(NAME-MCE) Texas closes high school due to poorly performing subgroup

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Texas closes high school due to poorly performing subgroup

A 2,500-student, predominately Hispanic high school in Houston has been
shuttered after failing five times to get a small group of black students to
pass the state's standardized math test. "In one sense, closing the whole
school is a very heavy-handed response," said University of Texas at Austin
education researcher Ed Fuller. "But then again, you have this five-year
track record of poor math performance."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5824088.html

June  6, 2008

Math scores of a few were the death of Sam Houston

By ERICKA MELLON    Houston Chronicle

The closure of Sam Houston High School boiled down to math.

Officials with the Houston Independent School District say they tried to
solve the problem — spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix it —
but for five straight years, Sam Houston could not get a small group of
black students to pass the state-mandated math exam.

Now, after state Education Commissioner Robert Scott forced the
predominantly Hispanic school to close Thursday, some are criticizing Texas'
accountability system as too harsh — mandating drastic action based on a few
students. Others say the blame lies with HISD for letting the poor
performance continue.

This year, only 29 percent of the black students at Sam Houston passed the
math portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Half the
Hispanic students passed, which would have been just good enough to qualify
for the state's acceptable rating, if not for the black students' passing
rate.

"In one sense, closing the whole school is a very heavy-handed response,"
said Ed Fuller, an education researcher at the University of Texas at
Austin. "But then again, you have this five-year track record of poor math
performance."

Numbers behind the scoresAmong Sam Houston's 2,500 or so students, only
about 110 are black. Most of the others are Hispanic, and about 65 white
students attend.

For school officials, talking about the performance of one student group is
tough, and raising test scores can be tougher.

"You have to be very careful with singling out groups of kids at the high
school level," said Kelly Trlica, HISD's assistant superintendent over
secondary curriculum and instruction. "Any group of students, to sort of
single them out, is hard socially," she said

HISD might have another chance with Sam Houston, though. Commissioner Scott
has said the district can submit a plan to reopen the school in the fall
with a new principal, mostly new teachers, some new students, a different
academic program and a fresh name.

As district leaders craft that plan, due to the school board Thursday, some
are warning district leaders to learn from their mistakes.

"People of other races always feel like they have the best solution for the
teaching and learning of African-American students when they don't even
understand the total concept of African-American culture and the environment
which these young people of today live in," said Carol Mims Galloway, a
Houston school board member and president of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People in Houston.

Valerie Hill-Jackson, an assistant education professor at Texas A&M
University, said teachers need to learn how to connect with black students.

"We know this is a culture that is very vibrant, exuberant, likes to talk,"
said Hill-Jackson, who is black. "So, if I'm a math and science teacher, how
can I use that to my advantage? I can have them get out of their seats."

Julia Guajardo, Sam Houston's executive principal, and Trlica said school
officials made serious efforts to boost the test scores of all students, no
matter their race. Teachers assessed which students were having difficulty
with the same math concepts and then tutored them in small groups.

Working on a solutionThe school also adopted a new computerized math program
called Agile Mind and worked with consultants from the respected Charles A.
Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

Still, only 17 of the 59 black students tested — or 29 percent — passed the
math exam this year. That's up slightly from 24 percent last year.

The passing rate of Hispanic students increased from 46 percent to 51
percent.

Gloria White, managing director of the Dana Center, characterized the math
gains at Sam Houston as "small forward progress." She emphasized that a
major turnaround takes at least three years and that consultants only
started working with Sam Houston teachers last year.

"You need collaboration time with the teachers," White said. "It's a
process. It's not an event. Sometimes you see some movement in the first
year, but it's not anything you can count on."

'Antiquated' system

Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra, when he announced the news of Sam
Houston's closure Thursday, called the state's accountability system
"antiquated," in part because it doesn't take into account the progress made
by schools.

On the language arts test this year, for example, the passing rates of black
students at Sam Houston jumped 17 points to 84 percent.

Marina Mendoza, the president of the parent group at Sam Houston, said she
was shocked to hear some people, who weren't aware of the problems with
black students' scores, suggest the campus performed poorly because of
illegal immigrants at the school.

"I thought that was so unfair," said Mendoza, who has two children at the
school. "We should never look at this as a racial problem. It's an
educational problem."

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CLOSING THE GAP

Sam Houston High School has struggled to close the gap between Hispanic
students and black students in every subject except reading/language arts on
the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Black students make up 4
percent of the school's population, while Hispanics make up 93 percent. Here
are the TAKS passing rates for 2008:

  • Math

  Black: 29 percent

  Hispanic: 51 percent

  • Social studies

  Black: 69 percent

  Hispanic: 84 percent

  • Science

  Black: 39 percent

  Hispanic: 51 percent

  • Reading/language arts

  Black: 84 percent

  Hispanic: 81 percent

  Source: HISD