Houston Home School Programs

Houston Schools New Teacher Merit Pay Program ... Will It Help or Hinder?
Measurement of student achievement through rigorous statewide testing has been a standard in Texas for many years. Houston schools implemented its first merit pay program for teachers in the year 2000.
Houston Schools believe the old program had too low incentives and unanimously passed the new model in January, making it the largest merit pay program in the nation. Officials believe the new program ties teacher rewards more closely to student improvement and to individual teacher efforts. Though no research has been done on the impact of such programs on improved student achievement, other programs have been tried in New York, Denver and Kentucky with varying success.
Houston business leaders, who have a stake in graduating future employees who are high achievers, support the new Houston schools' .5 million program.
Houston schools teacher incentives are based on three components:
a The first component is based upon the amount of improvement of a school's overall test scores, as compared with scores of 40 other schools across the state with similar demographics;
a The second compares student progress on the Stanford 10 Achievement Test and its Spanish equivalent to students in similar Houston schools classrooms; and
a The third component compares student progress on the statewide Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test to similar Houston schools classrooms.
Home School Mailing Lists

Targeted Vs Saturation Mailing List
There are two types of lists that can be used to target potential clients with a direct mail piece. The first way would be to do a "saturation" mailing. A saturation mailing list is compiled by mailing to everyone on a mail carrier's route. A "targeted " list is compiled using specific demographical criteria.
When to use saturation list?
Can your product or promotion only be used by anyone? If a pizza was offering a three pizza special for would everyone on your street be a potential client? The answer is yes. Every person on your street eats pizza, and is a potential client. If you can look down and you see everyone as potential customer, then saturation is definitely your choice.
Gateway Christian Home School

Charlotte Mecklenburg School District's CMS-TV3
The Charlotte Mecklenburg School District
The Charlotte Mecklenburg School District is the main school district for the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The Charlotte Mecklenburg School District is composed of one hundred fifty schools: ninety one elementary schools, thirty two middle schools, seventeen high schools and ten alternative programs. There are one hundred twenty six thousand nine hundred three students enrolled in the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District. The District has the top 10% students in the state of North Carolina and in the nation. The ethnic distribution of the school district is nearly 45% African-American.
Charlotte Mecklenburg School District's CMS-TV3
In order to better serve the students and parents of the Charlotte Schools the school district has created its own television channel. CMS-TV3 is designed to support the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District by broadcasting professional looking programming that can inform, educate, and entertain the parents, students and teachers of the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District. CMS-TV3 meets this goal by providing a variety of programming.
Current programs that address the needs of the students are the telecasts of the Board of Education meetings, Math Extra and Diversity Matters. The Board of Education Meetings are live broadcasts of the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District's twice monthly meetings on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. This allows parents and teachers to know what is going on in the District. The meetings are rebroadcast on Wednesday nights. Math Extra is a live call in mathematics help show that allows students to get math help from math teachers throughout the school district. The show airs Monday through Thursday in the evening. The show aims to provide homework help to the middle school math students in the school district. Diversity Matters is a character education program aimed at high school students and their parents. This show examines different topics related to the issues about diversity within the Charlotte Mecklenburg School community. These are only a few of the many regular and special programs that aim to educate and connect all the members of the school district.
New Programs on CMS-TV3 for the Next School Year
There are a host of new programs that are being added to the line-up of programs already on CMS-TV3. The first special event to air on CMS-TV3 is the graduation ceremonies for the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District's 6,500 graduating seniors for 2006. Then starting with the new school year, there are a number of new programs. These programs, like those currently running, aim to help and enlighten the Charlotte Mecklenburg community. Financial Fitness is a new program aimed at teaching students the value of money and how to practice financial responsibility. This is an important show that illustrates the perils of credit and interest. Hands On Crafts For Kids is a new program that is created to teach elementary school students how to make easy and fun projects. It also gives advice on room decorations and party planning. Stuff is a cross-subject program that involves the use of sciences, arts, and athletics to teach about health and character. The program uses a variety of subjects in order to better relate to the students' personal interests. Stuff is geared toward middle school students.
Working in Broadcasting
CMS-TV3 gives high school students in Charlotte Mecklenburg School District the chance to intern in television production. The internships give selected students the chance to gain practical experience in radio and television production. Interns have the opportunity to apply for several positions like studio floor directors, camera operators, sound assistants, lighting technicians, phone call screeners, writers, and assistant producers.


