Guest Blog: Ending the inertia of student mobility in Houston

It matters that 60,000+ Houston-area students change schools each year. Here’s what we can do about it.

Each school year in the Houston area, more than 60,000 children leave the school they were attending to enter another school. Given that more than 700,000 students are served by Houston-area schools1, the number of children moving may seem trivial, but for the teachers, classrooms, and students actually making these moves, this student mobility is disruptive, destabilizing, and carries both short- and long-term consequences.

Students who change schools score lower on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) tests, both during the year they change schools and in subsequent ones. Changing schools also places students at an increased risk of being retained a grade, dropping out of high school, and failing to graduate at all. Moreover, the costs of student mobility extend beyond the mobile kids themselves — schools and classrooms with higher mobility have fewer kids passing the STAAR and lower overall ratings, even though these ratings are based almost exclusively on students who haven’t changed schools. Mobility matters for students, for schools, and for communities, and to better address the challenges it poses to the Houston area, we must first know more about who is mobile, where mobility takes place and why mobility happens.

Which students are mobile

Our research found patterns among students who change schools. In the Houston region, white students and Black students are more likely to change schools than Hispanic students or Asian students. Student performance — as much as it is affected by student mobility — also predicts which students will change schools. For instance, if a student scores in the bottom 10th percentile on the STAAR math test, during the next school year that student is five times more likely to change schools as their peers who scored in the top 10th percentile. 

Students with lower STAAR scores in 2015-16 were more than five times as likely to change schools in the 2016-17 school year

Perhaps the most notable trend in mobility is its inertia — students who change schools one year are more likely to change schools again the next year. In fact, about one in five previously mobile students will change schools again, compared to about one in 20 non-previously mobile students. Student mobility begets student mobility begets student mobility.

1-in-5
previously mobile students will change schools again, compared to about 1-in-20 non-previously mobile students.

Where mobility takes place

One of the features of student mobility that makes it so disruptive is that it typically involves students changing not only their school but also the district they attend. Less than one-third of student mobility begins and ends at campuses in the same district. That means the majority of student mobility involves students going to a new school, in a new district, with new rules, cultures, classroom climates, and social contexts. But while most student mobility travels between school districts, that does not mean students and their families are moving great distances. Some of the most common student mobility is between neighboring campuses, it just so happens that in the urban context of Houston, those campuses belong to different districts.

This pattern of student mobility — going between districts but remaining close to home — has produced six major student mobility networks in the Houston region. These mobility networks consist of schools who commonly exchange students during the school year, are geographically clustered, and cut across district boundaries. They are identified as the Central, East, North, Southeast, Southwest, and West networks, as depicted in the image below. To see and learn more about these six mobility networks, click here.

Source: Bao, K., Molina, M., Kennedy, C., & Potter, D. (2021). Student mobility networks in the Greater Houston area: Elementary school student mobility networks. Houston, TX: Houston Education Research Consortium, Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University.

“Less than one-third of student mobility begins and ends at campuses in the same district.”

Why student mobility happens

The reasons students change schools, while diverse, tend to be driven by economics and education. The economic drivers of student mobility relate to the diminishing availability of quality, affordable housing in Houston. As parents look to balance better, safer communities and affordability, there is an ongoing cycle of mobility that follows — as evidenced in the inertia of student mobility mentioned earlier. In addition to finding affordable housing, parents also face decisions around where to live relative to where they work. 

And from an education perspective, a student’s current school may not be working for them,so the parents may decide to relocate. Despite the best intention behind much of mobility — finding better housing, seeking out a schooling context more aligned with what a parent wants — the school change is disruptive to students’ learning and achievement.

Why student mobility issues persist in Houston

Changing schools is a disruptive event, particularly when it is accompanied by a change in where a family lives. Many districts around the Houston area have policies and plans — formal and informal — to help minimize the disruptiveness of the change. Some schools that experience high levels of student mobility have “welcoming teams” of students who buddy up with the newly arrived peer to show them around the building, help them with their class schedule and get them accustomed to the new campus. Other districts have invested in academic support specialists who are connecting with mobile students within 48 hours of their arrival to their new campus to meet them, learn about their skills, and plug them into any remedial services that help prepare the student to fit into their new classes. Still other districts have “home school” programs, so that if a child’s family needs to find a new home they can finish out the school-year at their original school (in some cases, even if the family has moved to a neighborhood in a different district). 

Districts already do so much in service to mobile students, so why does changing schools continue to have such negative consequences?

First, student mobility is a regional problem that districts are being forced to grapple with independently. That so little mobility stays within a district means that even if a district passed policies or plans to eliminate all of its student mobility, those plans — which would likely carry significant costs — would address less than one-third of the student mobility coming into the district each year. This fact notwithstanding, districts have put into place systems that minimize disruption in the logistics of students’ education when they change schools within the district. 

Every district in the Houston region has an integrated student information system that connects all campuses in a district in real-time. If a student was enrolled in School A on Friday and School B on Monday, if those schools are in the same district, all of the student records and information associated with that student follow them instantaneously. These records are critical because they contain information on special services and accommodations students receive, such as services or supports provided for students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) in special education programs. These student records also include information about English learner status, gifted/talented status, interventions or other programs the student may be involved with, and other details about a student’s schooling that are not always otherwise available.

Texas public schools have a way to exchange these records between school districts, the Texas Records Exchange (TREx), but the system involves one campus requesting information and another campus sending information. This process can often be slow and burdensome. In terms of instruction time, the loss of a week or more when a student is not receiving the appropriate supports and services can set students back significantly. Improving upon the TREx system to provide real-time access to student records across districts would go a long way to optimizing the continuity in children’s education, but any such improvements would need to be made with an eye towards logistical and data security matters.

Second, since student mobility tends to travel between districts, mobile students become the responsibility of everybody and simultaneously nobody. Mobile students find themselves in this space, in no small part, because currently the Texas Education Agency (TEA) only counts students for accountability purposes if the student was enrolled at a school at the time of the October Snapshot (early part of the school year) and when state assessments were administered (later part of the school year). For those students who change schools in the middle of the year, their STAAR performance is not counted toward any campus, and if the student moved between districts, it’s not counted toward any district. TEA excludes all students who change schools during the school year from the accountability subset. This makes sense — to hold a campus and district accountable for its students who have been there the whole year — but also opens up the opportunity for mobile students to fall through the proverbial cracks.

Exploring available solutions

As a multi-district issue, many districts will need to work together to address student mobility. Additionally, the same way school districts currently have assistant superintendents overseeing elementary schools or directors of multilingual programs, the state needs to fund parallel positions for overseeing mobile students.State funding could be specifically allocated to positions housed within districts tasked with working across districts to streamline information sharing, collaborate on policies prioritizing schooling stability, and work to curtail the drivers of student mobility as well as its consequences. In doing so, districts and the state can work together to support these students currently poised to slip through accountability cracks.

Admittedly, a school district could independently opt to prioritize its mobile students and fund a “director of mobile student services” position; however, as discussed above — mobility is not a single district’s issue. Asking for a district to foot the bill for a position that would work to serve and support students coming from other districts as well as going to other districts could be unnecessarily fraught with problems, as parents and communities might reasonably ask why their tax dollars are going to support students who are no longer attending a school in their district. 

The state — or, potentially entities in the philanthropic community — could serve as a funder to offset community expenses, building on the precedent of the state’s programs and departments aimed at supporting “highly mobile” students (which is a program appropriately aimed at supporting students and their families who are experiencing homelessness), to create a new initiative in charge of overseeing and supporting a larger segment of the student population: those who change schools each school year.

In addition to lessening the consequences of mobility, reducing the phenomenon altogether is also an option worth exploring. To keep students in the schools that work for them and their families, funds could be raised in order to allow public school districts to financially support families being forced to move to find affordable housing. While the reasons given above for students changing schools listed economic and educational reasons, the most common reason is economics, and in the Houston context that often translates to families needing to find safe, affordable housing. 

To the extent families are being forced to move because they can no longer afford their current housing arrangement, funds could be set up in a district to support families and to do so in a sliding-scale manner to ensure that the most supports went to help those who could benefit the most from it. The source of these funds could be philanthropic, carved out from current budgets, or through the establishment of a new tax. Though no one wants a higher tax bill, small increases to property taxes that went towards keeping families housed who would otherwise be moving, could actually help increase property values by creating more stable residents, reducing transiency, and promoting the family and education in the community.

Final thoughts

Tens of thousands of students change schools in the Houston area each year. This mobility translates to lower test scores and higher risks for grade retention and dropout. Yet, it is not a mystery which students will change schools, and there is a relatively high degree of certainty where students will go when they’re mobile. 

The newfound understanding of this phenomenon in the Houston area shows student mobility is both widespread throughout the region and can be dealt with proactively. Student information systems can be connected across districts to ensure greater continuity in children’s education, positions can be established with the purpose of directly and intentionally supporting mobile students (and their families), and trivial adjustments to tax-rates can translate to meaningful sums of money tagged to help stabilize families and communities. 

Student mobility has been part of the Houston region and educational landscape for years, but it does not have to be. Now knowing the patterns and predictors of who is mobile, where they are mobile, and why they are mobile offers the opportunity to move past understanding student mobility in the Houston context to do something about it.

