VicMan

By the way, 8130 Dover is zoned to in Houston ISD:

* Cornelius ES

* Ortiz MS

* Chavez HS

It is zoned to these Houston ISD schools:

* Red ES

* Johnston MS / Pin Oak MS

* Westbury HS

I dont think this will be a traditional high school. They said Comprehensive what ever that means.

A comprehensive high school usually refers to a traditional high school

Unlike the actual North Forest territory, I know that people are moving into the Worthing attendance zone. However, the enrollment at Worthing is decreasing despite the new developments in the south side (on the other hand, Madison High School's population is increasing).

See: http://www.schooldigger.com/go/TX/schools/...619/school.aspx

Some kids who went to my magnet school transferred to Worthing during their senior years in order to get the class rank to get to UT/A&M - That speaks volumes about Worthing.

Also, from: http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive....id=2005_3900502

"Margaret Tomlinson said she regrets her decision to let her son graduate from low-performing Worthing High School last May.

So this fall, Tomlinson persuaded her daughter to enroll as a freshman at HISD's Challenge Early College High School instead.

"I had to give her a chance," Tomlinson said. "I was very dissatisfied with the school." "

Worthing High School teacher said today she is too scared — and too bruised on the left side of her face — to return to work after a student repeatedly punched her in class last week.

The student was charged with felony assault on a public servant and will not return to the school, according to Terry Abbott, spokesman for the Houston Independent School District.

Vanesta Marshall, a home economics teacher at Worthing who stands about five feet four inches tall, said she remembers a ninth-grade male student punching her in the face two or three times before she blacked out. The other students in the class counted seven or eight blows, she said.

The student became angry and started spouting profanity after Marshall scolded him for not bringing his notebook to class, she said. Marshall then escorted the student to school security, and when he came back to class, she asked him if he had paperwork allowing him to return.

He got angry again, she said, and lifted a chair. Then, Marshall said, she was walking to her desk to call security when the first blow came. The punches kept coming, and several students tried to stop the teenager.

full article

suggest?

Oh, that, and running away also places a "guilty" stamp on the forehead of the guy who refuses to defend himself. So, yes, the Sterling High School official got the "honor" of calling himself guilty and cowardly by running away.

but since you're a future administrator, you'll try and dodge mr dolcefino

Dolcefino is the modern embodiment of muckracking journalism - He'd feel at home in the late 1800s with Upton Sinclair (the author of The Jungle) and other famous muckrackers. I'm glad that muckracking exists, as it keeps others in check

It's odd seeing people simply run away from Dolcefino on TV. Their actions suggest cowardice.

for me, i could care less about dress code.....it is the education that i am concerned about.

Since IHS is brand new, we have no statistics about TAKS test scores. Also, it helps to have teacher names so that we can find them in databases like Dolcefino's test score database

You'd think that the tax base would matter, but the reality is often skewed by State and Federal contributions. There are many school districts along the border for instance that have terrible tax base but don't set the tax rates very high and still receive enough money from outside the district to make twice the amount of expenditures per student of a typical suburban school district of a major metro area...and they still have incredible dropout rates. It only furthers the argument that money is not a solution. The management of money on the other hand...

The management of money is muddled by typical urban politics (precisely one of the disadvantages). One of the issues includes the fact that too many administrators exist in HISD (and take money that could be used for other purposes) - We ought to convince some to retire and then remove the positions so that the administration can be reduced to an optimal number.

In 2004, HISD was a donor district under Robin Hood (Harvin Moore, a board member, stated so here: http://www.groupbuilder.net/uploads/afton_...release_num=865 ). Since the rules changed, I do not know if HISD is still a donor district.

From a practical standpoint, would an NFISD/HISD merger do more to improve NFISD or just drag down HISD's numbers and credibility? After all, both districts have administrative problems and I seriously doubt that the first step in improving the old NFISD schools would be to simply fire and replace all the teachers.

Firing all of the old teachers right away would destabilize the schools in NFISD. Rather, tell the teachers that a "new order" has arrived and then slowly get rid of teachers who cannot comply with it (i.e. teachers who cannot receive passing grades in their own competency tests in three tries).

