Works SCHOOL
SPRING
2004
VOLUME 13
A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E H O U S T O N A + C H A L L E N G E
Leadership Academy Grad Takes Work to a New Level
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drove him to look for techniques new and different to make the hen he was young, Houston ISD Northwest District learning experience fun and exciting for his own students and teachers. Superintendent Joe Nuber didn’t care much for school. In his search, In his search, Nuber heard about the Lamplighter School “I hated school,” says Nuber. “I thought it was tedious and boring.” grants available from Houston A+ Challenge (formerly Houston He disliked it so much, initially decided against college. Annenberg Challenge). Nuber and his team at Johnston (including Fortunately for the principals, teachers, parents and more than Linda Balkan, who is the current principal at Johnston and also is a 21,000 students in his district, this Houston A+ Challenge New Leadership Academy graduate) were selected to receive a grant in 1998. Visions in Leadership Academy grad changed his mind. “I heard about Critical Friends Group at a national conference and made At the age of 25, he enrolled in St. Francis University in sure it was part of our application,” said Nuber. “I could tell it was Pennsylvania as a psychology major and soon found an opportunity to going to be an important piece of our work.” Critical Friends Group is serve as a volunteer tutor at the local parish school. “I enjoyed a series of protocols to help teachers work together to identify ways to tutoring so much, I decided to become a teacher.” improve student achievement. After graduation, Nuber began his As Nuber and his staff began to career as a middle school teacher at a embrace CFG and other Annenberg series of private schools in principles, he heard about the New Pennsylvania and Florida before Visions in Leadership Academy. “I moving to Texas in 1982. Once in liked what I saw at Annenberg. I Texas, Nuber continued to work at could see that the things they were the middle school level, teaching teaching really worked. I knew I math in Galena Park, Alief and wanted to learn all I could about Houston ISDs. what they were doing.” It was during his time at Marshall Nuber applied and was accepted and Lanier middle schools that into the Leadership Academy’s colleagues began to encourage Nuber inaugural class of John P. to think about moving from the classroom to an administrative role. Standing left to right are Ray Morgan, District Director; Susan Pansmith, Special Education McGovern, M.D. Fellows in June Director; Rosie Shellenberg, District Director; Seated left to right are Patsy Cavazos, 2000. “The thing I enjoyed most “Other people, including Kaye District Director; Joe Nuber, District Superintendent; Maureen Huff, District Director. about Leadership Academy was the Stripling who was principal at chance to work with principals from different districts. We all have Pershing Middle School at the time, saw skills in me and encouraged different backgrounds and different schools but many of the challenges me to make the move.” we face are very similar. I found the time to brainstorm and Nuber completed his master’s degree at the University of Houston collaborate on solutions was very helpful. and moved from serving as magnet coordinator for Windsor Village “I also liked the fact that even though we were working as a group, Elementary School to assistant principal for instruction at Johnston we still set individual goals,” he says. “There was a very strong sense Middle School. He served in this capacity for three years before of support, and it was an excellent environment to learn new skills.” becoming principal of the school. Ironically, it was Nuber’s own negative experience in school that Academy Grad . . . continued on page 7
Established in January 1997 with funding from the Annenberg Foundation and local matching contributions, The Houston A+ Challenge is an independent, public-private partnership that develops and funds school programs, professional development and leadership institutes to promote higher academic achievement by all students.
