Where is pearce middle school

In this area, Pearce was only two to five percentage points away from meeting required improvement and being rated Academically Acceptable. Recognizing the need in the area of science, the District prepared an academic improvement plan to address the instructional deficits at Pearce.

Of note are projected double-digit increases from last year for African American students in reading 12 percentage points , all student groups in writing 15 to 25 percentage points and Hispanic students in science 10 percentage points. In response to the Commissioner's decision, Board President Mark Williams stated, "I truly believe that the Commissioner's order to close Pearce Middle School is premature, especially in light of the academic progress made by the Pearce students this past year, along with the heightened engagement of the community and the opportunity for a new superintendent to take the next steps.

Although TEA has offered to allow the District to submit a repurposing plan, the TEA has stated in the July 2 letter that "additional details are needed before a repurposing plan can be formally considered by the agency.

Any plan to repurpose the campus must be approved by the agency before any instructional use may be made of the facility during the school year. Superintendent Carstarphen says that her first priority is to make strategic decisions in the best interest of our students and families at Pearce and to communicate those decisions swiftly.

She will be working with the Board of Trustees and the Pearce community to explore short- and long-term options to best meet the needs of students. The Superintendent expects to provide Trustees with options for consideration, including an administrative recommendation in the coming days. While the campus will remain open, under the current leadership, the Commissioner ordered the District to contract for professional services to help improve student achievement in under-performing subject areas at Reagan, as well as provide for additional professional development.

The District was also directed to secure private tutorial or instructional services to assist Reagan students. On the job for less than one week, the new Superintendent has pledged to do all within her power to stay focused on the students and measure any recommendation with them in mind.

The Superintendent invites the public, especially students, parents and staff of Pearce, to attend a July 15 Community Meeting from to p. More details on this meeting will be made available in the near future. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. Support the Chronicle. She handed me the notebook. I walked to my desk and slammed it down with a force that surprised even me. Leticia — quiet, conscientious, kind, never-got-in-trouble Leticia — started crying.

I also knew that 80 percent of Pearce students received free or reduced-price lunch, and almost all were African-American or Latino.

Like many attendance-zoned high-poverty schools, Pearce was often a chaotic place where discipline issues, student absenteeism, low parent involvement and high teacher turnover were the norm. Why would a teacher with other options work in such a stressful, violent setting?

I chose Pearce because I was going to make a difference; I would do whatever it took to help these kids overcome classism and racism and escape poverty. Full of youthful enthusiasm and self-flattery, I could change the world by working at Pearce.

Why not? Real life at Pearce is survival. Green, who attended college down the road at historically black Huston-Tillotson University, was a committed and graceful algebra teacher with an infectious positive energy. Born in Panama, he had as much street cred with the Latino kids as the black kids. I once asked Mr. Green how he stayed upbeat at the end of a difficult day. Ologban, despite her diminutive stature, displayed absolute control in her classroom. I spent several planning periods observing her to improve my own teaching.

Ologban taught me it was more important to reward good behavior than to punish bad. The first time I observed her I noticed she kept two lists of students on her board — a good list and a bad list. Too simple to work, I thought. But I was amazed when even disaffected students smiled when Mrs. Ologban wrote their name on the good list. Parish, who grew up close to the Two-Three, had some street in him and knew how to use it.

He could convince even the most recalcitrant year-old to see a problem from a different angle. When a disagreement between the Latino boys from the soccer club and the black boys from the basketball club culminated in a fight, Parish was instrumental in calming everybody down. Green, Mrs. Ologban, Mr. Parish — these people taught me a great deal about teaching, relationships and toughness in the classroom. They were the bedrock of Pearce.

Poor students typically face challenges that inhibit their chances of performing well on standardized tests. Children from the most affluent homes scored 60 percent higher than students from the least affluent homes. High-poverty schools like Pearce only perpetuate this gap. Seventh period tested my patience. The department head decided it was a good idea to put three of the most difficult boys — Jorge, Marcos and Daniel — in my class.

Jorge was the most antagonistic student in seventh period. A real mess. Off-task and prone to provoke classmates, Jorge sucked the life out of my time and effort — time and effort that could have been invested in helping other students. For this, Jorge hated me. At 14 years old, Marcos struggled mightily academically, and was just biding time until he could leave school and go work construction with his uncles.

Daniel, who wore the same dirty shirt to school several days a week, was smart but angry. Born in Mexico, Daniel had a semi-constant scowl on his in-the-sun-all-day face and tough-guy strut that gave him a notable presence. I had run into Daniel on the streets of the Two-Three a few months earlier. Our conversation flowed more smoothly than it did at school. After our encounter I thought I might have an easier time with him in class.

The let-your-guard-down sincerity I felt from Daniel on the street disappeared in the classroom. After seventh period on that warm spring day I stood in the hallway again as students poured out of classrooms and past the orange lockers and cream cinderblock walls to head home. A few minutes after the bell rang, yelling reverberated from the far end of the hallway.

The screaming intensified. It always does. I raced down the hall, paused before the steel doors, gathered myself, and pushed them open. Several yards away a tall Latino boy brandished a red bandanna indicating his affiliation with the Bloods. Three shirtless black boys faced him, their names tattooed in Old English font between their shoulder blades. Twenty feet away a few female teachers stood aghast.

Suddenly Mr. Dean, a security monitor, sprinted through the parking lot and positioned himself between the boys. I recognized Darius, one of the boys from the basketball club. Dean was trying to wrestle the Latino boy to the ground. An assistant principal, Mr. Colegio, arrived on the scene, and the three of us together pinned the boy down. I held his legs. The boy cursed at us, thrashing.

At home that night I realized something had changed.