The Houston Independent School District has delayed a scheduled vote on a proposal to change its Magnet school funding program. The vote was scheduled for tonight’s  HISD Board of Education meeting, but will take place at next week’s meeting, when the board will vote on the district’s proposed 2014-15 budget.Read More

The Houston Independent School District has modified a controversial proposal to standardize future magnet school funding. During the April 24 budget workshop, HISD administration proposed eliminating extra funding for Vanguard programs that serve gifted and talented students to redistribute funding more equally across non-magnet schools. On May 15, the administrationRead More

According its recent budget proposal, The Houston Independent School District will eliminate local magnet funding for its Vanguard schools that serve gifted and talented students in the district. The $3 million will be redistributed among zoned non-magnet schools to expand programming. “There are some schools that don’t receive any fundingRead More

Eleven schools in the Houston Independent School District were ranked in U.S. News and World Reports prestigious list of Best High Schools in the United States.  The rankings include more than 4,700 of the top high schools in the country. Carnegie Vanguard, the district’s flagship high school for gifted andRead More

Students interested in enrolling in a specialized program for the 2014-2015 school year and their parents can examine the offerings at the Houston Independent School District Choice Fair this weekend. The fair will take place this Saturday, April 26 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Northwest Mall, 9500Read More

Update: This article describes the graduation requirements applicable to students graduating in 2017 or before. For more information on the new Foundation High School graduation requirements, which are applicable to all students matriculating after 2014 and available on an opt-in basis to students graduating in 2015-2017, see our comprehensive guideRead More

On January 31, the Houston Independent School District announced annual instructor bonuses through its ASPIRE program, a merit pay program for teachers funded through state and federal grants and partly through local funds. Statistical analysis suggests that schools with the highest bonuses on average were wealthier, whiter and more selectiveRead More

The preeminent camp for smart kids is coming to Rice University beginning this summer. Duke’s Talent Identification Program (TIP) announced that it has partnered with Rice to offer its prestigious 3-week “Academy” Summer Studies Program beginning June 8, 2014. The residential enrichment program will host 325 high-achieving 8, 9, andRead More

Founded in 2002, Pin Oak Middle School is an “application only” school, meaning that no students are zoned for it; every student must apply.  Pin Oak includes a Vanguard program for Gifted/Talented students and a foreign language magnet.  Pin Oak also has a house system where students are assigned aRead More

Horn Academy, named after educator Paul W. Horn, is an elementary school in HISD with a magnet program and Vanguard Neighborhood Program. Horn is a total school magnet for art, communications, computers, life sports, and science. The magnet program, which “emphasizes the academic and social development of the ‘whole child,’”Read More

Carnegie Vanguard High School (CVHS) started as a school-within-a-school Vanguard program at Jesse H. Jones Senior High School in 1977.  In 2002, CVHS became an independent high school.   CVHS’s mission is “to provide a unique and challenging learning environment to prepare the diverse gifted & talented population of Houston IndependentRead More

Named after former Texas governor Oran Milo Roberts, Roberts Elementary originally opened in 1936. It currently serves about 750 Pre-K through 5th grade students living in the Southgate, Old Braeswood, and Morningside Place neighborhoods as well as HISD-area magnet students. Roberts is a Fine Arts Magnet school with a VanguardRead More

A Spring Branch ISD application-based charter school, Westchester Academy for International Studies originally opened in 1967 as Westchester High School to accommodate a surge in enrollment for Memorial High School.  Westchester opened with eighteen hundred students and grew to four thousand in seven years, prompting the opening of Stratford HighRead More