A takeover of NFISD would not suddenly turn all of the schools into academic bastions. Yet, I feel like merging NFISD into HISD (or Aldine ISD, or split it between both) would give the students better chances by allowing them to transfer to other schools if their own schools fail. It would give the schools of NFISD a better administration (even with the weight of urban politics).

See, I want to make North Forest more attractive so that residents pushed out of gentrifying areas would develop the community.

Despite the fact that NFISD is not gentrifying, NFISD is LOSING students - it went below 10,000 I believe last year or the year before (I forget the exact year).

I wish there was something more that could be done to preserve the language through the local schools.

Maybe German classes in Texas schools can have "Texas German" in the curriculum - It's the same concept as learning the differences between Germany German, Austrian German, Swiss German, etc.

I saw the Bel-Air (at 2121 Allen Parkway) during the Art Car Parade. It seems like a typical "European-inspired" complex.

As for the information on Bel-Air's school zoning (Houston ISD):

* Wharton Elementary School

* Gregory-Lincoln Education Center (Middle school 6-8 only)

* Lamar High School

Gregory-Lincoln's building, by the way, looks like a prison (I haven't seen any renderings of the new building, though)

When it comes to KateDidIt's arguement, you could argue that the Native American tribes were never organized or claimed a certain land definitively as their "country".

I wouldn't, but one could.

According to a National Geographic insert, the Native Americans boasted larger populations than Europeans initially believed. Well, boasted is appropriate as disease coursed through the Natives after the Europeans arrived - even populations that never saw Europeans were felled by European diseases.

yeah if HISD had to acquire property and build a school, it certainly wouldn't have been possible. i was just reading about the international high school. The school focuses on preparing students for university and their roles in our society as global citizens. i laughed when i read their focus. don't all high schools do that?

The school sounds like it needs a new mission statement; from its website, I can tell that its focus is international studies.

Also, the website needs to list staff by telephone number and e-mail like other schools do. Also, it should list its dress code, etc. (It mentions a uniform somewhere, but does not mention very many specifics).

I have a lot of firends, and a sister, who are teachers. My sister got mugged at that inner city school in DC by an unhappy 13 year old FEMALE. SHe's a great gal from a great family with a Masters from UVA and a huge heart. Yeah, she'd rather teach in the affluent hood or the suburbs anyday. Today she teaches at a private academy in Alexandria.

The schools with the bad kids DO get the bottom of barrel when it comes to teachers. You have a few, like my sister, that try to do the right thing though. Usually they get beaten down by the system and move on.

That reminds me - I loved reading Richard Geib's account of teaching at Berendo Middle School in Los Angeles in the 1990s.

See it here: http://www.rjgeib.com/biography/inner-city...s/innerblu.html

I say that Geib's experience mirrors your sister's in many ways, KatieDid.

"may threaten" doesn't sound like it has any bite.

In that case, I will rephrase it by changing a word: "Poor-performing and behaving students may ruin the school's TEA ratings and local reputation."

I would be afraid of any repercussions of violent incidents and/or failing TAKS scores, so I would be all too happy to get rid of a transfer student who does not care about his coursework and/or starts a major fight.

Poor-performing and behaving students may threaten the school's TEA ratings and local reputation.

isn't it true that schools are funded based on student attendance? if this is so, what would be the motivation for getting rid of poor performing students?

In many alternative certification programs, including HISD's, some teachers have to take the THEA test.

A sample of THAT test is here: http://www.thea.nesinc.com/practice.htm

Test Preparation manuals from the Texas Education Agency for Texas educator certification are here: http://www.texes.ets.org/prepMaterials/

I will try to find more teacher tests to show what teachers in TX are passing (or failing).

so you wouldn't get rid of the failing teachers?

Well, for the teachers who fail 15 times and still cannot pass the tests, I would get rid of them. I find it strange that the teacher at South Houston Intermediate would fail again and again. - In fact, why not set up a "3 strikes and you are out" system with emergency certification?

seems like you're all over the board. how would YOU address the issue with the teachers' scores?

there's an article in today's chron that says "Sixteen percent of Texas high school seniors or about 40,200 members of the Class of 2007 won't receive their diplomas this month because they still haven't passed all four portions of the TAKS test, according to preliminary figures released Friday.

