Houston A+ Challenge (formerly The Houston Annenberg Challenge) is an independent, public-private organization that has supported public school improvement in the Houston area since 1997. Our mission is to promote an academically rich and purposeful education for more of our children, and to demonstrate how such an education could become possible for all our children.

We do this by investing in people, through initiatives that coach teachers and school leaders to acquire the skills they need to help students of diverse backgrounds succeed academically, professionally and socially.

Houston A+ Challenge initiatives are guided by three imperatives:

* We promote personalization of classrooms and working communities.
* We facilitate networks and relationships, so that parents, educators, communities and the business sector can work in collaboration to improve schools.
* We focus on teaching and learning, by training educators to assess diverse learning styles and select effective teaching strategies to reach each student.

Since 1997, Houston A+ Challenge has raised nearly $90 million to invest in schools across Houston-area school districts including Aldine, Alief, Cypress-Fairbanks, Goose Creek, Houston, Humble and Spring Branch. Our major donors include: The Annenberg Foundation, The Brown Foundation, Houston Endowment, the Carnegie Corporation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

While the last ten years have shown great progress, much remains to be done.