PROFILE OF A KATY ISD GRADUATE:

Profile of a Katy ISD Graduate

The following items may not apply to EVERY KISD graduate, but they apply to enough of them to be included here.

1. Never learned to do math facts in his head in elementary school unless taught at home.

2. Read novels for her English classes, but not many, if any, classics.

3. Has parents who are "house poor" and cannot afford the tuition at Houston Community College which they hope the Katy taxpayers will soon underwrite.

4. Did not study early pre-Civil War American history in high school.

5. Saw "Fern Gully" at least three times in elementary school.

6. Cannot write cursively unless his parents taught him how and cannot read a document written cursively.

7. Does not know any spelling "rules."

8. Did not use real spelling books.

9. Learned computer skills that became obsolete three years after they were learned.

10. Probably smoked marijuana while in junior high or high school.

11. Has a three in ten chance of being from an economically disadvantaged family.

12. Made on average about 23.5 on the ACT, if he was one of the 79% of students who took a college admissions test.

13. Had a 77% chance of having a teacher without an advanced degree.

14. Left school at noon when he was a Senior because he wasn't able to take any advanced coursework.

15. Visited the Welch Outdoor Learning Center more times than he wanted.

16. Has a one in three chance of graduating from a four year Texas college or university within six years after high school graduation.

17. Thought it unfair that Katy High School's boundaries and attendance levels have been gerrymandered/controlled so that KHS can have a winning football team most weekends.

18. Has parents who think a pretty school building equates to a superior education.

19. Treated substitute teachers like they were second class citizens.

20. Has never seen the superintendent at his school.

21. Watched as a principal or assistant principal or coach at his school was there one day and gone the next.

22. Had to dodge cars and walk to elementary school in the street when the school buses were removed in his neighborhood.

23. Would have liked having a branch of Texas A&M in Katy, Texas.

24. Knows that almost all of the current Katy school board members didn't get an academic college degree.

25. Can only add using his fingers if he doesn't have a calculator handy.

26. Went to school in a building designed by PBK architects and which looks just like most other schools in Texas.

27. Lives in a house with a bar in the game or living room.

28. Couldn't get in to Texas A&M or the University of Texas.

29. Could get in to Houston Community College.

30. Has parents who never voted in a school board election or a school bond election.

31. Got to watch a teacher be fired right in front of his eyes.

32. Was asked by the school district to sign off on reading the definition of "Public Lewdness" in his copy of the Discipline Management Handbook.

33. Will have a good chance of having to take remedial math and/or English his freshman year in college (if he, by chance, gets in to college).

34. Never learned how to fold a letter, how to put it into an envelope or where to put the addresses and the stamp.

35. Never learned how to write a business letter.

36. Spent many hours doing group projects because the teacher was not allowed to teach.

37. Spent most of his class time learning how to take the State assessment tests.

38. Did not learn any geography as that was replaced by "social studies."

39. Has parents who think schools in Katy are just like the ones they attended.

40. Has parents who have never met any of his teachers.

41. Has never had a teacher who prepared her own lesson plans.

42. Has never had a teacher who didn't need to use lesson plans.

43. May have to take a class at Sylvan or Kumon in order to pass the standardized tests.

44. Has parents who think a $748 million "blank check bond" is a good thing.

45. Has parents who think one cannot learn in a temporary building.

46. Has parents who think the school district "needs" another football stadium.

47. Knows nothing about the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

48. Cannot read, write, or do math very well but has cat-like reflexes on X-Box.

49. Never got to participate in a real Science Fair.

50. Attended class in a portable building that was not tied and secured to the ground.

51. Had to celebrate "winter holidays" instead of Christmas at school every year.

52. Got "snow days" off when there wasn't any snow.

53. Did some kind of "All About Me" project every year of elementary school.

54. Wondered why Leonard Merrell did not object to the gauche act of having an arena named for him.

55. Flew kites for "world peace" in elementary school.

56. Participated willingly in "futurist" projects.

57. Worked in groups most of the time in the spirit of "cooperative learning."

58. Was subtly discriminated against if he/she had blonde hair and blue eyes.

59. Had a "pre-algebra" teacher who spent most of the class time talking about the current episode of Beverly Hills 90210.

60. Had a "pre-algebra" teacher who never got up out of her chair for the entire class period.

61. Was in all advanced classes in KISD but had to spend his first year after transferring to a private school being tutored in order to catch up to a cognitive curriculum.

62. Wonders why so many schools are named for unknown local public school administrators or vendors and not outstanding patriots or local notable citizens.

63. Will be unable to afford in his adult years a home like the one in which he lived as a child unless, of course, he becomes a public school superintendent.

64. Went to a school that was designated, like thousands of others, as a Federal "blue ribbon" school and which had an expensive  sign on the outside wall to prove that it was.

65. Almost had to go to an International Baccalaureate school.

66. Doesn't understand that Superintendent Alton Frailey was brought to KISD to pass bonds and build a new football stadium.

67. Had to take a sex ed course that was not required by the State of Texas.

68. Has parents who don't make as much together as the government employee superintendent, Lance Hindt.

69. Didn't ever go to a high school varsity baseball, soccer, or basketball game.

70. Had to have band practice on hot concrete or asphalt/play football or soccer on hot Astroturf instead of on soft, cool, grass.

71. Couldn't bring his own canned soft drink to school for lunch.

72. Couldn't get pizza delivered for lunch at school unless he was on the varsity football team.

73. Doesn't realize that Wolfe Elementary can be easily flipped to an IB school as soon as Henry Dibrell gets off the school board.

74. Has parents who thought it OK to be "taxed" by having to provide excessive and unnecessary school supplies every fall.

75. Learned "science" in elementary school by building an egg crate and dropping the crated egg from the top of the school's staircase to see if it would break.

