Sam Houston High School (Houston, Texas)

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Sam Houston High School is a secondary school located at 9400 Irvington Boulevard in Houston, Texas. Houston High School handles grades nine through twelve and is part of the Houston Independent School District.

The school has the oldest high school newspaper in Texas, the Aegis, established in 1889. The world's first girls' Military Drill Squad, initially the Black Battalion, but now called the Tigerettes, originated at Houston High School.^[1]

Sam Houston High School is often nicknamed "Sam" by its students.

Sam Houston High School Baseball Field is located at 29°51′03″N, 95°21′41″W.

[edit] History

It was founded in Downtown Houston in 1878 as Houston Academy. Since then, it had several name changes.^[1]

• Houston Academy - 1878 to 1881
• Clopper Institute - 1881 to 1886
• Houston Normal School - 1886 to 1895
• Houston High School - 1895 to 1926
• Central High School - 1926 to 1955
• Sam Houston High School - 1955 to present, after Sam Houston

In 1955, Houston High School moved from its Capitol Street location in Downtown to its current location.^[1]

Sam Houston, along with Jack Yates High School and Kashmere High School, are the three high schools in Houston ISD which have been consistently low-performing in test scores from 2001 to 2004. Because of this problem, there were movements to have the state or another organization take over the schools for a period so the test scores will be at acceptable levels. While Yates got an acceptable rating in 2005, Houston and Kashmere continued to get unacceptable ratings. Abelardo Saavedra, the superintendent of HISD, described Houston as being "close" to getting an acceptable rating. In August 2006 the school learned that it again is getting an unacceptable rating from the Texas Education Agency. HISD threatened to close Sam Houston. Sam Houston was not closed and it received another unacceptable rating from the TEA. Houston ISD, stated that the board would consider spending $300,000 to find a method to make Sam Houston score higher marks from the TEA ^[2].

Sam Houston has Texas' oldest high school newspaper, the Aegis, started in 1889. In addition, the world's first girls' Military Drill Squad, formerly known as the Black Battalion, but now called the Tigerettes, originated at the school.

The school was originally all White; it was desegregated in 1970 and today has a mostly Hispanic student body ^{[3] [4]}.

In 2007 Johns Hopkins University referred to Sam Houston as a "dropout factory" where at least 40 percent of the entering freshman class does not make it to their senior year.^[5]

In 2008 the Texas Education Agency ordered the closure of Sam Houston; the Houston Chronicle said that HISD would likely replace 75% of the teachers and change the name of the school.^[6]

[edit] Student body

During the 2005-2006 school year, the school had 2,678 students ^{[4] [3]}.

• 91% were Hispanic
• 6% were African-American
• 3% were White American
• Less than 1% were Asian

No Native Americans were enrolled during that school year.

89% of the students qualified for free/reduced lunch.

[edit] Neighborhoods served by Sam Houston

Several areas of Houston outside of the 610 Loop that are far north of Downtown and south of the neighborhood of Aldine are zoned to Sam Houston.^[7]

Neighborhoods include Melrose Park, Hardy Acres, Hardy Heights, Assumption Heights, Roos Acres, Virginia Acres, Sunnyland Farms, Oakwood, and Northline Terrace.

Some small sections of unincorporated Harris County are zoned to Sam Houston High School.

[edit] School uniform

As of 2006, each Sam Houston students is required to wear a school uniform that consists of a polo shirt with the school's logo. Before fall 2006, students were required to wear khaki or denim trousers or skirts. As of school year 2006 - 2007 the school uniform has been modified to just official Sam Houston High School polo collared shirts. Students are allowed to wear trousers of their choosing ^[8].

The Texas Education Agency specified that the parents and/or guardians of students zoned to a school with uniforms may apply for a waiver to opt out of the uniform policy so their children do not have to wear the uniform ^[9]; parents must specify "bona fide" reasons, such as religious reasons or philosophical objections.

[edit] Feeder patterns

Elementary schools that feed into Sam Houston include^[7]:

• Barrick^[10]
• Burbank^[11]
• Coop^[12]
• DeChaumes^[13]
• Durkee^[14]
• Janowski^[15]
• Lyons^[16]
• Moreno^[17]
• Northline^[18]
• Scarborough^[19]

(partial)

• Allen^[20]
• Berry^[21]
• Garcia^[22]
• Herrera^[23]
• Osborne^[24]

All of Fonville Middle School-zoned areas^[25] and some areas of the Burbank Middle^[26] and Henry Middle School^[27] zones feed into Sam Houston.

[edit] Notable alumni

• Jeff Hunt - chief executive officer of GCI Group, a public relations firm.^[28]
• Olga Gallegos - former Houston ISD board member and administrative aide to Texas state representatives Ben Reyes, Al Luna, and Roman Martinez.^[28]
• Jack Valenti - was a long-time president of the Motion Picture Association of America.^[28]

[edit] Notable faculty

• Lyndon B. Johnson - In 1930 he took a position as teacher of public speaking at Sam Houston High School.^[29]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sam Houston High School Homepage