More Effective Teachers?

What Bill & Melinda Gates' $1.5 million gift to HISD really means

Bill and Melinda Gates

Recently, Houston Independent School District board trustess voted to accept two donations for a combined sum of almost $3 million, including a $1,485,000 contribution from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Over a three-year period the grant will support the design of a new teacher appraisal system as part of The New Teacher Project.

The board also received an update from Chief Financial Officer Melinda Garrett on the budget review process for 2011 through 2012. From now until the holiday vacation, the district will hold zero-based budget meetings with all HISD departments. The district also created a Budget Advisory Committee consisting of principals, teachers, parents and members of the Houston community in order to gather input regarding the budget review process.

The new teacher appraisal system will further the “Effective Teacher” core initiative and the district-wide AP and IB plan for students in grades 8-12 will soon launch in order to support the “Rigorous Instructional Standards and Supports” core initiative.

The committee also made some recommendations to the board, like eliminating the Stanford/Aprenda test from the criteria for automatic student retention (holding a student back). This school year students will take the Stanford test May 9-18, meaning the data won’t be considered when deciding whether a student is held back or not.

The Promotions Standards Committee also recommended that schools implement the systematic Response to Intervention (RTI) policies district wide to recognize and help students not performing.

Deputy Chief Academic Officer Charles Morris reports, “Under federal law we must have these intervention plans in place and although we have many schools that are effectively assessing, diagnosing and prescribing interventions for students who are behind, we can do a better job.

“Our RTI process needs more accountability and we need to provide better training for teachers and principals on when and how to intervene so we are not just holding students back a grade or just promoting them when they are performing below state and federal standards.”

unspecified

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

undefined

Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”