WorksSCHOOL

Regional High School Network Builds Teamworkuring the 2003-2004 school year, 13high schools from three local school

districts joined forces to create 21st centurylearning communities for their students witha grant from The Houston A+ Challenge.

“Through our partnership in HoustonSchools for a New Society with HoustonISD, we saw that when schools begincollaborating with each other and sharingideas on a regular basis, progress really takesoff,” said Michele Pola, Ed.D., executivedirector of The Houston A+ Challenge. “Wetook this collaborative model and opened itup to the other districts in our network andfound the same success. Collaboration reallyincreases the efficiency of the enormous taskbefore us—transforming high schools to helpstudents acquire the knowledge and skills theyneed to be successful in life.”

The now 14 schools involved in the projectare in Aldine, Alief, Humble and Spring BranchISDs. Through the Regional High SchoolNetwork, each school district will receive upto $100,000 per year for five years contingenton progress. The schools were chosen aftersubmitting an application detailing theirprogress toward reform to date, as well as theirplans for future efforts. After the initial grantswere awarded last fall, representatives fromeach district and school met on a monthly basis to share ideas and check progress.

As the year moved forward, a pattern beganto take shape of schools listening and sharingtheir successes and struggles. As Houston A+ Challenge officials had hoped, the networkmeetings helped replicable models of reformemerge.

“Our team members started sharing how theywere moving toward goals of creating studentadvisories, redesigning their schools into smalllearning communities and using data teams toincrease student achievement,” said LynnParsons, the Houston A+ Challenge consultantand former Humble ISD administrator whofacilitates the grant program. “You could seelight bulbs come on across the room. Peoplestarted to pick up ideas from the other teams.In some cases, schools within the same districthad never shared with each other. It created anamazing synergy that carried over to the workin their individual schools.”

After a review of progress, another round of grants was awarded to the districts at thebeginning of the 2004/05 school year. This year:

�Taylor High School in Alief ISD, which hadalready begun its work on student advisories, isbuilding on last year’s success. Their modeland other A+ Challenge work provided

inspiration to both Humble High Schooland Humble Ninth Grade Campus inHumble ISD, who began implementingtheir own advisories this fall. (See relatedarticle page 4 for details).�Hastings High School in Alief ISD’s workusing data teams is providing guidance toHumble ISD as it works to develop datateams in a K-12 vertical team of campuses.(See related article page 5 for details.)�Spring Woods High School in SpringBranch ISD is serving as a model for anumber of the other schools for its work

in developing small learning communities. (See related article page 6 for details.)�Aldine Senior High School in Aldine ISDjoined the network team.

Before awarding the second year of funding,teams of educators and A+ representativesconducted peer review visits to each of theparticipating schools. Each visit centered onobserving progress toward the focus of theschool’s reform efforts during the year. For example, observers to Hastings High Schoollooked for evidence that school administratorsand teachers were effectively using data toimprove student learning. Teams of observersvisited each campus, spending time inclassrooms, talking with teachers andinterviewing students to provide feedback tothe host school.

“The schools were nervous about openingthemselves up to such a broad review of theirwork,” said Parsons. “But they quickly learnedthe feedback from the visits was intent on

W I N T E R 2 0 0 5 V O L U M E 1 5

Established in January 1997 with funding from the Annenberg Foundation and local matching contributions, The Houston A+ Challenge is anindependent, public-private partnership that develops and funds school programs, professional development and leadership institutes to promotehigher academic achievement by all students.

A P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E H O U S T O N C H A L L E N G E

D

Regional Network . . . continued on page 5

Taylor High School teacher Adam Frank (far right) looks over hisstudents’ work during their daily advisory period.

onsider this scenario. A young man transfers to a new high school. Since his transcript hasnot yet arrived, counselors at the new school have no idea what courses he needs to take

and use their best judgment to place him in the classes they believe he needs for graduation.But the first day of school he finds himself taking Geometry for the second time.

