CHANCES OF GETTING A COLLEGE DEGREE FOR KATY ISD STUDENTS:
I first wrote this article in 2006, and it speaks to the expectations of students and
their parents and how those expectations are not being met.
I have recently redone the article bringing it up to the 2012 fall session of college.
That's just a year ago last September, so this information is pretty current and
viable.
What Are Katy ISD's Graduates' Chances of Going to College
and Getting a Bachelor's Degree?
By Mary McGarr
March 31, 2006
Updated March 18, 2014
A recent article in
The Katy News by its editor George Scott allows parents of Katy ISD students to see
realistic information concerning their children's education. Mr. Scott is the one who brought this
information to my attention.
Katy ISD is often proclaimed as a school district affording an exemplary public
education. In the 2005-2006 school year, 91.2% of all students had plans to attend
college.
After reading this article you will agree with me that by no stretch of the
imagination is going to college a realistic plan for a great many
Katy ISD graduates!
Taking the statistics for each of our high schools, it is pretty clear when the picture is painted, that something is terribly wrong with the academic education that is being provided to KISD students. In a neighborhood like Katy, with all the money that is spent to educate, a great many more students should be heading off to college every fall, but they are not. And once they get there they should be able to complete the course work and obtain a degree, but they aren't.
Out of 684 Cinco Ranch High School graduates in the class of 2004, who would have
thought that 116 of them would have to be satisfied attending no-entrance-requirement
community colleges, while only 92 of them would be able to gain admission to our state's
most prestigious state universities, the University of Texas and Texas A&M, and that only
5 would gain entrance to Rice University?
While those statistics from 2004 were truly demoralizing to students and their
parents, in 2014, the situation has grown worse. I
use here the latest numbers available from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
At the Cinco Ranch High School, in the spring of 2012, there were 705
graduates--121 more than in 2004, but eight years later, 144 of them were attending a
two-year no-entrance-requirement community college--38 more than in 2004.
In 2004 92 of those graduates gained admission to our state's two most prestigious
universities, the University of Texas and Texas A&M, but in 2012, only 73 could get in to
UT or A&M. That's 19 less with more total
students!
Consider that ten percent of the graduating class can enter UT or A&M with no
questions asked, it would appear that those that qualify by being in the top 10% of the
class, are about the only ones gaining admission.
Rice did take 5 of the Cinco Ranch students in 2012.
There are also 260 in 2004 that are
classified as "not trackable" or "not found," and some of that number may have gone out of
state to find a college. However considering how few
were able to enter quality universities within our state, it is unlikely that a great many
of that number found themselves enrolled at Harvard or Yale. Chances are they entered the
military to serve their country, or they have simply tried to find work without furthering
their educations.
At Taylor High School, in 2004 there were 589 graduates. What a letdown for those ambitious parents who hoped their children , when they finished college, would be able to live in a home like they grew up in, to have at the top of the list of colleges where Taylor students are enrolled in the fall of 2004, Houston Community College! And in 2012 Houston Community College STILL was at the top of the list of enrolled graduates. There were 100 Taylor graduates attending two year community colleges in 2004, but eight years later, with 639 graduates, there are 151 graduates attending two year colleges.
In 2004, ninety-five of Taylor's seniors got into the University of Texas or Texas
A&M, while in 2012, only sixty three of Taylor's seniors made it to those same two
universities.
Of note is the fact the 63 equals the ten percent of the class that get in automatically.
I doubt this scenario is what the parents of these students (2004) had in mind back in
1992 when they bought a home in a nice neighborhood and sent their children to a Katy ISD
school. That was the year I, as a
school board member, was complaining because KISD was teaching kids to read using the
"whole language" method which all research showed did not work; the curriculum had been
changed so that they had stopped teaching basic math and were instead putting a calculator
in every kid's hand so they didn't have to think, and Superintendent Hayes had done away
with ability grouping without asking anyone if
he could or if it was a good idea!
It's not much comfort, however, knowing twenty-two years later, that I was right to
complain and try to stop what was happening, that my fellow board members were wrong to
ignore me, and that everything I told them about what was going to happen to the students
has come true.
Mayde Creek High School and Katy High School have fared worse. Only 27 students at
Mayde Creek in 2012 could get into A&M or UT.
Considering that they had 573 graduates so 57 of them COULD have entered those
universities regardless of their SAT scores, one has to wonder why they didn't go. Perhaps
what they had learned over the previous 12 years was so inadequate that they knew they
could not be successful.
Katy High School with 627 graduates in 2012 sent 11 to UT and 21 to A&M.
Consider if you will, how many students at Katy High School WANT to go to A&M.
That's pretty awful that only 21 can.
Of course the most important thing at KHS is having a winning football team, so I
suppose good "memories" will have to carry these students for the rest of their lives,
because their education is not going to do that for them.
