VicMan

Half of Sienna Plantation was rezoned to Elkins High School at 7007 Knights Court. The other half is still zoned to Hightower.

The school situation down there is shitty. The new homes are being zoned to some crappy schools.

Do you have any examples (other than FBISD portion of SCR and the southside of HISD)?

Speaking about Pearland, I stated this in the FBISD portion of SCR thread.

Fort Bend ISD will build a new elementary school for its part of SCR (meaning that people in FB County will no longer get to go to Marek ES in Alvin ISD). FBISD has zoned its part of SCR to Willowridge HS and McAuliffe MS in Houston. Right now the FBISD part of SCR is zoned to Blue Ridge ES in Houston.

See http://www.perryhomes.com/Images/PDFs/SCRWhatIsNew.pdf

Alvin ISD plans to open a new elementary school (Wilder ES) and a new junior high school (Ryan JHS) in its section of Shadow Creek Ranch.

FBISD plans to build a new elementary school for the FBISD portion of Shadow Creek Ranch: http://www.perryhomes.com/Images/PDFs/SCRWhatIsNew.pdf

I have an idea on how to deal with "cracker" -

"Am I a Ritz? A pretzel? A graham?"

The only name I remember being called was "gaijin" in Japan by one schoolgirl in Kamakura. I replied, "American" as a way of correcting her, but I am not sure if she understood that. I should have said "Amerika-jin" with a Japanese (i. e. simplified) pronunciation.

Toggle, there is a double standard, which I will readily accept. Do you honestly think it would be considered a "hate crime" if 3 black guys dragged a white guy behind a truck in say Sunnyside ? You could NEVER get that to stick, because Jesse and Al would be here in a New York minute with a press conference. They would tell you that Crack...., 'scuse me, I mean whiteguy shouldn't have been down there in the first place.

TJones, if THAT happened during a race riot, then an accusation of a hate crime could easily stick. Otherwise, if the motive appears to be plain robbery, then charges of hate crimes would never be proven.

And anything over 518 is a horrible mish mash of small weird communities, Sunrise Lake is a nitemare, 1/2 the development is now going to Lawhon elem, where it is 65% school voucher and only 32% English as first language. We have a cousin who made the mistake of building there- and she is having a very hard time selling her home.

Lawhon is technically in the City of Brookside Village, not Pearland. Lawhon serves sections of Pearland.

As for Katy, there are other "Greater Katy" subdivisions besides the ones you mentioned. Some people say the subdivisions north of Interstate 10 are cheaper than subdivisions south of Interstate 10.

I wonder how SCR is going to be able to sell the homes if Willowridge has a terrible reputation. Then again, I know people are buying homes in the southside of Houston, where the zoned schools are Worthing, Sterling, and Madison (no new homes are being built in the Jones attendance zone).

Maybe what SCR needs to do is price the Fort Bend homes at 100-250K (similar to the Houston southside homes) UNLESS FBISD promises to rezone it to another middle school and/or high school.

not sure if money has anything to do wiith respect.

It's not that the money directly influences the "respect" - rather it is the mentality that happens to be in the same place.

The main page for Geib's Inner City School site happens to explain this: http://www.rjgeib.com/biography/inner-city...s/innerblu.html

"There was not much I myself could realistically do. The school system was already overwhelmed and the radical change needed was not on the agenda. Moreover, the vast majority of the parents had vague or shallow academic aspirations for their children: too many immigrant parents from Latin America looked at school as a vehicle to learn how to read, write, and behave in the primary and secondary grades after which they would go to work in some blue-collar capacity to help the family economically. It was not so much valuing education as it was a question of understanding the power that an education confers upon an individual in the postmodern Information Age economy of the United States (which is very different than that of Mexico and Central America). I could tell that my pep talks about college were often not reinforced in the home and a student who had their eyes firmly on the goal might have to go it alone. College was an unknown quantity which, while prestigious and desirable in the abstract, seemed expensive and out of reach. The typical student in my class knew no one (besides their teachers) who had been to college. I remember meeting a young Mexican-American woman in a Westwood bar who was celebrating after having just graduated from UCLA. After talking with her about my job, etc. she told me, "I am the first woman in my very conservative Mexican immigrant family to graduate from college. I think you know what that means." Sure I knew. It meant she had done it by shear force of will power. I respected that very much and knew it had not been easy."

