You’ve seen the worst…now here’s the best
So by now we know the worst six high schools in Houston are Lee, Sharpstown, Jones, Kashmere, HP Carter and Contemporary Learning Center. But that only presents one side of the story. There are believe it or not, good schools in Houston. Which are then the bright spots in our fair city? According to the Houston Chronicle/ The Children at Risk’s 2010 rankings the top six are Debakey HS, Carnegie Vanguard HS, Kerr, KIPP Houston, Harmony Science Academy, and Yes Prep. These six are all in the top-20 state wide but it must be noted that private schools are not included in this report which means top local schools like St. John’s and Kinkaid aren’t on the list. Of note there is that 3 of the top six are charter schools which have very different rules from public schools. Though they receive public funds, they are able to have their own rules regarding students and teachers which gives them a lot of leeway as far as teaching methods. Often times this means longer hours for both students and teachers during the school day plus a significantly longer calendar year.
How were schools ranked? By the number of 11th graders scoring “commended” on the TAKS, graduation percentage, students taking AP courses and then passing the AP exam, students who take ACT and SATs and percent of students who get reduced-cost or free lunches who economically disadvantaged. It would be nice to see actual SAT scores being taken into account but in all this seems like a fairly solid methodology for ranking schools.
So congrats to the schools that made the list. If anything hopefully school administrators can see that schools need not have private school type endowments to get results. People have long made excuses regarding why inner city schools such as poverty and lack of parental involvement. Those are challenges for certain but they are certainly surpass able ones.
