agnerd said:

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smango05 said:

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The obvious divisions on N, S, E, and W would certainly have disparate socioeconomic populations. However, with Texas' Robin Hood method of funding districts, wouldn't that lessen a bit of the blow?

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The money differential required to get a poor student achievement up to a rich student is astounding. You have to cut rich school budget to the point they can no longer afford textbooks and can only afford first-year teachers. You'd also have to prevent the community from stepping up with donations.

For the poor schools, you'd have to keep kids at school until 9pm and virtually eliminate time to do anything except sleep. Homework would be done at school since that's the only way to ensure it gets done. You'd need two shifts of teachers.

Yet there are still quite a few people that want EQUITY no matter the costs. We're pretty close to equality across the state, but nowhere close to equity.

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I've never heard any study that quantifies the true costs of bringing up poor student achievement. This is interesting. Can you link to the studies that cite this? (not sarcastic, truly interested)

lunchbox said:

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ChipFTAC01 said:

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I'm pretty sure the last bullet the TEA has after replacing the board is to just dissolve the district and fold it in to a neighboring one. There's no way that will happen with hisd. Usually it's a smaller one that gets folded into a larger one. Happened recently to la marque (Texas City ISD) , North Forest, (HISD) and wilmer Hutchins (DISD)

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There could potentially be the option of splitting it up into 2 or 3 districts with 70K-100K students each.

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This would be the best solution, but it will never happen - because politics.

agnerd said:

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smango05 said:

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The obvious divisions on N, S, E, and W would certainly have disparate socioeconomic populations. However, with Texas' Robin Hood method of funding districts, wouldn't that lessen a bit of the blow?

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The money differential required to get a poor student achievement up to a rich student is astounding. You have to cut rich school budget to the point they can no longer afford textbooks and can only afford first-year teachers. You'd also have to prevent the community from stepping up with donations.

For the poor schools, you'd have to keep kids at school until 9pm and virtually eliminate time to do anything except sleep. Homework would be done at school since that's the only way to ensure it gets done. You'd need two shifts of teachers.

Yet there are still quite a few people that want EQUITY no matter the costs. We're pretty close to equality across the state, but nowhere close to equity.

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Well, sort of. A lot of the differences between rich students and poor students have to do with home life, so if you kept poor kids at school longer, it would likely help them improve.

There are other ways to help, though. Getting rid of homework for the younger grades would help. So would reducing the summer break (which some school districts are moving toward now). Also, getting kids from poor families into real education programs at ages 3 or 4 exposes them to reading and language skills they don't get exposed to at home and helps them prepare for first grade. A culture change that values education over athletics would help, too.

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Getting rid of homework for the younger grades would help. So would reducing the summer break (which some school districts are moving toward now).

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This would be an interesting compromise to debate with my younger self, but I think more school days and less homework would probably make a positive difference, especially in early grades.

as a parent, i would definitely support my kids being at school more days.

weekends would be even better. especially in the fall. maybe classes from 2:30 to 9:30

Social Media Influencer said:

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Quote:

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Getting rid of homework for the younger grades would help. So would reducing the summer break (which some school districts are moving toward now).

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This would be an interesting compromise to debate with my younger self, but I think more school days and less homework would probably make a positive difference, especially in early grades.

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This would mostly affect elementary school kids. Studies show that homework in elementary doesn't do much for learning, but it has a big effect on grades for students who don't have parents home at night who can help or will at least supervise to make sure homework gets done. It also helps kids who have to look out for younger siblings, too.

I had heard that there was talk around some Houston suburban districts of having two weeks off after every nine weeks instead of a longer summer break, but it wasn't at HISD, and I don't think anything ever came of it.

BBRex said:

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Social Media Influencer said:

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Quote:

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Getting rid of homework for the younger grades would help. So would reducing the summer break (which some school districts are moving toward now).

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This would be an interesting compromise to debate with my younger self, but I think more school days and less homework would probably make a positive difference, especially in early grades.

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This would mostly affect elementary school kids. Studies show that homework in elementary doesn't do much for learning, but it has a big effect on grades for students who don't have parents home at night who can help or will at least supervise to make sure homework gets done. It also helps kids who have to look out for younger siblings, too.

I had heard that there was talk around some Houston suburban districts of having two weeks off after every nine weeks instead of a longer summer break, but it wasn't at HISD, and I don't think anything ever came of it.