Far fetched? Not at all. His is not an isolated case. Texas, like other states, uses a papertranscript to send a student’s records to his or her new school. As a consequence, recordsusually arrive weeks, sometimes even months, after the student has started school. Under thiscumbersome system, school staff must pull as many as 100 files a year, make copies and sendthousands of pages of paper off to other schools. Employees at the new school then have to typethe students’ information into their database.

There is a solution. WEST, a new web-based system to transfer student records electronically across schools and schooldistricts, is in place in 30 percent of the 1,031 school districts in Texas. WEST (Web Enabled Student Transcripts), which alsoautomates tracking of departed students, is an interface that sits on top of whatever student information management system adistrict uses. WEST then allows the districts and schools to pass transcripts back and forth.

Two recent reports recommended that an electronic, real time student record system be put in place. The Select Committeeon Public School Finance in its March 15, 2004, report to Governor Perry and the legislative leadership recommended that thestate provide real time data and tracking capability. In addition, the Houston ISD PEER Committee in its June 2003 report tothe Houston ISD board recommended that the district implement an electronic student tracking system.

WEST was developed after a meeting of the Greater Houston Partnership Education and Workforce DevelopmentCommittee in which Houston A+ Challenge offered to raise funding to create a web-based record transfer system. At themeeting, superintendents from several Houston-area districts told the committee one of the barriers to increasing the localhigh school graduation rate was the lag time in transferring records when students left one school and enrolled in another. Inaddition, students who did not re-enroll often could not be found with the system in place today.

The Texas Business and Education Coalition and Triand, Inc., an Austin-based technology company, agreed to work todevelop the system. The Region IV Education Service Center agreed to house the system on its servers and pilot WEST in its54 school districts. Aldine ISD was one of the first districts to implement WEST, while Houston ISD agreed to providetraining for other school districts. IBM donated equipment needed to support operation of WEST. And, HoustonEndowment Inc. agreed to provide the majority of the funding for the one-year pilot.

Where does Texas go from here? We hope to see the state adopt the electronic record asthe official school transcript. Then students won’t have to sit twice through lessons onfinding the surface areas and volumes of prisms, pyramids, spheres, cones and cylinders.

Michele Pola

2

From the ExecutiveDirectorC

FIRES IN THE BATHROOM: Last fall, students from Bellaire, Chavez, Furr,Lee, Madison, Reagan and Scarborough high schools in Houston ISDparticipated in a national research project that culminated with hosting aStudents as Allies Youth Summit. The summit was part of a project toinclude student voices in the redesign of urban high schools. The studentteams read “Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High SchoolStudents” and then conducted a research project on their classmates. Theyused survey questions developed by the MetLife Foundation, which fundedthe project, as well as questions developed by their teams. The surveyresults presented at the local summit were included in a recently releasednational publication. This summer, “Fires” author Kathleen Cushmanselected and interviewed several of these local students to provide researchfor her second book on high school reform.

I N T H E N E W S

In the News . . . continued on page 6

“Fires in the Bathroom” author Kathleen Cushman interviewing high school studentsfor her next book.

3

nticipation filled the air. Eager to trytheir latest experiment, scientists

mingled together on an empty field, anxiouslysizing up the competition. Ominous cloudsgathered in the distance, inching closer by theminute. All eyes turned to project directorAnn Mitchell. She gave the thumbs up. Acheer rang out. They were a go for launch.

Sound like something out of the latestreality show? Not a chance. This is rocketscience, folks. Thanks to the generosity of JPMorgan Chase Foundation and theirChampions of Active Learning grants, 160students at Pershing Middle School in HoustonISD had the chance to practice rocket scienceduring the 2003-2004 school year.

The idea for the project was the brainstormof English teacher Linda Cook, who alsoserves as the cluster leader for the group ofstudents involved in the project. “Since welive in Space City, we wanted our students toknow something of the history and scientificprincipals of space exploration,” said Cook,who worked with Ann Mitchell, a PershingMiddle School teacher and the school’s science department chairperson, to developthe project.

