Difference Suburbs vs Inner City Schools (Houston, Spring: 2015, neighborhood, best school)

[ipuck]

Originally Posted by lotophage

I don't consider those schools to be inner city, I think of them as suburban schools that happen to be in HISD. One of the most surprising things I've found about HISD is how much variation they allow between schools. You tour a school on the east side and the schools are all about safety and security, computers and technology, preparing children for good jobs. Then you go to the wealthy inner loop neighborhoods and it's all globalism and the environment, ballet classes and classical piano/violin and art. Then you go outside the loop to the west and it's football, cheerleaders and marching bands. It's startling really, that all these schools could be so different and still in the same district.

Is this HISD you are talking about?

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by ipuck

Is this HISD you are talking about?

Yes. There's a big difference between various HISD schools.

The "suburban" part he's talking about is the bit outside the beltway, bounded by Westheimer, Highway 6, the Buffalo Bayou (roughly), and Beltway 8. Fun fact: the area has the biggest concentration of Japanese in Houston which is why Nippan Daido and Seiwa Market are in there.

BTW Westside High had parents who pulled quite a few kids from seeing Obama's speech (though this was back in 2008) while hardly any did at the other schools.

[lotophage]

Originally Posted by Vicman

Yes. There's a big difference between various HISD schools.

Until I did the schools tours I hadn't appreciated just how much influence HISD's extensive magnet program had on individualizing schools and creating intense inter-school competition. Each school has to identify their niche, then market themselves toward the type of parents who'd want their product. Schools look different from one another, they are organized different, they have different facilities, different programs, different philosophies and different goals. Many schools seem like two separate schools, with the ESL school segregated from the regular classes. Some are three, with the GT students in their own tier. In some schools the parents seem to literally run the school, with school moms running the front desk, filing the paperwork, monitoring the hallways, manning the stores, and giving the tours. I didn't even tour a tenth of the schools and I was bewildered by the choices available.

[ipuck]

Originally Posted by Vicman

Yes. There's a big difference between various HISD schools.

Realistically, besides the few magnet and GT schools inside the loop that are stellar and highly ranked, the rest of HISD is pretty much a war zone.

All the ballet and other "special programs" are fronted by PTA. No other schools get them in HISD beside the wealthy areas.

Let's call a spade a spade. There is no teaching the east side kids for good jobs. It is an accomplishment if they can read and write when they graduate.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by ipuck

Realistically, besides the few magnet and GT schools inside the loop that are stellar and highly ranked, the rest of HISD is pretty much a war zone.

All the ballet and other "special programs" are fronted by PTA. No other schools get them in HISD beside the wealthy areas.

Let's call a spade a spade. There is no teaching the east side kids for good jobs. It is an accomplishment if they can read and write when they graduate.

The first part is true. And calls to mind two points:
1. A robust magnet program is a way to desegregate schools which are otherwise segregated due to the economics of neighborhoods.
2. The problem with magnet schools is they leave non-magnet neighborhood schools as "schools of last resort." These schools suffer from lack of funding and lack of good students. This is EXACTLY the problem with the kind of voucher program we can expect from Betsy deVos. Families with the means will pull their kids out of public and use vouchers for private. That will leave public schools wildly underfunded, and full of the kids whose parents can't afford private, even with vouchers. A caste system like we've never seen will be the result.

[Vicman]

Afaik the elementary schools in many East End Hispsnic neighborhoods are not bad.. But things get dicey at middle school.

I had a white Canadian friend who went to heavily Huspanic RP Harris Elementary in east Houston. He enjoyed his time there and made good friends. But at Holland Middle he knew why his GT Vanguard program was kept away from the regular kids.

He did say that when he saw River Oaks ES it 'blew RP Harris out of the water".

I also knew a white middle class girl who went to Lantrip for elementary school.. But she went to Pershing instead if Jackson for ms.

Originally Posted by ipuck

Realistically, besides the few magnet and GT schools inside the loop that are stellar and highly ranked, the rest of HISD is pretty much a war zone.

All the ballet and other "special programs" are fronted by PTA. No other schools get them in HISD beside the wealthy areas.

Let's call a spade a spade. There is no teaching the east side kids for good jobs. It is an accomplishment if they can read and write when they graduate.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by ipuck

Realistically, besides the few magnet and GT schools inside the loop that are stellar and highly ranked, the rest of HISD is pretty much a war zone.

All the ballet and other "special programs" are fronted by PTA. No other schools get them in HISD beside the wealthy areas.

Let's call a spade a spade. There is no teaching the east side kids for good jobs. It is an accomplishment if they can read and write when they graduate.

While much of HISD is definitely very poor performing with lots of troubled kids, I wouldn't say Westside and Westbriar are that way, and they are far outside the Loop. They're not the absolute top performers, but they're OK.

[Watchful]

I am very pro-public school....to a fault...and our son started elementary at a HISD Vanguard elementary in an at-risk neighborhood (many moons ago)!

Still (though it didn't happen in Houston) I would commend this thought-provoking article about the risks of choosing a severely under-performing neighborhood school.

Esther Cepeda: Send your kids to the best school possible | GazetteXtra

I don't know if it is still true but in my years in Houston I noticed many highly involved minority parents found ways to redirect their children to more high performing schools. Minority to majority transfers helped facilitate this.

It is a quandary and the social cost is huge.

[cbg19]

So involved, educated, middle income parents with kid in extracurriculars? still might not be good enough? Or buy into a better neighborhood and spend less on extracurriculars? Is Middle School and High School more important that Elementary?

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by cbg19

So involved, educated, middle income parents with kid in extracurriculars? still might not be good enough? Or buy into a better neighborhood and spend less on extracurriculars? Is Middle School and High School more important that Elementary?

If it's "involved, educated, middle income parents with kid in extracurriculars" you should be fine! If you're zoned to Barbara Bush Elementary, stay put (it has an excellent reputation!). West Briar and Westside are good.