Director
From the recent article by Dr. Jean Yonemura Wing made me think of Houston. In “Small Schools—We Can’t Afford the Alternative,” Dr. Wing examines the experience of seven small schools that recently opened in the Oakland (Calif.) Unified School District and concludes that they make more sense financially than traditional large schools. After only two years of functioning, the pilot demonstrated the reasons why small schools are as economically viable as they are educationally sound. When costs are measured in terms of money spent per graduate rather than per student, small schools have lower costs than large schools because they have higher graduation rates. Small schools save on management because their scale and simpler organization requires less administrative staff. A lower teacher turnover saves Linda Clarke money that otherwise would be spent on teacher replacement. Small schools cost less to build, experience less vandalism and violence, and need fewer security officers and less facility repair than large schools. By preventing student dropout, they eliminate future expenses in the forms of prisons and public assistance and save taxpayer dollars in the long term. We can learn from the experience of Oakland educators not only that small schools are affordable and cost-effective but also “that we can’t afford not to create more of them.” At Houston A+ Challenge, we are working with Houston ISD to open new, small schools. One, Challenge Early College High School, opened in August 2003 on the campus of Houston Community College Southwest. Students take all advanced placement courses and can graduate in five years with not only a high school diploma but a two-year college degree as well. Enrollment will be capped at 400 students. Planning is underway for the second small high school to open this fall. The third high school will open in fall of 2005. We also are working with the district to transition its 24 comprehensive high schools into small, theme-based academies with rigorous, real world, personalized instruction for students. Thirteen schools in three other school districts have received grants from us as well to restructure into smaller entities. But small is only the beginning. The type of teaching that goes on must move forward as well. Small creates a culture in a school that fosters quality teaching that is hands-on, interactive, connected to the real world and relevant to students’ lives. This type of teaching is better suited to imparting the skills and knowledge students need to succeed in today’s knowledge economy. A recent column in the New York Times quotes Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett as saying that India, China and Russia combined have 300 million educated people, a figure larger than the entire U.S. workforce. “The big change today from what’s happened over the last 30 years is that it’s no longer just low-cost labor that you are looking at (in other countries),” said Barrett. “It’s well-educated labor that can do effectively any job that can be done in the United States.” If schools do not change, we will be left behind.
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Houston A+ Challenge and Houston ISD Receive New Grants
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he Houston A+ Challenge and Houston ISD recently received two new grants totaling more than $1 million. Called Teachers as Historians--Teaching American History, the first grant, a three-year award from the U.S. Department of Education, was awarded to a Houston partnership composed of Houston A+ Challenge, Houston ISD, University of Houston, Rice University, Holocaust Museum, Houston Public Library, Clayton Library for Genealogy and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The approximately $1 million grant will be used to create summer institutes to enrich content knowledge, to coordinate on-line resources at the partner institutions, to create web-based real-time seminars and to provide an annual colloquia for history professionals from the schools, universities and the community. A recent study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute showed that almost half of the states in the country flunked an evaluation of their history curriculum. The state of Texas received a “C” and ranked 15 in the study.
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The Houston A+ Challenge also was selected as one of five partner sites to receive a $25,000 grant from MetLife for its Students as Allies project. Students as Allies is part of a national project to include student voices in the redesign of urban high schools. Through the grant, Houston A+ Challenge will work with partner schools: ■ To promote discussions among students, teachers, principals and community partners ■ To support student research in the areas of teaching and learning ■ To bring the results of this research to a public forum and ■ To facilitate the development of student-teacher and adultyouth partnerships. The schools participating in the grant are Bellaire, Chavez, Furr, Lee, Madison, Reagan, and Scarborough. In the spring, each of these schools formed project teams composed primarily of students. These teams read “Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students” and then conducted a
New Grants . . . continued on next page
Houston A+ Challenge Awards Grants in K-5 Fine Arts Initiative
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he Houston A+ Challenge K-5 Fine Arts Initiative has awarded $1.25 million in grants to five elementary schools in four districts for a five-year initiative to integrate fine arts into the teaching of core subjects such as math, science and language arts. The schools, each of which will receive $50,000 a year for five years contingent on progress, are: ■ Gregory-Lincoln Education Center (Houston ISD) ■ Neff Elementary (Houston ISD) ■ Pine Forest Elementary (Humble ISD) ■ Pine Shadows Elementary (Spring Branch ISD) ■ Aldine Academy (Aldine ISD) At Pine Forest Elementary, Young Audiences and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston provided training at the start of the school year in all four areas of the fine arts. “This was a great way for us to introduce methods of arts infusion,” said Stacia Gower, the school’s grant coordinator. “I have noticed a real enthusiastic response from our faculty and a desire to branch out and incorporate hands-on learning into their classroom curriculum. Daily, existing new approaches are popping up and being shared.” The schools were selected by a team of 12 outside reviewers with art and education backgrounds who reviewed and scored grant applications from 21 schools. Each school was required to put together a Leadership Team to apply for the grant.
