schools

Two new achievement systems have been developed and implemented for the Houston schools — a school board monitoring system and a new appraisal system for the superintendent. The district is committed to improving student achievement, as well as earning the confidence and support of the community. The two systems set new standards for the administrative structure and systematic improvement process for higher scholastic achievement in the Houston schools. In 2001, Houston schools instituted a Declaration of Beliefs and Visions, which defined for school employees and the community what the district stands for and where it is going. • Improve public support and confidence in the Houston schools, and • Create a positive district culture. The declaration determined to accomplish these goals through: • An educational structure built upon the relationship between teacher and student, • Decentralization and shared decision making, • A common core of academic subjects for all students, and • Focus upon performance, not compliance. The two new systems for the Houston schools provide a roadmap to achieve and measure the progress of these goals. Both are detailed and objective, providing a systematic means for meaningful and quantifiable organizational improvement. Board Monitoring System The monitoring system is comprehensive and demanding with data-driven accountability.

Houston schools teachers have not had significant pay raise in seven years. The new Houston schools budget plans for an average 8. 6 percent pay raise for teachers for the 2006-07 school year, with a total of $49. 2 million in funding. The state is providing $31 million for the pay raises, and the Houston schools are providing $18. 2 million from their own revenues. An additional $8 million increase also is included for teacher performance pay. This is all part of the Houston schools proposed $1. 4 billion budget for the 2006-07 school year, and the Houston schools will NOT increase school tax property rates by the allotted four cents per $100 of property. The Houston schools believe the pay raises should make their district more competitive to attract more teaching talent. The Houston schools proposed budget also includes the following: •$1. 9 million for principal and assistant principal pay raises of 5. 1 percent. Again, the Houston schools intent is to make their district more competitive. This also includes additional incentives for principals of larger schools and/or those with higher numbers of disadvantaged students and gifted and talented students, which require more oversight and innovation to educate. •$3 million to help academically struggling Houston schools. •$4. 8 million more for elementary and middle schools. •$12 million for small-sized Houston schools that do not receive as much per-student funding but need the revenues for instructional improvements. •More than $10 million to help bring school buildings up to standard. •$25.

School dress codes have been around for decades, but they gained more prominence in schools and are stricter in recent years in response to the permeation of gangs and violence within the schools at all levels. In addition to maintaining modesty within the schools, dress codes now ban gang paraphernalia, colors and symbols; shirts with writing; head coverings; and other such accessories that have been linked to gangs or school violence. Though all of the Houston schools have dress codes, each of the Houston schools develops their own policy. One thing all Houston schools dress codes have in common is an allowance for religious accommodation. When Houston schools students' religious traditions and dictates conflict with school dress codes, exemptions may be made. With the diversity being felt by the Houston schools in recent years, Houston schools principals are striking a delicate balance between religious freedoms and safety issues on an increasing basis. One example is the Houston ISD campus, which has students from 72 countries. Principal Steve Amstutz receives many dress code exemption requests each year. His policy is to meet privately with a student requesting a waiver to discuss the matter. If the request is genuine and religious-based, the exemption is granted. In the precedent-setting 1969 Supreme Court decision of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, the court ruled, "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.

Three Houston schools have been persistently rated as unsatisfactory by state guidelines for three or more years. As with most school closing warnings across the nation, the parents, community, and elected officials with a political stake in the area are up in arms over the possibility. Though parents want their children to attend schools within their own neighborhood, I believe the community must look at the cost of keeping these three schools open — the students are failing, unable to meet the bare minimum requirements of the state! With their futures at risk, I would think that parents would want their children at better performing schools. The Houston schools' ratings are based on statewide student achievement tests and the overall dropout and graduation rates of each school.

Houston schools implemented its first merit pay program for teachers in the year 2000. Houston schools believe the old program had too low incentives and unanimously passed the new model in January, making it the largest merit pay program in the nation. Officials believe the new program ties teacher rewards more closely to student improvement and to individual teacher efforts. Though no research has been done on the impact of such programs on improved student achievement, other programs have been tried in New York, Denver and Kentucky with varying success. Houston business leaders, who have a stake in graduating future employees who are high achievers, support the new Houston schools' $14. 5 million program. Houston schools teacher incentives are based on three components: • The first component is based upon the amount of improvement of a school's overall test scores, as compared with scores of 40 other schools across the state with similar demographics; • The second compares student progress on the Stanford 10 Achievement Test and its Spanish equivalent to students in similar Houston schools classrooms; and • The third component compares student progress on the statewide Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test to similar Houston schools classrooms. About half of the 12,300 teachers in the Houston schools are eligible to receive rewards in all three categories, possibly earning a total of $3,000 each.