Cook and Mitchell applied for theChampions of Active Learning grant andreceived one of the $5,000 grants to fund theproject. Eighth-grade students in all scienceand English classes in their cluster participatedin the project, which included reading sciencefiction, as well as using the Internet to learnabout famous scientists and the history ofrocketry. Students constructed a timeline ofthe history of space exploration, watched themovie “October Sky,” and went on a field tripto Space Center Houston that included aspecial hands-on rocket workshop. Theyheard from a Southwest Airlines pilot who alsohappens to be an expert in model rockets andwatched as he demonstrated some of his ownmodels. The project culminated with studentsdesigning and launching their own bottlerockets. One of the parents volunteered histime on launch day to help students measurealtitude and make last-minute adjustments totheir designs.

“In science, I wanted to give my students achance to experience Newton’s Laws of Motion

first hand,” said Mitchell. “I used analternative assessment tool at the end of theproject, on which almost every studentdemonstrated a solid knowledge of Newton’s laws and the scientific process. It also broughtnew energy to the classroom at the end of theschool year. I thought some students weredone listening for the year, but the rocketsreally perked them up again.”

Students in all classes launched their rocketsfrom the school’s athletic fields with varyingdegrees of success. “One rocket went so highand far that it landed on the roof of a home

across the street,” Mitchell said. “The studentsin that group gained status among the otherstudents as the champion rocket builders.”

“I learned a lot from the project,” saidstudent Emalie Kane. “We learned howcertain parts do certain things.” Fellowstudent Joshua Young concurred, “I think Iwould have understood without the rocket butit definitely helped to build it.”

For a list of 2004-2005 Champions of ActiveLearning grant recipients, see related article on page 7.

A

I t ’ s R o c k e t S c i e n c e

A student team prepares to launch its rocket while another student team stands by to collect data.

Students in Ann Mitchell’s eighth-grade science class carefully measure water into their bottle rocket. The water pressure willserve as a propellant for the rocket.

4

ast year, when the senior classgraduated from Taylor High School

in Alief ISD, they left behind for theteachers a list of things all freshmenshould know.

Things like:•Know your graduation

plan…keep a list of credits earnedand needed, pass your classes andknow your counselor.

•Join clubs and stay withthem…volunteer and keep a recordof your involvement.

•Athletics…get to know thecoaches for the sport you want to play,pass your classes and get a physical everyyear.

•Do not get in trouble at school…trouble can hurt your financial aidpackage with colleges, trouble costsmoney and you can become excludedfrom clubs and activities.

•Make a junior year checklist…preparing for standardized tests,investigating colleges of interest, takingthe PSAT, passing TAKS and savingmoney for school-related expenses.

•Make a senior year checklist…doublechecking credits against graduationrequirements, getting copies oftranscripts, filling out applications forschools and financial aid, visiting andselecting a college.

What inspired the list? During the2003-2004 school year, Taylor HighSchool reworked its schedule to createtime for a student advisory period everyday. Called PRIDE TIME, advisorieswere divided by grade level. In addition,9th-grade advisories and 12th-gradeadvisories were paired together. The idea

was for the seniors to become mentorsand tutors to the freshmen. By allaccounts, the system worked beautifully.

“The bonding really paid off,” saidManette Schaller, Taylor’s principal. “Weare proud of the relationship between the12th and 9th graders. And, we had anumber of students who requested thesame PRIDE TIME advisor this year.”

An advisory, or student advocacy, is theintentional personalization of thelearning environment that provides along-term adult mentor for each student.Advisories take the small learningcommunity a step further by ensuringthat each student has at least one adultwho provides academic assistance andinformation on planning for life beyondhigh school. Research has shown thatthe personalization of the learningenvironment—by making schoolssmaller and by providing student

advocates—are critical to thesuccess of today’s students.