The team consists of: ▼ Two teachers from at least two of the fine arts disciplines (drama, music, art, dance) ▼ At least one non-fine arts teacher ▼ School principal ▼ One other administrator ▼ An external arts partner The team will lead the school as it works to meet the Guiding Principles of the initiative: ◆ Restructuring to feature fine arts prominently in teaching and learning across the whole school both as distinct disciplines (such as music, theatre, visual arts, and dance) and as processes infused into other subject areas through an integrated arts curriculum. ◆ Making fine arts available to all students, regardless of educational placement, and tailored to students’ needs and interests. ◆ Participating in staff development, such as Critical Friends Group training from Houston A+ Challenge, to broaden the capabilities of teachers, arts specialists and artists in such diverse roles as instructor, coach and mentor. ◆ Changing structure and/or organization to improve teaching and learning. For example, schools can put in place flexible schedules that allow for immersion into learning or use existing staff in new ways. Each school will be evaluated annually for progress toward this arts-integrated
model of teaching based on the Houston A+ Challenge Peer Review Accountability Process. The schools also will apply the lessons learned and the best practices that emerged from creation of Bethune Academy, a Houston A+ Challenge Beacon school in Aldine ISD in the Acres Home community. Started seven years ago, Bethune Academy for Mathematics, Science and Fine Arts is nationally recognized as a highly successful magnet school for its accomplishments in innovative program design and academic achievement. Teachers also will receive professional develpment from MFAH called Learning through Art or LTA. LTA is a multidisciplinary resource curriculum for grades 1 through 6 that integrates works of art from the MFAH collection into a school’s curriculum for art, language arts, math, science and social studies. Research shows that students engaged in the arts are more motivated to learn, learn more easily and do better in school. In addition, students in a quality fine arts education program acquire basic skills in kinesthetic, musical, spatial and visual intelligence. According to the SCANS 2000 Report (The U.S. Secretary of Labor’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills), students who learn the rigors of planning and production in the fine arts will be valuable employees in the idea driven workplace of the future.
New Grants . . . continued from previous page research project with their classmates and students using survey questions developed by the MetLife Foundation as well as their own teams. In November, the schools hosted a local “Students as Allies” Youth Summit. At the summit, the school teams presented findings of their research to other students, parents, administrators and community advocates. The summit was structured to allow focused discussion on ways to improve schools based on the research and also will be the starting point for an action plan. “We believe that being a partner in the MetLife grant blends with our goals to form collaborative networks among schools, parents and the local business community to improve student learning,” said Linda Clarke, executive director of The Houston A+ Challenge. “This grant will enable students, teachers, youth and adults to form working partnerships, thus creating a culture of respect and trust.” Survey results show that students, for the first time, say that they believe they have a voice that will make a difference in the
restructuring of their schools. Survey results also show that most students in HISD believe their schools to be safe; that students like most of their teachers and believe them to be not only competent but their key advisors for both academic and personal problems; and that most students are serious about academic success. Participating teachers include Diane Morrow; Brian Wolf, Angela Borzon, Charlotte Burton, Tina Angelo, Christinia Wehde-Roddiger, Debbie Deittrick, and Melinda Dominy. Nancy Votteler, Greater Houston Area Writing Project (GHAWP)co-director, is coordinating the project. Kit Chiu is the technical director, and Dr. Nolie Mayo is the survey supervisor/advisor. Daphne Dowdy-Jackson from the UH media services will conduct the final overview of the data with the students. GWAHP is an affiliate of the National Writing Project under the direction of Dr. Margaret Hill. The Houston project is sponsored by The Houston A+ Challenge, GWAHP at University of Houston-Clear Lake and Houston ISD.
