SCHOOL RANKINGS PAGES 10-13 SCHOOL REPORT CARD Houston Chronicle Life & Entertainment Houston Chronicle | Sunday, June 4, 2017 | HoustonChronicle.com and Chron.com @HoustonChron Section K 777 DUAL LANGUAGE CHARTER SCHOOL TURNAROUND NEW STRATEGIES CLIMBING RANKS BRIGHT OUTLOOK Some HISD schools work to teach both While working through some challenges, Overcoming a negative past, Jones Futures native Spanish speakers and native English Houston Gateway Academy is continuing Academy has gone from decrepit campus speakers a second language. Page K3 to put the focus on its students. Page K4 to respected magnet program. Page K8 INNOVATION Steve Gonzales / Houston Chronicle GETTING AHEAD: Crenshaw Elementary and Middle School on Bolivar Peninsula tried new approaches to reading and math. Success followed. Page K5 WIDENING GAP Top grades shift toward suburbs Performance divide from urban districts concerns education experts By Shelby Webb mostly on students’ performance on standardized exams, adjusting for Every child in Christy Manchac’s schools’ poverty rates. second-grade English language arts “We’re a family — that’s the class was glued to an iPad screen one bottom line,” Price said. “Kids are morning in mid-May. motivated by their relationships with They tapped their tiny fingers on their classmates and their teachers. the screens and spoke softly into a Without that, it’s hard to keep them headset attached to the device by long engaged.” black cords. When they finished, While some of the greater Houston they gave the machines to Manchac, metro area’s best schools are located who listened to their recorded voices in the heart of the city, results from describe what sets adverbs apart the 2017 rankings show that high- from verbs and adjectives. Later, performing schools are concentrated Manchac uploaded the audio, along in the suburbs. with her own audio commentary, to Outer suburban districts saw a a website so attentive parents could much larger portion of schools earn track their child’s progress from top marks on the advocacy group’s home. report card than their more urban And virtually all of the parents and more rural counterparts. Such of Buckalew Elementary school Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle rankings tend to favor schools in students are eager to check on their Buckalew Elementary second-graders complete a science worksheet. more affluent, suburban areas. students, Manchac said, adding that Even though they are adjusted some they’re among the most involved parent involvement, coupled with elementary schools on Children at to account for poverty rates, the group of caregivers she’s seen in her low teacher turnover and a culture Risk’s 2017 report card. The Houston- rankings are calculated largely on teaching career. of high expectations, sets her school based nonprofit advocacy group student performance and growth on Buckalew Principal Jill Price said apart and earned it the top spot for ranks the state’s public schools based Rankings continues on K2 » Search your school’s scores at projects.houstonchronicle.com/reportcard » Insights: Find where schools thrive in Houston at projects.houstonchronicle.com/reportcard/insights K2 | Sunday, June 4, 2017 | Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com xx SCHOOL REPORT CARD Rankings put 5 HISD high schools at the top Rankings from page K1 elementary schools where 75 percent or more of standardized tests. students are economically Fewer than 40 percent disadvantaged. Houston of Houston ISD schools ISD’s Lyons Elementary and fewer than 30 percent was the only traditional of schools that belong to public school highlighted districts within Houston’s for both serving a large Beltway 8 earned A or B majority of disadvantaged grades on the rankings. By students while earning an comparison, more than 60 A+ in the Children at Risk percent of schools in dis- rankings. tricts located outside the By contrast, only 1.8 Beltway and near the un- percent of Buckalew finished Grand Parkway Elementary’s students earned A’s and B’s. Rural are economically dis- school districts located advantaged, according well outside the planned to the Texas Education Grand Parkway, including Agency.A little more than Waller, Dickinson, Royal 67 percent of its students and Montgomery ISDs, are white, and only 3.4 saw about half of their percent are enrolled as schools earn A’s and B’s. English as a second lan- Bob Sanborn, president guage learners, compared and CEO of Children at with 18 percent of students Risk, said he expected statewide. to see a performance When asked if Buck- divide between urban and alew would be ranked suburban districts. But he Michael Ciaglo photos / Houston Chronicle as highly if more than 50 didn’t expect the gap to be Buckalew Elementary School second-graders Amanda