References:

1Houston-area schools refers to the collection of 10 public school districts in and around Harris County who partnered with the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) to study student mobility.

Examining Houston’s Reputation as a Car City

A data-driven look at personal vehicle use in Greater Houston

You’ve probably heard it from visiting relatives who just can’t seem to wrap their heads around how big the city is, asking “is this still Houston?” on the twenty-minute drive to your favorite dinner spot. Houston’s size contributes to its character, but it also makes owning and driving a car a fact of life for most residents.

Do you need a car in Houston? It depends on who you ask and where you live. Historically speaking, Houston is similar to most U.S cities developed post World War II. As people’s ability to make and save money grew, so too did demand for things like spacious homes and personal vehicles, the latter made affordable by the innovations of the Ford assembly line. 

But why is Houston so car-dependent today? The sheer amount of ground to cover is certainly a contributing factor to Houston’s car-centrism, but more philosophical barriers, like Texans’ fierce attitude toward independence, contribute as well. Cars offer freedom and flexibility, all while contributing to personal style and status.

That said, Houston’s reputation as a car city, while grounded both culturally and statistically, is not immutable. In fact, 58.8% of Houstonians believe that a much-improved mass transit system is vital to the success of the city, according to the 2020 Kinder Houston Area Survey, despite the fact that 80% of Houstonians drive to work alone in a personal vehicle (2019 American Community Survey). However, research has shown that people often choose to commute by car, even when other travel modes like public transportation, walking or biking might save them time and money, making any major shifts in how people choose to get around a foreseeable challenge. 

The cost of Houston’s car dependency

Average commute times in Houston

How bad is Houston traffic? It may not surprise you to hear that average commute times in Houston’s three county region are higher than the national average, or that they’re generally getting worse. Houston ranks #3 of 15 large metros for worst commuter congestion, and #4 for worst commercial truck congestion. Motorists spent an average of 49 hours stuck in Houston traffic in 2020, averaging out to $1,097 in fuel and lost time.

According to census data, Houstonians spend an hour a day getting to and from work, which is higher than both the state and national average, according to Census data. This is all despite 80% of the population in Houston choosing the supposed convenience of driving alone in a personal vehicle. More cars on the road means more traffic. It also means more accidents, which also means more traffic. While the pandemic may have given commuters and the environment a short reprieve from congestion and pollution, both accident and roadway fatality reports show that the sojourn is over; from January to September of 2021 Texas roadways saw a 15% jump in crash frequency.

As normalcy ebbs its way back into our lives and our roadways, so do the safety concerns, environmental concerns, and tedium that come with all those people just trying to get somewhere.

Pollution

Ozone pollution in Houston has abated over the last twenty years, with fewer days in which ozone poses a measurable threat to our residents. Days still exist in which just walking around in urban areas would pose significant risks to your health, often in the dead heat of summer. Despite a national decline, ozone pollution is still very much a threat in Houston, due in part to the number of cars on the road. About 60% of Houston’s ozone pollution is estimated to result from vehicle exhaust alone.

Particle pollution (or PM) are small solid and liquid particles, like soot, released into the air by a variety of industrial processes, that reduce visibility and cause haze. Of particular concern are PM2.5 particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter that are easily inhaled. In 2019 the EPA determined that short or long-term exposure to PM2.5 can lead to cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and even early death. PM2.5 levels in Metropolitan Houston (10.1 µg/m3) are about as far below national limits (12 µg/m3) as they are above the national average (8 µg/m3). 

National standards for acceptable levels of both ozone and particle pollution have seen consistent reductions over the years as we develop a better understanding of the danger posed by these environmental hazards. Because of this, Houston is now within acceptable limits on both ozone and PM, but has lagged behind the national pace of reduction in both categories. The air quality in Houston is still of great concern, as the American Lung Association State of the Air Report rates the air in Harris and Montgomery counties an “F,” and the PM2.5 numbers could fall on the wrong side of the new national limit upon the EPA’s imminent reexamination.

So if we’re doing better, and Houston falls within most national guidelines, why is this important? Because pollution doesn’t affect everyone in the same way — some neighborhoods face higher threats than others, and Black and Hispanic residents most acutely suffer the effects of pollution though they produce less of it.

Continue reading about Houston’s climate at UnderstandingHouston.org

Houston’s car-centric infrastructure

Given the consequences of high solo-commuting rates, why don’t more residents elect to ride Houston’s public transportation? Is Houston walkable? Bikeable?

Simply put, most of the region is just not very walkable. According to the National Walkability Index provided by the EPA, most neighborhoods in all three counties have below-average walkability. This car-centric infrastructure is due in part to the sprawling geography of Houston, but also has a lot to do with the cultural prioritization of cars over pedestrians. Houstonians want walkable urban spaces, but the cultural and infrastructural barriers are high and made of poured concrete.

Cyclists face similar issues in that the city is built to serve motorists. Biking carries the same (if not more) health and environmental benefits as walking. Houston can be a delightful place to bike after all; the city has committed to the creation of 1,800 miles of bike lanes by 2027 through its Bike Plan. Although 345 of those miles currently exist, only 25 miles are protected (just over 7%), a fact that underscores why many might be reluctant to pick up the hobby.

However, cycling is not always a hobby. Many bike commuters choose to cycle not out of respect for its social or cardiovascular benefits, but out of necessity; your average bicycle costs a lot less than a car. And due to Houston’s car-centric streets, bicyclists often endanger themselves getting around, with Harris County drivers striking cyclists 557 times in 2021, killing 23 riders. 

What about Houston’s public transportation? Why is it that Houstonians choose public transit at half of the national rate?

Although national rates for commuters choosing public transportation have gone up since 2010, rates in Houston, and Texas at large, have actually gone down. Part of the problem is the availability of stops in general. Only 5% of households in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties are located within a quarter-mile of a public transit stop, while Harris County sits at 38%.

Low-income populations use public transit far more often than others, a finding consistent with national trends. In 2017, more than twice as many Harris County residents in poverty used public transportation as those who live above the poverty line.

These individuals would benefit from more bus and train stops as first steps, in addition to basic amenities (such as benches or roofs), extended service hours, and expanded routes to fully access the vibrant culture, prosperity and opportunity Greater Houston has to offer.

The road ahead

Steps have been taken to make our region less car-reliant and safer for those who do choose to ride bicycles or public transportation when traversing the region. Where there once were no protected bike lanes in the city of Houston, there are now 345 miles of high-comfort bike lanes, with plans for 1,800 more miles currently in progress. Additionally, programs like Houston BCycle are making it easier for residents of all means and backgrounds to choose bikes over cars when traveling within urban areas.

Houston-area cyclists aren’t the only ones enjoying improvements to our transportation infrastructure; thanks to people like Janis Scott and the team at LINK Houston, safe and comfortable public transit options are reaching more parts of our region than ever before.

When armed with the right information, we believe our region can continue to take the steps necessary for a less congested, more free-moving Houston that’s safe and accessible for all.

Helpful Articles by Understanding Houston:

Houston is… Entrepreneurial

Exploring the factors influencing Houston’s famed entrepreneurial spirit 

Houston’s business culture is unique — both distinctly global and local, it owes its evolution as much to every hardworking Houstonian as it does to the frontier mentality from which its industry grew. Entrepreneurship is an essential part of what it means to live in Houston, and whether you’re buying new business software or a cup of coffee, Houston small businesses and the entrepreneurs who run them likely play a role in your purchase. 

Industry is in our history

Houston owes its existence to brothers John Kirby and Augustus Chapman Allen, two entrepreneurs who saw opportunity in the unrest following the bloody Battle of San Jacinto. They bought their initial spit of 6,600 acres for just $10,000, successfully lobbied the Texas Congress for capital status, and put some ads in the paper claiming glory for Sam Houston and the Republic — all with about a dozen citizens sitting on a muddy bayou in land that wasn’t considered particularly desirable.

First, they built a railway (that would go on to join the Union Pacific Railroad) and advertised the city as the place “where 17 railroads meet the sea,” despite the fifty miles in between Houston and the Gulf of Mexico. Once the railroad was underway, the city spent the next 50+ years bringing the sea to its borders, dredging Buffalo Bayou and Galveston Bay incrementally to accommodate larger and larger ships.1 They eventually turned that muddy stream into the second largest port in the United States, beginning the project before oil was ever even found in the state.

Oil did, however, change everything. It made Houston the unofficial capital of the energy industry, combining the maverick spirit of its founders with the industry boom of many in the country chasing down the valuable resource, and contributing significantly to the growth of our region. 

Houston’s origins tell a story not just of the quality of the human spirit, but of the inherent balance and imbalance of economic opportunity. To continue improving our great city through years of its exponential industrial and population growth, it is necessary to look unceasingly into how our entrepreneurial nature can better serve every single Houstonian.

In Houston, small business is big

Houston is certainly a huge, global city, but it just wouldn’t be the same without Mom and Pop.

Houston is famous for its maverick founders, its tycoons, for the big business and even bigger briskets — but the reality is that business in Houston isn’t always so “big.” 

