‘We’ve taken flight’: Kashmere High to break dismal streak
Long-struggling school set to meet state standard for first time in 11 years
Barring the unforeseen, the most ignominious streak in Texas public education appears likely to come to an end this August.
For the first time since 2008, Houston ISD’s Kashmere High School is expected to meet state academic standards this year, a landmark achievement for a campus derided statewide as the poster child of urban educational neglect.
HISD officials are highly optimistic that academic gains at Kashmere, home to about 725 students on the city’s northeast side, will shed the “improvement required” label that has dogged the historic school for more than a decade. State test scores and data provided by district leaders show Kashmere has made significant strides in math, boosted graduation rates and prepared more students for life after high school.
“It will mean history has been made,” said Shirlina Mitchell Taylor, whose two sons, A.J. and B.J., are rising juniors at Kashmere. “It will let the kids know that we’re still here and we’re not going anywhere. I think it will give them the motivation to push harder.”
The “met standard” rat
ing does not become official until mid-August, but HISD officials have access to information that allows them to predict state academic accountability ratings. Although district officials have been reluctant to share data about Kashmere’s performance, several HISD and Houston-area leaders have all but confirmed the school’s emergence from “improvement required” status.
“We’re excited when we meet our achievement milestones for a year, but we’re not resting on that,” HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said. “There’s so much more we need to offer our children at Kashmere High School, as well as other students in our district.”
No Texas school has received more negative attention over the past decade than Kashmere, which serves one of the city’s most impoverished student bodies. Prompted by Kashmere’s streak, Texas legislators passed a law in 2015 that mandates severe sanctions, including possible replacement of the locally elected school board, in any district with a single school failing to meet academic standards for five consecutive years.
Four HISD schools, including Kashmere, could trigger the new law this year if they fail to meet standard in August. District officials declined to comment on whether they expect the three other campuses — Highland Heights Elementary, Henry Middle and Wheatley High schools — to meet standard. About 5 percent of campuses statewide fall short each year.
State Rep. Harold Dutton Jr., a Houston Democrat whose district includes Kashmere, authored the law as a way to force change at the chronically lowperforming campus. Dutton said Kashmere’s academic futility has weighed heavily on an economically depressed section of Houston.
“We, in HISD, have decided that for a student to get a quality education, they had to get on a bus and go across town,” Dutton said. “We all knew that was a disservice to the students and children, but it also created havoc in our neighborhood.”
Turning a corner
HISD leaders have instituted multiple turnaround plans over the past decade at Kashmere, swapping out staff, emphasizing teacher development and implementing academic programs to increase achievement.
Still, Kashmere annually ranked among the state’s worstperforming campuses. As recently as 2017, Kashmere graduated about 70 percent of seniors and reported the fifth-lowest average SAT score among Texas’ non-alternative high schools.
The past two years, however, Kashmere has turned a corner, HISD administrators said. District officials cite several factors contributing to the improvements: increased staffing, better relations with parents and students, a culture shift under first-year Principal Reginald Bush and a targeted focus on state accountability metrics.
This year, school leaders said they used several different tactics to improve academics, attendance and behavior. Tutors joined each classroom daily, helping teachers better divide their time. Staff embraced a militarystyle ethos instilled by Bush, complete with camouflage fatigues. Pep rallies celebrating student accomplishments were held each week, even after basketball and football seasons ended. Students had more than 40 opportunities for field trips, including visits to the opera, Galveston’s Moody Gardens and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
“After the first field trip, they were making sure they were performing in the classroom, making sure they came to class, making sure they had a good attitude,” said Bush, who took the helm after a successful run at neighboring Kashmere Gardens Elementary School. “They’ve never been able to see those things, to touch those things.”
Mitchell Taylor, who worried about her children’s education and safety before their enrollment at Kashmere, said she has seen a dramatic change in the past year. Administrators seek more family involvement, which helped lead to the creation of Kashmere’s first parent-teacher organization in several years, she said. Teachers also take more time to understand how students learn the best, tailoring lessons to different styles, she said.
“The biggest factor is that I know my kids trust them,” Mitchell Taylor said.
‘A jewel still here’
The improvements are reflected in some — but not all — academic metrics.
After floating near 70 percent for years, Kashmere’s graduation rate hit 76 percent in 2018 and about 90 percent this year, Bush said. According to the state’s standardized algebra exam, the percentage of students on grade level in math has tripled over the past two years, jumping from 12 percent to 36 percent. School officials say many more students are meeting state measures for college, career and military readiness, key components that could drive up Kashmere’s accountability ratings.
Despite those gains, Kashmere’s standardized reading scores remain far below average. While Kashmere’s attendance rate has ticked up, it still hovers at about 90 percent, roughly 5 percent below district and state averages. The school’s ACT, SAT and Advanced Placement scores, which ranked among the lowest in the district last year, are not yet available for 2019.
“I think we’ve taken flight,” Bush said. “Now, it’s time to do more of what’s been done. It’s time to celebrate kids even more. It’s time to allow them to lead more. It’s time to have more conversations with our students.”
District officials said they plan to publicly celebrate Kashmere’s expected accomplishment once the results become official. In the meantime, Kashmere employees said they are reveling in the moment while preparing for challenges still ahead.
“It’s a very emotional situation,” said Shundra Harris-Mosley, Kashmere’s dean of instruction. “Because for a decade and beyond, personally, I feel like the school was thrown away. To me, it means there was a jewel still here, and somebody needed to come into the system and pull it out.”