HISD reading problem (Houston, Post, Howe: 2014, school districts, college)

[elnina]

This is REALLY disturbing, but I don't think it happen only in HISD. This trend is probably not isolated to HISD only. However, if 17 year old with a HS diploma can't read, then what is such "diploma" worth anyway?
What is the purpose of going to HS, if so many leave high school with pathetic abilities in crucial areas: reading, writing, basic math, and reasoning.
Is HISD worse than other school districts, or the whole school system is a scam and a big lie?

Amid All the Good Things Going On in HISD, Why Is It So Many of Our Kids Still Can't Read? - Page 1 - News - Houston - Houston Press

[nana053]

This happens in other parts of the country and in other times (1980s, for example) as well, though I think that perhaps the difference back in the 80s was that those students did not expect to go to college and there were no *state* tests that had to be passed to graduate from high school. I had a girl scout who graduated as a senior reading on about the 4th or 5th grade level back in the late 80s in a suburban school near Chicago. She was a nice girl and did not get in trouble and no one really realized that she was not reading. We found out when we were cooking and she could not read the recipe. To be fair, she missed a lot of school because she babysat for her younger siblings. Her mom did not really stress the importance of going to school.

With the students cited in the article, I wonder if any of them have been tested for dyslexia or if they simply slid by because they covered the reading problem up in various ways. I wish that all schools had good testing for reading disabilities and math disabilities so that these kids could get help way before high school.

[David Dollar]

It is the students and culture.

[testmo]

Hisd has something like 200k students. Other houston area districts top out well under 100k (like 30k) its ridiculous. Its athletes, did they count spec ed and life skill classes?, immigrants, and poverty/culture. Ive had to work with quite a few elderly and adults that couldnt read. Illiteracy has always been around. The state would have to step in in a huge way to do something about it.

[Schumacher713]

You can't always turn lemons into lemonade. I went to HSEP. High School for Engineering Professions. It is located at Booker T Washington. It is considered a drop out factory. It is about 95% black. I had to take a few courses with the Booker T kids. We called them the downstairs kids. I took Spanish I & II, Art I & II. The teachers were scared of the students. They had no control at all. If the teacher tried to actually teach they would run them off till they got one that would let them screw around and then cheat off the one Hispanic kid in the class. Everyone got an A. I never took art class. It was just a zoo. The second day of class I asked the teacher if I could do the work out of class. He told me I don't blame you for wanting to get out of here. He said just show up for the final at the end of the semester. I never took Art II either. I TAd for computer science II and had it chalked up as Art II. Ohh, I took a health class. We played ping pong while the teacher lectured. I remember taking that art final. Open book and I looked up all the answers in the glossary. I finished the test in about 5 minutes. The guy next to me took it and copied my answers and around the class it went. They don't want to learn. Their parents don't care about their children. I have friend who teach in poor areas for middle school. Many of the parents flat out do not care about their kids. This is a cultural problem. The only way I can describe Booker T is it is a ZOO! I had a friend who went to Madison HS. He said one of his teachers embarrassed one of the students in class. The next day he wanted up to the teacher pulled out a gun. Held it to her head and pulled the trigger. It was not loaded. She instantly quit of course. This is what the schools are like in bad areas. And, this is straight from someone that went to one. Now, I went to HSEP and got a very good education. I was levels ahead of my friends in private school. It was not even close for my math and science classes. Many parents and kids place zero value on education. You go to other countries and they are miles ahead of us. Many kids speak 4-5 languages. Their math and science blows ours away. I used to date a Russian girl. Her English is sadly better than probably 95% of that school. She only had lived here for three or four years. You just can't teach these kids. The schools are simply baby sitting. Out they go without an education. I bet half from Booker T end up in jail. It is just crazy.

[Kiovo]

My best friend taught K for HISD. This particular elem school fed into Sharpstown High. She cried almost every single day during that school year. She cried for the kids, knowing most of them probably did not have a chance. As a teacher you can only do so much, the rest is up to the parents. Or parent in most of these cases. She tried to organize a field trip but needed at least 3 parents to chaperone, couldn't even get three. My kids' school? I volunteer and they had to draw names because there were so many. My name was not drawn sadly.

Oh and her class was the only English speaking K class. That meant all the kids that didn't speak Spanish were in her class.

[Schumacher713]

It is a complicated issues that most people do not understand, myself included. Many of these parents were two to three jobs just to make ends meet. Understanding the problems in poor schools have much to do with poverty. There are good kids that want to learn, but are dragged down by the ones that don't. Our country once had a fight against poverty. It was called the biggest danger to America. For the last 30 years poverty has grown at an alarming rate and the middle class has been almost wiped out. As poverty grows more schools will fall behind. Our country lost its way.

Now not all of HISD is bad. It has many good schools.

[ipuck]

De Blasio, wife overlooking parents in pre-K push | New York Post

People usually read NY Post for entertainment purpose, but this editoral piece really nails what Schumacher713 is talking about. It is not about the resource or bad teachers that is causing all the failures, everything starts at home. You can throw billions of dollars into the school and it will have no effect when the parents or parent is not involved.

[elnina]

^^^ Sure, but not "everything". Did anyone bothered to read ALL 7 pages of the article?

[Schumacher713]

I skimmed the first page. lol I have read about this kind of problem though. It is a national issue, not just local. Though it is much worse in the south.