Education
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Education
There are 67 school districts and 66 independent charter schools in the 10-county Houston area that includes Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, San Jacinto, and Waller counties. The top 20 districts combine to educate more than 755,000 each year. Houston educators and the community are committed to creating a high-quality educational environment to serve the needs of an increasingly diverse student population.
As the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest city in the U.S., Houston is home to the Houston Independent School District (HISD), the largest public school district in the area as well as in Texas and the seventh-largest public school district in the country. HISD educates more than 202,000 students, employs 29,000 full and part-time professional and support personnel and operates 306 campuses and educational programs within a 301-square mile area.
HISD schools are organized within five geographic regions (North, East, South, West and Central) by feeder patters composed of specific elementary, middle and high schools; an Alternative and Charter Schools Office oversees those types of schools. Each regional office is managed by a regional superintendent who coordinates a team of executive principals to ensure the quality of instruction throughout the region's feeder patters. Regional managers serve to strengthen the district's outreach to parents by handling parental concerns and working to improve parent, volunteer, and business-partner programs. Each of the five regions manages four or five of HISD's 23 feeder patterns.
HISD's organization is designed to emphasize teaching and learning, align school goals and programs for sustained improvement, eliminate duplicated services and provide greater oversight of data and compliance with state laws and regulations.
