Tag Archives: dropouts

HISD graduation rate up

Good news. Students in the Houston Independent School District are graduating at a higher rate for the fourth straight year, thanks in part to better tracking and online make-up courses, Superintendent Terry Grier said Monday. The district reported a graduation … Continue reading

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STAAR pushback

The House Public Ed committee gets an earful. Members of the House Public Education Committee on Tuesday questioned why the first batch of students who took the end-of-course exams scored so poorly. For example, 55 percent of ninth-graders met the … Continue reading

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Not a great start for the STAAR tests

Whatever we think about standardized tests, we’ll need to do better than this. Thousands of Houston-area high school students failed the state’s new standardized exams and must retake them – or risk not graduating. Preliminary test results released by several … Continue reading

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Are the end of course standards too low?

Beginning this year, high school students must pass new end of course exams in a variety of subjects in order to be able to graduate. These tests begin in the ninth grade and continue through the 12th. The standards will … Continue reading

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Texas high school graduation rate improved over the last decade

According to one report, anyway. Texas’ graduation rate for high school students increased 1.9 percent since 2002 to just below the national average, according to a new report by a coalition of education groups. The report found that high school … Continue reading

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Are you ready for end-of-course exams?

A preliminary run of the state’s new end-of-course exams shows that student performance is not where we would want it to be yet. Of the nearly 102,000 students who took the Algebra I test in May, for example, just 57 … Continue reading

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More on our Hispanic future

It’s not looking as good as it should. Data from a variety of state and federal sources show the Hispanic population in Texas is economically stagnating and may be falling behind Latinos in other parts of the United States: • … Continue reading

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Who’s homeschooling?

Are there a lot more home-schooled high school students, or are they just conveniently mislabeled dropouts? You decide. More than 22,620 Texas secondary students who stopped showing up for class in 2008 were excluded from the state’s dropout statistics because … Continue reading

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Gallegos versus Grier

State Sen. Mario Gallegos is not a fan of HISD Superintendent Terry Grier. He has made this clear through two letters he has released. This one, from April 8, raises questions about Grier’s past record in other school districts, while … Continue reading

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“The school-to-prison pipeline”

Read this. When it comes to discipline, Aldine ISD doesn’t mess around. The large suburban district expelled more students last year — 525 — than any other district in Texas, despite being a fraction of the size of large urban … Continue reading

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White and Perry argue about the dropout rate; White wins

See for yourself. The major-party candidates for governor on Tuesday waded into one of the oldest and hottest debates in public education — what’s the real high school drop-out rate? — producing the kind of fireworks that suggest the state … Continue reading

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The economic impact of dropouts

Really interesting story from last week. The Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington, D.C., analyzed data from the nation’s 45 largest metropolitan areas to see how high school dropouts influence not only their own lives but also their community’s overall … Continue reading

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Grier starts the fight against dropouts

New HISD Superintendent Terry Grier hits the ground running. As his first major initiative as Houston ISD chief, Grier is launching a credit-recovery program similar to ones he headed up in San Diego and Greensboro, N.C. Houston ISD’s new program … Continue reading

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Helping teen parents in schools

Interesting article about how HISD high schools helps the moms and moms-to-be among its students. Two points to make: Most teen moms don’t graduate high school, and national statistics show that far fewer — only 2 percent — go on … Continue reading

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Q&A with Terry Grier

Learn more about our new HISD Superintendent here and here. One thing to highlight, from the first link: Q: What are your priorities for HISD? A: Houston is a good urban district. It has the potential to be the best … Continue reading

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Graduation rates

According to one study, a little more than half of HISD’s high school freshmen ultimately graduate. Despite dozens of commencement ceremonies planned for the next two weeks, only 58.5 percent of Houston-area students who should be graduating will be earning … Continue reading Continue reading

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