That's a 27 percent increase from last year, when roughly 32,000 seniors failed at least one portion of the high-stakes exam."

Okay, now, as for the issue with teacher scores, I would ask for school districts to not only release figures for teacher scores and maintain them on websites, but also organize teacher scores by individual schools (This helps in large districts, especially large districts with varying schools) - Also, I would post links to sample tests so that parents will know what course material teachers are expected to know in order to pass

In fact, I should e-mail this idea to HISD and ask the district to maintain such lists and links to sample tests so that parents may make more informed choices in schools.

61 is embarassing for hisd........i think your protest should be expanded.

vic...when you have children, i'm sure if they came home with a 61 on a test you woudln't be happy. your response sounds like a future hisd administrator.

Rather, I have this point of view:

From: http://blogs.chron.com/schoolzone/2007/01/...s.html#comments

"The passionate comments from Kathy Jones and HISDmom illustrate an interesting phenomenon in HISD schools. Among HISD's 300 campuses are a handful of academically elite schools that consistently perform among the state's best. One of those is Lamar High School, which we reported last week produced more International Baccalaureate graduates than any other school in Texas.

But Lamar is hardly representative of the typical HISD high school. Eleven of HISD's 23 traditional high schools (almost half) are considered academically unacceptable by the state.

It's also worth noting that two HISD high schools (Bellaire and Westside) account for two-thirds of the passing Advanced Placement exam scores posted by HISD students last year.

Lamar and the other two schools Ms. Jones' children attended have very different demographics than the average HISD school.

Eighty-two percent of the students at the typical HISD school come from poor families and 28 percent have limited English-speaking skills. At Briargrove, those numbers are 30 percent and 9 percent, respectively. They are 70 percent and 18 percent at Grady, and 40 percent and 4 percent at Lamar.

I'm sure parents whose children attend one of HISD's elite schools are very happy with their children's education.

"

I also like to compare HISD's situation to New York City's:

"With 1,400 schools and 1.1 million students who speak more than 100 languages, the New York City public school system is vast, complex and bewildering. At its best, it offers an unparalleled education. At its worst, it fails even to guarantee the safety of its students and staff. The good news is that Insideschools will guide you step-by-step to find the best -- and avoid the worst."

The thing is that, if I was a parent within HISD's boundaries, I would try to find a home zoned to a good school (so long as I have the money to buy one) and do all of my homework for the school. That way, as stated in the insideschools article, I can find the best and avoid the worst.

HISD is a big problem with people who do not have money (which describes a lot of residents in HISD, unfortunately) and/or do not know how to "work the system."

The solution to that is to simply let the schools that receive transfer students kick out kids who misbehave (not too difficult to do) - In fact, that's the policy of the magnet schools here. I.E., after the 2005-2006 school year, I heard from friends that even kids with constant tardiness got the boot at Lamar.

That's different from plain-old-rezoning (I.E. Grady) where an entire apartment complex is assigned to a school and therefore not easily kicked out. In fact, according to my ideas, the zoning boundaries would NOT change much at all (the only HISD territory that would be rezoned to Memorial HS, for instance, would be the sections of Piney Point Village and Hunters Creek Village currently in HISD).

My sister, who attended the large Lamar, has no "survival" skills, whatever that means.

Vicman: Houston citizens and to allow for a diversity of types of schools and types of education for all citizens of Houston (as well as Bellaire, West U, Southside Place, and the memorial villages)

You really want to blend SBISD with HISD so passionately. You post this all the time. Letting kids from the worst neighborhood chose to go to Memorial schools would implode the quality of safety that has been established there. Even allowing some of the SBISD kids from the far northern boundries transfer to Stratford or Memorial Senior would create havoc. Its a great utopian idea, but the fact is that the children that attend most of the SBISD schools do not have the survival skills to blend in with those from Houston's worst neighborhoods.. It will never happen, the people that pay the SBISD taxes moved there and are often making huge sacrifices to make sure their kids come home alive.

That's what happened with Grady Middle right next to Tanglewood. They starting busing in all the thugs from the Richmond area and the "Tanglewood crew" couldn't cope so they fled to private. Blending causes flight to private, and flight to private causes a district and a school to decline.