Morton Ranch High School with 645 graduates is also sending quite a few to community
colleges, but they only sent 27 to UT. Their numbers are better than Mayde Creek and
neck and neck with Katy High School.
Seven Lakes High School was not graduating seniors in 2006 when I first wrote this
article, so there is no way to compare growth or lack thereof, but, the reader can compare
them to Taylor and Cinco Ranch with regard to their present status.
In 2012, the Cinco Ranch High School had 705 graduates. One hundred and forty-four of
them were in a two year no-entrance-requirement community college.
Forty four of them got into the University of Texas while twenty-nine of them got
into Texas A&M. Forty-one of them enrolled at
the University of Houston. Twenty five of them were at Texas Tech.
Fourteen of them went to Baylor and five of them went to Rice. Thirty-eight were in
other four year colleges. But 262 of them were
“not found or not trackable.”
There are some other variables that come to mind. Did most of these students at Seven Lakes come through the Katy ISD system, or were they primarily educated somewhere else, and does that really matter?
Also, when our teachers do not come from the State’s and the Nation’s better schools,
what impact does that have on the students?
How many of these students got shunted into a vocational track because of the current
“restructured education model” that wants to put lots of them in that venue?
The academic education being provided to students, is, in my opinion, inferior. Tax
payers shouldn't wonder why the district is asking for millions of dollars to ramp up
their vocational education program in every bond that they push--it's all that's left for
students to do when the district's curriculum fails to teach them how to read or to do
math when they are in elementary school making them unable to purse an academic liberal
arts course of study in high school. The Katy school district appears to have sold parents
a bill of goods when it comes to the "excellent" education they are providing. They
are lying to all of us, covering up what they are really doing, and soaking us with high
taxes claiming they have the best interests of the students at heart.
Don't believe them.
My source for the numbers mentioned above is the Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board’s statistics that are found on the web site below. Go look at it yourself.
http://www.txhighereddata.org/reports/Docfetch.cfm?DocID=3034&Format=XLS
7 graduated from Rice University
Katy High School had 1,959 graduates over the three year period. 588 of them earned a BA. 1,371 of them did not earn a BA
64 graduated from the University of Texas at Austin
52 graduated from the University of Houston
13 graduated from Texas Tech University
143 graduated from Texas A&M University
38 graduated from Baylor University
3 graduated from Rice University
68 graduated from Texas State University at San Marcos
45 graduated from Sam Houston State University
18 graduated from Stephen F. Austin University
6 graduated from Houston Baptist University
Taylor High School had 1,736 graduates over the three year period. 809 graduates earned a Bachelor's degree. 927 did not earn a Bachelor's degree
209 graduated from the University of Texas
140 graduated from Texas A&M University
79 graduated from Texas Tech University
63 graduated from the University of Houston
43 graduated from Baylor University
21 graduated from Sam Houston State University
17 graduated from North Texas State University
16 graduated from Stephen F. Austin University
14 graduated from Rice University
14 graduated from Trinity University
10 graduated from St. Edwards University
Mayde Creek High School had 1,865 graduates over the three year period. 420 of them earned a Bachelor's degree. 1,445 of them did not earn a BA.
68 graduated from the University of Texas
78 graduated from the University of Houston
59 graduated from Texas A&M University
16 graduated from Texas Tech University
16 graduated from Sam Houston State University
15 graduated from North Texas State University
11 graduated from Baylor University
7 graduated from Texas Woman's University
The next time YOU hear someone tell you what great schools we have, copy off this page for them!
So the bottom line here is that there were in these three years (2002, 2003, and 2004) at these four high schools (Katy, Taylor, Mayde Creek, and Cinco Ranch), 7,272 graduates. Of those only 2,573 of them got a Bachelor's degree from a four year college within six years from a Texas university. That would be 35% of all KISD graduates from those four high schools in those three years (2002 graduating in at least six years by 2008, etc.)
So if your child goes to a Katy ISD school, he has a one in three chance of getting a college education. Those are pretty slim odds and not what parents were expecting when they moved to our highly touted school district.
To be more specific as to high schools, if your child goes to Katy High School, only 30% of the graduates got a Bachelor's degree from a Texas university.
At Mayde Creek, it was even worse: only 23% of the graduates got a Bachelor's degree from a Texas university.
If your child goes to Cinco Ranch High School, he has better odds. Forty-four percent of Cinco Ranch High School graduates got a Bachelor's degree from a Texas university.
But if your child goes to Taylor High School, he has even better odds. Forty-six percent of those graduates got a Bachelor's degree from a Texas university
Anyone want to tell me we are teaching our students the right things in the right way?
My source for this data is http://www.txhighereddata.org/Interactive/HSCollLinkFilters/HSGrads0204HSDetail.xls One can find complete listings of the colleges attended here.