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Thirteen High School Campuses Begin Redesign Initiative
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hirteen high school campuses from three area school districts have been selected to begin a high school redesign initiative with The Houston A+ Challenge. The 21st Century High School Redesign Grant Program awards up to $100,000 per year per school district for up to five years contingent on progress. The new program is an outgrowth of the Houston A+ Challenge’s work to redesign area high schools, which began in 1999. After a successful pilot at Reagan High School in Houston ISD, Houston A+ teamed up with the district to redesign its 24 large comprehensive high schools. Called Houston Schools for a New Society, the Houston ISD work is funded in part by grants from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation and Brown Foundation. “A tidal wave of change has swept over our economy and is now knocking at our high school doors, demanding better educated workers,” said Linda Clarke, executive director of Houston A+ Challenge. “In the last three years alone, three million U.S. jobs have moved overseas.
“If we are to give all our children a shot at a job with a decent, livable wage, we must remake our high schools. The old model of huge high schools where students sit in rows and take notes while the teacher lectures is obsolete.” Alief ISD is one of the districts that recently joined the initiative. “We feel fortunate in Alief to be able to participate in the Houston A+ Challenge project,” says Joyce Eddings, the district’s assistant superintendent for secondary education. “This opportunity could not have come at a better time. We had begun seeking ways to address the needs of our students because the number of ‘at risk’ students was growing and we were certain that our current systems were not effective in addressing the ever-changing needs of our students.” The redesign initiatives work to personalize the learning environment for students by creating several small, theme-based academies with rigorous, hands-on instruction inside each large high school. Research has shown that smaller learning communities with personalized instruction for each student result in increased student achievement and reduced dropout rates.
In the new initiative, Houston A+ asked school district officials to select one or more campuses to apply for funding. Schools then submitted a grant proposal to Houston A+ that addressed how their school or group of schools would implement each of the seven principles guiding the redesign work: ■
Set clear, fair and high academic and conduct expectations for all students. ■
Personalize the school by creating small units with an ideal size of 300 students and by providing a personal adult advocate for each student. ■ Create a coherent approach to redesign by using project-based learning, portfolios and exhibitions; connecting student learning to real-world experiences; and using a variety of instructional strategies for different learning styles. ■ Make the most of time and resources by implementing a flexible
Thirteen . . . continued on page 6
Reagan Teachers Participate in Summer Externship Program
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his summer, seven teachers from Houston ISD’s Reagan High School spent one week working side by side with a specialist in their field from the corporate world. The program, called Teacher Externships, is a pilot project of Houston Schools for a New Society. The idea behind the program is for business and education to meet, work, discuss and learn from each other ways that teachers could help prepare students for the workforce, as well as ways that business could become aware of what teachers are doing in today’s high schools. It was developed and funded by the generous collaboration and support of Coca-Cola, Apache Corp., Wells Fargo Bank, Texas Children’s Hospital, Sterling Bank,
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The Hobby Center and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Teachers reported that the experience strengthened their instructional
Tom Paulson, manager of Wells Fargo’s Houston Central store at 1000 Louisiana, and personal banker Vivian Calderon show Reagan High School teachers Mara Greenberg and Dave Messina how concepts in the finance and business computer information systems classes they teach apply in the business world.
practice. They came back to school and developed lesson plans for their classrooms that allowed them to relate to their students how what they were learning is used in real life. The experience “made me proud to be a teacher,” said Andy Gibson, who externed at Apache Corp. “The respect that was given me and my job at Apache was outstanding. I was energized to continue teaching.” Teacher Shannon McSorley said she often wondered how the Algebra she taught was used in the real world and discovered multiple uses at Texas Children’s Hospital. She now uses examples from her externship in her teaching.
