This brief examines where STEM deserts were located within Houston Independent School District (HISD) boundaries and the students most likely to live in a STEM desert. STEM deserts are areas in which students have more limited access to STEM endorsement paths or STEM course offerings. The analyses showed STEM deserts were more common in the…

Las Americas Middle School is a newcomer program within Houston Independent School District (HISD) that serves students in Grades 4 through 8 who have been in the U.S. for less than one year. As a non-zoned school of choice, Las Americas has no attendance boundary, meaning that students and families must opt to enroll in the school. This brief…

This brief examines which students in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) are more likely to earn the STEM endorsement and whether STEM endorsement completion predicts college enrollment. Analyses show that gender, STEM magnet program enrollment, and cumulative high school grade point average (GPA) predict STEM endorsement completion.…

This study examined whether there were gendered patterns in STEM endorsement choice in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) and how those patterns changed over time, in the wake of a policy change to guidance counseling. The first students required to choose high school endorsements were freshmen in 2014-2015 and graduated high school in…

This brief examines which students in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) were more likely to choose the STEM endorsement in ninth grade. The study examined STEM endorsement choice among students who began high school in the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years. The analyses showed female students were significantly less likely to…

Newcomer programs aim to serve newly arrived immigrant students by providing specialized instruction and nonacademic support beyond what is offered in traditional English learner classrooms. In Houston ISD, Las Americas is a standalone program that serves newcomer students in grades 4-8. Given the growth of newly arrived immigrant students in the…

Newcomer programs support recent immigrant, English learner students beyond what is typically offered in the traditional English learner classroom by providing students with innovative teaching methods and nonacademic support. In Houston ISD, Liberty High School is a separate-site program that serves high school-aged and older newcomer and…

This brief explores the characteristics of the high schools that newcomer students choose to attend in the Houston Independent School District (HISD). Using data from the 2007-2008 through 2018-2019 school years, the study compares the high school enrollment patterns between newcomer students who attended Las Americas, a school dedicated to…

This brief evaluates the causal effect of attending Las Americas Middle School on newcomer students' early high school outcomes. Using administrative data from the Houston Independent School District (HISD) spanning the 2007-2008 through 2018-2019 school years, the study examined the academic performance, course-taking patterns, and school…

This brief examines the outcomes of high school-aged newcomer students--recently-arrived immigrant English learners--in the Houston Independent School District (HISD). Data from the 2007-2008 through 2018-2019 school years show that newcomer students who attended Liberty High School upon arrival in the U.S. had similar levels of academic…

This study analyzed the equitable distribution of qualified teachers across schools in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years. It examined how the characteristics of teachers were distributed in schools relative to the characteristics of the students attending those schools. For each HISD campus, the…

In the Houston Independent School District (HISD), how far a student lives from their zoned school determines their access to school transportation. Per district policy, students must live at least 2 miles from their zoned school to be eligible for district-provided school transportation. The Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) examined…

High-performing first-generation and economically disadvantaged students are more likely to attend colleges and universities that are less competitive than their academic qualifications allow, which makes them less likely to graduate. EMERGE is a multiyear, personalized college advising program that aims to address this problem by preparing…

This study investigates how teacher qualifications at the campus level were related to achievement, absenteeism, and discipline outcomes for Black and Hispanic students in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years. Campus-level teacher qualifications included shares of advanced degrees, formal…

This study analyzes how the availability of Black and Hispanic teachers within schools in the Houston Independent School District is related to Hispanic and Black students' academic and behavioral outcomes during the 2018--19 and 2019--20 school years. The analyses found that Hispanic and Black students' test scores, attendance and discipline…