Office of the Superintendent of Schools
Office of Academics
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Approval Of Programming Change For Heights, Kashmere, Northside, And Waltrip High Schools
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The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is committed to ensuring all students have access to quality Career and Technical Education (CTE) programming that leads to high-wage, high-demand job paths immediately out of high school.
To support these efforts, HISD conducted a study in the fall of 2025 to determine which CTE programs lead to high-wage, high-demand jobs. This research was done to support planning for the 2026-2027 school year. The study used Houston labor market data from the United States Bureau of Labor Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
The results of the study showed that career tracks resulting from the Arts Audiovisual Cluster (including the Graphic Design and Digital Communications Programs of Study) were not meeting minimum wage/demand threshold requirements for HISD graduates. As a result, HISD is recommending the sunsetting of four Graphic Design CTE Programs of Study and one Digital Communications CTE Program of Study across four high schools: Heights High School (HS), Kashmere HS, Northside HS, and Waltrip HS.
HISD proposes to sunset one grade at a time so currently enrolled students in the program at each campus will not be impacted. In 2026-2027, the program would sunset for ninth grade only and would not fully sunset until 2029-2030 when the final class of current magnet students graduates. Additionally, students at all four high schools have access to the Barbara Jordan Career Center, which offers 16 programs of study aligned to high-wage, high-demand careers in health, engineering, information technology and robotics, the trades, and more.
School-specific information is as follows:
* Heights HS will maintain magnet status for computer technology. Within the computer technology magnet, Heights will sunset the Graphic Design Program of Study, while maintaini...
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