Feedback on Katy and Cypress Communities (Houston, Seguin: low income, elementary schools, income)

[hbcu]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

"Better" demographics? And how are you defining that?

In another recent thread, someone was complaining that Cy-Fair now has the wrong crowd and isn't "safe" anymore. A similar comment made just today or yesterday in the Dallas forum about schools in Plano.

I think if you ask a lot of folks in these forums, local ISDs don't do enough to "protect" their "preferred" student profile via zone boundaries and some sort of unjustified land use restrictions. They're really pathetic, the folks who say such things.

I lived through an era where my high school was destroyed by the district intentionally

My HS in FBISD was a successful middle class, minority school that thrived once the whites packed up and left in the middle of the night for odd reasons as come to find out they paid more to live in smaller homes in Sugar Land

Fort bend didn't like that we dominated arts, sports and academics began to turn the corner as we passed up a Sugar Land school in math - in a matter of an instant, sold, middle class communities 3 miles away were sent to schools 7 miles away and helped populate 3 different schools all on highway 6 (before a fort bend toll road was a reality), kids who could be at school in 5 minutes had to bus 20-30 minutes and walking was not an option

there was no growth in the area to justify the moves also but the damage was done longterm

now, some of those same schools turned demographically but the negative vibes created by Fort Bend killed any thought of middle class folks come back to the areas they grew up in

[NigerianNightmare]

Originally Posted by mkwensky

I can't really read the linked articles because of ads - I mostly use Greatschools.
Based on your source Jordan High was rated "Not Rated: Declared State of Disaster". On Greatschools their test scores seem pretty low.
Looks like whites are still the plurality of most of these schools. In the Houston metro it would be hard to find a public school where whites are over 50% period. If you rank all schools in the area by colorfulness I doubt these would be up there. Are there any high performing non-magnet, non-charter public schools where the plurality isn't either white or Asian?

Not saying racism could not play a role in antagonism toward certain groups, as some of the white flight cases in FBISD due to Asians have shown, but it's possible to be against certain demographic shifts based on effect on educational outcomes.

All of the good schools in Lamar and Fort Bend are majority-minority with non-white pluralities. I think Clements , Dulles, Austin, Travis, Ridge Point and Elkins are the highest rated school and it’s all Asian plurality with RP being a White plurality but the other ones especially Elkins and Travis are heavily black and Hispanic being well over 50%, and are also close to being African American plurality by roughly 1%, or less.

https://schools.texastribune.org/dis...r-high-school/

Foster technically counts, it’s barely a Hispanic plurality much like Elkins and Travis are barely, Asian pluralities.

Fulshear and George Ranch are also extremely close.

https://schools.texastribune.org/dis...d-high-school/

Pearland High School

Glenda Dawson is also close like Travis and Elkins.

https://schools.texastribune.org/dis...k-high-school/

Langham Creek is the best I’ve seen so far in terms of rating and underrepresented minority populations.

If the barrier is 50% Black and Hispanic most of Fort Bend and Lamar schools make it. Some of the Katy schools are over 40%. So it’s really “strict” limits but loads of schools have heavy minority populations and perform well.

[usc619]

Good ole Paetow HS
https://youtu.be/-sc8_kdiaMs

[LonghornHotspur]

Originally Posted by mkwensky

I can't really read the linked articles because of ads - I mostly use Greatschools.
Based on your source Jordan High was rated "Not Rated: Declared State of Disaster". On Greatschools their test scores seem pretty low.
Looks like whites are still the plurality of most of these schools. In the Houston metro it would be hard to find a public school where whites are over 50% period. If you rank all schools in the area by colorfulness I doubt these would be up there. Are there any high performing non-magnet, non-charter public schools where the plurality isn't either white or Asian?

Not saying racism could not play a role in antagonism toward certain groups, as some of the white flight cases in FBISD due to Asians have shown, but it's possible to be against certain demographic shifts based on effect on educational outcomes.