Small businesses employed about 14% of our region’s workforce in 2019 — nearly 400,000 people. In addition, 81% of entrepreneurial firms in the Houston Metropolitan Area have fewer than 20 employees. According to estimates from the Greater Houston Partnership, the Metropolitan Area had 663,800 “non-employee businesses” in 2018; these are most often consultants or freelancers — the entrepreneurial spirit exemplified.

What is the main business in Houston, Texas for small business owners? While real estate is Houston’s number one industry for small businesses, with 95% of firms employing fewer than 20 , industries like retail and administrative services are right on their heels, and smaller companies exist in all sectors (even energy!). These small businesses benefit Houston’s economy in important ways. In particular, creation of small businesses  among communities of color — sometimes a necessity to overcome employment barriers, challenges in building personal wealth, and discrimination — can help increase economic opportunity..

Continued intentional support of Houston small businesses, especially among communities that disproportionately face challenges like lack of credit access, social capital and accumulation of generational wealth, is what the path toward a healthier and more vibrant local economy looks like.

81% of Houston-area firms have fewer than 20 employees.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Annual Business Survey, data year 2019 

Diversity and disparities in Houston small business

As well as its reputation for entrepreneurship, Houston is also a city known for its diverse population. Its cultural diversity today mirrors what demographers predict the U.S. population will look like in half a century. Houston’s reputation for entrepreneurship is inextricably linked to the city’s diversity. The growing populations in Houston from diverse backgrounds, namely immigrants and people of color, are not only the economic and cultural driving force for the evolution of our city, but also the future of our country.

Houston ranks fourth in the nation for start-ups owned by Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), with 35% of start-ups in the Houston Metropolitan Area being BIPOC-owned. While 35% is high enough to outpace most major metros in the United States, it obviously falls short of true representation; the BIPOC population share of Houston Metro is far greater, at about 65%, according to 2020 Census data. Black and female residents remain particularly underrepresented in the small business community, with only 25% of small businesses in the Houston area being solely woman-owned, and only 3% being Black-owned, according to the 2020 Annual Business Survey.

These trends underline the fact that simply being diverse is not enough, and that disparity will edge out prosperity if not given the proper attention and resources.

Continue reading about income inequality and diversity in Houston

Only 35% of new Houston businesses are BIPOC-owned

By contrast, these residents represent 65% of our region’s population.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Annual Business Survey, data year 2019 

A region filled with allies for Houston entrepreneurs

So, is Houston a good city for business? What kind of resources do Houston entrepreneurs have aside from an industrious culture? Despite common perceptions, the entrepreneurial spirit is not solely an individual cause. Houston’s penchant for entrepreneurship is aided in great part by our philanthropic, academic and nonprofit communities, which work to cultivate and support aspiring business owners from all walks of life. 

These are just a few of the organizations whose work empowers entrepreneurs throughout Greater Houston. 

Houston Fund for Social Justice and Economic Equity 

This new initiative led by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and some of Houston’s top community leaders is working to fund and drive strategic progress for Black-owned Houston businesses and nonprofits.

Impact Hub Houston

With their Black Marketing Initiative, Impact Hub Houston is raising funds and offering training programs to elevate and support Houston’s Black entrepreneurs as they recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Prison Entrepreneurship Program

The beauty of entrepreneurship is that its benefits are open to all — even those currently behind bars. The people at the Prison Entrepreneurship Program work directly with those currently incarcerated to foster and encourage their entrepreneurial spirits, so that they might find and create new opportunities for themselves and their communities once released. 

The Wolff Center For Entrepreneurship

The Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at UH’s Bauer College of Business has been ranked the number one or two entrepreneurship program in the country, including a number one ranking in 2021 for the third consecutive year. Over the past decade, more than 1,400 businesses have been started by Wolff Center students, earning a collective $399 million in funding.

Entrepreneurship matters to Houston

Ensuring that Houston-area entrepreneurs have access to the tools and resources they need in order to thrive is vital to the continued success of our region. By understanding the challenges and barriers current and aspiring entrepreneurs face in Greater Houston, we can better equip our region with the tools it needs to foster an even healthier small business community that positively impacts us all.

As important as they are to our region’s health and prosperity, Houston’s entrepreneurs are also a reflection of other truths about life in our city. Be sure to follow along on social media and in our newsletter to keep up with the “Houston Is …” series all year long.

Helpful Articles by Understanding Houston:

References:

1Understanding Houston utilizes the U.S. Census term, “Hispanic,” “Latino” or “Hispanic/Latino” when referring to the overall population. For the purposes of this article, we will use these terms interchangeably depending on the nomenclature used in our cited sources.

2021 in Greater Houston: The year in review

A data-driven look at what 2021 meant for Houston’s three-county area

No year in recent memory has simultaneously had so much and so little to live up to as 2021. Coming on the heels of a tumultuous 2020 mired in an ongoing pandemic and a contentious political landscape, the arrival of 2021 represented hope and the chance to return to normalcy — or at least something like it. And while 2021 certainly gave us more to celebrate than its predecessor, it also came with its share of challenges and surprises.

From big freeze blackouts to vaccine rollouts, an Astros World Series to an Astroworld tragedy, the greater Houston area was at the center of some of 2021’s most talked about events. And with so much clogging our newsfeeds on any given day of 2021, it wasn’t always easy to keep up with the finer details, especially with one event often overtaking another before the dust could even settle.

That’s why we’re closing out the year by taking a look at the numbers and unpacking the things that defined life in Greater Houston during 2021.

Winter Storm Uri

Greater Houston may be no stranger to natural disasters, but freezing weather has not historically been our region’s burden to bear. Then came Winter Storm Uri. Uri blew into Texas barely a month and a half into the new year, bringing with it temperatures as low as 13℉ in Houston and leaving about 1.4 million Houstonians waking up to freezing cold temperatures and no electricity.

Hours turned to days as people desperately waited for their power to come back on. The surprise of an extended power outage left many without food, water and other essential supplies needed to endure such conditions –– including highly vulnerable communities, who are less likely to have the emergency supplies or funds on-hand to endure unexpected emergencies.

Here’s how Winter Storm Uri impacted Greater Houston/Texas, by the numbers: 

The COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine rollout 

Despite what many had hoped, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to shape Houston life in 2021, impacting our region, its residents and its healthcare systems. However, thanks in significant part to the effectiveness of available COVID-19 vaccines, residents and businesses have found new ways to carry on in the face of the ongoing pandemic. 

As one of the largest and most diverse major metropolitan areas in the country, the greater Houston region played a significant role in setting the tone for vaccine rollouts across the nation. Despite some early challenges regarding inequity in access, vaccines have had a mostly successful rollout throughout our region, albeit at inconsistent rates.

Even after all Texas adults became eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on March 29, 2021, hesitancy and accessibility remained barriers for many. According to survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Houston-area residents have expressed a variety of reasons for not getting vaccinated.

Of those surveyed, 51% of those not yet vaccinated cited concern about side effects as the driving factor behind their hesitancy. While the vaccine has proven to be safe over the past 12 months, trust issues remain a concern. A third of those surveyed said they did not trust the COVID-19 vaccine, and possibly more concerning, more than a quarter of respondents cited distrust of the government as a driving force in their decision not to get vaccinated. As the vaccine is arguably our most critical tool in our battle against the deadly impact of COVID-19, consistent communication about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine remains vital.

Amidst a protracted vaccine rollout that was even more challenging overseas, two COVID-19 variants — Delta and Omicron — have emerged, presenting new challenges for public health officials and medical professionals. While the impact Omicron could have in our region remains to be seen, Delta represented significant challenges at its peak, overwhelming area hospitals and medical facilities – with COVID-19 patients occupying 21.3% of area hospital beds the week of August 22, 2021, a significant increase from just 5.9% the month before, and just 2.3% the month before that. 

85% of COVID-19 deaths in Texas were among the unvaccinated. 

The Summer surge also contributed to a sobering death toll. As of December 8, 2020, 3,890 people had died of COVID-19 throughout the three-county region. A year later, that number tripled to 11,721. According to a study conducted by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, 85% of people ages 12+ who died of complications from COVID-19 between January 15 and October 1, 2021 were not vaccinated. 

Houston’s population keeps growing and changing

The results of the 2020 census were released this year and confirmed what many residents could already feel: Our region — and our state — has grown significantly over the past decade. In fact, population growth in Greater Houston accounted for a quarter of the total population growth in the state of Texas. 

Between 2010 and 2020, the three-county area population grew by 1,040,787 people, a 20% increase. While Harris County added the most residents total, Fort Bend County experienced the highest growth rate at 40.6% over the last decade.

Non-white people made up 95% of all of Texas’ growth in the past 10 years –– and Hispanics alone accounted for half of that growth. 

This population growth was significant enough to warrant the creation of a new congressional district in the Houston area.

Further reading: Take a deeper look at what the 2020 Census tells us about Greater Houston

Houston’s housing market in 2021

Growing populations and pandemic-impacted markets have had a significant impact on both the availability and affordability of housing in Greater Houston. Though the greater Houston region has historically had a reputation for affordability, that trend has been gradually reversing for years, reaching a boiling point alongside similar markets nationwide.

The median sale price for a single-family home in the Houston area grew by 16% — from $270,000 in November 2020 to $314,000 in November 2021, according to Greater Houston Partnership analysis of data from Houston Association of Realtors. And total sales in November 2021 were up 5.6% from the same time last year. 