Part of HISD's problem is the conduct and behavior of its students and the apathy of its parents. The more dangerous the school, the less a quality teacher wants to be there. I think HISD should be able to kick more kids out. Its great to want to educate, but when kids rarely attend school and try to threathen the ones that are trying when they are there...get rid of them. They "don't want no education" anyway. They rather be out terrorizing and taggin' cars. No kids left behind is a great theory, but leave the ones behind that want to be there and focus on the ones that want to get out.

The base of the matter is, I don't think the QUALITY of the education in SBISD and HISD are really that different. Its the safety and security that allows the kids to learn, attracts teachers that don't want to be killed, that is the difference.

wouldn't school choice solve some, if not all, of these issues?

Ah, good thing you brought that up. HISD is known for school choice. Well, "known" is an understatement.

"Many transfer options are available" by the Houston Chronicle explains the mechanisms of magnet programs and transfers in HISD: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/specia...06/4677688.html

"UNHAPPY with their neighborhood schools or lured away by prestigious programs miles from their homes, tens of thousands of Houston children take advantage of sometimes complicated transfer policies to attend different schools.

Some apply to prestigious magnet programs. Others capitalize on federal and state laws that make it easier for students to escape dangerous or low-performing schools.

The practice is much more common inside the boundaries of the 200,000-Houston Independent School District

school districts are simply too big.

North Forest, though, has two high schools with slightly more than 1,000 pupils each... about 9,000 kids at all. That makes it look more troublesome by comparison.

It is true that bureaucracy is one of HISD's weak points. Yet, HISD is not fatally flawed, and civil rights disputes would arise if HISD were to be broken up (racial disputes, taxation, etc would be nightmares), so, IMO, breaking HISD into pieces is not feasible.

The last time a portion withdrew from HISD was when the city of Stafford formed Stafford MSD (only a sliver of its territory comes from HISD, most comes from FBISD).

Your comments regarding charter schools faring worse aside, I don't agree with your constant call for consolidation and I think this report proves why. Bigger is not always better. Many tiny school districts I've never even heard of scored in the 90's, which I think shows that sometimes these smaller districts can focus more personal attention to each of these students, unlike the monster-size Houston ISD which earned its' 61, despite all the magnet programs it touts.

Specifically, I am talking about North Forest ISD - I am not talking about rural/suburban districts that manage to perform with small sizes.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/ald...ws/4763341.html

"The North Forest Independent School District, a shrinking 9,000-student system in Northeast Houston, has been plagued by financial, academic and management problems for years.

The school board has fired or forced out three of its last four superintendents. In August, eight of the district's 11 campuses netted academically unacceptable ratings from the state, and after the district couldn't produce important financial records, Neeley in March sent in a conservator to oversee money matters."

And judging from the lack of business support and declining school population in the area, I do not believe that NFISD will be able to stand on its own weight.

HISD has advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

* Major tax bases

* Magnet programs (ability to select schools of desire)

* District resources that result from tax bases

Disadvantages:

* Divisive racial politics

* Typical urban politics

* Lack of neighborhood support for education in some areas

So, the mixed HISD gets 61% - Now, the problem with North Forest is that it has all of the disadvantages and none of the advantages held by HISD. There are no alternate schools. There are few businesses willing to support NFISD.

http://dig.abclocal.go.com/ktrk/teachers/districtgrades.pdf

Houston ISD has a "61" grade for certified teachers.

45,125 tests were administered.

27,346 passed.

17,779 failed.

Klein ISD has an "80"

6,359 tests were administered.

5,065 passed.

1294 failed.

North Forest ISD has a "34"

2,614 tests were administered.

887 passed.

1,727 failed

Someone, please, we can organize a large, loud protest where we yell at the NFISD administration and try to force the district to consolidate?

Anyway, I also notice a lot of charter schools fare worse.

IMO, we should put more emphasis on making immigrant children learn English than trying to force older people to use English.

In Texas, in order to get a high school diploma, a graduate must demonstrate some English-language writing ability. The Spanish language TAKS only goes to grade 6. After that, the kids must take TAKS in English.