Every school in the RegionalHigh School Network is planningfor or implementing studentadvisories this year. At TaylorHigh School, the daily PRIDETIME advisories will continuethis year. Teaching days areTuesdays and Thursdays. Duringthe summer, Taylor staff wrote acurriculum that is tailored toeach grade level and also is funand interesting for students whileaddressing key issues faced by

each student. The remaining three daysare reserved for tutorials, bonding,mentoring, peer mediation andprivileges.

For example, students started thisschool year with a Name Game aimed atbreaking the ice and introducingstudents to each other. This was

followed by tips on setting up a studyarea, how to avoid procrastinating,understanding grade calculations and

examining credits and schedules.Students also will take a survey todetermine their learning style and willbe given strategies to help them learnmore effectively. Throughout theyear, students will choose a classname and motto, decide class rulesand expectations, examine theircommunity service records and learnto set goals.

Taylor shared its experiences indeveloping student advisories duringmonthly meetings of The Houston A+ Challenge Regional High SchoolNetwork (see related article page 1 for details on the network’s first year).

This year, several additional schools are implementing their own advisories,including Humble High School andHumble Ninth Grade Campus in Humble ISD.

“The A+ network has been a greatresource to us,” said Melinda Knight,advisory and Service Learningcoordinator at Humble High School.“We have been able to keep in touchwith several schools who are facing thechallenges of a large school continuing togrow just as we do. It has beenwonderful to see how other schools aredealing with the growth and starting asmall school environment within thelarger schools. Seeing these schoolsaccomplish their goals…makes us realizewe can reach that same goal.”

Humble High School began planningits advisories last year. Implementation

L

Summer Science InternshipR E G I O N A L H I G H

Taylor High School Models Student

Advisories

Student Advisories . . . continued on page 7

During their advisory period, a group of Taylor High Schoolstudents work on a class door decoration celebrating theschool's Red Ribbon Week. The week highlightsconsequences of drug and alcohol abuse and encouragesstudents to “Just Say No.”

A peer tutor helps another Taylor High School student with math duringtheir daily advisory period.

exas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills(TAKS) scores, benchmark surveys,

student portfolios, databases, report cards,demographics, Stanford 9 scores and courseschedules. What do these have in common?They are some of the sources of data used byschools to measure and then plan for how toimprove overall student achievement. Theycan also be a source of frustration foradministrators, teachers, parents and studentsif there is not a deliberate plan to align thedata with the school’s instructional focus.

At Hastings High School and HastingsNinth Grade Center in Alief ISD, schoolofficials have created data teams aimed atproviding useful feedback to the schools’content teams. In short, they help collectdata on individual students and groups ofstudents, analyze the data and provide it to teachers in a format that can be used for improved classroom instruction andstudent learning.

In their applications for a Houston A+Challenge Regional High School Networkgrant, Hastings High School and HastingsNinth Grade Center outlined their progresstoward the development and use of datateams. Once they were awarded the grant,they began participating in regular networkmeetings and discovered they were ahead ofmany other schools in the use of data teams.

“(In meetings,) we heard that, whereassome schools are still in the initial stages ofimplementing data-based evaluations ofcurriculum, instruction and assessment, weare already getting data into the contentteams’ hands,” said Dave Holmquist, coordi-nating principal at Hastings High School.

For example, the United States historyteam at Hastings last year decided to make allunit tests 100 percent common assessment,meaning they are testing for the same skills.This year, based on the success of the U.S.history team, the world history team atHastings will move toward increasing thenumber of common assessments it usesfor testing.

Also last year, the Chemistry, Biology andIntroduction to Physics and Chemistry teamsdiscovered differences in grading policies andadjusted them to be the same for eachteacher. And in Algebra I, Geometry and

Algebra II, teams made great strides inmaking sure every student has an equalchance of passing the class.