Externs . . . continued on next page
Summer Science Internships Expand; Exciting Changes Planned for 2004
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fter a successful launch in 2002, The Houston A+ Challenge’s Summer Science Internship Program expanded from two to three high schools in 2003 and resulted in a year-round partnership between the schools and the Baylor College of Medicine to improve the quality of science education. The program strengthens science teachers’ knowledge of the subject they teach, while giving students real-world experience and a glimpse of the practical
applications of the theories they learn in class. Teachers also become linked to the larger science community, affording them access to a wider variety of resources. Research shows that students who learn through hands-on, real world experience retain more of what they study. “The student-teacher teams are mentored by Baylor graduate students, who share their passion for science while gaining academic experience as future research investigators,” said Scott Basinger, Ph.D., Principal Investigator for the Discovery Lab and Assistant Dean for Extramural Affairs for Baylor’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. “The high school teachers become authorities in scientific research and are re-energized for the year ahead.” The program, which was co-developed by The Houston A+ Challenge and Baylor College of Medicine, was funded for the first two years by the A+ Challenge. Baylor College of Medicine will fund the program this year with a grant from the National Institutes of Health. In the program, student-teacher duos participate in a paid six-week internship at Baylor. Last summer, teams from Washington and Scarborough high schools joined teams from Waltrip high school to work on long-term research
projects side-by-side with professional researchers, who seemed amazed at the drive and dedication exhibited by the school teams. “Both the student and teacher showed great interest in the research and worked very hard,” wrote one researcher on the program’s evaluation. “They had no trouble working with the rest of our research team, and because of their contribution, we were able to finish our research objectives for this month ahead of schedule,” Said another, “This is a great program, both for the student and teacher who learned a lot about science outside of the classroom. It was also a great learning experience for me in terms of being a mentor.” The program exemplifies the type of outside-the-classroom experience that is crucial for preparing high school students today for success in college and the workplace, said Linda Clarke, executive director of The Houston A+ Challenge. “We are working with a number of school districts to revamp how teaching and learning occurs in high school by adding hands-on, interactive, real world experiences like this for students.” At the conclusion of the summer, representatives from the schools, the northwest district of Houston ISD, Houston A+ and Baylor sat down to brainstorm ways to make the program even more effective. Many of their suggestions are already being implemented from providing additional content-based professional development for all of the northwest district’s science teachers to donating laboratory equipment to the schools and providing
Externs . . . cont. from previous page Corporate employees reported that they had a better understanding of how they could partner with a school to improve student achievement and turn out students with the knowledge and skills needed for tomorrow’s jobs. “We wanted to participate in the teacher externship program because we appreciate our teachers and we want to support them in any way we can,” said Glenn Godkin, regional president for Wells Fargo in Houston. “We thought
training for its use. The group also has worked to bring Baylor’s Discovery Lab to the high schools for hands-on learning while working to co-develop science lessons based on real world research projects. And, many of the student-teacher teams now have ongoing relationships with their mentors at Baylor. One student, Josh Lopez, was even asked to come back and complete the section of research on which he was working. Preliminary results indicate the research may be suitable to submit to a scientific journal for publication. Scarborough science teacher Raphael Rosales, who was paired with Josh during the internship, summed up the experience this way: “You can’t beat real life science in a real life lab. This is stuff I guarantee you that 90 percent of science teachers have never done.”
