Community Voices for Public Education urges parents, teachers and members of the Houston community to take action at tomorrow night's board meeting. Help is needed to stop disastrous per unit allocation (PUA) school funding cuts!    Read more

Fox 26 reporter Andrea Watkins covered the Houston Federation of Teachers' endorsement of parents' right to opt their children out of the STAAR test. Parents from Community Voices for Public Education were present to discuss how they have successfully opted their children out in past school years.  Read more

On Thursday, the HISD School Board will be voting on one of the most significant across-the-board funding cuts in HISD history. These cuts (called PUA cuts) would affect every student in every school in every zip code in the district. Please email the Board and tell them that cuts should come from central office, not from PUA. These cuts should not hurt our children. Read more

To:  HISD Trustees Re: Superintendent Search Criteria The most important responsibilities of the Board of Education are the selection of the superintendent and the development of a contract that holds the superintendent to these criteria, not merely to test scores.  Read more

I spent one year teaching at a Title I HISD school. This is my story. I wish that I could say that this was a rare, freakish situation. It was not. This is going on everywhere. Not always to this degree, but there are at least trace elements of this in every school. And poor kids and the schools that serve them suffer the most. Opt out of STAAR. It's the only way to change this toxic system. Read more

 12 Reasons to Opt Out of the STAAR test this year: 1.) STAAR tests are poorly written and developmentally inappropriate. Try some sample third grade math questions. Read more

A CVPE parent shares a recap of CVPE Educational Forum, Inc.'s Fall Conference: On Saturday, November 21st, I had the pleasure of attending CVPE Educational Forum, Inc.’s Fall Forum. It was held at the United Way of Greater Houston’s center and featured some of today’s most prominent and compelling voices in education in both the Houston community and in the state of Texas. Read more

The HISD School Board approved a policy on Thursday that recognizes the Opt Out movement and states that Opt Out children will not receive negative consequences for their parents' decision to refuse the STAAR assessment.  The new policy has some very real shortcomings and demonstrates a lack of understanding of Texas State law. But the fact that it came before the Board at all shows that HISD is taking Opt Out very seriously. Read more

The CVPE Educational Forum, sister organization to Community Voices for Public Education, is holding its first annual Fall Conference on Saturday, November 21, from 8:30-5pm at the United Way.   Read more

As they did in April 2015, Houston ISD is going on the offensive against their students and families. They are deliberately breaking the law and established district procedures that violate the TEA Education Code and in doing so have caused serious harm to two students. HISD is retaining a set of B+ third graders in retaliation for the parents choosing to opt them out of STAAR math last spring.  Will you email the superintendent at tgrier@houstonisd.org or call him at (713) 556-6300 and the school board members to remind them that HISD must comply with TEA Code and that this grade retention of B+ students would not have happened if they were White and privileged? The question we should be asking is what is the purpose of HISD's anti bullying policy if not to protect families from this?  Read more