Houston Independent School District

The Houston Independent School District or HISD operates schools in Houston, Bellaire, and West University, Texas. HISD also takes students from Southside Place, Texas.

Former HISD Superintendent Rod Paige pushed the district into new heights with the PEER Program. Improving scores from its schools have caused a lot of praise from others nationwide. Kaye Stripling took over when Rod Paige headed to Washington, DC as part of United States President George W. Bush's Bush Administration cabinet.

There is recent controversy over HISD over a New York Times report that alleges that HISD is not reporting school violence to the police.

Notable Schools

Bellaire High School, in the city of Bellaire, has neighborhood and both AP and IB programs. It has been ranked in a magazine as one of the top high schools in the United States.
Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar Senior High School is a high school in HISD that has both neighborhood and IB programs. The school is so famous that people put it as their school on their obituaries
River Oaks Elementary is a Vanguard school which draws from students from the entire Houston Independent School District. River Oaks Elementary is celebrating its 75th anniversary in the 2003-2004 school year.
T.H. Rogers School is a part Vanguard school, part school for the deaf, and part school for multiply impaired children. The Vanguard program at this school is among the most challenging in the city of Houston, and perhaps even one of the most challenging in the state of Texas.