Houston Independent School District Magnet School Program

Executive Summary
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. 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

Process and Activities: Documents review, Data review, Interviews with 8 senior HISD staff, 6 Trustees, and 7 parents;
Attended 9 community forum sessions with a total attendance of more than 700 people; Reviewed the following documents
(including but not limited to): 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

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