The Houston public school system has a new $25,000 website up and running to update the public on the district’s goal of having an effective teacher in every classroom within 5 years.

What you won’t find on the site: An assessment of how many current teachers are less than effective, or how much progress the district has made on getting rid of them.

Nor will readers find data from the surveys taken this summer of the district’s principals and teachers, asking them for their views on teacher effectiveness and how the school system could address it -- data the Houston Independent School District released months ago and which Texas Watchdog has already published.

But readers will find PowerPoint presentations including strategic plans and blue-sky thinking on how the school district can improve the quality of its teaching.

The site, www.HISDeffectiveteachers.org, which went live Friday, also includes a service where readers can subscribe to e-mail updates, a feedback section for parents and community members and dates of upcoming meetings at which committees will debate broad questions such as, what is an effective teacher?

The estimated cost for the site is $25,684.95, HISD spokesman Norm Uhl said. That will cover “the cost for the initial development, domain registration, hosting and maintenance of the effective teacher portal over the 5 year project,” he said in an e-mail.

The costs are being covered by a donation from the Houston Endowment. The nonprofit has previously given the district $250,000 for its effective-teacher initiative.

The site was built by a New York-based education nonprofit, The New Teacher Project, which has been consulting HISD since late last year on its hiring practices.

The website is part of TNTP’s four-phase, $8.4-million project that aims to help HISD attract and retain the best teachers with the hope of boosting student achievement. Phases one and two of the project are complete; the results of the surveys and the data the group has collected can be viewed here.

The HISD communications team and district leadership helped design the website with help from TNTP staff, Uhl said.

Last month, the district was awarded a $31.5 million five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education that will primarily fund performance pay for principals and teachers. Days before the money was awarded to HISD, a national study was published showing that rewarding teachers with cash bonuses does not necessarily mean higher test scores or better academic performance by students.

Have you used the new site yet? What do you think? Texas Watchdog wants to hear from you. Contact Lynn Walsh at Lynn@Texaswatchdog.org, 713-228-2850 or on Twitter @LWalsh.