June 6, 2008 - The Texas education commissioner ordered Sam Houston High School to close Thursday. The school has not met minimum academic standards for six straight years. According to the state, Sam Houston has the worst academic record of any school in Texas.
Roughly 2,500 predominantly poor, Hispanic students attend Sam Houston. Under state guidelines, if the school reopens, it must have a different name, a new principal and a new instructional program. At least 75 percent of the teaching staff has to be replaced, and half of the students who attended Sam Houston must be enrolled at other campuses.
A large part of the teaching staff replaced in 2005.
Only one other school has been forced to close since the state legislature gave the education commissioner the power to order school shutdowns in 2006. That was Johnston High School in Austin.
ABCtv: HISD closes Sam Houston HS
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WE FOUND: Sam Houston High School rates a 3 at GreatSchools.net for their poor academic performance. Where the state average for math on the TAKS test was 60% proficiency -- (Proficiency doesn't mean a math wiz. It means at, or above, grade level) - Sam Houston High School 9th graders scored 36%.
By 10th grade, State average 63%; Sam Houston 45% at, or above, grade level.
By 11th grade, State average 80%; Sam Houston 58% at, or above, grade level.
Teachers argue that poor students without parental support can't be expected to perform. But a school that has become a warehouse for the underperforming is not acceptable. The students manage other subjects despite poverty and without parental support. Language is not a barrier, even though the school population is 93% Hispanic. (See the English Language Art scores and social studies test scores, both of which require competency in English.)
Blaming blacks (4%) for lower math scores, as the Houston Chronicle appears to do, is to dismiss the potential of black students and willfully ignores the fact that no one at this school does well.
Math 9th grade - state average 60% at, or above, grade level
Whites score 45%
Blacks score 28%
Hispanics score 36%
Many large urban school districts have become poverty dumps where children are warehoused and remain in a cycle of failure for generations. What do schools care when they get paid by the student whether or not they perform? That's been the attitude for 40 years.
In a state where it took three years in a battle with unions to change the reading standards, every movement toward change becomes a political battle. Closing this dump of a school is another step forward.
MAKEOVER APPROVED June 13 - The Houston school board unanimously approved a $3.4 million makeover Thursday of troubled Sam Houston High School -- a reform that's won cautious praise from several national experts who say success will depend on staffing, support and leadership.
Under state order, the plan will split the northside campus into two schools: one serving freshmen and the other for grades 10-12. The school for upperclassmen would emphasize math and science -- Sam Houston's weaknesses -- with a focus on preparing students for careers in engineering, information technology and the automotive industry.The state will have to approve of the plan.
The state ordered the school must have a new name, though HISD officials contend "Sam Houston" can remain in the title. The district is temporarily calling the schools the Sam Houston Center for Math, Science and Technology and the Ninth-Grade Preparatory Academy.
A more significant name change could be beneficial, said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy in Washington, D.C. "We have found that to be helpful because it gives an impression that you're going to start anew," he said.