Home sales increased only for homes valued $250,000 and higher.

Source: Greater Houston Partnership analysis of data from Houston Association of Realtors, November 2020 – November 2021

Even as home prices increased, the demand and competition for buying them remained strong. In November 2020, a given piece of property remained on the market for 46 days on average. A year later, that number was down to 35. 

Life in Houston, by the numbers

Amidst a year defined by uncertainty, vaccines and a cautious return to normalcy allowed for some memorable moments to return to our region — many great, one tragic. 

The Astros in the World Series

A highlight for many Houstonians was no doubt the return of the Houston Astros to the MLB World Series for the third time in five years. Though the Astros ultimately lost the six-game series, the greater Houston region won in a number of other ways. We’ll let the baseball fanatics focus on the game stats, meanwhile, we’d like to draw your attention to the economic impact the Astros’ championship season had on our communities. 

  • Estimated economic impact: $26 million (Source: Houston First Corporation)
  • Downtown hotel occupancy rates: 90%+, up from just 11% a year before (Source: Houston First Corporation)
  • Fans in seats: 128,526 (Source: Baseball Almanac)

The Astroworld Tragedy

When Grammy Award-winning Houston-native Travis Scott announced the return of his popular Astroworld music festival, fans and music-lovers were thrilled at the chance to gather and enjoy live music again after a mostly concert-free 2020. Unfortunately, that joy was short-lived.

While investigations are ongoing amid an ever-growing slew of lawsuits against Scott, promoter Live Nation and others, what we do know paints a tragic picture of loss that our region will mourn and reflect on for years to come.  

  • Official attendance: 50,000
  • Deaths: 10 
  • Injuries: 300+
  • Hospitalizations: 25

Source: Houston Chronicle

Looking ahead to the new year

2021 was filled with ups and downs for our region, and If the last two years serve as any indication, there’s only so much anyone can safely predict about 2022. But whatever trends impact our region in the coming year, Understanding Houston is here to add data-driven insights and context to the issues that matter in our communities. 

We invite you to join us for the year ahead — follow us on social media, subscribe to or share our newsletter and find out how you can get involved for the year ahead.

Celebrating Understanding Houston’s Second Anniversary

Reflecting on two years of community connections and informed action. 

When we began work on Understanding Houston a few years ago, we set out to create a relevant, accessible platform that would connect community leaders and changemakers with the information they need to take targeted, informed action where our region needs it most. This November, Understanding Houston is celebrating its two-year anniversary of our launch in 2019. Since then, Understanding Houston — an initiative of the Greater Houston Community Foundation — has grown significantly, and we would like to thank everyone who has supported our mission to build a more vibrant Houston with opportunity for all.

Here are just a few of the things that made year two such a success.

The addition of our ninth topic: Disaster

Between hurricanes, floods and even freezes, residents in Houston’s three-county region are no stranger to weather-related disasters. Layer on the COVID-19 pandemic and its many devastating impacts, and the need for a source to find data on regional disasters was greater than ever. 

At the beginning of 2021, Understanding Houston added a Disaster topic page along with four subtopic pages to share key findings and provide insights into how disasters affect residents differently.  Our hope is that this information helps residents understand the varied risks of disasters, who is the most vulnerable to disaster impacts and in what ways, and shows how uneven disaster response can widen pre-existing inequities. In order for our region to bounce back after a disaster, everyone in our community — especially the most vulnerable — must receive the help they need to not only recover but also be made stronger to weather the next disaster.

The Disaster topic page allows us to take an in-depth look into these areas of disaster and identify opportunities and obstacles to help our residents prepare for and withstand the various impacts of disasters. But we have also started catalyzing collaborative action in the area of disaster recovery and resiliency in more proactive and intentional ways. Following the release of Understanding Hoston’s new disaster data, the Greater Houston Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Houston announced their Disaster Resilience partnership to streamline disaster funding, combine resources, and provide a streamlined response for the entire region whether recovering from a pandemic or a winter storm.  

Understanding Houston helped with reliable data to provide a basis for discussion on problems facing Greater Houston. Using this information with others allows us to determine root causes and first steps to developing an action plan to address a basic issue.

– Shelia Thorne, GardenKids of Kemah

Understanding Houston’s community continues to grow

Understanding Houston’s community has grown substantially in the last year. More people use and engage with the site, subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on social media, and have joined us at a data briefing, data workshop, or a visioning session as we seek to continually evolve and improve.

New audiences through data briefings 

Despite the need for social distancing, Understanding Houston was able to continue to engage the community in our data through programming. In the summer, we held three Data Dives + Workshops in partnership with United Way of Greater Houston (UWGH) where nearly 300 members of Houston’s nonprofit community attended. In addition to reviewing the new data around disasters, we sought feedback from local nonprofit organizations on what they want to see as we build disaster-ready philanthropic partnerships to improve our collective disaster preparedness and response. We asked how the data would be useful and how it could be more helpful to regional leaders who activate during disasters. Read our findings here.

More recently, this fall we held an intensive Visioning Lab in which we engaged 50 users in a conversation about what they liked best about the Understanding Houston website and how they would improve it. We will hold another Visioning Lab in January and publish our findings the following month. Stay tuned as we share where we are headed next.

New users and increased awareness

The Understanding Houston website allows visitors to access impartial data through high-level topic pages, deeper subtopic pages, informative articles, downloadable reports and interactive charts. Our website also allows visitors to vote on the type of content that we should focus on moving forward so that we can reflect our residents’ interests and concerns.  

Here’s how the community has been utilizing Understanding Houston website in year two: 

  • 40,038 site users: More than 40,000 people have come to Understanding Houston through search engines, social media, or direct referrals in the past year.
  • 99,008 page views: These users have explored more than 99,000 collective pages of Understanding Houston content. 
  • 1,937 report downloads: Nearly 2,000 reports have been downloaded by users for later use and reference.
  • 786 chart exports: Close to 800 charts have been exported by users to include in presentations, share on social media or feature on their website.
  • 336 topic votes: Users have voted for the topics that matter most to them 336 times in the past year.

Understanding Houston utilizes multiple platforms to reach different audiences, including social media and a monthly newsletter. Across all social media platforms, Understanding Houston gained more than 2,000 followers in our second year. This means that more individuals are engaging with Understanding Houston’s data and becoming more informed and aware of issues and current events that are taking place in our region. 

Here’s how we have continued to grow and engage our Houston audience in our second year.

  • 2,106 total newsletter subscribers (23.8% ↑ from last year)
  • 5,514 total social media followers (61% ↑ from last year)

Understanding Houston has provided information about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in discussions around the region’s population. This bolstered our organization’s response by hiring a DEI consultant to assist in a two-year initiative to improve processes where needed and better serve our clients. We are finding more funders’ attention to this subject important in grant making.

– Jenetha Jones, Child Advocates of Fort Bend

Amplifying community voices 

At its core, Understanding Houston aims to inspire and inform and action. Not only by providing robust data over time on key quality of life indicators but also by illuminating and contextualizing that data into insights through research articles and amplifying Community Voices with regional leader profiles and personal stories. In the past year, we have collaborated with a number of community leaders and organizations including the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC), Arts Connect Houston, Urban Harvest, FuelEd, and many more!

These collaborations resulted in 21 total in-depth articles, including six pieces authored by leaders and changemakers from Houston’s nonprofit community. Through data and testimonies, these pieces helped us paint a more detailed picture of issues affecting our communities. 

How Understanding Houston is making an impact: Survey responses

In October 2021, Understanding Houston sent out a Feedback & Impact Survey –– an opportunity for those in Houston’s three county region to share how Understanding Houston can improve its website’s tools and programming in the upcoming update. 

The survey was conducted from August 26 to October 25 and garnered 170 responses. When asked to rate Understanding Houston’s usefulness for learning about the quality of life in our region, 96% of respondents rated our website as very or mostly useful, indicating respondents are very satisfied, and more than four out of five respondents took some action based on learning something new through the website or data briefing, and 99% said they were extremely likely to refer a friend or colleague to the site. 

Through the responses, it became clear that most participants value a user-friendly website with relevant data and clear content –– most agreed that the Understanding Houston website caters to these preferences. As we move into year three with plans for a site-wide refresh, these responses will help us make our website a more inviting and useful tool for all who need it. 

As a concerned Houstonian, the resources available through this initiative have a direct impact on where and how I can direct my resources to have the most impact in my own city.

– GHCF Donor

How we’re planning for the future of Understanding Houston

Evolution is core to the Understanding Houston initiative. So even though the first two years of Understanding Houston have been successful, our work is not done yet. Using the responses from the Feedback & Impact Survey, we are working to improve our user experience and better our website’s resources by implementing a sitewide data update. 

As we update hundreds of indicators on our website, we hope these updates better reflect and serve our community’s needs so that Understanding Houston can be as useful as possible. The first phase of updates will be launching soon, and we cannot wait for you to see what we have in store!

Thank you, Houston!

We would not be able to celebrate our second anniversary without thanking everyone who made this success possible! We owe many thanks to those who have helped to make Understanding Houston the compelling resource it is today. To all the donors, partners, guest bloggers, researchers, analysts, developers, designers, writers and followers who keep us moving forward, we are endlessly grateful.