All efforts combined mean that students in these content areas are being tested on thesame set of skills and graded by the same setof policies regardless of the teacher. In theend, that means the data coming out of theclassroom is more consistent and is a moreaccurate tool in assessing studentachievement.

“Collaboration is more widespread thanever before,” said Holmquist. “Our teams are using data to learn what is working andwhat is not working. And, teachers have amore positive attitude about working witheach other.”

Drawing on Hastings’ experience with datateams, Humble ISD is now in the process ofdeveloping K-12 vertical data teams acrossthe district. Humble, too, was looking tocreate a comprehensive plan for compiling,analyzing and using data to improve studentachievement.

“In the network meetings, I had the chanceto talk with the Hastings team at length abouttheir data teams,” said Dr. Cecilia Hawkins,assistant superintendent for learning atHumble ISD and former principal of QuestHigh School. “Dave Holmquist encouragedme to contact the University of Texas DanaCenter, where his team had received training.We sent two people to the center thissummer, and our process committee used the initial information to develop an imple-mentation plan for this school year. We alsocontracted with the Dana Center to providetraining for our first 60-member team.”

To start, Humble ISD selected the HumbleHigh School feeder pattern, which coversstudents Pre-K through 12th grade. Thisfeeder pattern is the district’s most ethnicallyand economically diverse, making it the areaof greatest need. A 60-member team,composed of the Humble High School feedercampuses and learning support staff from thedistrict office, received four training sessionsthis fall and one in the spring. The sessions,delivered by the University of Texas DanaCenter staff, included TEKS, benchmarkassessment and data analysis.

“Right now, we have data teams in place

at every campus,” said Hawkins. “By the endof the year, it is our goal for the individualcampus data teams to have a vertical aware-ness of the work done by all of the campusesin this feeder pattern. For instance, wewould like for the elementary team to know

5

Hast ings Data Teams Add Up Success

highlighting areas that were working reallywell and giving them ideas for areas thatneeded work. It was definitely a verypositive experience for them.”

In addition, the groups held districtsummary visits at the end of the school yearto review information that demonstratedsuccess on each of the school’s objectives;to review the benchmark data required forthe grant; to discuss principals’ perceptionson their progress; to present results of thecampus visits; and to refocus on plans forthe 2004-2005 year.

“It was exciting to watch thetransformation of our partner schools takeshape last year,” said Pola. “We are evenmore excited to see what this year has instore for our team and their students.”

Houston A+ Challenge Regional High School Network

Aldine ISDAldine Senior High School

Alief ISDElsik Ninth Grade Center

Elsik High SchoolHastings Ninth Grade Center

Hastings High SchoolTaylor High School

Humble ISDHumble Ninth Grade Campus

Humble High SchoolKingwood Ninth Grade Campus

Kingwood High School

Spring Branch ISDMemorial High School

Northbrook High SchoolSpring Woods High School

Stratford High School

Regional Network. . . continued from page 1

T

s Expand; Exciting Changes Planned for 2004S C H O O L N E T W O R K

Data Teams . . . continued on page 6

ince its inception, one of the three guidingprinciples of The Houston A+ Challenge

has been to help teachers and administratorspersonalize the learning environment. Withthe organization’s work in Houston Schools fora New Society and the Regional High SchoolNetwork, this has taken the form of helpingdistricts and individual campuses create smalllearning communities or schools-within-schools for many local high schools. Oneschool, Spring Woods High School in SpringBranch ISD, began implementation during the2004-2005 school year.

Spring Woods created five small learningcommunities based on student interests.Called majors, the student advisories meet eachThursday morning. “We liked the term ‘major’because the groups are based on major areas ofinterest that we identified from studentsurveys,” said Wayne Schaper, principal atSpring Woods High School. “We also like theterm because it is used by universities, and weare always talking to our students about havinga six-year plan that covers the two yearsbeyond high school.”

