Kashmere rating still lags despite HISD’s successes
After failing standards for ninth year, high school has one more chance
Amid the smiles and joy last week in Houston ISD, which avoided state sanctions and posted strong state academic accountability results, a long-lingering cloud hung over the festivities. For the ninth straight year, Kashmere High School failed to meet state academic standards, extending the longest such streak in Texas. Despite receiving nearly $2 million worth of additional resources and oversight from a state-appointed monitor, Kashmere received one of the lowest ratings — 49, the equivalent to an “F” grade — in Texas, according to accountability results released last week.
While several other chronically low-performing HISD schools saw marked improvement this year, including several campuses that feed into Kashmere,
district officials acknowledged this week that Kashmere remains in need of better support in 201819. The district’s efforts this year will be closely watched by state legislators and education leaders, who have grown increasingly impatient with Kashmere’s poor academic outcomes.
“We know we can move students in that school, just like we’ve moved them in other schools,” said interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan. “But it is about the leadership. It is about the teaching staff. They’re the key, and we’re not going to take anything away from them.”
For the past decade, Kashmere often has been cited by state leaders as the poster child of ineffective educational practices in Texas’ largest school district. In response to Kashmere’s repeated failure to meet state academic standards, legislators passed a law three years ago that mandates sanctions — either forced campus closures or replacement of the locally elected school board — in any district where a school receives a fifth straight “improvement required” rating as of 2018.
“How many kids have gone through four years of that high school and it wasn’t up to standard?” said state Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, who chairs the Senate Education Committee.
Missing the mark
Unlike years past, Kashmere did not get the dreaded “improvement required” label, instead receiving a “not rated” score due to Hurricane Harvey’s impact on the city’s northeast side. The reprieve, however, lasts for only one year, meaning Kashmere must break its “improvement required” streak next year to avoid triggering sanctions. HISD could also earn a two-year break from punishment if it temporarily surrenders operational control of Kashmere to an outside organization starting in 2019-20.
Few Texas schools face more challenges in meeting state academic standards than Kashmere, home to about 725 students in one of Houston’s highest-poverty neighborhoods. Many Kashmere students face daily hurdles commonly linked with intergenerational poverty. Roughly 19 percent of Kashmere’s population received special education services last year, slightly more than double the state average.
At the same time, HISD has been criticized for failing to provide sufficient financial and staffing support to Kashmere over the past decade, exacerbating societal impediments to success.
HISD, with prodding from the Texas Education Agency, has put greater emphasis on Kashmere in the past few years. In 2015, district officials installed a highly experienced and respected principal, Nancy Blackwell, to lead Kashmere. The next year, HISD partnered with the newly formed nonprofit ProUnitas, founded by former Kashmere teacher Adeeb Barqawi, to better connect students with social service providers. Last year, the district dedicated an additional $1.8 million to Kashmere, which already ranked among the highest-funded schools in HISD. A similar investment is expected to continue in 2018-19.
And yet, Kashmere has continued to fall short of meeting state academic standards. After narrowly missing the mark in 2017, Kashmere’s academic growth rates ranked far below state and district averages. Hurricane Harvey likely had a significant impact on Kashmere’s score this year, as roughly 1 in 5 students became homeless due to flooding, according to state data.
Still, other HISD schools in areas devastated by Harvey saw marked improvement on this year’s accountability ratings, including many located on Houston’s northeast side. For the second straight year, all five schools in Kashmere’s feeder pattern met the state standard. Kashmere Gardens Elementary School, an “improvement required” campus from 2013 to 2016, scored an 84 this year, equivalent to a “B” rating.
Barqawi, whose nonprofit provides software designed to match students with social services in about 70 local schools, said the feeder pattern results show promise for improved outcomes at Kashmere, as students will enter high school better prepared.
“I think we’re building a more sustainable pipeline,” Barqawi said. “It’s just that people want short-term results. At a high school, it takes a long time.”
State oversight
For now, Kashmere will remain under state oversight from the conservator, Doris Delaney, a former Aldine ISD administrator appointed by TEA Commissioner Mike Morath. In reports she authored during the 2017-18 school year, Delaney noted several areas of potential improvement at Kashmere, including increasing focus on student attendance, reducing the number of out-ofschool suspensions and bolstering teacher development training.
“Kashmere High School is still struggling, and there still needs to be greater support from the conservator, so that will likely continue,” Morath said last week.
Kashmere will begin the 2018-19 school year on Aug. 27 with a new leader, former Kashmere Gardens Elementary School Principal Reginald Bush. District officials are still finalizing plans for turning Kashmere into a “met standard” school this year.
“This has pushed us to look at the master schedule, look at the courses, look at the teachers that are teaching certain grade levels, and we did do some shifts,” said Lathan, the interim superintendent. “The new principal and his administrative team have gone in and made some of the necessary changes.”