We would like to express our gratitude to our founding partners and supporters, our advisory committee, our strategic research partners at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, and our communications and content partners at Baal + Spots and Deutser for their continued support of Understanding Houston and efforts to grow our community.

Thanks to you, our second year was successful, and we plan to continue that success in years to come. If you’d like to wish us a Happy Second Anniversary on our social media accounts, give us a follow on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!

As we look toward our third year in 2022 and beyond, no one knows what Mother Nature, COVID-19, or even life, has planned for our region, but you can count on Understanding Houston to help you find the facts, deliver insights, and amplify community voices.

Houston’s three-county region accounts for a quarter of Texas’ population growth

2020 Census data shows how the Houston region has evolved over the last decade

The U.S. Census Bureau has released data from the 2020 Census; however, collecting this data did not come without its challenges. In March 2020, right as households began receiving invitations to participate in the 2020 Census, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the U.S. Census Bureau to cease all in-person operations. Not only did social distancing make it challenging to go door-to-door to follow-up with folks who hadn’t completed the census, but the virus (along with uncertainty around the existence of citizenship-status questions) also hindered Houston’s response rates to the 2020 Census. 

In an article with Understanding Houston, Frances Valdez, the Executive Director of Houston in Action, wrote, “The census affects how billions of our tax dollars will come back into our communities through federal budgeting allocations over the next decade.” The lower the response rate, the smaller the budgets for services and programs like public education, public transit, housing, and more. Decennial census data allows us to look at the present to understand what the Houston region may need in the future. This data informs redistricting efforts, alerts county officials to which groups are growing or declining, and helps policymakers’ plans to strengthen our region for the road ahead. 

Houston’s three-county region adds one million residents in past decade

The past decade has been a time of growth for both the state of Texas and the Greater Houston region. The population of Texas grew to 29.1 million in 2020 by adding nearly 4 million residents since 2010. Three Houston-area counties — Fort Bend, Harris, Montgomery — accounted for one-fourth of Texas’ population growth.

As for the population in Houston, each one of our three largest counties has also experienced population growth. The population of Harris County — the most populous county in the state — increased to 6.2 million (15.6%) between 2010 and 2020. Fort Bend County is home to 822,800 people and grew 40.6% in the last decade — the fastest growth rate in our three-county region. Montgomery County’s population grew 36.1% since 2010 to 620,400 in 2020.

Population growth consists of two main components: natural increase and net migration. Natural increase refers to the number of births minus deaths in a population, and tends to remain relatively steady over time. Whereas, net migration — the total of the number of individuals who moved into an area minus those who moved out — can have more frequent fluctuations. 

Domestic and international migration drives Houston’s population growth

The U.S. Census Bureau distinguishes between domestic and international migration in its migration estimates — domestic migration is any movement within the nation while international migration refers to movement across international borders.

For example, between 2010 and 2020, about 81,900 more residents left Harris County to live somewhere else in the U.S. than moved into Harris County from another U.S. county. (This is the second consecutive decade in which Harris County had negative net domestic migration. Between 2000 and 2010, 72,100 more residents left Harris County to live somewhere else in the country.) 

If Harris County is losing people domestically, why is Houston growing so fast? Because Harris County net-gained 289,400 residents to its population between 2010 and 2020 from more people from overseas moving into the area than leaving it for another country. Much of Fort Bend and Montgomery counties’ population growth comes from domestic migration — historically, people from Harris County moving to a neighboring one.

Projections for Houston’s population hit the mark

In 2014, the Texas Demographic Center (previously known as State Data Center) made population projections for three different migration scenarios: one, assuming zero net migration (the number of people who move in equals the number of people moving out), another assuming a net migration rate equal to one-half of the rate seen between 2000 and 2010 (0.5 Scenario), and a final scenario assuming the net migration rate will be equal to the rate seen between 2000 and 2010 (1.0 Scenario). 

The 2020 population of Texas is not very different from the projections the Texas Demographic Center made in 2014. Under the 0.5 scenario, they projected that the population of Texas would reach 28.8 million by 2020. Under the 1.0 Scenario, they projected Fort Bend’s population would reach 888,600; under the 0.5 Scenario, they projected Harris County’s population would reach 4,683,874; and Montgomery’s 2020 population is closest to the 1.0 Scenario estimate. 

What is the expected population growth in Houston? According to their most recent Houston population growth projections made in 2018, the Texas Demographic Center estimates that by 2030, Fort Bend’s population will nearly double to 1.2 million, Harris County’s will exceed 5.9 million, and Montgomery County’s will reach 831,450.

More than two-thirds of Houston’s three-county region is comprised of People of Color

The past 40 years has been one of transformative change for the three-county Houston region. Not only has our region grown to one of the most populous in the nation, but also the racial/ethnic composition of our already diverse population has further diversified. Between 1980 and 2020, each of the four largest racial/ethnic groups increased, however the growth rate of Hispanics and Asian Americans outpaced that of non-Hispanic whites and Black Houstonians, creating a shift in Houston’s demographics from being majority-white to majority-people-of-color. While this mirrors a similar trend happening across the nation and the state of Texas, no other major metropolitan area has witnessed this change more acutely and quickly as Houston, according to Stephen Klineberg, principal investigator of the Houston Area Survey and sociologist at Rice University. Interact with the chart below to see how racial/ethnic composition has changed in our region and Texas by selecting different geographies in the drop-down menu.

In 2020, there were nearly 2.4 million Hispanics/Latinos in Houston’s three-county region (nearly 39% of the region), with 2 million in Harris County alone. In 1980, just 40 years ago, Hispanics comprised 15% of the population of Houston’s three-county region. The weight of these figures typically does not faze most Houstonians who have witnessed this significant shift, but to most Americans, these changes are unique. For example, among the 100 most populous counties in the nation, only 12 have a higher percentage of Hispanics than Harris County. More recently, Houston’s Hispanic/Latino community has grown considerably in the last decade. Between 2010 and 2020, the Hispanic population in Houston’s three-county region grew by 26% alone. The number of Latinos grew by 43% in Fort Bend County, 22% in Harris County, and 73% in Montgomery County during the same time period.

More broadly, in Texas, the Hispanic/Latino population grew by nearly 2 million people between 2010 and 2020, increasing its share of the state population from 37.6% to 39.3%. In fact, non-white people made up 95% of all of Texas’ growth in the past 10 years –– and Hispanics alone accounted for half of that growth.

According to recent Census data, the three-county region’s Asian-American population grew by 53% — from 358,000 in 2010 to 548,000 in 2020 — the fastest growth rate in our region. In 2020, Asian Americans comprised 8.9% of the population of Houston’s three-county region compared to 7.0% in 2010 and only 1.8% in 1980. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of Asian Americans grew 84% in Fort Bend County, 38% in Harris County, and 129% in Montgomery County — though Asian Americans comprise less than 4% of Montgomery’s total population.

Fort Bend County has the highest proportion of Asian-American residents in Texas (22%). In Sugar Land, nearly 39% of the population identifies as Asian American. Asian Indians comprise 41% of the Asian-American population in Fort Bend, while Vietnamese Americans account for the largest share in the rest of our region. Read more about the fastest-growing ethnic group in our region here.

Of course, it is difficult to talk about Houston’s population growth without considering how certain groups are typically displaced from their communities due to changing economic and demographic conditions. For example, the Houston Chronicle reports that historically Black Third Ward has changed significantly in the last decade. In 2020, Black people comprised 45% of the neighborhood — a decline from 71% in 2010. Acres Homes in North Houston saw its Black population fall 12% and its Latino population grow by 65%. Second Ward saw its Latino population decline by 25% while its white population increased 50%. Learn more about the history of these communities in the Chronicle’s report.

Continue reading about the diversity of Houston

Trends today inform Houston’s future

Census data allows us to recognize the trends of the past and plan for the population of the future. The data also represents an opportunity for us to strengthen our region in the places where change and evolution will be necessary. These shifts in the Houston population have implications for our community context, economic opportunity in our region, our education system, and much more, including the process of adding a congressional district to our region and redistricting, which is currently underway. 

As Houston’s three-county region continues to grow, we will continue to analyze and report on the data that affects our communities. Given the pandemic, the Census Bureau is expected to release its first-that-we-know of “experimental” data set that will allow us to delve deeper into the latest trends on a broader range of quality of life issues. Stay tuned for data updates coming in November and early 2022! We invite you to get to know the data, keep up with our mission on social media and discover how you can get involved to help Understanding Houston continue exploring what matters to the Houston area.

Helpful Articles by Understanding Houston:

A Path Forward: How Arts Education Helps Student Learning and Well-Being

The 2021–22 school year has reamplified public concerns regarding COVID-19’s continued impact on our children, including its toll on their mental and emotional wellbeing as well as lost learning opportunities. Addressing these needs will necessitate holistic, comprehensive approaches that require our community to reexamine children’s educational priorities, needs and resources. While many of these strategies will require further investigation and experimentation, the arts have proven to be remarkably valuable in addressing and strengthening students’ social and emotional learning needs.

As a region with remarkable wealth and an abundance of arts resources, we believe that Houston-area schools should work together with arts organizations and institutions to utilize the arts and address our students’ pressing needs.  

