Fine Arts and/or Performing and Visual Arts

HISD’s Magnet programs in the fine arts build on academics to give students opportunities for creative expression. Young artists work together to produce high-quality performances, publications, and exhibitions that reflect their understanding of the arts, develop their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, and enhance their self-esteem. 

Dual Language Programs

HISD is rich with diversity, mirroring Houston. Our specialty schools — dual language, language immersion, International Baccalaureate, and internationally focused high schools — offer students the opportunity for broader language study, multicultural explorations, and the skills to function smoothly in a shrinking global environment.

Dual language campuses promote instruction in two languages as equally important, giving English speakers the gift of bilingualism and allowing English-as-a-second-language students to retain their own language while mastering English.

Vanguard Magnet (Gifted and Talented)

HISD’s Vanguard magnet programs serve students who have been identified as gifted and/or talented in intellectual ability or creativity. Vanguard curricula are both accelerated and enriched, and are continually rigorous throughout a student’s academic life. At Carnegie Vanguard, the district’s only Vanguard high school, students must take pre-AP and AP courses in all four core areas plus a foreign language each year.

International Baccalaureate

International Baccalaureate schools offer challenging educational programs for students to help develop their intellectual, personal, emotional, and social skills to learn, work, and live comfortably and productively as a citizen of the world. The rigorous and broad IB program empowers students to become dedicated, lifelong, bilingual and biliterate learners who embrace multiculturalism and diversity.

IB schools operate through a nonprofit international foundation that authorizes IB status through an extensive process including teacher training, an IB-team visit, curriculum review, and interviews throughout the school community.

Montessori

HISD’s Montessori schools use century-old techniques emphasizing highly personalized learning for each child to develop his/her own interests and full potential. Every classroom is equipped with special materials designed to work with the whole child to develop social skills, emotional growth, physical coordination, and cognition. Class communities emphasize both independent, purposeful work and collaborative explorations.

STEM/STEAM

 Students have the opportunity for in-depth, process-oriented studies of STEM disciplines in conjunction with a strong academic program. These studies develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills through relevant and meaningful STEM explorations. Student centered learning emphasizes “hands-on” activities with real world applications.