Tory Gattis

HISD as lighthouse for world

Social Systems Architect, consultant, entrepreneur, and author of HoustonStrategies.com, Nov 22, 10.

I was lucky enough to attend a GHP education luncheon (summary story) last week featuring Dr. Terry Grier, head of HISD, and Dr. Roland Fryer, a Harvard economist who focuses much of his research on closing the black/brown-white gap in education. They had some exciting things to say about educational progress in Houston.

Dr. Fryer’s personal story was very inspiring by itself, rising from a poor childhood in Dallas to the youngest African American to ever earn tenure at Harvard. He is passionate about equalizing the racial gap in K-12 education, which data shows is completely life changing for those that are able to close the gap.

First, he identified what does not work in improving education for the worst off:

* More money
* Masters degrees for teachers
* Smaller classes

Then he identified the five “explaining variables”/critical factors from successful charter schools after deep data analysis:

1. More time on task for students (longer school days and years)
2. Obsession with good principals and teachers (including firing bad ones)
3. Using data to drive instruction with rapid feedback loops to help kids with problem areas (his example assessed every 3 weeks)
4. Intense tutoring (1-on-1 and 1-on-2)
5. High expectations and a “no excuses” culture

Since he and his team have identified these success factors, they’ve been shopping them to every public school district in the nation, including many of the highest profile reformers in places like NYC and DC. But all of them have declined, declaring it “too hard”. All except one: HISD, which has integrated the five success factors into their high profile Apollo 20 program.

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