. This unique educational opportunity for the students of HISD is made possible through funding and support from the Houston Independent School District, Houston Community College System, and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
  • Fine Arts:
    The fine arts  categories of performing arts and visual arts form the basis for a coherent presentation of instructional strategies in the fine arts that support teaching and learning in each of the four disciplines of art, music, theater, and dance.
  • Gifted and Talented:
    The Houston Independent School District provides two program options for Gifted and Talented students. The Vanguard Magnet program is designed to meet the needs of G/T students in grades K-12 by providing an environment for students to work with their cognitive peers. The Vanguard Neighborhood programs (formerly known as Neighborhood G/T) are designed to meet the needs of G/T students in grades K-12 at their neighborhood (zoned) schools. Both Vanguard Magnet and Vanguard Neighborhood programs provide a differentiated curriculum by modifying the depth, complexity, and pacing of the general school program.
  • Health Science:
    Gives overview of the therapeutic, diagnostic, environmental, and informational systems of the health care industry. The focus is on career exploration, leadership development, ethical and legal issues, and the history, economics, and trends in financing health care. Students will develop a concept of health and wellness from the perspective of a health consumer as well as a potential professional in the health care industry this systems.
  • Magnet Programs:
    Offer a wide range of distinctive education. Some emphasize academic subjects such as math, science, technology, language immersion, visual and performing arts, or humanities. Others use specific instructional approaches, such as Montessori methods, or approaches found in international baccalaureate programs or early college programs. The HISD Magnet Program is designed and implemented to meet two objectives: a) to provide academic programs whose quality and special focus will attract students to them voluntarily from across the district, and b) to increase the percentage of students attending integrated schools. More broadly, the Magnet Program is the primary vehicle through which the district offers educational choice to students and their parents.
  • Maritime Academy:
    The Port of Houston Maritime Academy opens at Stephen F. Austin HS in August 2009. Austin High School, the Port of Houston Authority and the East End Chamber of Commerce have teamed up with Port of Houston businesses to create this program.
    ThePort of Houston Maritime Academy at Austin High School will train students for entry-level jobs at the port. Students will also have the opportunity to continue their maritime training at local two- and four-year colleges. Exciting and high-paying careers await the students who graduate from the Port of Houston Maritime Academy at Austin High School.
  • Mindful Exploration of Technology and the Arts:
    Is a magnet school, part of Houston Independent School District's network of magnet schools will debut its Film Academy. A first for HISD devoted to specialized study. The  Furr Film Academy magnet program is geared towards theater, video and college-preparatory program. The new fine-arts Magnet program at Furr will focus on film something no other HISD school does. The program will give Furr students a chance to learn how to create their own film art in which students focus on social studies, English, and foreign language.  Interested students must be accepted through an application process overseen by HISD's magnet program. 
  • Pathway to Teaching:
    The first of its kind in the nation, Austin High School for Teaching Professions was introduced in 1982 to address this concern. The primary mission of this four-year high school program is to encourage and prepare college-bound students to enter the professional field of education.
    AHSTP gives high school students a head start in the exciting and rewarding profession of education. It has received national recognition and has served as a model for many of the high school programs that have since been developed. Students at AHSTP follow the same rigorous college preparatory schedule offered at other HISD schools, but they are also required to take a series of specialized courses which will expose them to teaching and related educational careers.
    The objectives of the program are achieved not only by the course work but also through a variety of guest speakers, field trips, cultural events, teaching observations, and field experiences. Ninth grade students at AHSTP are given an opportunity to assist classroom teachers on a regular basis. Sophomores & juniors participate in a Big Brother/Big Sister program, and the Franklin Project, tutoring elementary school students. This sequential approach prepares AHSTP students for their senior year and the Educational Internship Course. Here students are assigned to teachers in one of five HISD schools and work 1½ or 2 hours a day as a student intern.
  •  Project Lead the Way:
    The engineering program known as “Project Lead the Way” atCésar Chávez High School is one of only 21 in the country designated as a “National Engineering Academy .”
    That designation means the full support of the National Academy will be behind the program, offering support in curriculum and professional-development training for Chávez teachers as they establish an integrated course of study that incorporates all academic subject areas. Teachers  will work together to plan lessons that incorporate the relevant problem solving techniques of Project Lead the Way courses into every class, exposing more students to engineering professions. Training and support for all of the initiatives required for the engineering academy is provided by the National Academy .
    The Project Lead the Way program began with 100 students in the 2006–2007 school year. Now the program has about 200 students. The program is sponsored by the Houston East End Chamber of Commerce, which represents many petrochemical, manufacturing, and port-related industries in east Houston.
  • Science Institute:
    College-bound students study a comprehensive program of biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, as well as environmental chemistry and chemical-laboratory technology. Opportunities are available for experience in research, production, and authentic laboratories.
  • Special Education Services:
    The East Region Schools offer Special Education Services to extend and improve learning opportunities for students with disabilities in accordance with state, federal, and local policies and procedures in ways that elicit the cooperation of staff and parents, enabling the students to utilize instruction and related services to participate to the fullest extent possible in all phases of life.
    Some areas that students qualify for services for special education with one or more of the following disabilities: mental retardation, auditory impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), emotional disturbance, non-categorical early-childhood disability, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, specific learning disabilities, deaf blindness, and multiple impairments.
    The Admission, Review, and Dismissal/Individual Education Program (ARD/IEP) Committee determines the instructional arrangement to which each student receives special education instruction and related services.
    Parents play an important role as partners in their children’s education. HISD encourages parent and community members to participate in the Special Education planning process. Parent meetings are held in the central office and in each of the district offices throughout the year. These meetings facilitate participation by community members, including individuals with disabilities and their families, who are concerned with educational programming for students with disabilities.
  • Vara Center:
    The Rudy C. Vara Center for Technology is one of two technology skill centers within HISD. The center provides dual-credit college courses in com-puter technology for students from three East Region campuses, Austin, Milby, and Eastwood.
    The Vara Center offers students the opportunity to obtain industry A+ Certification. In keeping with HISD’s efforts to create a College-Bound Culture, the Career and Technical Education Department has developed six-year graduation plans for 20 of its career paths. Each plan outlines course offerings for every semester, from the start of a student’s freshman year in high school to the end of his second year of college. When students graduate from the Vara Center program they have up to two years of college credit that may be put towards a degree from Houston Community College.
    Each year, Vara Center students participate in city, district, and state computer maintenance and networking competitions as a part of the SkillsUSA program. SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry professionals working together to ensure America has a skilled work force. SkillsUSA offers many opportunities for growth through competitions. Vara’s SkillsUSA Chapter 3636 has received recognition as Most Outstanding Chapter for consistently producing the most 1st place winners in every competition.