McBride, from left, Anna Alexander and Howell Zhou percent of its students as wide as it is. work on their grammar with an iPad application. came from economically “What’s amazing is disadvantaged house- even after we adjust for No. 1-ranked Buckalew El- holds, Price replied, “I poverty, still we have ementary in Conroe ISD. would hope so.” these extraordinarily bad Fort Settlement Middle in “It’s difficult because schools in some of our ur- Fort Bend ISD was named you can’t change a stu- ban areas,” Sanborn said. the best middle school, dent’s environment,” Price “I thought there would followed by Lanier Middle said. “Youcan do what you be more high-performing in Houston ISD. can during the school day, high-poverty schools.” But Houston ISD but they could be worried Paul Hill, founder of the dominated the rankings about food, their home University of Washing- for top high schools, with life, whether the electricity ton’s Center on Reinvent- the top five all hailing will still be on tomorrow.” ing Public Education, said from the district. DeBakey Sanborn said state law- such results can be seen High School for Health makers — the majority of throughout the country. Professions was labeled whom represent wealthier “If you have suburbs as the best high school in suburban districts — need that are wealthier and the greater Houston area, to realize that more work more college educated followed by Challenge must be done and more than the city, you’ll get Early College High School, money must be spent to those results,” Hill said. the High School for the help students in urban “Suburbs with similarly Performing & Visual Arts, areas. low incomes may look a lot Eastwood Academy and “It’s important for the different, but in general, Carnegie Vanguard High state to realize there’s a there’s this suburban ring School. Some 3.4 percent of Buckalew students are ESL learners. Statewide, 18 percent are. difference” between urban where children live in Hill said urban districts and suburban districts, homes with lots of litera- often have several flag- time with the application who want their kids to get a whole.” Sanborn said. “It’s not the ture, where parents are ship programs that enroll process and getting to and into good colleges. But of- The rankings did fault of teachers or stu- constantly working to get wealthier students who from the school if it isn’t in ten those schools’ admis- highlight schools that dents or parents who have them to think like college- may otherwise go to a pri- their neighborhood. sions requirements and performed better than to work two jobs — it’s a bound kids.” vate or suburban school. “Big cities do try to keep the difficulty to get to them expected with eco- fault in the system where The top three elemen- But attracting those stu- the middle class in the puts burdens on parents nomically disadvantaged it’s not doing the right job.” tary schools all came dents can come at a cost to schools,” Hill said. “They and often leads the school students. Two KIPP from districts outside of less affluent students who often have to offer some- to have a more privileged Houston Public Schools [email protected] Beltway 8, including the might have a more difficult thing appealing to people population than the city as were among the top five @shelbywebb xx Houston Chronicle | HoustonChronicle.com and chron.com | Sunday, June 4, 2017 | K3 SCHOOL REPORT CARD At Cage Elementary, dual language all the talk By Emily Foxhall five to seven years to master a language. Three kindergartners bent School administrators have over their books mid-morning wondered, too, if the one-size- on a recent day and read to their fits-all model is fair to each kid. teacher aloud. “Food grows They don’t want to lose a gen- in many places,” they said, eration of students, he said, and reading the last line. For two, are considering a model that this was a big moment: The offers a choice: dual-language, English they recited was not the bilingual or all-English. “We language they first learned to struggle with, ‘are we doing speak. right by the kids when we do More than half of the 550 this?’ ” Covarrubia said. students at the Houston ISD Districts such as Clear Creek, school, Cage Elementary, are Alief and Spring Branch had learning English as a second expanded their dual-language language. They’re among the 30 programs around the time percent of students districtwide Houston did. Clear Creek enrolled in programs for those further plans to start a dual still mastering English. language program in a fourth As part of a shift across elementary school this fall. And HISD, Cage Elementary Alief is still adding dual lan- students participate in a dual- guage to more schools at grade language curriculum, instead of levels beyond elementary. a bilingual or English-only one.