EDIT: I would read this essay by Carol Jago describing her idea to reform public education: http://www.rjgeib.com/biography/inner-city...igh-school.html

" I am not suggesting that youngsters who cannot meet standards remain in middle school. If three years in an institution had little impact on their learning, a fourth is unlikely to either. Students who do not qualify for high school entrance should be offered two alternatives. The first would be the option to enroll in an accelerated program focusing on basic skills. Small, intensive classes would help students catch up, pass the entrance test and get on with their education.

The second option would be for students who have no interest, at least at the moment, in education. These 14-year-olds would be able to enroll in apprenticeship programs where they could learn job skills in a field of their choice. Attendance would be mandatory until they are 16, but once they demonstrate their worth to an employer, there would be no reason why they couldn't be paid as they learn. The option to go back for the accelerated program would always be open and from there the door to high school or community college. "

If those Goldeneye 007 (from Nintendo 64) style automatic machine guns were real, I would recommend them too

By the way, in the game, if the blue guns see Bond, they home in on him and fire at him (they obviously do not shoot at the enemy Russian soldiers/Janus operatives/Natalya/anyone else).

Newsflash: Passing the TAKS doesn't mean a kid knows jack...or Jill for that matter.

HISD students are trained like little monkeys in test-taking strategies for months on end and the extgent of their education is limited to the topics covered on the TAKS. These kids pass but still can't read well; they've been taught some math tricks but have no real comprehension.

My experience is that kids from private schools, and especially the homeschoolers, are simply more active and engaged learners. For them, it's not about passing some test or gettting grades. Their focus is authentic learning; integrating, applying new knowledge. It's not been 'schooled' out of them.

Which is why academic/university preparatory schools do not solely use TAKS topics. The focus for those programs is the AP Test (if an AP class) or the IB Exam (if an IB class).

Remember that many kids are NOT on the goal to academic success. Even if teachers revised their tactics, many students in poorer neighborhoods are not taught to respect books or classes. It's not that the parents do not love them. It's simply a continuation of a mentality in the household.

Besides, the main problem with failure in high schools is that many students simply do not wish to be there (hence, they drop out when they can).

Toggle, look at this article by Richard Geib. It explains what I said, but it also advocates for an expansion of vocational programs: http://www.rjgeib.com/biography/inner-city...response18.html

If students are allowed to pursue their own goals in school, you would likely see lower dropout rates. Sure, they may not be on the track to university prep classes, but then again, being forced to sit in a regular school environment won't help them either if they do not wish to be there.

And, I would be okay with "TAKS Prep" curriculum in a program for vocational tech students, as they only need to know the bare minimum in terms of academics. Vocational tech students are meant to specialize in technical fields (i. e. electrician, automobile mechanic, etc.) If you want a more intensive academic program than a TAKS curriculum, then you would seek university-preparatory programs (AP, IB).

Remember that TAKS is meant to be a minimum-skills test, and hopefully other teachers should remember that too. A solely TAKS curriculum is best used with students who do not wish to dive into academic fields of study.

You didn't really have to start a whole big dramatic poll for this. You could have just sent me a PM telling me you think the members should have more space.

Thank you, Editor!

I've had the same issues - I like to keep my PMs.

Shadow Creek Ranch announced where the Fort Bend ISD neighborhoods are zoned.

SCR in Fort Bend County is zoned to Willowridge HS, McAuliffe MS, and Blue Ridge ES. All three schools are in Houston.

SCR states this here: http://www.shadowcreekranch.net/education/e_defaultfs.html

In 2005 it was announced that FBISD residents could send their kids to Marek ES (on the Brazoria County side in Alvin ISD) until FBISD builds new schools. So far FBISD has not built schools for the FBISD part of SCR http://www.thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=93cbae23a45c958b

The situation described above has happened to me in Philadelphia - All of the planes were grounded for hours waiting to be deiced

Gads! The comments by the readers on that blog are so rude!

Report the rude comments to the newspaper via the reporting system. Strip the rude and stupid people of their voices.

In order to get a public school high school diploma, the student MUST have TAKS passed. No exceptions.

TEA rules do not regulate private schools, so private school kids do not have to pass TAKS to get a diploma.