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They tried something like that for one year in CFISD back in the mid 90s. It marginally passed, but the outcry was incredible and they quickly went back to your standard summer schedule. Finding childcare for two weeks every nine weeks was a nightmare, kids wanted the full summer off, and school teachers shrieked at the idea of having to work year round.

The only good that came out of it was that vacations were relatively cheap as everybody else was in school.

BBRex said:

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Social Media Influencer said:

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Quote:

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Getting rid of homework for the younger grades would help. So would reducing the summer break (which some school districts are moving toward now).

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This would be an interesting compromise to debate with my younger self, but I think more school days and less homework would probably make a positive difference, especially in early grades.

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This would mostly affect elementary school kids. Studies show that homework in elementary doesn't do much for learning, but it has a big effect on grades for students who don't have parents home at night who can help or will at least supervise to make sure homework gets done. It also helps kids who have to look out for younger siblings, too.

I had heard that there was talk around some Houston suburban districts of having two weeks off after every nine weeks instead of a longer summer break, but it wasn't at HISD, and I don't think anything ever came of it.

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New Caney and Humble ISD's added a week off in both October and February, so it is not at all evenly spaced with traditional Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring Break still in there.

RK said:

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as a parent, i would definitely support my kids being at school more days.

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As a parent, I would not support my kids being at school more days. They are there enough as it is.

Nvm, chimpanzee already mentioned Humble & New Caney went to a schedule with reduced summer.

The schedule is essentially a week off every month and a half.

It's happening ...

Facebook gonna be good tonight.

Why did the district not just repurpose Wheatley before it got to this?

Yes!!!!

3rd Generation Ag said:

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Why did the district not just repurpose Wheatley before it got to this?

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IIRC there is a vocal group in the community who sees Wheatley as a historically significant building and school, and they have fought with the district over closing it down.

https://abc13.com/education/residents-outraged-over-demolition-of-school/290228/

3rd Generation Ag said:

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Why did the district not just repurpose Wheatley before it got to this?

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That requires forethought and a strategic long term plan. Look at the board and tell me how much confidence in them.

Crazy to think these people control $2,000,000,000 of spending each year "for the children".

Buzzfeed/chron "digital reporters" must still be out and about for working women's Wednesday. i expected a white supremacist slide show but i only see a link buried halfway down the mobile page to the actual Houstonchronicle.com hard news page acknowledging the state's largest school district will be taken over by the state due to minority incompetence and infighting.

HISD needs an overhaul. With the money I pay in taxes it should be the best schools in the state, and not worthless schools that people avoid and send kids to private school. Only district in Houston area people avoid.

So you make wheatley a top of the line magnet school. Say for technology, animation and graphic design. You disperse the current wheatley students to several other schools so they don't force those schools to become low scoring. You save the historic building and get out of trouble with state. You keep control of your district. It is not rocket science.

BBRex said:

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3rd Generation Ag said:

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Why did the district not just repurpose Wheatley before it got to this?

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IIRC there is a vocal group in the community who sees Wheatley as a historically significant building and school, and they have fought with the district over closing it down.

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The community around there does see the school as historically significant. The building is maybe 15 years old.

eeaggie11 said:

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BBRex said:

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3rd Generation Ag said:

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Why did the district not just repurpose Wheatley before it got to this?

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IIRC there is a vocal group in the community who sees Wheatley as a historically significant building and school, and they have fought with the district over closing it down.

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The community around there does see the school as historically significant. The building is maybe 15 years old.

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As long as the don't change the historical names of all of the schools in the district spending millions of dollars on new signs, uniforms, and everything that goes with it I see no problem protecting a 15 year old building.

3rd Generation Ag said:

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So you make wheatley a top of the line magnet school. Say for technology, animation and graphic design. You disperse the current wheatley students to several other schools so they don't force those schools to become low scoring. You save the historic building and get out of trouble with state. You keep control of your district. It is not rocket science.

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Obviously a racist wife beater..

The district had more than enough chances to clean up the act. They should bust it up already.

3rd Generation Ag said:

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So you make wheatley a top of the line magnet school. Say for technology, animation and graphic design. You disperse the current wheatley students to several other schools so they don't force those schools to become low scoring. You save the historic building and get out of trouble with state. You keep control of your district. It is not rocket science.

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This has more to do than just the performance of one school. Pretty sure this has been years in the making, and it is the culmination of the abject failure of HISD to run a clean shop. Budget shortfalls, spending millions to rename schools because of SJW wishes, etc.

In all reality, no district should ever be as big as HISD - larger districts always end up being money pits with little to show for it.