Spring Woods adapted its schedule to createtime for the weekly advisory period based onthe experience of Kingwood High School inHumble ISD. Next, Spring Woods isdeveloping relevant connections between theadvisory periods and the curriculum. Researchhas shown that creating smaller schools is notenough without also personalizing the curric-ulum. “As we studied different approaches tocreating the learning communities, we learnedthat the schools who worked on their curric-ulum first had the most success,” says Schaper.

Spring Woods also is developingpartnerships with local businesses to helpteachers create lessons that include real-worldexamples. In the weekly advisory period,students have the chance to listen to a varietyof speakers in different careers related to theirchosen major. Spring Woods is working withTexas Work Source to provide the speakers andtie the presentations into the curriculum beingtaught in school.

“We have learned many things from the A+meetings last year,” said Schaper. “PaulaAlmond at Kingwood High School was veryhelpful in giving us ideas on the

implementation of our small learningcommunities. And we’ve also started fourCritical Friends Groups with more than 40teachers involved. We added two morefacilitators this summer so we are anticipatinggrowing our members to more than 60.”

Like many of the other principals in thenetwork, Schaper said his experience wasinvaluable. “We enjoyed meeting with theother schools and learning all of the innovativethings that others are doing.”

what is being done at the middle school level, and the middle school level to know what is going on at the junior highand high school levels. By the end of the2005-2006 school year, I would expect theteams to move from an awareness orarticulation level to vertical integration,that is using data from all levels as acomplete team.” Along with providing amodel for other network participants on

the use of data teams, Holmquist and GinaTomas, principal at Hastings Ninth GradeCenter, also learned a few things from theircolleagues. “Feedback from the A+network was valuable in helping focus thework of our data team,” said Holmquist.“(From our network experience,) we concluded that the focus of our data teamshould be to provide assistance with datafrom the state and district and to facilitate,rather than supplant, existing datapathways.”

6

S P R I N G W O O D S L A U N C H E S S M A L L L E A R N I N G C O M M U N I T I E S

FRSSI UPDATE: Fondren Reforming Schools Summer Institute VIII drew more than 300educators to the annual two-day conference, which focused on “Keeping Kids Connected.”Nearly 130 participants were new toFRSSI. Strands included literacy,math and fine arts programming andinstruction for students Pre-Kthrough 12. “Thanks to all of youwho gave me a chance to present atthe Institute,” said Drew Academyteacher Karen Looney of Aldine ISD.“I felt so honored and humble tohave the opportunity to share mypassion with these incredible people.The networking was another gift.Because of the nature of the home groups, including protocols and processes, participantswere able to shed facades and relate in a deeper manner. Connecting with my colleaguesremoves the sense of isolation that grows during the school year.”

CRITICAL FRIENDS GROUP TRAININGS: This summer and fall, The Houston A+Challenge trained more than 60 new Critical Friends Group coaches, bringing the totalnumber of coaches trained to more than 650 people in 11 states and 26 cities fromTexarkana to Washington, D.C. The work has become so important that CFG protocolsare now a foundational piece of every Houston A+ initiative.

S

Data Team . . . continued from page 5

In the News . . . continued from page 2

Karen Looney, a teacher at Drew Academy in Aldine ISD, makesa presentation during Fondren Reforming Schools Summer Institute VIII.

Correction: A story on page 7 of the summer 2004 issue of “SchoolWorks” incorrectly cited theuniversity where Dr. Cheryl Craig is a professor. Dr. Craig teaches in the College of Educationat the University of Houston. She is the author of “School Portfolio Development: A TeacherKnowledge Approach” in the March/April 2003 edition of “Journal of Teacher Education.” Craig also authored “School Portfolio Development: A Way to Access Teacher Knowledge” in“Developing Teachers and Teaching Practice: International Research Perspectives.”

7

Student Advisories . . . cont. from page 4

began this fall. Knight said the planningteam hopes to focus on four major issuesthis year: academic support, goal setting,character education and connectivity.

