Houston Independent School District Magnet School Program

Review Update 10/15/2010

Magnet Schools of America respectfully submits this update as part of its contractual obligation for the
HISD Magnet School Program Review. All information contained in this document is a result of
completed activities as outlined in the Scope of Work. It is important to note that all information gathered
from document reviews and community forums is still being collected and therefore the information
included in this first update report should not be considered final and complete. The final phase I report
will be reflective of all data reviewed and collected to that date.

Contractual Deliverables: Phase I - To Review District Vision and Governance of Magnet Programs:

Current Magnet beliefs, purpose, and goals; the District’s current Magnet programs regarding their
geographic location, specialty, and program design, with attention to K-12 program alignment or CTE
career pathways when applicable; the district’s current decision-making processes regarding the creation,
modification, and/or closure of Magnet programs and the selection of location, specialty, and program
design; current drafts of Magnet Philosophy and Magnet Standards; and each school’s ability to
house/sustain a viable Magnet program based on HISD’s reports on school capacity and transfers.

Contractual Deliverables: Phase I – Public Vision of Magnet Programs:

HISD: To solicit parent, community, and student input regarding the updating, refinement, and
clarification of the district’s vision for HISD Magnet programs and their governance by conducting an
analysis of the public’s perceptions of Magnet programs and how they align with its reality. The focus
groups will be conducted by HISD personnel in a variety of school/community cluster settings and be
assisted by HISD Board Members.

Provider: To be present as a 3rd party observer to monitor the focus groups; the provider (MSA) will
receive data collected in order to analyze and report findings

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 Houston Independent School District Magnet School Program
Review Update 10/15/2010

Activities to Date:

Activity People Involved Time Summary

Planning process, MSA Executive 9/15 to 10/10 2010 Decisions regarding

determining data Director, Lead MSA 50 hours. Board Trustee meetings,
sources needed, drafting consultant, Assistant 12 community groups
community group Superintendent, Office planned, collaboration
process and questions, of School Choice. with HISD on survey
designing survey content and process:
questions and process, onsite, conference calls
rubrics; contract reviews and email
and finalization. communications.
Preparation of campus Principals/Magnet
“Guidelines for Coordinators to prepare
Reporting Data”, and submit to Assistant
designed by MSA, for Superintendent for
Phase II consultants. School Choice.
Board Trustee MSA Executive 10/5 and 10/6 2010 Gathering of
interviews and Director, Lead MSA 16 hours information to inform
meetings; meeting with consultant, Assistant history of magnets in
parent group; meeting Superintendent, Office the districts, set of
with Superintendent, of School Choice; Six interacting challenges
Deputy and senior level Board Trustee members, with the system of
district administrators. Superintendent, Deputy magnets in HISD, and
Superintendent, and confirming data sources
Assistant based on MSA web
Superintendents for research, phone
Finance, Research & conferences, email
Evaluation, and staff. communications, and
meetings to commence
Met with 6 Trustees onsite document
over 3 meetings; reviews during October
Met with 4 senior level 11-14, 2010. Data
administrators in the sources for Phase 1
district and 5 additional review of documents
district personnel ; included anecdotal,
Met with 7 parents historical information,
representing multiple research & evaluation
constituencies reports; policies,
guidelines, standards;
2005 Peer Review
Report; all relative
magnet financial data;
listening,
observations/monitoring
the community/parent
focus meetings.

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 Houston Independent School District Magnet School Program
Review Update 10/15/2010

Data and Document Lead MSA Consultant, 10/11 to 10/14 2010 Analysis of current
Review- A list of all the 4 MSA Consultants 36 hours both onsite and HISD documents related
Data/Document sources pre-planning. to Magnets, CTE, and
and reports requested Vanguard Gifted and
and reviewed by MSA Reviewed the following Talented programs
consultants is with the documents (including
Office of School but not limited to:
Choice. MSAP grant
application; financial
documents for three
years; transfer and
enrollment data for
three years;
demographic data;
magnet guidelines;
lottery processes;
student achievement
data; District profile
data; CTE data;
Vanguard data
Interviews with Lead MSA Consultant 10/11 and 10/12 2010 Gathering of
additional HISD and 2 MSA Consultants 3 hours information regarding
personnel. the system of magnet
Met with former impact from CTE,
administrator for Vanguard; Determining
Magnet Schools; Met of resources;
with administrator for Understanding transfers
Vanguard programs; and lottery process
Met with administrator
for CTE programs