2003 Summer Science Participants Washington High School: Teacher Angela Barnwell with student Ashley Berard. Teacher Carona Burns with student Shaquita Ash. Scarborough High School: Teacher Annette Garcia-Thompson with student Jill Wagner. Teacher Rafael Rosales with student Jose Lopez. Waltrip High School: Teacher Jamie Nichols with student Jacob Pachel. Baylor College of Medicine: Researchers Olga Cabello, Wade Haaland, Dan Plas, Imtiaz Yakub and Fuli Yu served as mentors for the student-teacher teams. this program would help give teachers some ‘real world’ experience they could share with students. What we found was that the opportunity to exchange ideas and make new connections was valuable for us, too.” Plans call for this successful pilot to be expanded in the summer of 2004 to include 50 teachers from Reagan and three additional high schools. Companies interested in participating may contact Houston A+ Challenge at 713-658-1881.
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New Small Public High School Offers Diploma and Associate’s Degree
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hen Houston ISD opened its doors for the 2003-2004 school year, approximately 90 students enrolled in a new small public high school where they will graduate in five years with both a high school diploma and a Houston Community College associate’s degree. The only one of its kind in Texas, Challenge Early College High School is the brainchild of Houston ISD, Houston Community College (HCC) and The Houston A+ Challenge. “Research has shown that the transformation of high schools from large schools to smaller learning communities has a tremendous impact on improving student achievement and increasing the graduation rate,” said Linda Clarke, executive director of The Houston A+ Challenge. “Challenge Early College High School is another piece of Houston’s ongoing efforts to transform the high school learning experience for all students.” Located on the HCC campus at 5601 West Loop, Challenge Early College offers personalized instruction for each student. It provides an accelerated, college preparatory learning program, allowing students to combine high school and college-level classes tuition free. (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.) The first students are in ninth and tenth grade. The campus will add a grade level for the next three years, eventually educating 400 students in grades 9-13. Abuchi Nwankwo, a student in the new school, told HISD News Today that he chose the Challenge Early College High School because of its personable environment. “If you are in a really big school, teachers might forget about you, and they might not pay so much attention to you. You might not be able to learn much. But in a smaller school, teachers will pay more attention to you, and you will get to know everybody there.”
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In this new model of schooling, students will be given more time when needed to finish a course. They will begin taking HCC courses as soon as they finish the prerequisite high school level material. Students will be encouraged to continue their studies and transfer to upper level institutions. The school is a key part of Houston ISD’s overall strategy to increase the high school graduation rate. The Houston ISD Board of Trustees in June set a goal of graduating 85 percent of all high school students by 2007. “Our research shows that students drop out of school because they are bored or don’t think material learned in high school applies to real life,” said Clarke. “Challenge Early College
addresses both of those issues.” In addition, the school will help meet the state’s twin higher education goals of making college prep curriculum the norm in high schools and enrolling 500,000 more students in two or four year institutions by 2015. According to the Texas Education Agency, only 40 percent of the state’s graduating class of 200,000 in 1999 had completed college preparatory courses, and that figure is expected to have dropped in the 2000 class. For information on the admissions process, Houston ISD-zoned students may contact Dr. Anne McClellan, principal, or Justin Fuentes, dean of students, at 713-662-2142 or at email address challh@houstonisd.org.
Thirteen . . . cont. from page 4 allocation of resources and allowing common planning for teachers with their colleagues. ■ Integrate technology into the teaching and learning process, including the creation of web-based systems to display curriculum, grades and attendance reports and to provide accessible internal and external communication systems. ■ Support ongoing professional development by implementing wholeschool learning communities; developing relationships with businesses and community groups to build real-world experience for staff; and building relationships with higher education to improve student performance. ■ Take active role in developing leadership opportunities by giving key stakeholders input into decision making, establishing development for principals around leading and managing change and ensuring support for the redesign of schools at the district level. The schools will be evaluated at the end of each year to see whether they met the goals and objectives they set for
themselves in their grant requests. Also included in the evaluation will be a review of quantitative data such as the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills and a peer review.
