'Overage' middle schoolers factor into debate over closing four 'small' Houston ISD schools

It's hard to be 18 years old and still be in middle school.  

An average sixth-grade student in the Houston public schools is generally about 11 years old. A seventh-grader is generally 12, and an eighth-grader is roughly 13.

But the Houston public schools have more than 3,000 students this year in traditional middle schools who are more than two years older than the "expected" age for their grade.

The oldest middle schooler in the Houston public schools this year is 18, and there are seven middle schoolers in the system who are 17, a school spokesman said.

The education world calls them "overage” middle schoolers, and school systems across the nation, including New York City,  Cincinnati, San Antonio and Tampa, Fla., are trying to help them.

But in Houston, they've become part of the debate over whether the school system should shut down four small elementary schools -- and the discussion of what will become of one of those schools if it closes.

If the Houston Independent School District closes Grimes and Rhoads elementaries in the Sunnyside neighborhood, some of those students could be transferred to Woodson, a nearby pre-K-through-eighth-grade school.

“When you go to Grimes and when you go to Rhoads, and you talk about a kindergartner or a first-grader being in the same building with a 15- or 16-year-old, and in many times a special education 15- or 16-year-old, therein lies the problem for the parents, the community and the pastors,” Paula Harris, president of the HISD school board, told her fellow trustees recently.

She was echoing the comments of some people in the Sunnyside community.

“The older students probably need to be by themselves,” said Tristan Washington, a deacon at Sunnyside's Berean Missionary Baptist Church. “The safety of students is what is important, and teenagers in the same building with kindergartners raises some concerns.”

The grouping also wouldn't be much of a motivator for the overage middle school students themselves, Harris predicted: “When you are 15 and in the eighth grade, when you are 16 and in the eighth grade, I bet our dropout rate is probably a little higher, especially if they’re in a building with kindergartners."

Trustees are slated to decide soon about closing Grimes and Rhoads, as well as McDade and Stevenson elementaries.

But school system officials say they're aware of those concerns and are working to combat the problem. The district had 4,000 overage middle schoolers last year, Harris said, which would mean the number had dropped roughly 25% from last year.

Plus, “we are committed to keeping these schools safe, and this K-8 program will have all age-appropriate children in the building,” Harris said.

School administrators are also considering reopening the Rhoads Elementary campus as a new school specifically designed for students who need to catch up on course work before moving on to high school.

If that happened, the number of overage middle schoolers at Woodson would actually go down, HISD Superintendent Terry Grier told trustees recently.

HISD currently has a similar program for students in the Acres Homes neighborhood in North Houston, called High School Ahead Academy. HSAA opened last year and has an enrollment of about 200 students.

“It’s a second-chance school,” said Tisha Franks, who volunteers at HSAA and says she loves it. “... A lot of the students have been through things that (other) students do not have to go through. So, they may be behind in classes, they may have disciplinary problems, they may not be able to read …

“These are children that deal with un-normal circumstances,” she said. “You sometimes have students that can’t sit down because they have been beaten at home. Sometimes you have students that may have been pregnant. There are a lot of students that go there that are not being raised by their parents. It may be grandparents or aunts or uncles instead.”

Close to 50 students transferred out of HSAA between early December and late February of this year, records show. About 35 transferred to other HISD schools and 11 transferred to other public schools in Texas.

Most of them were promoted to high school, HISD spokesman Jason Spencer said in an e-mail, adding that the transfer rate was "normal" for a school like High School Ahead.

In addition to the concerns at Woodson, the location of HSAA in the Acres Homes is also "extremely inconvenient" for overage middle school students who live in Houston's southern neighborhoods, Harris said. "From Fondren to Cullen and Ryan (middle schools), they all have kids that need this High School Ahead, which helps them get back on grade level and to be in a community of their peers, of older children.”

At the same time, though, the school trustees have voted not to renew HISD’s contracts at the end of this year with two charter schools called Inspired for Excellence that were also targeted toward overage middle schoolers -- one in North Houston in the Independence Heights neighborhood, and another in West Houston at the Fondren Middle School campus near Houston Baptist University.

The two schools for fifth- and sixth graders opened in August 2008. Harris said the schools were “successful” but closed because of “lack of space” at the campuses.

“I definitely would be supportive of” reusing Rhoads as a “High School Ahead”-type program, Washington said.

“We may lose Rhoads for the elementary students,” he said. “But if a school can still be used, that’s a plus. The last thing we need in the neighborhood is an open place for gangs or others to congregate.”

***
Are you a parent of an overaged middle schooler? Texas Watchdog wants to hear from you. Contact Lynn Walsh, lynn@texaswatchdog.org, 713-228-2850 or on Twitter, @lwalsh.

School classroom in Pangburn, Ark., photo by flickr user bjmcdonald, used under a Creative Commons license.

Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Put our RSS feeds in your newsreader.

Comments

Post a comment

Thank You! Your comment is awaiting approval.

Travis Mc Gee Thursday, 05/12/2011 - 12:36AM Woodson is already a middle school designed for middle school kids or overaged middle schoolers. Bring the high number of overaged middle schoolers to Woodson and take elementary kids from Woodson and place with other elementary kids/schools. The other schools that are being consolidated are elementary with elementary.FYI: Most bullies are bigger and older. Close one school and open another on the same campus you are closing which would require more security and money.

Judd Bingle Monday, 05/16/2011 - 08:14AM HISD should have an established policy for 18-year-old middle school students. They are the group most a risk of dropping out of school. When an 18-year-old enrolls, the middle school registrar and assistant principal should tell the student and parents..."Here is HISD we have a policy regarding age and enrollment. We very much want to enroll your child, but his or hers best chance to success is to attend a campus with students of similar need..." By trying to accommodate everyone, HISD disenfranchises kids who need the most help.