So, a kid who has all of the credits in public school but cannot pass TAKS can transfer to a private school and get a diploma, bypassing the TAKS requirement.

I fail to see how this is a "loophole," nor can I see how this practice is even a problem. So what? Some two-bit state legislator is offended that his influence over other people's lives doesn't quite extend to everyone? Big whoop.

I was at F. M. 1960 to go to the Container Store to get a special board... Greenwood Forest looked like a Memorial in the northside.

Which stretch of F. M. 1960 is having the crime issues?

Also, I see this as an inevitable decline. Suburbs age, folks.

Some kids in my high school had religious quotes as their senior quotes in the yearbook. I am fine with this as it counts as a student's expression of herself.

I would suggest buying security cameras and hiding them in the house.

Then, after the breakins, let the police see the cameras. Then post the contents to Youtube, Google Video, Metacafe, etc. - Embarrass the hell out of the crooks.

Oak Forest Elementary School, which covers much of eastern Oak Forest, is highly rated.

The elementary schools that serve other parts of Oak Forest include:

* Benbrook

* Garden Oaks

* Kate Smith

* Stevens

* Wainwright

Middle schools that serve sections of Oak Forest include:

* Black

* Clifton

High schools that serve sections of Oak Forest include:

* Scarborough

* Waltrip

In fact, one of the tips in my university guide books states that one must strive to explore diversity; he or she has to escape (verb) his or her comfort zone in order to experience different types of people. This does not come automatically in life.

I suppose that this is true in and outside of university.

For instance, there are enough Mexicans in many parts of Houston that a child of a Mexican immigrant could go their whole life and not speak English if they really don't want to. The incentives for assimilation are much lower than, for instance, a Nigerian...or even the very same Mexican if they lived in The Woodlands.

And this has been happening for decades. This Snopes article discusses why the "old immigrants versus new immigrants" debate is not true: http://www.snopes.com/politics/immigration/newimmigrants.asp

Sunnyside needs its own Wal-Mart or Target. It could attract people from the Madison HS attendance zone. Perhaps we can re-establish chain retail in the southside and have it cater to the residents.

1. http://www.studygs.net/tsttak2a.htm - Says it all!

"Absolute words restrict possibilities.

These imply the statement must be true 100% of the time and usually cue a "false" answer

e.g.: "No" "never" "none" "always" "every" "entirely" "only" "

with that out of the way...

2. "And FYI, simply walking past someone of a different color in the library or Krogers doesn't count as racial mixing Vic."

There's always a chance to start a conversation:

* Oh, what is halal meat?

* Hey, I notice that you are reading Freud in German. Why aren't you are reading it in English?

* Oh, Federico Garcia Lorca! I love his works!

And library and other community-sponsored events (computer classes, puppet shows, storytime) bring audiences together to partake in the experiences collectively.

3. Remember what was said about absolutes above?

People who go/went to HISD magnets (me) would laugh at that statement.

4. I see that the United States is unified on one level and diverse on other levels. In an ideal situation, this will give our country the advantages of both ideals and the disadvantages of none. Realistically, this does not always happen (i. e. the point about community associations), but the good news is that we can mend racial relationships to get as close to the ideal as humanly possible.

Au contraire. There is no meangingful racial mixing anywhere in this city...even with the eyecandy in Pecan Park (what does that mean?)...that's the point of the study. Diverse populations, (and it's not limited to diversity of skin color) have less trust and are less productive than those communities who are on the same page together embracing similar values.

And FYI, simply walking past someone of a different color in the library or Krogers doesn't count as racial mixing Vic. Just take a look at HISD, prime example of diversity and completely dysfuntional! Their schools and administration have a lot of diversity but are segregated by race, gang, and immigration status...miserable places and completely substandard.

Diversity is overrated. We have the proof. The question is how to unifiy. Maybe we can start by convincing some of our neighbors to take down their Mexican flags.

This is a consequence of the suburbs lying in adjacent counties. The older suburbs (Sharpstown, Aldine, Westfield, Alief, etc.) are adopting inner city/urban/ethnic minority characteristics that are leaving some established inner city neighborhoods (i.e. look at Midtown).

The Houston section north of the Beltway in the Sunnyside area will develop with more apartment complexes since Pearland zones out apartments.