What is Social Emotional Learning?

Defining Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is complicated because the phrase is often employed differently by various stakeholder groups. A classroom teacher may use SEL to refer to social emotional skills like empathy and perseverance. Meanwhile, a parent may think of SEL as a means for promoting positive relationships amongst their children’s peers.

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines SEL as the process through which people (both young and old) acquire knowledge and skills to manage their emotions and feelings, achieve goals, display compassion and empathy for others, cultivate and maintain relationships, make better decisions, and ultimately develop a healthy self-image.

Policymakers have come to recognize the importance of SEL in schools. In the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, i.e., The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Congress added legislation requiring states to broaden their measures of school quality and effectiveness. The vast majority of states have since responded by adopting measures that assess students’ school engagement, school culture and climate, and SEL. While the emphasis on SEL had been gaining steam, the COVID-19 pandemic made its importance all the more apparent.

About one-third of adults in the Houston Metro Area have reported feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge for at least more than half the days of a week since the start of the pandemic, with some groups faring worse than others. As students across Houston continue to experience high rates of anxiety, trauma and depression in light of the pandemic, it is important to address these mental health challenges directly. Latinos for Education recently shared that 46% of Spanish-speaking parents in Houston have seen their children experience mental health struggles and decreased socialization. 

SEL development combats these issues head on. A 2017 study showed that students who received SEL programming tended to handle emotional distress better and experienced less drug usage. Research also shows strong correlations between mental health and academic performance — the same study found that students who received SEL programming averaged 13 percentage points higher than non-SEL peers on academic performance metrics.

These benefits go beyond the individual. A separate 2015 cost-benefit analysis on SEL interventions reported an average of an $11 return on investment for every dollar spent on SEL programming. This type of return on investment can be utilized by the Houston community-at-large to increase economic opportunities, reduce poverty, and improve other outcomes for students.

The Arts Opportunity

There is little consistency in how schools approach teaching SEL concepts to their students. Some campuses integrate SEL into their school improvement and/or strategic plans directly and encourage their teachers to incorporate SEL concepts into existing lesson plans, while others teach SEL concepts entirely separate. Regardless of what approach an individual campus may choose, there is one scientifically proven, yet historically overlooked (and underfunded) avenue for increasing these skills: arts education.

Children grow their skills and behaviors through developmental experiences that allow them to participate in daily life and reflect on how their participation impacts them. These experiences also tend to be the most impactful when they occur in “strong, supportive, and sustained developmental relationships with important adults and peers.” Put another way, students develop skills, habits and behaviors most effectively when they are actively involved in the “doing” of learning, and when they are surrounded by people they care about, like teachers and classmates. 

Communal active learning is at the core of arts education. Any art form, whether it be music, theatre, visual arts, dance, etc., provides students the chance to actively explore new concepts, new skills and new behaviors with their peers. Arts education programming affords students an opportunity to mimic or interpret experts and leaders in an art form, participate as much or as little as they feel comfortable, develop self-discipline through practice and contribute to a collective effort. For instance, a classroom of third graders may mimic their art teacher’s still-life painting and attempt to produce something similar. This act forces the student to think critically about how to produce a similar piece, what materials they may need, and how to move their hands. They may look around and engage nearby students for advice or learn by what others are doing. The process of creating art builds focus and endured concentration, while empowering students to express themselves in ways they normally would not be able to articulate.

A 2019 Rice University study examined the impacts of arts educational experiences on Houston students and also found considerable impacts on their social and emotional outcomes. Students who received access to these arts educational experiences saw substantial increases in their writing achievement, compassion for others, and a reduction in school disciplinary issues. Among elementary school students, this same study saw significant increases in school engagement levels, aspirations for college, and empathy.

Funders and decision-makers often point to a lack of empirical evidence as the reasoning behind not investing in the arts. This study is tangible proof that right here in Houston, arts education is a lever for improving SEL outcomes. Our region has already developed a strong, vibrant and growing infrastructure for supporting this work. The creation of the Houston ISD Fine Arts Department in 2017 has seen the Fine Arts student-teacher ratio drop by over 100 students per teacher and has eliminated 30 Fine Arts deserts at elementary schools across the city. Arts Connect Houston, a collective-impact organization of over 80 partners, including arts and cultural organizations, Houston ISD, funders, and city/government leaders exists to increase equitable access to the arts  in schools across Houston. Since 2019, we have seen partnerships between schools and cultural organizations grow 17% — demonstrating an increase in understanding the impact the arts can have in supporting students, particularly amid an ongoing pandemic. Imagine what that growth could look like, and the subsequent SEL outcomes, if the arts were sufficiently supported.

An arts-rich education in Houston

Margo Hickman, a theatre teacher in Houston noted that when she looks at her students, “so many of them are frustrated. They are angry. The arts allow them to release those feelings.” Margo incorporates Social Emotional Learning through theatre games and meditation. When asked how the arts have impacted her student’s social-emotional learning, she simply added, “The arts have saved people’s lives.”

“So many of the [students] are frustrated. They are angry. The arts allow them to release those feelings.”

– Margo Hickman, Theatre Teacher in Houston

Social Emotional Learning is an important aspect of a child’s development, and the arts provide a proven pathway to grow those skills, but students lack equitable access to these valuable educational experiences. As of 2021, it is estimated that nearly 9,000 elementary school students within Houston ISD do not have access to a full-time certified fine arts teacher at their school. Last year, nearly 40 schools reported no partnerships with any arts and cultural organizations, while others worked with as many as six. Moreover, past studies have shown that students from historically underserved communities are much less likely to engage in arts learning experiences outside of school (while affluent students are twice as likely!), meaning that investments from schools and districts are critical for ensuring that these students have these opportunities. Shaela Sageth, a Houston ISD student planning on pursuing an arts-related degree next fall highlights the disparity in access saying  “Being low-income, school was my only chance to access arts classes and creative tools while growing up. I would have liked to have had these kinds of diverse arts opportunities in my schools.” 

Looking ahead

As our community continues to discuss the best way forward, administrators will face incredible challenges for determining how best to spend scarce resources. As a community, we need to consider holistic, comprehensive approaches that employ the vast resources available in our city to provide all students no matter their neighborhood or school, with the tools they need to successfully navigate the trauma of a global health crisis and prepare them for lifelong success. Arts education is a tried-and-true means for addressing these challenges.

It is up to all of us, now more than ever, to ensure that every child has access to the benefits of an arts-rich education. Our city has already cultivated the necessary tools to implement meaningful change. Despite the horrible crisis we have found ourselves in for the past year and a half, we have also been afforded an incredible opportunity to reevaluate how we educate our students. It is time to invest in the “arts opportunity” and grow and nurture our children’s humanity, sense of community, and perseverance. Doing so will ensure that Houston remains a vibrant and thriving community for years to come.  

 By Michael Sheehy, Deborah Lugo, and Daniel H. Bowen, PhD

Michael Sheehy is the Data + Advocacy manager for Arts Connect Houston. He holds a degree in theatre from the University of Kentucky and an M.P.P. from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Before coming to Houston, Michael worked as a researcher measuring audience response to COVID-19 and social impact for WolfBrown and El Sistema USA respectively.

Deborah Lugo is the Executive Director for Arts Connect Houston. Through her work, she facilitates strategic alignments and opportunities in order to expand access to arts education for students throughout the Houston ISD. Deborah, originally from Puerto Rico, holds a Master in Public Policy from Princeton University and a Bachelor in Violin Performance from Florida International University. Before her time at Arts Connect, she was the Executive Director of Mercury Chamber Orchestra.

Daniel Bowen, Ph.D. is an associate professor with Texas A&M University’s Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development, a research affiliate of Rice University’s Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC), and the co-director of the National Endowment for the Arts-sponsored Arts, Humanities, and Civic Engagement Lab. Dr. Bowen primarily investigates the educational impacts of arts, humanities, and civic engagement learning experiences through experimental and quasi-experimental research methods. 

Hispanic Heritage Month: Celebrating the Hispanic Population in Houston

As the largest ethnic group in the region, Houston’s Hispanic community has left an indelible impression in our communities — both past and present. From indigenous roots spanning the Americas and those with African ancestry, to early Spanish-speaking settlers and present-day community pillars, Houstonians who identify as Hispanic/Latino have shaped our region in fundamental and invaluable ways.

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’ll explore the multifaceted Hispanic population in Houston through data, history and what current leaders are doing to keep the community’s legacy thriving throughout our region.

“To me, Houston is the most dynamic city for Latinos in Texas. Not only have they been present since the city’s founding, but the community is constantly being strengthened by new arrivals who bring fresh energy, skills and perspectives. Hispanics in Houston introduce vibrant foods, music and cultural scenes. They integrate quickly into the economy and interact daily with other racial and ethnic groups. While many inequalities and challenges persist, this is a place where Latinos come to set roots, to grow, and to thrive.“

– Dr. Cecilia Ballí, an anthropologist and Visiting Scholar at the University of Houston’s Center for Mexican American Studies

The Latino/Hispanic population in Houston

What percent of Houston is Hispanic? Greater Houston is home to one of the nation’s largest Hispanic populations, numbering more than 2.3 million people throughout the region — meaning Houston’s Hispanic population percentage is currently about 38%.

