Texas Attorney General -- and possible gubernatorial candidate -- Greg Abbott traveled to Houston last year to learn about the Houston schools' Apollo 20 turnaround program, a visit an Abbott spokesman said sprang from Abbott's interest in education.
"Studying education policy is not only a personal and professional passion (of Abbott's)—but it must be a priority in the Lone Star State," Sarah Floerke, Abbott's campaign director, wrote Texas Watchdog in an e-mail.
Houston Independent School District spokesman Jason Spencer echoed Floerke.
“Greg Abbott was personally interested in the program, so district officials gave him a briefing on Apollo 20,” Spencer said in an interview.
Asked specifically whether Abbott's interest in Apollo 20 was connected to his possible run for governor in 2014, Floerke said only, "As a state official, General Abbott is interested in programs like Apollo 20 that show promise for improving education for Texas children."
Asked what Abbott thought of Apollo 20 after learning more about it, Floerke was similarly vague: "The Apollo 20 program has yielded some promising results that warrant further review and analysis."
Superintendent Terry Grier has highlighted the $20 million Apollo 20 as a signature effort in education reform for the nation’s seventh-largest school district. Recently highlighted in a major piece in The New York Times, Apollo 20 features extended school days and intensive tutoring to try to help some of Houston's most troubled schools.
Roland Fryer, faculty director at Harvard University's Education Innovation Laboratory, is working with district educators to implement the program.
The program has also been controversial. Critics of Apollo 20 have said that district officials are improperly funding the program with public money and that problems exist in its academic rigor, teaching approaches and the lack of student engagement.
Attorney General senior adviser Erin Hodges accompanied Abbott to the HISD meeting on Aug. 16.
HISD officials did not answer two requests from Texas Watchdog to identify district officials who attended the meeting. An e-mail mentioning the meeting, recently made public by HISD, said Jeremy Beard, HISD's former head of the Apollo program, was slated to attend. Beard left HISD last summer to work for Blueprint, the education nonprofit co-headed by Fryer.
Interviews with five of HISD's nine trustees revealed that none of them knew that HISD officials were meeting with Abbott.
But trustees Mike Lunceford and Harvin Moore also said Grier isn’t obligated to inform the board of every appointment HISD officials have.
Houston Independent School District spokesman Jason Spencer echoed Floerke.
“Greg Abbott was personally interested in the program, so district officials gave him a briefing on Apollo 20,” Spencer said in an interview.
Asked specifically whether Abbott's interest in Apollo 20 was connected to his possible run for governor in 2014, Floerke said only, "As a state official, General Abbott is interested in programs like Apollo 20 that show promise for improving education for Texas children."
Asked what Abbott thought of Apollo 20 after learning more about it, Floerke was similarly vague: "The Apollo 20 program has yielded some promising results that warrant further review and analysis."
Superintendent Terry Grier has highlighted the $20 million Apollo 20 as a signature effort in education reform for the nation’s seventh-largest school district. Recently highlighted in a major piece in The New York Times, Apollo 20 features extended school days and intensive tutoring to try to help some of Houston's most troubled schools.
Roland Fryer, faculty director at Harvard University's Education Innovation Laboratory, is working with district educators to implement the program.
The program has also been controversial. Critics of Apollo 20 have said that district officials are improperly funding the program with public money and that problems exist in its academic rigor, teaching approaches and the lack of student engagement.
Attorney General senior adviser Erin Hodges accompanied Abbott to the HISD meeting on Aug. 16.
HISD officials did not answer two requests from Texas Watchdog to identify district officials who attended the meeting. An e-mail mentioning the meeting, recently made public by HISD, said Jeremy Beard, HISD's former head of the Apollo program, was slated to attend. Beard left HISD last summer to work for Blueprint, the education nonprofit co-headed by Fryer.
Interviews with five of HISD's nine trustees revealed that none of them knew that HISD officials were meeting with Abbott.
But trustees Mike Lunceford and Harvin Moore also said Grier isn’t obligated to inform the board of every appointment HISD officials have.
“Sometimes Terry lets us know when those types of meetings are happening,” Lunceford said. “He didn’t that time.”
Moore said he asked Grier about the meeting after he learned of it from Texas Watchdog.
“The Attorney General heard great things about Apollo 20,” Moore said. “He’s interested in school reform and was very curious about how Apollo was working. As far as I know, he only ever heard good things. He had lots and lots of questions. He told (HISD officials) from beginning to end that he was very impressed.”
***
Contact Mike Cronin at mike@texaswatchdog.org or 713-228-2850. Follow him on Twitter at @michaelccronin or @texaswatchdog.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feeds in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, and tumblr.
Photo of Attorney General Greg Abbott from the Texans for Greg Abbott Flickr account.
Like this story? Then steal it. This report by Texas Watchdog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. That means bloggers, citizen-journalists, and journalists may republish the story on their sites with attribution and a link to Texas Watchdog. If you do re-use the story, e-mail news@texaswatchdog.org.
Moore said he asked Grier about the meeting after he learned of it from Texas Watchdog.
“The Attorney General heard great things about Apollo 20,” Moore said. “He’s interested in school reform and was very curious about how Apollo was working. As far as I know, he only ever heard good things. He had lots and lots of questions. He told (HISD officials) from beginning to end that he was very impressed.”
***
Contact Mike Cronin at mike@texaswatchdog.org or 713-228-2850. Follow him on Twitter at @michaelccronin or @texaswatchdog.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feeds in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, and tumblr.
Photo of Attorney General Greg Abbott from the Texans for Greg Abbott Flickr account.
Like this story? Then steal it. This report by Texas Watchdog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. That means bloggers, citizen-journalists, and journalists may republish the story on their sites with attribution and a link to Texas Watchdog. If you do re-use the story, e-mail news@texaswatchdog.org.
Comments
RSS feed
StumbleUpon
Twitter
Newsvine
Facebook
Digg
De.licio.us
YouTube
