«I think we have a great staff and it appears that there is a focus on children, which there should be,»

«[Despite a lower passing rate, Montgomery said he believes the district is on the right track. One of the first things he plans on doing to improve TAKS scores across the district is to take the current HISD curriculum and make sure kindergarten through 12th grade is perfectly aligned in their material.] What we need to do here is take it to the next level, where we have deep alignment not only in what we teach, but how we teach it, ... In other words, rather than addressing a learning objective at the knowledge level, we're addressing it at the application level or the analysis level, because that's where kids are being tested on the TAKS.»

«[One idea he has goes back to curriculum alignment. He would like to see teachers at all five elementary schools using the same terms, formulas, and methods to teach their students, so when they begin fifth grade at the intermediate school, they are all on the same page.] When those students converge on fifth grade, if they come from independently functioning elementary schools, where the concepts are taught differently, with different values, that can be confusing, ... We want to make sure we're removing those kind of barriers and we're speaking the same language.»

«I made a visit to every classroom in the district last week, ... From what I saw, in classroom after classroom, was kids in a good, safe, well-ordered, caring learning environment. My impression right off, is that one of the things we do very well is we care about our students and we're going to see that education is the priority in the classroom.»

«This is just so hard to believe. My profile on these suspects is shot all to heck and back.»