Community Forums- Lead MSA Consultant; 10/11 to 10/15 2010 Attendance at each
See posted list of all 2 MSA Consultants 25 hours forum through sign in
Community/Parent attended with the role of sheets provided by
Forums implemented by observing and listening; HISD and collected by
HISD. Student Forum HISD Board Members HISD; notes taken at
held on Thursday, and District personnel individual tables;
10/14, attended by MSA facilitated all sessions. themes will be
onsite consultants.* extrapolated for
MSA provided consideration by MSA
consultation and for commendations and
suggested forum and recommendations. All
survey questions. HISD information will inform
finalized the discussion the final report due
questions and survey December 2010
questions. Survey is following the school
posted online through observations/visits.
the HISD website.

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 Houston Independent School District Magnet School Program
Review Update 10/15/2010

Summary of All information

approximate attendance collected was
at the Community catalogued by MSA
Forums: consultants and will be
included in the Phase I
Furr High School- 70 report on November 1,
attended; 50 cards 2010 as raw data in the
collected attachments section; this
Revere Middle School- includes survey question
110 attended; 90 cards cards collected from
collected individuals and the
Board Services Offices group discussion notes
– 40 attended; 35 cards from each table.
collected
Reagan High School-
125 attended; 90 cards
collected
Yates High School- 40
attended; 25 cards
collected
Chavez High School- 40
attended; 30 cards
collected
Board Services Offices-
100 attended; 85 card
collected
HISD Students- 45
attended
Board Services Offices-
150 attended; 120 cards
collected

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: A student only forum was held prior to the Board meeting on
Thursday, October 14. An additional community forum is organized by HISD for 10/30/10 and the Lead
MSA consultant will attend.

MSA would like to thank Lupita Hinojosa and her staff and all HISD personnel for their hospitality,
assistance, and quick response to document and interview requests. All personnel have been very
forthcoming with documents and information. Having veteran people help to inform the process has been
invaluable in learning the history of magnets in HISD. A special note of thanks to Ms. Dottie Bonner,
Former HISD Magnet Manager, for her historical information, insights, and explanation of various
documents and their status provided to the Executive Director and the onsite MSA Consultants.

Given the changes in timeline and the addition of community forums there has been some concern
expressed about the timeline and inclusion of all information collected from the community forums in the

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 Houston Independent School District Magnet School Program
Review Update 10/15/2010

Phase I report. Through email and during introduction section of the community forums both HISD and
MSA assured constituents that all data will be included and considered in the final report of December
which will include commendations and recommendations. Attendees and email recipients were reminded
that there were two phases with two week update reports and that the final report was not due until
December.

Findings and Emerging Themes to date:

Consultants have noted some very preliminary themes emerging as a result of the work of 10/5, 10/6,
10/11, 10/12, 10/13. It is important to note that information reviewed or gathered on 10/14 and 10/15 are
not included in this report. The themes include emerging from the document reviews, data, and
community forums are:

 Lack of equitable funding for all magnets across the district

 Excitement and loyalty to the magnet concept and the magnet curricula

 Lack of standard implementation of magnet guidelines and requirements

 Strong parent involvement in magnet schools

 Lack of a definition of “what is a successful magnet school”

 Strong leadership supportive of magnet schools in the district

 Concern with selection criteria of students

 Concern with consistency of the application of selection criteria of students

 Concern with a lack of consistent value standards for magnet themes and professional
development for magnet schools- both theme related and non-theme related

 Concern with inconsistent quality of magnet programs across the district

NEXT STEPS:

 Review and analysis of student achievement data related to magnet schools and the district

 Site visits to and observations of all 113 magnet schools during the week of 10/25

 Review of the school developed binders in response to MSA document request

 Continued community forums during the week of 10/25 (4 scheduled)

 Collection and analysis of the online survey during the week of 10/25

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