The strong showing on the Washington Post High School Challenge rankings and Newsweek’s America’s Best High Schools of 2012 are the result of HISD’s Advanced Placement initiative that began with the 2009-2010 school year.  That was the year Superintendent Terry Grier called on all high schools to expand student access to college-level AP courses and the district agreed to pay the exam fees for all students in those classes.

“This is great recognition of the hard work being done by teachers and students at high schools across the Houston Independent School District,” Grier said.

Today, all HISD high schools offer a minimum of 10-15 AP classes, and the number of exams earning a score of 3 or higher, which is the score most colleges require for course credit, is up 35 percent.

HISD’s strong AP progress is one reason the district is among four finalists for the Broad Prize for Urban Education, which recognizes the top urban school district in America. This week, a Broad Prize panel of experts is touring HISD schools as part of the evaluation process.

Twenty-one HISD high schools earned recognition in the Washington Post High School Challenge, a list of 1,800 schools representing the top 9 percent in the nation when it comes to preparing graduates for college. Only 125 Texas high schools made the list, and HISD campuses – Carnegie Vanguard, Eastwood Academy, and DeBakey High School for Health Professions – represent three of the national top 100.

HISD high schools that made the Washington Post list include:

2012 Rank         School Name

10                    Carnegie Vanguard

23                    Eastwood Academy

96                    Challenge Early HS

114                  DeBakey HS for Health Professions

153                  Bellaire

161                  High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

168                  East Early College

194                  Furr

228                  High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

267                  Lamar

275                  Westside

548                  Westbury

553                  Lee

833                  Chavez

1,001               Milby

1,062               Reagan

1,121               Scarborough

1,158               Washington

1,205               Davis

1,377               Waltrip

1,571               Austin

HISD high schools also occupy 9 out of 1,000 positions on Newsweek’s list of America’s Best High Schools.  Only 86 Texas high schools made the Newsweek list. HISD schools on the list are:

2012 Rank       School Name

13                    Carnegie Vanguard

72                    Eastwood Academy

75                    DeBakey HS for Health Professions

162                  High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

439                  Bellaire

446                  Challenge Early College

685                  High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

883                  Lamar

957                  Mount Carmel Academy

After posting three dominant relief appearances, including two that helped secure the regular season Conference USA title over the weekend at UCF, Duffey has been named the league’s Pitcher of the Week for the first time in his career. In his three outings the Owl right-hander totaled 5.1 innings pitched and did not allow a run nor a hit. More impressive, he struck out 13 of the 17 batters that he faced, including nine in a row at one point.

Duffey fanned three batters in 1.2 innings in a shutout victory on the road at Southland Conference champion Sam Houston State on Tuesday (May 15). The Houston native then turned in a pair of brilliant performances in the two Owl wins at UCF. In the game two win on Friday he struck out all five batters he faced. On Saturday, Duffey struck out the side in the eighth and fanned the first batter in the ninth to give him nine-straight strikeouts of nine batters over a two-game span. The streak was snapped with a base-on-balls, and after an Owl fielding error on a fielder’s choice play, UCF suddenly had two men on base and the potential tying run at the plate. Duffey was able to get the Knights to fly out, and he then fired a game-ending strikeout to preserve the 5-2 victory to help Rice take the regular season conference championship. The 2012 C-USA title is the program’s 17th- consecutive conference championship going back to 1996.

Duffey’s Owl teammates who have won or shared the league’s weekly hitting/pitching honor include Matthew Reckling (pitcher, three times), Michael Fuda (hitter, Feb. 27), Jordan Stephens (pitcher, Mar. 12) and Ford Stainback (hitter, May 13).

Jacob Wilson batted .381 on the week as the Tigers went 4-0. He hit .412 and collected four doubles and seven RBI for a C-USA series sweep lastweekend. For the week, he had eight hits, eight RBI and five runs scored, while adding two steals. He also blasted his league-best 16th home run against Tennessee-Martin last Tuesday.

Rice is 39-15 overall this season. With the C-USA regular season title the Owls also clinched the No. 1 seed at the upcoming C-USA Championship Tournament, scheduled to get underway on Wednesday (May 23) in Pearl, Miss. The tourney features four days of pool play followed by a single Championship Final on Sunday (May 27). Rice’s opening game in the tournament will be Houston starting at 3 pm.

The game is scheduled to resume Friday at 3 pm Eastern Time (2 pm Central Time) with UCF holding an 8-3 lead. The Owls are batting with two outs and the bases loaded. The second game of the series is scheduled to begin one hour the completion of game one.

UCF jumped on the scoreboard with a big five-run inning in the bottom of the third. The Knights loaded the bases on a walk, single and hit batsman. Shortstop Darnell Sweeney drove in two with a double to left-center. Chris Taladay followed with a two-run single, and he was able to advance an extra station when the Owls made a fielding error handling the ball. Taladay scored an unearned run on a single by D.J. Hicks that extended the lead to 5-0.

The Knights then added three more unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth after a Rice fielding error. The big blow was a three-run double by Alex Friedrich to make it 8-0, where half the scores were unearned.

Rice came back with three runs in the top of the fifth. Geoff Perrott and Michael Aquino knocked back-to-back doubles to left to lead it off. Aquino went to third on a ground-out to the right side and scored on an RBI grounder by J.T. Chargois. Michael Ratterree walked and Jeremy Rathen doubled down the left-field line for another score.

Umpires cleared the UCF facility when lightning began to strike in the area. Heavy rains followed, suspending play until Saturday afternoon.