76. Learned that bullies were everywhere, and no one did anything about them.

77. Cannot read an analog watch/clock.

78. Cannot write or sign a check properly or balance a checkbook.

79. Cannot identify his geographical location (city, county, state, country, continent).

80. Believes we are capable of controlling the Earth's climate.

81. Cannot clean or cook and sees no value in learning those skills.

82. Is not interested in getting married or having a family.

83. Got in trouble for just talking during the lunch period in the elementary school cafeteria.

84. Cannot name the planets.

85. Cannot locate north, south, east or west.

86. Could not have any "red or green decorations" in his elementary school room at Christmastime.

87. Was taught in elementary school that people are "all the same."

88. Had no interest in drugs until piqued by a school district course -the DARE (POWER) Program.

89. Learned about "situational ethics" from the DARE (POWER) program. [See Glossary.]

90.  Had to take a two year Algebra I course in high school because no one taught him basic arithmetic in elementary school.

91.  Has parents who don't care if the grass around the KISD schools isn't mowed all summer.

92.  Was asked by the Varsity Football Coach where he went to church.

93.  Has had at least an hour of homework most nights since the second grade.

94.  Had a favorite teacher in spite of all the efforts by the school district to minimalize a teacher's role in the classroom.

95.  Has parents who never volunteered in his schools.

96.  Can't figure out Roman numerals.

97.  Never got to participate in a real History Fair.

98.  Never won the pumpkin carving contest in elementary school because his mother wouldn't carve the pumpkin for him.

99.  Did not realize that while all citizens of the United States are guaranteed the right to "due process" by the Constitution, Katy ISD students do not enjoy that Constitutional right if they violate the rules laid out in the Discipline Management Plan.

100. Took an AP course that was taught by someone not certified to teach AP courses.

101.  Was one of the 90% of the KISD students who wanted to go to and graduate from college.

102.  Was one of the 65% of KISD graduates who were not able to graduate from a Texas college within six years after high school graduation.

103.  Didn't understand that "critical thinking" as taught in KISD wasn't really critical thinking.

104.  Did not learn to write themes using a thesis sentence.

105.  Does not know who the "Founding Fathers" were.

106.  Was taught in Junior High that there are six continents.

107.  Had a teacher in Junior High who put social studies projects out by the trash cans --one that even had a  grandparents' WWII medals on it.

108.  Went to a school where there was a tacky electronic sign out front cluttering up and defacing an otherwise nice neighborhood (where signs are not allowed by the HOA's deed restrictions).

109.  Hasn't figured out yet that he/she got cheated by the Katy school district out of an academic education.

110.  Doesn't know who Pocahontas was. (It's not Elizabeth Warren.)

111.  Could not read a Shakespearean play by himself.

112.  Knows the names of all the dinosaurs but not those of the cloud formations.

113.  Has watched every episode of "Hannah Montana."

114.  Built at least one robot during his school career.

115.  Has parents who will have to move after their children go to college because they are being taxed out of their homes.

116.  Is not ready to take college level course work, and the TSI will prove that.

117.  Has known how to pour water from one cup to another since kindergarten.

118.  Had teachers who could not teach without an overhead projector.

119.  Had an expensive large screen TV in his school room that was used mostly to view the school's announcements.

120.  Couldn't ride in a limousine to the Eighth Grade Dance because the principal wouldn't let her because it would not be "fair" to those who could not afford to do so as well.

121.  Had a high school English teacher from Germany who could not speak English very well.

122.  Had a teacher who preferred using Internet teaching sites to teaching the class herself.

123.  Went to a high school built very close to nine well heads for a gas dome where natural gas is stored.

124.  Has less of a chance of having a Bachelor's degree from a Texas college than the average citizen who lives within the city limits of Katy, Texas.

125.  Watched the Coke machines being taken out of his school for political reasons.

126.  Was able to attend football games using one stadium with seven high schools in 2014 and 2015 and 2016.

127.  Got "a rain day" off when there wasn't very much rain.

128.  Was never taught a Shakespearean play in a high school English class.

129.  Has no textbooks that can be brought home.

130.  Was raised for five years by employees at a local day care.

131.  May not be able to provide the required signature on his SAT test because he cannot write cursively and someone will have to help him write his name.

132.  May not have watched the Presidential Inauguration in 2017 because the school district allowed students to opt out.

133.  May once again not be allowed to talk during his lunch period.

134.  Doesn't know who Shakespeare is.

135.  Will not be able to afford a house like he grew up in when he gets old enough to have one.

136.  Has parents who think a $206,000,000 high school is something students in Fulshear need and who are willing to be taxed so that those students who live in the half of the Cross Creek Ranch subdivision that lies within KISD's boundaries can attend it. (The current superintendent's children will be among them.)

137.  Knows that when Superintendent Alton Frailey passed his last bond and got a new stadium built, he left because he did what he had been hired to do.

138.  Had to deal with a bully at school, and no one did anything about it.

139.  Has heard the stories about IV Drip Bags and the Boxcars.

140.  Had a teacher who got bullied into voting for a bond proposal.

141.  Played lots of soccer as a kid where the score wasn't kept, but he knew what it was anyway.

142,  Had his school flooded by Hurricane Harvey's aftermath because a former KISD school board didn't pay any attention to flood plains and the location and height of dams and built schools that were prone to being flooded. 

143.  Lived in one of the 20,000 homes in Katy ISD that were flooded by Hurricane Harvey.

144.  Was one of the 15,007 KISD students who were affected by the flood according to ABC Channel 13.

145.  Knows that there are Katy ISD school board members who do not have an academic four year college degree.

146. 

 

 

Feel free to send me more examples--just be certain you know the items to be true and factual.