LIST OF SCHOOLS Alief ISD Elsik 9th grade Elsik High School Hastings 9th grade Hastings High School Taylor High School Humble ISD Humble 9th grade Humble High School Kingwood 9th grade Kingwood High School Spring Branch ISD Memorial High School Northbrook High School Spring Woods High School Stratford High School
Academy Grad . . . cont. from page 1 One of the most helpful tools from his time at Leadership Academy was the ability to use CFG protocols on a higher level, as well as refining his ability to facilitate. “I would say that facilitating skills are one of the most helpful things I learned at Leadership Academy. I use them in meetings with my principals, and I teach them how to use them in meetings with their teachers.” Nuber had an opportunity to use his skills on a broader level when he was promoted to Northwest District superintendent the following year. One of his first decisions was to apply many of the principles he had learned through his work with the Houston A+ Challenge to his work in the Northwest District. He held a district wide visioning retreat last year. Principals, teachers, staff, parents, agencies, community partners and district leaders were invited to participate in the three-day retreat, which was co-developed by The Houston A+ Challenge and American Leadership Forum. At the time, the Northwest District had 17 schools. A reorganization last year added 16 schools to the district, bringing the total number of students served to about 21,700. “We focused on where we’d been, where we are now and where we’d like to go,” said Nuber. “We found that all of the schools in our district had two overarching goals: to help students achieve and to mold them into positive, effective students. We also found that every school needed to choose their own path to accomplish these goals.” From the retreat, each school created an individual vision for their campus. Nuber’s job then became to provide the principals with the tools they needed to make it all happen. “We’ve spent the last year making sure they have the tools they need to get where they want to go,” says Nuber. “We spend time at our regular principal meetings learning new protocols. I also meet with each principal regularly to make sure they know that I am a resource they can turn to for help.” As the schools work to plow new ground, progress is steady. “One of the accomplishments of which I am most proud is to see schools working together,” says Nuber. “They are really focused on helping each other.” Nuber also has added resources at a district level to help them accomplish their goals. “We have regular school site visits that are very similar to the (Houston A+ Challenge) Peer Review process,” he says. In addition to the internal peer review, Nuber’s district was the first to ask for a district wide site visit by his peers in the Regional District Senior Fellows Network to examine data and visit five schools for feedback to him on quality teaching and learning within the district. Other A+ Challenge tools, the Developing Math Ideas workshops and high school redesign efforts, have taken added momentum in the Northwest District with the addition of two former A+ Challenge staffers to head the respective efforts. In fact, all of the feeder patterns in the district community are involved in a pilot program with Developing Math Ideas workshops, which have been very wellreceived, said Nuber. “My responsibilities are pretty clear,” says Nuber. “I support, communicate with and evaluate the schools in my district. I am a resource they can use, and I try to ask questions that make them
really think through what is best. The opportunity I have to continue to participate with other Leadership Academy Fellows and with superintendents in other districts provides ongoing support to help me do my job.”
