2011 A+ Scholars Campout
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Potential Impact of Moving Proficient Students toward Commended Performance
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the purpose of the Challenge Network?
To build capacity in targeted middle schools and significantly increase the number of students who are not just proficient, but who are on track to be truly ready for post-secondary success.
Why does the Challenge Network focus on students who are already passing state tests? Schools need help increasing passing percentages.
Our goal is to improve classroom practices that affect all students, not just A+ Scholars. By working closely with teachers to further develop their own unique skills and abilities in creating and delivering high-impact lessons, students at all levels will grow academically.
Additionally, most schools have already implemented systems to assist students who are not meeting standards. The Challenge Network will complement those existing systems by helping create opportunities for proficient students to reach -- and then maintain -- commended levels.
How are schools selected to become part of the Challenge Network?
Districts are invited to participate based on a history of successful partnership with Houston A+ Challenge. Houston A+ Challenge works with superintendents and executive leaders to select schools that have both a history of improving student academic performance and a strong leadership team that is ready to take the school to the next level. (That's why the motto for the Challenge Network is: Helping Good Schools and Students Become Great!)
How is the academic focus chosen for each school?
Houston A+ Challenge works with principals and other school leaders to examine historic student data and determine the specific academic area and grade level to target during the initial two-year period. Teachers on the implementation team then work to develop and refine the action plan for the campus.
How are students selected as A+ Scholars?
Students are chosen based on their TAKS scores from the previous academic year. Those who met standards or achieved commended performance can be a part of the Challenge Network. Selected students, families, and teachers must sign an initiative commitment form. The initiative is limited to 150 students per school.
What do A+ Performance Coaches do in Challenge Network schools?
A+ Performance Coaches partner with teachers and school leaders to build capacity for excellent classroom instruction and student learning in mathematics and literacy. Daily activities might include team planning, co-teaching, demonstrating lessons, and providing constructive feedback to teachers.
Performance Coaches also work directly with students (identified as A+ Scholars) and their families to provide extra instructional time, enrichment, and help planning for post-secondary success.
Who are Houston A+ Challenge's partners in the project?
Communities In Schools provides one part-time coordinator to work with students and families in each Challenge Network school, and Region 4 Educational Service Center provides additional professional development for Challenge Network teachers and school leaders.
What makes this project different from other school improvement initiatives such as Houston ISD's Apollo 20?
Many elements of these initiatives are the same -- using data to drive teaching, giving students more time to learn core subjects both inside and outside of the school day, changing school culture by raising expectations for kids -- because research tells us time and time again that these are the strategies that work.
Projects such as Apollo 20 are critical, in that they seek to transform some of the area's most troubled public schools. However, the Challenge Network is specifically targeting middle schools that are "in the middle" in terms of their current outcomes for students.
In terms of sheer numbers of kids and schools we stand to help, we feel that this is where we stand to make the biggest impact in our public schools.
By intervening earlier and focusing additional resources on the "middle" students, Houston A+ Challenge hopes to show that this strategic investment pays dividends by producing fewer dropouts and more high-achieving students in high school, and more students graduating truly prepared for college and the workforce.
How are charter schools involved in the Challenge Network?
For years, the city's most successful charter schools have been using many of the core elements utilized in the Challenge Network: more time on task for students, teachers who embrace data-driven instruction, and a strong belief that every child has the potential to achieve at the highest levels.
This alignment made it an easy fit for one such charter school, YES Prep West, to become a Challenge Network school site for the inaugural 2010-11 school year. The five other traditional public schools in the network
