Mission Statement: The Vanguard faculty and staff will meet the educational and creative needs of children with exceptional learning potential by making Hamilton Vanguard a great place to learn.

Hamilton’s Vanguard program offers enriched and accelerated instruction specifically designed for gifted and talented students. Students are challenged in a variety of stimulating subjects, which promote their natural capacities for critical analysis and creative problem-solving. Teacher-designed individual and interdisciplinary instructional units encourage the creation of products that display complex and abstract thinking as well as creativity.

Enrollment Criteria

• Demonstration of exceptional learning potential

• Teacher observation inventory and recommendation

• Superior performance on standardized achievement and abilities test

• Academic grades

• HISD residency

• Optional exhibit

For more information, visit www.houstonisd.org/magnet

Parent to Parent
“In my four years of experience with two daughters at Hamilton, I have come to realize that the teachers and staff are more than a collection of competent individuals. They constitute a gifted and coordinated faculty that is on the leading edge—truly in the vanguard. They are individually caring, academically advanced, and cooperative with parents and one another. I particularly appreciate the effort to integrate the content of the various subjects of study and special projects, so that what is being learned in one area connects with and augments what is being learned in the others. This is, of course, only one goal among others toward which to aspire, but I think that it has a fundamental value in creating that kind of supportive environment for learning that results in an integrative education experience for our children”  Robert I. Mauldin, Parent of Rebecca and Sarah Mauldin
 

Faculty
The faculty at Hamilton is an enthusiastic and nurturing group. Each teacher is required to complete the 30 hour state mandate for gifted and talented educators. Additionally, they are required to have 32 hours of Pre-AP Training in their academic content area.  Also, each teacher participates in at least 6 hours of gifted and talented training every year in order to keep current in the strategies designed to meet the needs of gifted students.

Beyond the Classroom

Vanguard students may participate in a variety of activities, including: