Braeburn Elementary School joined iEducateUSA as the second HISD school in its pilot program in September 2014. Braeburn educates more than 900 students in Southwest Houston with a ÔÇ£shared mission to do ÔÇÿwhatever it takesÔÇÖ to meet the needs of all their students.ÔÇØ The school currently has 99.6% economically disadvantaged students.

For several years before iEducateUSAÔÇÖs involvement, Braeburn worked with Teach for America to place high-achieving college graduates in its classrooms as teachers. Despite their best efforts, however, they struggled to produce positive results on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests ÔÇô a key exam whose results are used to measure studentsÔÇÖ progress in key areas. In 2014, only 24% of BraeburnÔÇÖs 4th graders and only 15% of its 5th graders received passing grades in Math; only 19% of 5th graders passed Science.

The schoolÔÇÖs commitment to improving its studentsÔÇÖ education and futures made Braeburn the perfect candidate for iEducateUSAÔÇÖs program. Our goal of improving math and science education is perfectly aligned with the schoolÔÇÖs self-assessed need to improve STEM performance, and we hoped that our tutors (known as ÔÇÿFellowsÔÇÖ) would be the catalyst that Braeburn was looking for.

Since the program began, iEducateUSA has successfully placed Fellows in six 4th and 5th grade math and science classes at Braeburn, reaching more than 200 students in total. By supporting the teachers and providing math and science tutoring within the classroom environment, iEDU has effectively lowered the student-teacher ratio to 11:1, and we expect many resulting improvements.

After promising snapshot tests showed science passing rates up to as much as 80%, iEDU hopes to see significant improvements in Math and Science results at Braeburn over the 2014-2015 school year. STAAR testing is currently underway, with results being announced before the summer. Join us in our support of the teachers, administrators and Fellows who are working tirelessly to improve the quality of STEM education at Braeburn Elementary School ÔÇô iEducateUSAÔÇÖs most recent success story!