Jordan high school opened in August of 2020, the same year you're citing. And there aren't greatschools scores yet. A bit of research, please?

https://www.greatschools.org/texas/k...igh-School-14/

[mkwensky]

Originally Posted by LonghornHotspur

Jordan high school opened in August of 2020, the same year you're citing. And there aren't greatschools scores yet. A bit of research, please?

https://www.greatschools.org/texas/k...igh-School-14/

There's another Jordan High School in Houston: https://www.greatschools.org/texas/h...n-High-School/

If the school's so new that there's no score then how can you say it's high performing?

[NigerianNightmare]

Originally Posted by mkwensky

There's another Jordan High School in Houston: https://www.greatschools.org/texas/h...n-High-School/

If the school's so new that there's no score then how can you say it's high performing?

All of it's student's used to go to Tompkins which was a high performing school that only opened up less than 9 years ago. So a lot of people assumed it will be high performing. Technically Seven Lakes is the highest flyer in terms of academic performance of Public Schools in Katy, but all of South Katy is roughly the same 40%/25%/25%/10% mix of White to Hispanic to Asian to Black/Other, and socieeconomically within a similar range although technically some areas near Taylor are more middle class, than the rest (mostly upper middle class). Due to Tompkins and Seven Lakes all spuring of each other, it's safe to assume similar quality in schools for any new school that pops up in that area, as the demographics only really start to differ at roughly the neighborhood/elementary school level.

[mkwensky]

Originally Posted by NigerianNightmare

All of it's student's used to go to Tompkins which was a high performing school that only opened up less than 9 years ago. So a lot of people assumed it will be high performing. Technically Seven Lakes is the highest flyer in terms of academic performance of Public Schools in Katy, but all of South Katy is roughly the same 40%/25%/25%/10% mix of White to Hispanic to Asian to Black/Other, and socieeconomically within a similar range although technically some areas near Taylor are more middle class, than the rest (mostly upper middle class). Due to Tompkins and Seven Lakes all spuring of each other, it's safe to assume similar quality in schools for any new school that pops up in that area, as the demographics only really start to differ at roughly the neighborhood/elementary school level.

That makes sense. South Katy is known for good schools. The area does seem more planned than Cypress or Town Lake area, with more consistency in residents' social economic professional class.

[LonghornHotspur]

Originally Posted by mkwensky

There's another Jordan High School in Houston: https://www.greatschools.org/texas/h...n-High-School/

If the school's so new that there's no score then how can you say it's high performing?

1) All the elementary schools that feed it are 8+ rated, per greatschools. Does the kid's academic performance and parent's involvement drop dramatically between 5th and 9th grade?

https://www.greatschools.org/texas/f...entary-School/

https://www.greatschools.org/texas/k...entary-School/

https://www.greatschools.org/texas/k...entary-School/

https://www.greatschools.org/texas/k...entary-School/

2) Prior JH where a majority of Jordan kids attended is 10, did their academics drop since 8th grade?

https://www.greatschools.org/texas/k...J-High-School/

3) Prior HS where this year's seniors attended (Tompkins) is an 8, again, Jordan kids were there 3 years ago.

https://www.greatschools.org/texas/k...s-High-School/

I'll go out on a limb that the prior data plus socio-economic similarity suggests Jordan will be academically comparable to the local peers of Seven Lakes and Tompkins.

I really hope the comparison to a HISD school with 79% low income is a joke.

[Seguinite]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

...It doesn't make a place better to have only upper end housing and purposely exclude entry-level...

It might not be a slam dunk, but it most certainly will 'keep' a place better. Examples all over the world, not just this country.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by Seguinite

It might not be a slam dunk, but it most certainly will 'keep' a place better. Examples all over the world, not just this country.

Oh? Cite research - and not a couple anecdotes.

I suspect that if there's any credibility to your statement, it's because the affluent / upper class thinks it has to flee from the presence of the middle and working classes, especially in schools. This phenomenon is certainly nothing that the government should indulge through policy.