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Katy Citizen Watchdog$ |
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We’re Taxpayers. It’s Our Money. |
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Parental And Student Expectations |
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As parents we send our kids off to Katy schools to open new frontiers. We expect them to be treated fairly and respectfully, receive academic course work, and be challenged. Thirteen years of primary and secondary education should open doors of opportunity for every child.
Unfortunately, such opportunity may not be happening in the Katy Independent School District.
For your children’s sake, parents must pay attention to Katy ISD activities. You must be pro-active in following their progress. You must educate yourself and understand what your child is learning, who is teaching him, and what the District’s agenda is.
Parents cannot continue to put their child on the bus every morning and drive off to work “hoping” that he is getting the best education possible.
I have often said that I do not know any parents of kindergarten students who wish their child to be tracked into a vocational program. Most of us want our children to be able to enter the academic college of their choice, to do well and to be a success in life--much like their parents have been or even more so. We want them to grow up and be able to live in the same kind of homes or better ones than they enjoyed as children.
When polled, eighty five per cent of KISD students say they want to attend college. They do not mean Houston Community College, or Blinn College or San Jacinto College. They mean Texas A&M or the University of Texas or Rice University or Notre Dame or Harvard or any other of the Tier I or II universities in our country. The truth is, the percentage of KISD students qualified to enter those universities is not what we expect.
Our school district’s families enjoy many economic advantages. But with or without such an advantage, all children residing here, if intellectually capable, should expect to enter these universities upon completion of their KISD education.
So what happens in the thirteen years that the school district has your child in its clutches? The answer is: not much.
The next time the TAKS scores are posted, look at how your child’s school’s scores look for the third grade. They’re pretty good, all things considered. That is because third graders are still running on all those things their parents taught them BEFORE they entered the public school system.
Look at the TAKS scores for the later grades. They go down at each level. Ask yourself why that is. Wouldn’t you expect, considering all the money you spend funding the schools, that their achievement would improve? Doesn’t it concern you that our District has moved from Exemplary to Acceptable in the TEA ratings? Shouldn’t the District and its students be doing better each year? Why aren’t things getting better?
The answer is long and complicated.
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Mary McGarr, Katy Citizen Watchdog$ |
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Date: 08/31/2005 |
