Houston Independent School District

1. Houston Independent School District Apollo 20 Update Board of Education September 2, 2010

2. Beginning of Year Highlights • “I like all of my teachers this year…all 7 of them.” –Student from Lee High School • “You are really going to help me in math every day!” – Student from Dowling Middle School • “The teachers have lots of school spirit this year and our principal really wants us to be ready for college.” - Student from Sharpstown High School • “They are really strict, but it is good.” –Student at Kashmere High School 2

3. Beginning of Year Highlights • Principals and staff working above and beyond to achieve academic success and school goals i.e. ‘staff school lock-ins to complete work projects.’ • Leadership and staff getting out to the community via walks and community meetings to build relationships. • Intense focus on teaching, learning, tutoring, and assessing during first week. • Principals and leadership team members working to motivate and invest staff in ambitious school goals and setting clear expectations for closing the achievement gap. 3

4. Beginning of Year Highlights • Improvement of plant facilities and school beautification. • Spirit of high energy, and a positive school culture focused on a safe and secure learning environment. • Added presence of role models, multiple Fellows from diverse backgrounds, along with support for math acceleration with Apollo Fellow tutoring program. • College going atmosphere. 4

5. Five Tenets for Transforming Schools: Human Capital • Hiring complete for Apollo Teachers and Apollo Fellows by the first day of school, while maintaining rigorous selection of leadership and staff. • High percentage of clear measurable teaching objectives and instruction. • High work ethic - i.e. All school leadership teams came in during vacation to help with Apollo Fellow Selection. Entire teaching staff for Lee came in for 2 days of unpaid training to go over ‘highly effective teaching habits.’ • Brought in diverse team of Apollo Fellows motivated around closing the achievement gap with our students i.e. retired lawyers, NASA Engineer, Graduate students, & MBA student. • Principals focused on managing school environment and operations, while leading staff to achieve ambitious goals and communicating expectations. 5

6. Five Tenets for Transforming Schools: More Instructional Time • With scheduled extra days and our extra hours of instruction Monday – Thursday, Apollo students will receive more than 15 days of extra instruction during the 2010-2011 academic year, compared to their previous academic year. • Schedule created to allow all 6th and 9th grade students to receive daily tutoring in math. • Building in double dosage tutoring for high volume of students needing math and reading support in order to move all students toward being on grade level. 6

7. Five Tenets for Transforming Schools: Use of Data to Drive Instruction • Maximizing data from Apollo Fellow diagnostic and district diagnostic assessments to identify strengths and weaknesses of each student. • Instructional leaders and principals are utilizing 3-week assessment data to track progress and coach teachers. • School leaders are working to create learning communities focusing discussions around tracking mastery and guiding staff around teaching for 100% mastery. • The Apollo program team will provide data to schools to help identify trends, weaknesses, and maximize best practices and progress towards closing achievement gaps. 7

8. Five Tenets for Transforming Schools: High-Dosage Tutoring • Recruited a pool of over 1300 potential Fellows and hired 260 high quality Apollo 20 Fellows. • Prepared Fellows with two weeks of rigorous training. • Hired Apollo 20 Fellow Site Coordinators to help provide support, track progress towards mastery of curriculum, and monitor daily quality. • Apollo 20 Program Team & Match consultants spend time on each campus to measure quality and consistency of our Fellow program at each campus. • Using data to group students. • Building close relationships with students and support for school. 8

9. Five Tenets for Transforming Schools: Culture of High Expectations for All • Principals revised school uniform policy and stressed importance of compliance to all school and district policies. • Principals guided staff on school culture expectations and reinforced expectations in training and at the beginning of school. • Principals are communicating and guiding staff around ambitious goals for student attendance, behavior, focused environment on academics, college going atmosphere, and moving students to being on grade level. • Reinforced systems in schools with lower % of incidents of violence, misdemeanors, and violation of school policies in comparison to last school year. • Overall, expression of a changed environment from conversations with parents, students, and staff. 9

10. Current Priorities • Increased Enrollment - 91% towards projected enrollment. • Culture of High Expectations - School Culture – Reinforce and Maintain expectations. • Human Capital & Data Driven Instruction - Effective Teaching – Developing teachers’ professional development plans, tracking progress towards student achievement goals, and coaching teachers around habits of highly effective teaching. • More Time - Double Dose Reading and Math – Ensuring quality, tracking progress, improving students mastery of reading and math • High Dosage Tutoring - Apollo Fellows Program – Ensuring quality and expectations for tutoring sessions 10

11. Next Steps • SIO weekly visits and coaching around teacher professional development and progress towards student mastery of learning targets and maintaining culture of high expectations. • Apollo Fellow Program Team working with District Support Teams to provide support around curriculum, assessment, data tracking, working with student sub-populations, maintaining quality of Apollo Fellows program, and ensuring quality of Double Dose Teaching. • Working with principals to address school specific priorities. 11