Katrina's Students Don't Make the Grade

Students displaced by Hurricane Katrina who ended up in HISD are finding the transition hard: one in four failed to meet standards to be promoted to the next grade. In a district where normally around 5 percent, of elementary and middle school students are held back, this year it was 18.5%, not to mention the high schoolers (41 percent of high school sophomores affected by Katrina and 51 percent of juniors). Surrounding districts, including Tomball and Katy ISDs, posted similar numbers.

When they arrived in HISD, some students were found to be lagging years behind, a problem which wasn't helped when the students missed a lot of school getting settled into their new lives in the Houston area. On last spring's TAKS (Texas Assesment of Knowledge and Skills) test, which all public school students take, only 24 percent of displaced high school juniors met the exit-level standards, compared to 64 percent of HISD's other juniors.

About 50 to 60 percent of the Katrina evacuee students who were here last fall--some ten to fifteen thousand--have re-enrolled for this fall throughout the area, and HISD and other districts are hiring more counselors and teachers (in our already severely understaffed district) to help moniter and cope with the kids. The news isn't all bad, however.

Texas schools could provide Katrina victims unprecedented opportunity by helping them erase any academic shortcomings, said Mike Feinberg, co-founder of the Knowledge is Power Program, a national system of charter schools that includes the New Orleans West campus in Houston.

Next year, Feinberg said, "they'll be able to enter on grade level for the first time in their lives, which will set them up for success. We truly will turn lemons into lemonade."

We're always in favor of lemonade. Yum!