About RITE

The Rodeo Institute for Teacher Excellence™ was organized to implement a training program for teachers with specialized reading and classroom skills primarily for students in Pre-kindergarten classes through third grade.

History

The Rodeo Institute for Teacher Excellence was founded as a pilot project by the leadership of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™ in 1997 to address problems of low levels of academic achievement and the high dropout rates in many Houston area schools. Research showed that reading is the key to academic achievement with early intervention being the single most important factor in preventing illiteracy. Children who are not able to read on grade level by third grade have a history of being the most “at-risk” for failure and dropping out of school well before graduation.

The initial pilot project, a program to train teachers to teach reading to children who were at-risk, was funded by a three year grant from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to pay for curriculum materials and highly qualified trainers to work with classroom teachers in six HISD schools.

Current Operation

The Show's intent from the onset was to fund a pilot project, and if the project proved to be successful, to serve as the catalyst for creating a program that would become a model teacher training and reading intervention program for at-risk children. The pilot project proved to be an overwhelming success. Growth of the program during the three years far exceeded initial expectations as the program went from six schools serving 1,650 students to 45 schools in 2009-10 with more than 12,000 students.

Cost and Funding

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo continues to be the largest single donor to the program, having committed $1.5 million per year through the end of the 2011-2012 school year. Given the high priority placed on early childhood intervention and the demonstrated success of the program, the Board of Directors have initiated a fundraising campaign to solicit the support of individuals, corporations and foundations who are concerned about the future of at-risk children in our public school.