The holiday season is here! After another unprecedented year that greatly impacted each of us and changed how we live, work, and learn, we hope this season provides you and your family with joy and hope. Through the challenges of 2021, it is remarkable the ways we all continued to adjust, innovate, and overcome adversity this year to ensure our students remained learning and growing on the road to and through college.  

Our Team & Family has a lot to celebrate! Some of our organizational highlights from 2021 include: 

• For the 15th consecutive year, IDEA celebrated 100% college acceptance and college matriculation! The Class of 2021 received more than $85 million in scholarships and grants and more than 2,068 acceptances to selective and highly selective colleges. 

• Fifteen IDEA high schools and 43 IDEA elementary and middle schools were ranked among the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. IDEA also had the most schools ranked out of any district in Texas!   

• Twenty-six IDEA seniors were selected as QuestBridge National College Match Program finalists! Ten of these students were then selected as College Match Recipients, chosen for full-ride scholarships to the nation’s top colleges. These students were chosen from over 16,500 applications! 

• We updated our organizational core values to represent the best of who we are, including our commitment toward becoming a strong leader in the broader anti-racist and anti-bias movement. 

• Twenty-one IDEA schools were named as 2019-2020 Texas Honor Roll schools—our largest group of schools ever! Schools were individually distinguished for their academic achievement and for closing achievement gaps. 

• We had more Master Teacher designations than ever before: 317 total! 

• Eleven IDEA high schools in the Rio Grande Valley were awarded the 2021 College Success Award by GreatSchools.org. The College Success Award recognizes public high schools that stand out in helping students enroll and succeed in college. 

• We hosted 55 COVID-19 vaccination clinics across our regions to do our part to ensure the health and safety of our students, families and communities. Through the tireless efforts of our staff, volunteers and community partners, IDEA was able to help administer over 11,109 vaccinations! 

• Thirty-one students from IDEA’s Class of 2021 were named Dell Scholar finalists. They were among 500 winners nationwide selected to receive the prestigious Dell Scholarship, providing students with support they need to complete a bachelor’s degree. 

• In August, we opened our doors to welcome nearly 75,000 students for their first day of school across 10 regions and three states, including our newest regions, IDEA Tampa Bay and the Permian Basin’s IDEA Yukon in Odessa, Texas. 

• Amid the continuation of the COVID-19 global pandemic, we made a commitment to our students and families to return safely to in-person learning, and we followed through on our promise! IDEA has delivered safe, joyful and high-quality in-person learning throughout the 2021-22 school year. It was not easy, but we did it together! 

Through every new challenge, each staff member, family and student helped make 2021 a successful year we will never forget. Thank you! Together, we look forward to embarking on 2022 with the same passion and focus to help ensure IDEA remains the best place for our students to learn and a great place for our staff to work.  

We hope you enjoy this much-needed break to safely spend time with your family, relax and do something that gives you holiday cheer. You deserve it. Happy Holidays, Team & Family!