Houston Team at the Intensive Session, July 2007. (Left to right: National Fellows Kathy Howell Zimbaldi, Georgia Redonet, Deborah Denise Dabbs, and Ane Nyoka Ebie-Mouton; Cynthia A. Freeland, Professor of Philosophy, University of Houston; National Fellows Melissa Boddie, Francisca Eunice Rebullida, Karlene E. McGowen, and Mayra Muller-Schmidt; and Michael Field, Professor of Mathematics, University of Houston.)
In the fourth largest city in the United States, the Houston Teachers Institute brings the resources of the University of Houston to the Houston Independent School District, where 280 schools serve 212,000 students. The Houston Teachers Institute began its work in 1999 with 20 self-selected middle and high schools enrolling 31,300 students to establish a program that would address the needs of an ethnically mixed student-body, a large proportion of whom are non-English speaking. Since then it has gradually opened its program more widely to selected schools in the district. Fellows who complete the program receive 32 hours of credit toward the 45 hours required to receive a certificate in Gifted and Talented Teaching Preparation issued by the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented.
The founding director of the Institute was Paul Cooke.
