Clements High school? (Houston, Sugar Land, Taylor: low income, fit in, home)

[whoisthebob]

What is your opinion on Clements Highschool?
How good is clements?
I don't want to go to that school, but my parents do.
I want to go to Kempner.

[v2four]

what school are you zoned to? Clements and Kempner are about 10 miles away from each other.

why do u want to go to Kempner? could it be your friends go there, or the academics are not as demanding?

[westres1]

The best school in the city!

[sbhubbell]

Clements is the most highly rated general public high school, academically in the Houston area. High asian population.

[Topaz]

Clements is a very academically competitive school. Some students feel a bit lost in the shuffle.

When I was approaching high school, I battled with my parents to attend a less highly ranked high school and they gave in. I wasn't concerned about the academics but about the high SES of the competitive school. Because I then attended a bit more mellow school where the students weren't all aiming for Ivy League colleges and driving luxury vehicles and taking European vacations, I fit in better. I did really well and won a full academic scholarship to college. I am not sure I could have done that if I had been at the "top" school.

[ZeroTX]

Lots of snobby kids at Clements, I imagine, but good academics, too. I doubt the true academics are any better or worse at Kempner, though. Both are good schools. Fort Bend isn't a "choice" district, though, so you go to the one you're ZONED to. Which one are you zoned to?

I live in the Kempner zone, in old-school/original Sugar Land.

[crbcrbrgv]

As far as test scores go, Clements is the best high school in Fort Bend ISD. As a teacher, I can tell you test scores don't mean the teachers are the best. 90 percent of the parents or more care very deeply about their child's education at Clements. You could not say this about Alief Taylor but I can tell you some of the greatest teachers I have ever met teach there. One thing to consider is a lot of times schools such as Clements get a certain percentage of slacker type teachers due to the fact that parental involvement is so high, the kids are very easy to deal with. Clements kids are going to succeed anywhere because of parental involvement. In reality, Kempner and Clements are probably about the same overall. Alief Kerr trumps them both. By a lot.

[ZeroTX]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

As far as test scores go, Clements is the best high school in Fort Bend ISD. As a teacher, I can tell you test scores don't mean the teachers are the best.

Agreed on this point. Same goes for all the "high performing" Katy schools. It doesn't mean they have the best teachers, it just means their students do well on standardized tests. They have support/care at home, are more likely to have 2 parents and those parents are more likely to still be married. They are not as likely to be ESL or from another country. They are not likely living in low-income housing, involved in a gang, or coming home to an empty house. It has little to do with Clements having better teachers. If you want to find great teachers, go to a rough school with low income students who also does pretty well on testing. Those are devoted and highly skilled teachers. Not the ones who teach upper class suburban babies with BMW's.

Also, low scores don't necessarily mean bad teachers, either. There are schools with as high as 50% ESL students out there, so should they be measured by the same stick? Should the teachers be punished when the kids who have only spoken English for 1 or 2 years can't pass the rigorous state tests?

[EEstudent]

CLASS OF CLEMENTS 2007 SPEAKING...

if you want a good education go to Clements but you might be cheated because your class rank will be much lower than that of Kempner.

However the culture at Clements high school motivates people to do better and actually care about everything that goes on. If you know that you can do extremely well when there are people around you that have the same academic goals Clements would be my choice.

but if you want less of a competitive school where your class rank can climb up a whole quartile (yeah its that big of a difference) but you might not be as prepared for college as Clements students.

[georgecogirl]

Thank you all for your comments. My daughter will be going to Clements this fall. I want the academic competition. There is not very much where she is right now and even making good grades she is not performing to her best potential. However, when the time comes for her to drive it will not be a Lexus... more like a 10 year old odyssey. I think that will be another life lesson to learn. Any friends she doesn't have because of it were not going to be the life long friends you hope for.