At Humble Ninth Grade Campus,planning for advisories began with theformation of the H9 CAT Committee in thespring. Using input from Taylor HighSchool and Kingwood High School (whichhas been using advisories for several years),the H9 CAT Committee developed a planfor the 2004-2005 school year that includesprofessional development training forteachers and a revised schedule thatincludes the weekly advisory period.

“Learning to become an advisor versusfunctioning as a teacher has definitely beena shift for some but they are catching onfast,” said Ruby Stanley, advisory coordi-nator at Humble Ninth Grade. Advisorshave been encouraged to find a comfortableplace within their leadership style andguide students from that standpointfollowing weekly goals and objectives.Advisors and students are all learning.

Some advisories at Humble Ninth Gradehave already selected team or family namesfor future competitions, Stanley said. Andthrough phone calls to parents at thebeginning of the year, advisors discoveredissues and support systems they would havenever known, making a real difference inthe lives of their students. For example,one advisor spoke with a mom who had aterminal illness and had unique concernsabout her child. Another discovered that astudent had previous discipline issues thatcould be traced back to the death of his dad eight months earlier.

Officials at Taylor High School didn’t justshare their model with their colleagues inthe Regional High School Network, theywill also be implementing some ideas fromother schools, including the expansion oftheir privilege system and enhancement oftheir tutorials. “We are always looking forways to increase student success,” saysSchaller. “Expanding the privilege systemto other grade levels and providing bothmandatory and optional tutorials were good tools to give our students.

“I was very proud of the program lastyear,” said Schaller. “We are really work-ing as a team to refine, revise and reflectupon our practices. I am really hopeful for year two.”

Four Houston ISD middle school teachers each received $5,000 grants to createhands-on, interactive lessons for their classrooms. Sponsored by JP Morgan ChaseFoundation, Public Education Network and The Houston A+ Challenge, the grantswill be used for the special projects during the 2004-2005 school year to improveachievement for middle school students.

Recipients are:

Sherri Powell Pin Oak Middle School The Charger Project

In this interdisciplinary project, an estimated 200 seventh and eighth grade students will explorevarious forms and purposes of communication, as well as address school wide issues to produce anoriginal magazine. Student writers will employ the tools that professional writers use, including wordprocessors, the Internet and print sources. As they develop the magazine, students will consider theirtarget audience, the greater school community and the purpose—to educate the community aboutparticular topics and issues they have studied. They will write across the curriculum and use theirwriting to effectively communicate their knowledge. The project culminates in publication of themagazine, which will serve as a final performance assessment for the year. The project also contributesa final piece to each student’s technology portfolio, demonstrating the growth of student writing overtime. Once printed, “The Charger” will be distributed throughout the Pin Oak community for aminimal fee, which in turn will provide for its continued upkeep and ongoing success.

Annette Boles Sharpstown Middle School Give Her a Sporting Chance!

In this project, more than 30 eighth grade female students will study math and science concepts.Students will be given the opportunity to collect statistics at local professional and amateur femalesporting events. Students will use the data to calculate percentages, learn to display the data in variousforms and will present the data in written and oral presentations. Students also will have theopportunity to hear from females who have chosen non-traditional careers and will learn thecorrelation between having a healthy body and being a professional athlete. In addition, students willuse these skills to practice released standardized math and science tests on both national and statelevels with the goal of increasing their knowledge, improving their test scores, graduating from highschool and making educational choices to guarantee their professional place in society.

Brenda Dwyer Fonville Middle School Medical Science at Work

Students in the Medical Science Small Learning Community at Fonville Middle School will study thecauses and effects of hypertension. In the project, students will take and record in a spreadsheet theblood pressure of various teachers, students and community members during the course of a year. The students will discover causes and effects of hypertension and will become more aware of how toprevent it. They will become advocates for a healthy community and will publish a newsletter andbrochure on the topic to distribute at a local Health Fair.