Hispanics are most likely to live in Harris County, where they comprise 42% of the population. In 1980, only 41 years ago, Hispanics made up only 15% of the county’s population. And this group is projected to continue growing — both within Greater Houston and throughout the state. According to the Texas Demographic Center, the Hispanic/Latino1 population in Texas is projected to reach 12.3 million by 2022 — becoming the largest ethnic group in the state. By 2030, the population is expected to reach 14.5 million. Let’s take a look at how the Hispanic/Latino community has shaped —and will continue to shape — the Houston we know and love. 

Houston’s Latino population is diverse

Because the general terms “Hispanic” or ”Latino” are used to describe a group of people who originate from a wide variety of Spanish-speaking or Latin American countries, and who understand their identity in different ways, the diversity within that broad group can often go unnoticed. Houston’s Hispanic/Latino population is not a monolith and can trace its heritage to many different countries and indigenous tribes. 

Moreover, many people whose ancestors identified as Hispanic/Latino, may not describe themselves that way. According to the Pew Research Center, Hispanic self-identification varies across immigrant generations. Among people who report Hispanic ancestry, almost all the foreign born identify as Hispanic, whereas only half of those who are fourth generation Hispanic/Latino Americans or higher do.

While a majority of the Hispanic population in Houston originates from Mexico, we find incredible diversity among all residents of Hispanic/Latino origin as well as among those with Mexican and Indigenous ancestry. As such, Mexican Texans, also known as “Tejanos,” have a long history in the state and in our region. 

Dr. Jesus Jesse Esparza, an Assistant Professor of History at Texas Southern University, showcases the past and present of Houston’s Mexican American community in his piece La Colonia Mexicana: A History of Mexican Americans in Houston. 

The end of the Texas Revolution in the mid-1830s marked a significant turning point in Mexican-American settlement in Houston and the booming economy and culture we celebrate today. Historically Hispanic neighborhoods in Houston, including Segundo Barrio in the Second Ward and Magnolia Park Neighborhood in the East End, were areas of early settlement and quickly became hotspots for the community to grow.

Magnolia Park in particular –– named after the beautiful magnolia trees that line the neighborhood –– became the city’s largest Mexican-American community and was given the nickname “Little Mexico.” Mexican-American residents of the Magnolia Barrio, as it was called, worked on dredging the Houston Ship Channel in the early 1910’s. The important role Mexican Americans played in deepening the Channel allowed larger cargo ships to enter the port, which is why the Port of Houston is consistently the largest in the nation (measured by domestic and foreign waterborne tonnage) and contributes an estimated $339 billion in economic value to the state of Texas.

Houston’s Mexican-American population established a variety of social, cultural, religious, and political organizations that advocated for the community and paved the way for its residents to thrive. From the Second Ward came Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, the first Mexican-American church in Houston and the first religious institution to offer services in Spanish. This church also ran one of the earliest schools for Mexican-American children in the region and provided food and shelter to those in the community.

From even before Houston’s founding to today, Mexican Americans have been and continue to be the largest Hispanic group in our region, and cultural staples such as civil rights organizations, theatre companies, and art exhibits that were established around the 1980s still exist and thrive in present-day Houston.

“Houston is so blessed with the richness of our Hispanic Heritage and our multifaceted cultures. This vast Texas city of opportunity coupled with warm Texas hospitality, kindness and charm make Houston, in my opinion, the greatest city in the world. Our fusion of flavor, color, music, and art are the spice that makes Houston so desirable and unique.
In one family gathering, which because of our heritage are quite often, we easily represented Cuban, Mexican, Panamanian, Nicaraguan, Argentinean, Costa Rican, Dutch and Spanish cultures—and this is just the beginning. Our people, history, warmth and love are the greatest assets to our city and to our future.”

– Mayte Sera Weitzman, 2021 President and Board Chair, Institute of Hispanic Culture of Houston

Houston’s Latino community has supported our economy for decades

The passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 established a new immigration policy based on reuniting immigrant families and attracting skilled labor to the United States. This policy change enabled thousands of people from Latin American, Asian, and African countries to move into the Houston region, causing a population boom that has propelled our economy into one of the largest in the nation today. As sociologist Stephen Klineberg has written, “No city has benefited more from immigration than Houston, Texas.” This population boom also paved the way for our metropolitan area to be one of the most ethnically diverse places in the nation and one of only four with a Latino plurality.2 

“As a life-long resident of the greater Houston area, I have seen a tremendous amount of impact from our Latino population. But it hasn’t always been easy for Latinos. Everything I do today, including in my community work around housing and education, is in remembrance of the role models my parents were. They were extremely humble but extremely loving. They worked hard to instill a strong work ethic and to provide for our family and my education. They loved life despite the hardships. My parents are my inspiration, but so many successful Houston Latinos continue to lead the way as well and should absolutely be celebrated. I’m proud of my heritage and culture and aspire to relay that to the younger generation.”

– Laura Jaramillo, Greater Houston Community Foundation Board Member

While immigration is central to the story of Houston, some make the mistake of believing that most people of Hispanic origin are recent immigrants or newcomers. In fact, as of 2019, the majority of Hispanic/Latino residents in our region were born in the U.S. (61%). And, about half of Hispanic residents that were born outside the U.S. have been in the country since before the year 2000. Only about 20-26% entered the U.S. in 2010 or after.

Hispanic/Latino workers are integral to Houston’s workforce and economic growth. In addition to participating in the labor force at higher rates than the overall region3, Hispanic workers continue to fill critical workforce gaps in labor-short industries such as agriculture, construction, and healthcare in Houston, according to bipartisan research from New American Economy. 

Latinos comprise 35% of the Houston metro-area labor force, but hold 62% of jobs in construction, extraction and maintenance, 47% in service, and 45% in production and transportation, according to research from the University of Houston’s Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS). These jobs tend to pay less than the regional average and were among the sectors hit the hardest during the pandemic. It is not surprising then that Hispanic households have experienced the highest rates of job and income loss since COVID-19 forced shutdowns.

Continue reading about Houston unemployment and income inequality

Educating the region’s future workforce

Educational attainment rates for Latinos as a whole tend to lag that of other groups, despite recent improvements. The share of Latino adults in the region with at least a high school diploma has increased from 44% in 2000 to 63% in 2017. More recent data shows that nearly two-thirds of Latino adults have at least a high school diploma or equivalent in 2019.

There are differences in the levels of education between Latinos who are foreign born versus native born, and even among the foreign born as well. For example, 12% of Hispanic immigrants in the three-county region have a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to 20% of Hispanic adults born in the U.S. 4 Research from CMAS found that recent Latino immigrants are more likely to be better educated than those who arrived before them. For example, 27% of immigrants who have arrived in the last five years have a bachelor’s degree or higher. For those who have been here for at least 11 years, that drops to less than 10%.

Access to quality education is critical to maintaining a skilled workforce in our knowledge-based economy. However, nationally and locally, Hispanic students are five times more likely to attend a high-poverty school than white students, resulting in very unequal educational experiences. Given the fact that more than 575,000 Hispanic students are enrolled in the three-county region’s public schools (52%), our collective future success depends on the investments we make today. 

The civic and cultural contributions of Houston’s Hispanic/Latino population

Full citizenship is something one possesses as well as what one does. And, they are not mutually exclusive. While certainly not the only way, one of the most fundamental ways to exercise one’s citizenship is to vote. Hispanic voters are increasingly making up a larger share of the Texas electorate. Nearly 17 million adults in Texas were registered to vote in 2020, and census data estimates about 30% of those are Hispanic/Latino. About 60% of Hispanic citizens in the Houston Metro Area were registered to vote in the 2020 Presidential election.

“Voting is learned through example, in the family and the community, and as larger numbers of Hispanics feel empowered to go to the polls, our share of the electorate will grow to properly represent our demographic size.”

– Dr. Cecilia Ballí, an anthropologist and Visiting Scholar at the University of Houston’s Center for Mexican American Studies  

Hispanic Houstonians have a strong history in civic leadership, whether leading the third-most-populous county in the nation, working toward educational equity, fighting for social and political justice, to promoting cultural food, music, and arts, their contributions enrich our community. Read about eleven Hispanic community leaders who are making a difference by visiting our Hispanic Heritage Month 2020 blog.

One notable Hispanic leader in the Greater Houston area is Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a native Colombian who moved to Houston at the age of 15. Judge Hidalgo is the first woman and the first Latina to be elected County Judge and the second to be elected to the Commissioners Court. For some time in 2019 and part of 2020, the Harris County Judge (Lina Hidalgo), Houston Police Chief (Art Acevedo), and Harris County Sheriff (Ed Gonzalez) were all Latino. 

“In 1955, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council 60-members purchased a building on an odd-shaped parcel of land that became their “clubhouse” and the de facto national headquarters for LULAC until 1996. This clubhouse served as a launchpad for creating  transformational social programs for Houston’s Hispanic community in education, workforce development and housing.”

