Klein ISD mom worried about Klein Oak:

Dear Dr. Cain-

As you are aware, the Houston Chronicle has just published the findings of the Children at Risk group which ranks the Houston area schools. I remember meeting with you and Dr. Robert Sanborn, who heads up this group, and discussing the low ranking of Klein Oak not too long ago. I had thought that since then we would have seen Klein Oak rise up the list since then, but actually Klein Oak has dropped from #40 last year to #74 this year!

I am hoping that you or someone in your administration can help me understand why this has happened. As a matter of fact, here's how the other Klein ISD high schools fared: Klein High went from #19 to #18, Klein Collins went from #26 to #47 and Klein Forest went from #73 to #113. In Dr. Robert Sanborn's comments to the Houston Chronicle, he said,

"Klein is an under-performing school district.

Klein has an affluent population. They have parents who really care.

It seems like they're doing all the basic things but nothing extraordinary, and that is reflected in their rankings."

"It is troubling when you have a big school district like HISD, and you see what a wonderful job they can do with some students, and then you have these other schools that it looks like the students are just being thrown away.

We need to do a better job with all students."

"In Texas, we love football, and that means we have to have big high schools, but we should also love being No. 1 academically."

Some of the numbers that puzzled me about the ranking of Klein Oak:

1. The percentage of KOHS students taking the SAT/ACT is listed at only 65.7%. (Klein High is at 97.4%.) The Children at Risk group thinks that schools should be pushing for a 100% participation in this number, so Klein Oak ranks quite low in this regard.

2. The percentage of KOHS students graduating under the Recommended High School Plan or Distinguished Achievement Plan is listed at 55.4%. (Klein High is at 73.2%.) This is one of the most troubling things on this rankings list to me. These numbers came straight from the TEA School Report Card, and I can't understand how only a little over half of our students at Oak are graduating under the RHSP/DAP, which means the other half are only taking the minimum recommended courses.

3. The percentage of KOHS students taking AP/IB courses is at 25.4%, however only 63% are achieving a rating of Above Criterion on their respective AP/IB exams. (Klein High is at 20.3%, and 80.2% testing above criterion.) This means Oak student are taking the AP/IB courses, and yet not scoring high numbers on the exams for these courses.

4. The percentage of KOHS students graduating is at 68.04%. (Klein High is at 80.40%.) This is extremely troubling to see such a huge disparity between these two schools. Can anyone explain how this has happened?

5. Average class size at KOHS is 26.2, while Klein High is at 23.6. I know that you have said, Dr. Cain, that adding a wing onto already overcrowded KOHS will alleviate the overcrowding, but having KOHS balloon in population to 3500-3600 is not a desirable trend in high-performing school districts these days. If you take a look at the highest performing schools on the Children at Risk report, you will notice that most of these schools are around 2,000 students only.