Houston shares its secrets. (Update: education news from schools, businesses, research and government agencies).

Bewildered by the lack of viable strategies for closing the gap between minority students and their white counterparts? Join the club.

Fortunately, there is an alternative. Take the Houston Independent School District, where the Beating the Odds III study, released in March by the Council of Great City Schools, showed that minority students are narrowing the achievement gap.

But at least one expert says that Houston's and the state of Texas' apparent success does not take into account student dropouts. William Bainbrdige, chief executive officer of SchoolMatch, a Columbus-based educational auditing, research and data firm, says that some students were "encouraged to leave by school officials who do no want them bringing down scores."

Houston's Chief Academic Officer Robert Stockwell states he was unaware of the report and declined comment.

Even so, the district's performance is enviable. In 2002, about 90 percent of African-American and Hispanic fourth- and tenth-graders passed the reading and math portions of TAAS, a significant increase from 1994 rates that were as low as 38 percent. The formula for success is simple, says Stockwell.

"There's a trap of thinking you need to do something secret for minority students," Stockwell explains. "If you want them to do well, start with clear expectations and teach."

Step one--accountability. The state of Texas rates schools based on standardized test scores. That means if overall scores are high but Hispanic student scores aren't, the district will be rated in a lower category. Consequently, Houston focused on minorities early in the accountability game.

Next is a curriculum that is aligned to TAAS and Stanford tests. The standardized curriculum means high-mobility students receive consistent instruction across the district.

Step three--intervention. The district rates its schools according to standardized test scores and periodic benchmark testing and intervenes in low performing schools. Each school develops an improvement plan, which may include additional instructional time or staff development. The statistics reveal the power of intervention; the district started its intervention program in 1995 and identified 35 schools as low performing. The next year that figure plummeted to nine.

Other tools include a student-based allocation system that gives principals greater control over budget and staffing, a data disaggregation program that helps teachers pinpoint student needs, and a promotion standards policy. "We've made progress," Stockwell says, "but we still have a long way to go."

Houston's TAAS Results

                          1994                          2002

             African-                      African-
             American   Hispanic   White   American   Hispanic   White

4th GRADE
  Reading       63         68       89        90         92       97
  Math          41         49       77        90         94       97

10th GRADE
  Reading       62         56       90        95         89       99
  Math          38         39       75        88         87       97

Note: Percent passing for all students not in special education on
the Englishlanguage version of the TAAS

Source: HISD Department of Research and Accountability

--Lisa Fratt

www.houstonisd.org

ww.cgcs.org