The winner of this three-game series wins the C-USA regular season championship.

HISD’s non-teaching staff last received a pay raise in 2009-2010, and some, but not all, teachers received a raise in 2010-2011. No employees received raises this school year. Superintendent Terry Grier asked the board to consider the pay increases in an effort to remain competitive with surrounding Houston-area school districts that have already proposed doing so.

The teacher pay issue is especially critical as HISD seeks to compete with other school districts who are attempting to fill teaching vacancies caused by resignations and retirements. Each year, HISD loses about 1,000 teachers through attrition.  Under the proposal, teachers with 10 years or less of experience would receive a 2.25 percent pay raise, which would increase beginning teacher pay in HISD from $44,987 to $46,000.  Teachers with more than 10 years of experience would receive a 1.75 percent pay raise.

Other employee groups would receive the following salary increases under the compensation proposal:

• School bus operators, hourly food services employees, and salaried departmental employees on the lower end of the pay scale: 2.25 percent
• Substitute teachers, hourly employees, principals, assistant principals, and deans: 2 percent
• Professional employees and upper-level administrators: 1.75 percent

HISD began the budgeting process facing a $43.6 million shortfall caused primarily by the Texas Legislature’s decision last year to reduce public education funding by $5.3 billion.  HISD is among many Texas school districts that have filed a lawsuit seeking to force the state to fund schools at the constitutionally-mandated level.

The budget proposal includes maintaining HISD’s current tax rate, which is the lowest among all Harris County school districts.

The district would pay for the $20 million compensation proposal in part with $8.9 million from the district’s savings account, which currently stands at about $257 million.  About $17 million of the shortfall would be covered by reducing the amount of general fund money that is normally transferred to HISD’s debt service fund to help repay loans.  This reduction is a one-time option that will not be available in future years.

HISD has also identified several areas of potential savings for the upcoming school year. These include:

• $3.5 million in reduced employee healthcare costs through increased efficiencies that should not impact quality of service.
• $1.7 million less in special funding for six unique schools.
• $2.5 million in non-campus departmental cuts, primarily through eliminating positions and layoffs.  Last year, HISD eliminated 221 non-campus positions.

The Board of Education is expected to adopt the 2012-2013 budget at a public meeting in June.

Game times with the Knights are set for 5:30 pm on both Thursday and Friday, and 12 p.m. in Saturday’s series finale (all times listed are Central Time).

Rice and UCF are tied atop the C-USA standings and the winner of this series clinches the No. 1 seed of the upcoming Conference Championship next week in Pearl, Miss.

“Tommy, I’ve been thinking real hard about this and have watched a lot of your tapes,” Kramer recalls Rice telling him. “I can tell you one thing …”

Benak scattered five singles with no walks while striking out nine in a career-long 7.1 frames. By the eighth inning only two Bearkat runners reached scoring position off the junior right-hander. It was the kind of start Rice head coach Wayne Graham wanted to see in a key midweek contest against a Bearkat team that had already clinched the Southland Conference regular season championship.

“Benak pitched a great game,” said coach Wayne Graham. “He had three good pitches. He had the best change-up he’s had this year.”

“We weren’t very lucky hitting,” coach Graham added. “We got five runs, but we hit a lot more balls hard then that. It’s a good RPI (Ratings Power Index) win, on the road.”

Rice challenged for runs in the first and second inning before finally breaking through in the top of the fourth. J.T. Chargois and Shane Hoelscher started the inning off with singles through the right and left sides, respectively. The runners advanced on a text-book sacrifice bunt by Michael Aquino. Chargois trotted home on a single to left by Geoff Perrott for a 1-0 advantage.

The Owls scored two more in the top of the sixth. Designated hitter Keenan Cook drew a one-out walk and stole second to move into scoring position. In Craig Manuel’s pinch-hit at bat, the Bearkats had a wild pitch that allowed Cook to advance to third. Manuel was hit by a pitch then surprised the home team with a steal of second base that two men in scoring position. Christian Stringer followed with a two-out single to left-center to score both runs and extend the Owls’ lead to 3-0.

Rice added two more runs on two hits and a couple of wild pitches in the top of the eighth to make it 5-0. There was still some drama to fight through in the bottom of the eighth. Bearkat right fielder Greg Olson led off with a single and Benak hit a batter with one away. The Owls went to the bullpen and issued a walk that loaded the bases.

The Blue & Gray brought in a second reliever, Tyler Duffey, who ended the threat with a total of four pitches to get a strikeout and fly out. With a scoreless ninth Duffey was back in form.

“It felt great out there,” Benak said. “I thought I had command of all my pitches and I got the change-up working early which was nice. It was tight there, but we got some runs and it took a little pressure off. Our offense can come up big at any spot in the lineup.”

The Owl duo of Stringer and Chargois each had two hits on the night. Rice is now 37-14 overall with six wins in the last seven games. The Bearkats are now 34-17 on the year.

The Owls’ road swing continues. Rice next plays a three-game Conference USA series at league co-leader UCF May 17-19. Rice then competes in the C-USA Tournmanent May 23-27 in Pearl, Miss.

The Owls first play at longtime state rival Sam Houston State (34-16 this season) on Tuesday at 6:30 pm.

Rice travels to Orlando, Fla., to meet conference foe UCF on May 17-19 and finish the C-USA schedule and regular season.

Game times against the Knights, 40-12 and co-leading the league with Rice at 15-6 are set for 5:30 pm on both Thursday and Friday and 12 p.m. on Saturday.