Dominic Anthony Walsh/Houston Public Media
HISD Superintendent Mike Miles at a Tuesday, February 20, 2024 press conference.
Houston ISD has released a list of community partners that are sponsoring the district’s lowest-rated campuses as part of state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles’ new “Houston Promise” initiative to improve struggling schools.
The list of 43 organizations includes several professional sports teams like the Astros, Rockets and Texans, 13 groups with religious affiliations and Scott McClelland, former president of Texas grocery store chain H-E-B. HISD says some organizations have adopted more than one school (see the full list below).
In September, Miles announced the program would pair 64 C-and D-rated HISD schools – as determined by the Texas Education Agency’s annual accountability ratings – with businesses and nonprofits to help accomplish the district’s larger goal of all HISD schools earning A or B ratings by 2027.
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The initiative’s community partners are asked to provide teacher appreciation lunches or breakfast twice annually, support a student achievement celebration twice annually, host campus beautification projects and volunteer at the school, publicly celebrate the school and the Houston Promise initiative on social media and make small donations for campus principals to use at their discretion toward academic needs of students.
HISD has not provided further clarification on the donation aspect of the initiative and does not have a final list of which partners have sponsored which schools.
“No other district in the nation would even attempt [this goal], but we’re the first ones that are in a position to do it,” Miles said in September. “The team and the staff and the kids believe we can do it.”
For the first time since the state intervened and took control of HISD in June 2023, because of continually poor academic performance by one high school, the district has no F-rated schools this year. Miles, appointed by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath along with a board of managers, now oversees 18 D-rated campuses, a sharp drop from more than 100 low-performing schools in 2022-2023 and a critical step toward exiting the state takeover.
Here is the full list of community partners:
Achieving Community Tasks Successfully (ACTS)
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Alpha Kappa Omega Chapter
Amigas and Friends
Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation
Camden Properties
Corebridge
David Weekley Family YMCA
Dios Habla Hoy Church (Loving Houston)
Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church
Grace Presbyterian Church (Loving Houston)
Harris County Courts at Law Judges
Harris County Precinct 4
Houston Loves Teachers
Houston Astros
Houston Dynamo FC
Houston Rockets
Houston Texans
Independence Heights Ministers Alliance
Jim and Beverly Postl
Marty and Kathy Goossen
Midtown Worship Center
Monty & Ramirez LLP
New Faith Church
New Hope Church
New Life Tabernacle Church
NFL alumni group
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Rho Beta Beta Chapter
One Church at Bethel Family/Free Community Church (Loving Houston)
Philly Connect
Pneuma Church (Loving Houston)
Port Houston
Possible Missions
ProUnitas
Revive Church (Loving Houston)
Rodeo Dental & Orthodontics
Sallyport Investments
Scott and Soraya McClelland
Sibme
Tackling Crime in the Red Zone
The L1 Foundation
United Healthcare
University of Houston Downtown
Veterinary Support Services at Charles River Laboratories