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jtr

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  1. jtr
    I have attended many higher ed professional conferences in the last 5 years and all of them spent much time talking about how useless AP is now. There was a time when AP was for the top students. Now it seems AP is for everyone and the program has been watered down. Some of the top universities in the U.S. are now not taking AP for college credit. If I'm not mistaken, the representatives from the University of Chicago said they were no longer taking AP courses. There were others who said that their university had done away with it as well. The main point I was making about Westside is, once their kids get to college, they seem to be average at best. Those students are not any more prepared for college than some of the inner city schools. If you read the Chronicle of Higher Education, there are many articles about the declining standards at many universities. The main reason they are having to lower their standards is because high school students going to college are not doing well. At my university, the faculty refuse to offer remedial classes, which makes it difficult to keep enrollment up. More and more students are graduating from high school without the basic skills to succeed in college. It is a sad situation.
  2. jtr
    North Forest is the worst school district in the area. We rarely enroll students from that district. The last time we received a student from that district was in 1999. North Forest has potential because the students seem eager to learn and they have family support, but the administration and the teaching staff seem to be totally unqualified. The district should be taken over by the state.
  3. jtr
    In HISD, the schools that send us the best students are Health Professions High School, Lamar, Law Enforcement High school, Waltrip High school, Bellaire High, Reagan, and Davis. Some of these schools may be a surprise to you. We researched our graduates over the last 20 years to see what high schools were sending us students who were graduating from college within 4 years and we found that students from these HISD schools had the highest college graduation rates for our university. All of this research was done to help figure out a way to improve our graduation rates. Believe it or not, the best students in the survey were Home Schooled students. They out perform everyone, even the elite private school students.
  4. jtr
    The difference may be in income, but in terms of preparation for college, neither Lee nor Westside do a good job. This, of course, is based on historical data at my university. Obviously we have more historical data for Lee, but since Westside has been open the quality of students we have received has been quite low.
  5. jtr
    I have worked for a local university in the Admissions office for many years, and I can tell you that Lee high has not had a good academic reputation since maybe the 70's. People who say that the opening of West Side High was the cause of the decline of Lee could not be more wrong. Lee High has been bad for quite some time, and West Side is not much better in terms of preparing students for college. West Side looks nice because its new, but the teachers and students are the same people who would have been at Lee High.
  6. jtr
    Houston is the perfect type and size city for light rail. It would be a mistake to build heavy rail in a city like Houston because of the layout. A comprehensive transit system that combines buses and rail works best for our type of city. Also, our one line does not significantly reduce traffic, but it is a starter line. Once the system has a few more lines built, the reduction in traffic will be more apparent. When the richmond line is finished, I know that I will be moving to a place on that line, and that will be one less car on the freeway. I have several friends who work with me who will be doing the same thing. As we expand the system, I can see this trend happening more often. It is worth the cost to provide reasonable options. I know you don't think rail is reasonable, but most people do think it is reasonable in a city of our size and future size.
  7. jtr
    Transportation infrastructure does have something to do with options. The reason why cities like New York, Chicago, London, D.C., etc, work is because their citizens have more transportation options. And I don't think anyone would disagree with the notion that transportation options are a means to an end. It is always better to have several good means to an end rather than one or two. (Roads and Buses)
  8. jtr
    When it comes to certain things, cost should not make a difference in terms of whether or not it should be done. For example, we do not weigh the cost of having library's, parks, schools, etc. Some things are good in and of themselves. And so it is with rail transit. In a city as large as ours and with our projected gowth, we need to have options other than roads and buses.
  9. jtr
    Why can't it be about me? The AO people think its all about them. The whole city has to suffer because a few people with money paid a congressmen to support them. I'm just following the AO model.
  10. jtr
    It is, but it will make me feel better.
  11. jtr
    Hello everyone. Since there are people making a big deal about the ballot language for the Richmond route, could metro declare that they will not put rail on richmond but instead put the BRT on Richmond? That way, they could say, "We are not putting rail on richmond." Would that work or not? Also, the ballot language for the first line always referred to it as the Main street line. That line is not on main street the whole way. Doesn't that set the precident to be able to adjust the route without having to stay on one particular street? And lastly, I hate the people in AO. When the rail line is finally finished, my friend and I will blow our horns whenever we have to drive through there. I'm going to lean on it at all hours of the day and night.
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