– Jesus Davila, Founder at Landing Advisors

Latinos have also played an instrumental part in building Houston’s strong reputation for incredible food and culture. Legendary Houston small business Ninfa’s was started as a small taco stand by Maria Ninfa Rodríguez Laurenzo, a Mexican-American woman, in 1973. “Mama Ninfa” is widely credited with popularizing fajitas among Houstonians. Chefs and restaurateurs, David and Michael Cordúa elevated the profile of Latin American cuisine in Houston through famous establishments like Américas and Churrascos. Irma Galvan and Hugo Ortega, helped put Houston on the culinary map with Irma’s and Hugo’s, Caracol and Xochi. On the art scene, Colombian-American, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, became Houston’s first Latino music director for the Houston Symphony in 2014, and Venezuelan Karina Gonzalez is Houston’s first Latina Principal Ballerina.

In addition to notable leaders, incredible organizations in the region work to preserve the culture, history and language of Hispanic communities, particularly the collaborative effort to establish a major Latino cultural center in our region.

The Institute of Hispanic Culture of Houston is a local nonprofit organization that serves the Hispanic community through educational, cultural, and networking activities in collaboration with other Houston organizations and universities to keep the vibrant culture alive. Located in the East End, Talento Bilingüe de Houston is a bilingual, non-profit cultural center that strives to enhance Houston’s Latino arts experience through collaboration, education. and preservation. Not only do they provide workshops and exhibits to enrich the Hispanic/Latino population, but they aim to spread their passions with the rest of the Greater Houston area.

One of the largest cultural organizations in Houston, the Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts, or MECA, still exists today thanks to the vision, passion, and dedication to community and youth of Alice Valdez. Read more about her decades of impact. 

Casa Ramirez Folkart Gallery is not just a gallery. This vibrant shop on 19th Street showcases Mexican and Latin folk and art works, sells books on cooking, culture, and language for children, and is a community pillar for teaching cultural traditions. 

Finally, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston showcases the Latin American Art collection that hosts a vast collection of modern and contemporary art with more than 550 works from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and works by Latino artists in the United States.

Celebrating a rich past, present, and future 

In no uncertain terms, the greater Houston region would not be where it is today without the presence, perspectives and contributions of members from our Hispanic/Latino community. As a vital part of our region’s history and future, Latinos in Houston continue to enrich and better our region in countless ways that we celebrate today. 

Check out special events from Hispanic Houston, Institute of Hispanic Culture of Houston, and attend a free special Fiesta Sinfónica concert at Jones Hall on October 2. Read about the nominees of Mayor Sylvester Turner’s 2021 Hispanic Heritage Awards and hear more from notable leaders themselves. Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!

Continue reading about social and community context in Houston’s three-county region

Helpful Articles by Understanding Houston:

Photo credit: The Heritage Society

References:

1Understanding Houston utilizes the U.S. Census term, “Hispanic,” “Latino” or “Hispanic/Latino” when referring to the overall population. For the purposes of this article, we will use these terms interchangeably depending on the nomenclature used in our cited sources.

2Understanding Houston analysis of the 20 most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 American Community Survey data. Other MSAs with a Latino plurality include (in descending order): Riverside MSA, Miami MSA, and Los Angeles MSA. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX (MSA) is a region that includes the following counties: Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller.

3Analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 American Community Survey.

4Understanding Houston analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 American Community Survey, 5-year estimates, Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) for the population 25 years and older.

COVID-19’s ongoing effect on students in Greater Houston

A data-driven look into how the pandemic has affected students in Greater Houston 

Since March 2020, the world has been coping with the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many students, the classroom suddenly became the kitchen table. Their teachers were now little squares on a screen. The learning experience that most students were accustomed to had been flipped upside down. 

As the 2021-22 school year approaches and students return to the classroom amidst the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, the pandemic and its effects are still ongoing. We’re analyzing available data on how COVID-19 has affected Houston-area students to shine a light on the challenges students may continue to face in yet another pandemic-affected school year.

The struggle to adapt to online learning 

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way students experience their education. As Houston-area school districts and campuses transitioned to 100% online learning at the start of the pandemic, the need for stable internet and consistent access to technological devices like laptops and tablets became a necessity. 

However, according to research from the Houston Education Research Consortium and RICE University, 20% of families reported that their child(ren) did not have a personal device such as a computer, laptop or tablet to do their schoolwork. The research also suggests that income played a significant role in setting students up for success in the form of access to the required resources to make online learning possible.  

Almost half of the participating households earning less than $20,000 per year reported not having a device or internet for their child(ren) to complete schoolwork, compared to only 4% of families earning over $100,000 per year. 

1 in 5 families

in the Houston area lacked internet access or a digital device for their child(ren) to use to do their schoolwork during the early months of the pandemic.

Source: Gulf Coast Coronavirus (COVID-19) Community Impact Survey

Daniel Potter, Associate Director of the Houston Education Research Consortium, notes how research suggests that the pandemic has pushed a larger proportion of Black and Hispanic students online, which can negatively impact learning. According to his organization’s findings, 70% of Black students and 60% of Hispanic students in the Greater Houston area opted into virtual learning in the 2020-21 school year compared to white students (40%). These are the same students who are more likely to attend high-poverty schools that have fewer resources –– including necessary technology –– to engage all students successfully. 

Parents show anxiety regarding students’ readiness for school

In the Gulf Coast Coronavirus (COVID-19) Community Impact Survey, a majority of surveyed families reported feeling worried that students would not be ready for the 2020-21 school year. Those without access to WiFi worried more –– 67% of families without access to WiFi/Internet and a device for schoolwork expressed concern that their child would not be ready for the upcoming school year, compared to 49% of families with access to WiFi and devices for schoolwork. 

Families that reported having access to WiFi and devices for schoolwork were not as worried about their children being prepared for the school year because they had the necessary resources. In an attempt to close this digital divide, Houston school districts distributed print copies of educational materials to families with limited access to technology to prevent students from falling behind. Additionally, WiFi hotspots purchased by the districts made online learning more accessible to all.

The impacts on student performance

From the cancellation of state standardized testing to the mandatory shift to remote instruction in March 2020, COVID-19 had a huge disruption on students. As schools transitioned into a “hybrid” learning model of virtual and in-person instruction in 2020-21, most campuses and students adapted to the new normal. However, as we begin the second full academic year in the era of COVID-19, the impacts on student learning and performance are beginning to emerge, though there is still much we do not know. 

According to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, in the 2020-21 school year, several districts reported a significant increase in the percentage of students failing at least one course. Their findings also show that failure rates were typically highest for students attending school in the online/virtual setting.

One measurable assessment, the eighth-grade math proficiency exam, is important in assessing student readiness for high school. The results from the Algebra I End-of-Course (EOC) State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) given to students in Spring 2021 show a significant decline in performance compared to 2019. Performance was on an upward trend prior to this decline.

In Spring 2021, 41% of students who took the Algebra I EOC exam met the state standard, compared to 62% in 2019. The proportion of students who met the standard fell 33 percentage points for Hispanic students, 25 points for low-income students, and 21 points for all students combined.

The effects on higher education plans

While the total impact COVID-19 has had on student attrition and graduation rates in the Houston area is still unclear, preliminary research suggests that the pandemic has contributed to students changing their post-secondary education plans. Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center supports this survey data. The number of students enrolling in undergraduate higher education in Spring 2021 fell by 727,000 students nationally, or 4.9%, from Spring 2020. For comparison, undergraduate enrollment fell 0.5% between Spring 2019 and Spring 2020. More than 65% of the total undergraduate enrollment decline occurred among community colleges, institutions that are more likely to serve low-income students and students of color. Texas is not immune either.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 43% of Houston adults have canceled their higher education plans with 33% of students reporting they will be taking fewer classes in the fall of 2021. 

Three out of four students who have decided to halt their post-secondary educational plans cite financial constraints as the main reason. Houston already has one of the lower rates of people with postsecondary degrees among peer metros; if this trend continues, it could have widespread implications on the quality of our workforce.

Student mental health affects academic success

It is impossible to discuss COVID-19 without acknowledging its effects on student mental health. From being cut off from one’s peer group and missing out on important milestones like prom, graduation, college visits, etc., to grieving the death of parents and other loved ones, including breadwinners, adolescents are struggling with much more than school. 

Hispanics have the highest COVID-19 infection and death rates in the region and the highest rates of employment and income loss. A survey conducted by Latinos for Education found that Latino parents are most concerned with the mental health of their children. Another recent study estimated that nine family members are affected by one person who dies of the coronavirus. Given that Hispanics also make up the majority of students in Houston-area schools, thousands of Hispanic students have experienced the worst impacts of the pandemic, all while still trying to learn.

Research indicates there is a direct link between mental health and academic achievement. It will be impossible to move on from the educational impacts of the pandemic without acknowledging and repairing student mental health, with an emphasis on supporting Hispanic students who have experienced the worst effects.

Looking ahead to 2021-22 with the lessons we’ve learned

COVID-19 has impacted everyone, but not everyone has been affected equally. Research suggests the pandemic has widened pre-existing disparities in academic performance and the pursuit of higher education. However, educators, school administrators and students have learned much since March 2020. We now know which tactics may work better than others, and we have a clearer picture of how students have been affected — and what they need moving forward.

Educating students while trying to keep their teachers, faculty and staff safe during the pandemic is a challenging task that comes with consequences. As we navigate through another COVID school year, we hope to see improvement in overall student performance alongside practices that prioritize the health and well-being of our children and their educators.