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Foster Elementary: "Excellence Expected" as Campus Formalizes NES Transition

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Foster Elementary: "Excellence Expected" as Campus Formalizes NES Transition
Foster Elementary: "Excellence Expected" as Campus Formalizes NES Transition

This is the second article of a three-part series focused on the expansion of Houston ISD's New Education System (NES). Read the first article to learn what the new designation means for the nine campuses joining the model this year.

Within the Yates High School feeder pattern, Foster Elementary’s community welcomes Houston ISD's New Education System (NES) after two years of implementing its instructional curriculum. 

Principal Felicia James views the transition to NES as a way to sustain Foster’s culture of “excellence expected” and grow the high-quality instruction already being practiced at the school. 

“This was a simple decision because this strengthens and scales the work that we are doing,” James said. “We are not starting from scratch here. We're building from a foundation of strong systems, high expectations and a clear focus on instruction.” 

Principal Felicia James reviews daily assessment scores every day to see how each class is performing and compares results to the district average.

Step into the Team Center  

Teacher resident co-leading Team Center

As a teacher resident, Samantha Avila co-leads the Team Center with other residents in order to provide advanced students with challenging coursework while students who require extra support gain time with their core teacher.

Teacher resident working with students

Teacher resident and University of Houston student Samantha Avila leads learning in the school’s Team Center, where students who have demonstrated mastery of that day’s lesson take on more advanced coursework alongside teacher aides. 

“They're always so excited and proud to be pushed out into the learning center,” she said. “They're so happy to show the work that they’ve accomplished.” 

The Team Center is one of several tools used to support differentiated instruction, a key component of the NES model, allowing teachers to tailor lesson plans to meet the needs of both advanced learners and students who need additional support. 

This approach is made possible by instructional support staff, such as teacher aides, learning coaches, or teacher residents, who are well-versed in the curriculum and assist with instruction.

Whether a classroom aide is facilitating a Team Center, providing targeted “second teach” for students who struggled with the material, or supporting students with behavioral needs, the teacher is able to focus more fully on delivering instruction and assessing how best to meet student needs.

Next year, Foster will have more classroom aides assigned to the campus as part of the NES model.

“The model prevents staff from wearing themselves thin so everybody can just focus on their load,” said James. 

 

 

Teachers Lead the Charge

Courtney Noble, a math and science teacher in his 23rd year at Foster, said the move to NES materials has been beneficial for lesson planning and ensuring that across different levels of learning, students are always being challenged. 

“We have more resources and more time to construct better lessons, ” Noble said. “This will allow students to achieve at a higher level."

Courtney Noble started his teaching career as a teacher at Foster Elementary 23 years ago.

Next year, fourth grade English teacher Fern Oglesby will teach Art of Thinking, an NES model course focused on critical thinking and real-world problem solving. With 25 years of HISD teaching experience, Oglesby says many of the conversations she would explore in an Art of Thinking class naturally connect to discussions that emerge from literature in her core English class.

While limited class time in core instruction can make it difficult to delve into topics outside of state-mandated learning objectives, the Art of Thinking period gives students dedicated time to strengthen their cognitive and analytical skills while reinforcing concepts from their core coursework.

“Kids have that opportunity to ask ‘Is this the way life should work?’” she said. “We should have had this when I was in school.” 

Fourth-grade ELA teacher, Fern Oglesby taught Art of Thinking in a pilot capacity during the 2023-24 school year. Next year, she’s excited to do the same.

Professional Communities of Support

Next year, Avila received a placement as a third-grade teacher at Foster. She was hopeful to be put in a community she grew to love, and said she feels prepared because she has already been integrated in Foster’s professional development. 

Foster staff participate in bi-weekly meetings alongside campus administration, known as Professional Learning Communities (PLC)—where staff gather to discuss specific data points— and Demo Day—where they can rehearse their slideshows prior to the classroom instruction. 

“The other teachers will give us feedback and constructive criticism, things we could do better, things we did well,” Avila said. “That's how we get better as a campus.” 

Noble said that over the years, he has found campus culture to be one of the strongest indicators of student achievement, and he hopes the added support for teachers will help strengthen that environment even further.

“When the culture around a school is great, our results are better," Noble said. “It also makes us feel more supported, like someone has our back as we do this work together.”
 

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