Fellows Complete Leadership Academy Training
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he New Visions in Leadership Academy has graduated its third class of John P. McGovern, M.D. Fellows. Since its inception, more than 90 school leaders have graduated from the academy. The fellows complete one-year of intense professional development around distributed leadership prior to their graduation and participate in a second year of focused discussion on a specific plan for improving student success. The Class of 2002 includes: R. Scott Allen Lucy Anderson Richard Barajas Connie Berger Garry Blasig Linda Boas Gayle Carter Paul Castro Jennifer Day Moses Diaz Alexandra H. Everson Christopher Garcia Maria Gardner June Hardeman Peter A. Heinze Jose L. Hernandez Christina Hopkins Gloria Legington Anastasia Lindo Celestina Martinez Lillie McIntyre Jan Mitchell Susan Monaghan Nicole Moore Jocelyn Mouton Diana Mulet Sue Page Pamela Sailors Cassandra Shaw Daryl Sherman Alan Summers Suzanne Sutherland James Troutman
Lakeland Elementary School Houston Schools for a New Society Milby High School Lyons Elementary School Bastrop High School Rucker Elementary School Helms Community Learning Center Westbriar Middle School Helms Community Learning Center Chavez High School Scarborough High School Alief Learning Center Chavez High School Olle Middle School Sharpstown Middle School Olle Middle School Bonner Elementary School Madison High School Westside High School Crespo Elementary School Tinsley Elementary School Attucks Middle School West University Elementary Hogg Middle School The Rice School Davis High School Gregory-Lincoln Education Center Piney Point Elementary School Bellaire High School John F. Kennedy Elementary School Wainwright Elementary School Pin Oak Middle School Jaime Davila Elementary School
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THE HOUSTON
CHALLENGE
formerly The Houston Annenberg Challenge
1415 Louisiana, Box 9 Houston, Texas 77002-7332 713-658-1881 fax 713-739-0166 www.houstonaplus.org
Spring 2004 Calendar of Events MARCH
APRIL
MAY
23 23, 25 25 25 26-27 27, 30 1, 3 2 6 7 13,15,17 20 21 22-23 4 5 6 7 19
JUNE
JULY
Regional High School Network Meeting Critical Friends Group Coaches Clinic District Leaders Retreat Critical Friends Group Superintendent Seminar Tech Integration Seminar at Chavez High School Critical Friends Group New Coach Seminar Critical Friends Group New Coach Seminar New Visions in Leadership Academy Class of 2004 application deadline New Visions in Leadership Academy Cohort Meeting Houston Schools for a New Society Network Meeting Critical Friends Group New Coach Seminar Regional High School Network Meeting Critical Friends Group Superintendent Seminar Cross City Campaign National Youth Summit New Visions in Leadership Academy Cohort Meeting Houston Schools for a New Society Network Meeting District Leaders Retreat Champions of Active Learning grant application deadline (Applications available at www.publiceducation.org/calhowtoapplyasp) Critical Friends Group Superintendent Seminar
2 7-11 17-18 27-29
Houston Schools for a New Society Network Meeting Critical Friends Group Training in Texarkana Houston Schools for a New Society Learning Retreat Fondren Reforming Schools Summer Institute
19-23 23-25
Critical Friends Group New Coach Seminar New Visions in Leadership Academy Summer Institute
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID
#11363 HOUSTON, TEXAS
THE HOUSTON A+ CHALLENGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Harry Reasoner, Chairman Vinson & Elkins, LLP Joe B. Foster, President Chairman, President & CEO Newfield Exploration Company
BOARD MEMBERS Jack S. Blanton President Eddy Refining Company Leonel Castillo Education Liaison, Mayor’s Office Jonathan Day Managing Partner Andrews & Kurth, Mayor, Day, Caldwell & Keeton, LLP David French Division Vice President & General Manager Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. Ann Friedman, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor, The University of Houston Roberto Gonzalez Vice President, Employment and Training Centers, Inc. H. Devon Graham, Jr. R.E. Smith Interests Jenard Gross President, Gross Investments Steve Miller Chairman & President SLM Discovery Venture Inc. Karol Musher, M.A., CCC-SLP Speech, Language and Learning Disorders Texas Children’s Hospital Maconda Brown O’Connor, Ph.D. Chairman, Brown Foundation J. Victor Samuels Chairman, Victory Packaging
SchoolWorks is published by: Houston A+ Challenge 1415 Louisiana, Box 9 Houston, Tx 77002 713.658.1881 / 713.739.0166 (fax)
Yava Scott Community Volunteer H. Michael Tyson Vice Chairman, Retired, Chase Bank Texas
Executive Director: Linda Clarke Associate Director/Director of Programs: Michele Pola, Ed.D. Director of Public Affairs: Nan Powers Varoga
Andrea White Civic Volunteer
www.houstonaplus.org
Randa Duncan Williams President, Enterprise Products Company Rosie Zamora President, Telesurveys Research Associates