Carolyn A. Barnes Ezekiel W. Cullen Middle School Taking Responsibility Against Crime (TRAC)

Ezekiel W. Cullen Middle School is an inner city school located south of downtown Houston. InTRAC, sixth grade students will use language-based, hands-on learning experiences to investigate therate of crime in their community. Students will learn to think critically,analyze data and apply problem-solving skills in their research andprevention of crime. They will compose, publish and disseminate theirfindings, which will be shared with their partners at the Houston PoliceDepartment, local businesses and the community. They will provide avaluable service to their community and will potentially impact a majorbarrier to student success.

All grant recipients attend a yearly national Champions of Active Learning Conference and have accessto technical assistance opportunities provided by the Public Education Network (PEN). The HoustonA+ Challenge is a member of PEN.

The Champions of Active Learning program is sponsored by JP Morgan Chase Foundation and administeredby the Public Education Network (PEN) and The Houston A+ Challenge.

Champions of Active Learning Grants

JANUARY 5 High School Principal Network Meeting

7 Inservice for Math Specialists

11 New Visions in Leadership Academy Cohort Meeting

12 “Celebration of Schools” Dinner

13-15 National School Reform Faculty Winter Meeting

19-21 TIPS Mentor Academy

20 Critical Friends Group K-16 Coaches Clinic

21 Inservice for Math Specialists and Principals

25 Regional High School Leadership Team Conference

FEBRUARY 2 School Visits for Math Specialists with Virginia Bastable

3-4 Inservice for Math Specialists with Virginia Bastable

5 Critical Friends Group Coaches Clinic

15 Regional High School Network Collaborative Meeting

24-25 National Speaker Series - Geneva Gay

NON-PROFITORGANIZATION

U.S. POSTAGE PAID

#11363HOUSTON, TEXAS

THE HOUSTON CHALLENGEf o r m e r l y T h e H o u s t o n A n n e n b e r g C h a l l e n g e

1415 Louisiana, Box 9 Houston, Texas 77002-7332

713-658-1881 fax 713-739-0166www.houstonaplus.org

SchoolWorks is published by: Houston A+ Challenge

1415 Louisiana, Box 9 Houston, Tx 77002 713.658.1881 / 713.739.0166 (fax)

Executive Director: Michele Pola, Ed.D.

Director of Programs: Jocelyn Mouton, Ed.D.

Director of Public Affairs: Nan Powers Varoga

www.houstonaplus.org

THE HOUSTON A+ CHALLENGEBOARD OF TRUSTEES

Harry Reasoner, ChairmanVinson & Elkins, LLP

Joe B. Foster, PresidentChairman, President & CEO

Newfield Exploration Company

BOARD MEMBERSJack S. Blanton

PresidentEddy Refining Company

Leonel CastilloEducation Liaison, Mayor’s Office

Jonathan DayManaging Partner

Andrews & Kurth, Mayor, Day, Caldwell & Keeton, LLP

David FrenchDivision Vice President & General Manager

Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.

Ann Friedman, Ph.D.Adjunct Professor, The University of Houston

Roberto GonzalezVice President, Employment and Training Centers, Inc.

H. Devon Graham, Jr.R.E. Smith Interests

Jenard GrossPresident, Gross Investments

Steve MillerChairman & President

SLM Discovery Venture Inc.

Karol Musher, M.A., CCC-SLPSpeech, Language and Learning Disorders

Texas Children’s Hospital

Maconda Brown O’Connor, Ph.D.Chairman, Brown Foundation

J. Victor SamuelsChairman, Victory Packaging

Yava ScottCommunity Volunteer

H. Michael TysonVice Chairman, Retired, Chase Bank Texas

Andrea WhiteCivic Volunteer

Randa Duncan WilliamsPresident, Enterprise Products Company

Rosie ZamoraPresident, Telesurveys Research Associates

W i n t e r 2 0 0 5 C a l e n d a r o f E v e n t s