Issues

Social and Emotional Skills of Students in the Houston Independent School District (Briefs 2-5)

This series of briefs looks at how social and emotional skills are related to academic outcomes, absenteeism, and exclusionary discipline; the context of SSES skills; and the commonalities and differences between students’ self-ratings and teachers’ ratings of students’ SE skills.

Understanding and Addressing Student and Family Need in HISD

During this event, findings from a recent survey of HISD student and family needs will be shared. Breakout sessions will be organized around a series of key areas of need in the district, such as health, housing, basic needs, and extracurricular supports.

Long-term English learners: How is timing of reclassification associated with middle and high school outcomes? (Part 4)

This brief examines the middle and high school outcomes of long-term English speakers in the Houston region, with a specific focus on how the timing of reclassification was associated with academic achievement and school engagement.

HISD Student Needs Survey: Fall 2021

HISD's 2021 student needs survey measured student needs across five categories: health, mental health, basic needs, home learning environment, and enrichment activities.

Problems with How Texas Measures Continuous Enrollment and Proposed Solutions: A Methodological Report

This report proposes alternative definitions for student continuous enrollment. It also looks at the relationship between continuous enrollment and performance.

Research Poster Gallery

Learn about current and ongoing research efforts by Houston Education Research Consortium and Houston Independent School District researchers.

Pre-K Choice and School Readiness in HISD (Part 4)

This brief serves as the fourth, and final, study in a series examining pre-K access for students in HISD.

The 2022 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston

The third annual State of Housing report looks at the pandemic's impact on the local housing market. The report also sets new housing baselines on mortgage loan data, homelessness and other housing indicators.

With new incentives, Harris County hopes to gain buy-in for buyouts

Climate change is propelling more extreme weather events, including more precipitation and flooding, which means the need for more strategies such as buyouts has never been more urgent. As a concept, buyouts are fairly straightforward: the government buys up properties to remove them out of harm’s way, reducing the risk of loss of life, the need for future flood repairs, insurance payouts and other costs.

Long-term English Learners (LTELs): What factors are associated with the likelihood of an English learner becoming a long-term English learner? (Part 3)

This research brief examines student, campus, and neighborhood characteristics that can be considered risk or protective factors for the likelihood of an English learner (EL) becoming an LTEL (long-term English learner).

Pre-K enrollment in Texas is still behind prepandemic levels, which could widen educational disparities

Schools are enrolling now for next year across Houston and the state of Texas, with officials in many districts still hoping to bring their headcounts back up to prepandemic levels, particularly prekindergarten, which has 25,000 fewer students than it did in 2019-20.

A wider view: Where Houston stands as it recovers from Harvey and builds its resilience

What do trees, bike lanes, and billions in federal disaster aid have in common? They are some of the building blocks of Houston’s future—one that is safer, more equitable and better positioned to withstand future disasters. They’re also among the inventory of measures included in the Kinder Institute’s new Resilience and Recovery Tracker.

Winter Storm Uri showed how Harris County needs a tailored approach to disaster recovery

This week marks the first anniversary of an especially grim event in Texas’ history. Winter Storm Uri touched nearly every corner of the state with power outages that affected millions of people and led to at least 246 lives lost. Unofficial counts put the death toll at three times that number.

Student Mobility in Texas and the Houston Area

This report is the culmination of a multi-year study on student mobility undertaken by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research's Houston Education Research Consortium in collaboration with 10 public school districts in the Houston area.

A Tale of Two Departments: Public Health in Harris County and the City of Houston

This report examines the possible service overlaps between the Harris County Department of Public Health and the City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services. The report also identifies options to reduce overlaps and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the public health delivery system.