Saavedra's battle to fix what ails HISD
After a couple of days of exceedingly bad editorials, the Chronicle's editors appear to have regained their composure and written one for today that is not only good, but it's timely, too:
If Abe Saavedra makes good on the initiatives pledged in his State of the Schools speech Tuesday, the next 12 months will usher in dramatic changes in Texas' largest and the nation's seventh-largest school district. The challenge to the new superintendent will be to translate his words into action while correcting deficiencies and maintaining the support of the diverse communities whose children attend school in the Houston Independent School District.
The editors are on target. And so is Superintendent Saavedra. Yes, it will be a huge challenge for him to change the entrenched bureacracy at HISD and get everyone to focus on the needs of students instead, as evidenced by the latter part of the editorial:
Saavedra's boldest proposal is to replace the management of three academically low-performing Houston high schools with outside "reform providers" to raise academic standards and revamp management.
As reported by the Chronicle's Jason Spencer, the three high schools targeted are Sam Houston, Kashmere and Jack Yates. The latter two are tradition-filled institutions in the African-American community. Radical changes in school leadership are certain to be resisted by many members of that community.
State Rep. Garnet Coleman's district includes Yates High School, and his late father was a prominent alumnus. Other high-profile graduates include city of Houston Chief Administrative Officer Anthony Hall, state Rep. Al Edwards, actress Phylicia Allen Rashad and dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen.
Coleman said he would be "totally against" a move to bring in a for-profit group from outside the district to manage the school. He said the district had enough talent to solve problems in its schools.
And there you have it. It is frustrating beyond belief to see a reaction like that. How long does Rep. Coleman think it's acceptable to let the students in those schools get a sub-standard education, all so we don't bring in a for-profit group? Who the heck cares what the past was like? It's the now that counts! And the now isn't cutting it. Would Coleman rather have the state take over those schools? I doubt it, and neither does Saavedra.
The process of choosing a company to improve those schools should be made carefully and whatever company is brought in should be watched closely, but HISD has had many years to get it right with those three schools and hasn't done so. The students deserve much better.
RELATED: HISD can't fix 3 schools, Chronicle
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 02/16/05 07:07 AM | Print |
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
ADVERTISING
DISCLAIMER
All content © 2004-09, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.
blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.
Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.