Carnegie Vanguard High School Soars to Exemplary Status

Celebrating Carnegie Vanguard High School’s first Exemplary rating are (L-R): South Region Superintendent Warner Ervin, Chief Academic Officer Karen Soehnge, District IX Board Member Lawrence Marshall, Carnegie Vanguard math teacher Richard Schenke, and Principal Ramon Moss.

Parents often pay a fortune for their children to be educated at private liberal-arts prep schools, but HISD has made it possible for gifted-and-talented students in the public school system to have the same opportunity. This year, four-year-old Carnegie Vanguard High School earned its first Exemplary rating from the Texas Education Agency (TEA). To celebrate, Chief Academic Officer Karen Soehnge hosted an ice-cream reception on behalf of Superintendent of Schools Abelardo Saavedra for th"e school’s teachers and staff members. "This may be the first exemplary rating this school has received, said Dr. Soehnge, "but it will not be the last."/P>

District IX Board of Education Member Lawrence Marshall said he would do whatever it takes to help the school succeed in the future. "You have demonstrated that young people who live in urban environments can achieve at higher levels of academic expectations," said Marshall. "It’important that we meet the needs of all students in the district. Not just those who need extra help, but also those who are gifted and talented."

Carnegie Vanguard Principal Ramon Moss described the students as "focused" and "motivated,"ut said it also takes special educators. "I really credit our teachers with doing a spectacular job of keeping our students motivated and taking them to the next level."The liberal arts courses offered at Carnegie Vanguard are similar to college-level courses that encourage students to think freely and draw their own conclusions.

Juan Garner wrote the curriculum for the World Religions course he teaches, which introduces major religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and other Eastern religions as well as Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. "The goal of the course is to teach tolerance," said Garner. "ny of the students feel passionately about the different religions, so the discussions are very lively," but he added that students are open-minded and pursue discussions from an intellectual perspective, so they do not get out of hand. "igh-school students in public schools don’t often get the opportunity to study world religions at this level," said Garner.

Advanced Placement European history from the Renaissance to the present is another course Garner teaches. "It’s an elective," he said, "so the students who take it really love history." Garner said that at the beginning of the course, students are most drawn to the artistic explosion of the Renaissance era, but later are taken by the political innovations of that time. "The profound impact of Italian author Niccolò Machiavelli on Western politics usually becomes the most fascinating aspect of that era."/P>

Garner sponsors his students’ participation in the Modern United Nations event that is held at the University of Houston each February. "Last year our students represented Iraq, and this year they will represent Iran. They like representing the most disliked countries, because it’s intellectually stimulating to put themselves in the shoes of those leaders." Garner also sponsors Academic World Quest, a competition organized by the Houston World Affairs Council. A team of 10 students is formed to compete against other teams to debate world events. "Carnegie students perform extremely well at this event," said Garner.

Enjoying the ice-cream reception are (L-R): Carnegie Vanguard High School Plant Operator Noland Kimble, counselor Ellen Maxey, Magnet clerk Christina Hernandez, Spanish teacher William Smith, Principal Ramon Moss, French teacher Lamia Moumni, and school secretary Beverly Wilson. Holding the balloons (front and center) is Suleima Hernandez.

Andy Dewey teaches an Advanced Placement U.S. history course called "1968" about modern American history, for which he developed the curriculum. "It’s about America before 1968 and America as a result of the events of 1968," said Dewey. Three main topics of the newly developed course are the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the civil-rights movement. "We also discuss the women’s movement and the student movement, and we end the course with Watergate." Next semester he will teach a course on world wars. "Our students are aiming as high as they can aim to get into the best schools in the country," said Dewey, "and they are successful at getting there."

Cheryl Peterson teaches an advanced English course in which students prepare for the Advanced Placement exam. "It’s a rigorous course," said Peterson. "The class is designed to either prepare students for college English, or hopefully let them "place out" of it. Right now they are analyzing The Crucible and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest."

Peterson said one class is creating a literary mural. "They are painting images with their favorite quotes or excerpts from novels on one of the walls in the classroom." Another class is producing a rap video, utilizing grammatical terms. "Hopefully we will get that entered into a couple of film festivals around town," she said.

Peterson said some students are enrolled in independent-studies courses. One student is doing a research project on the Munich Olympics hostage crisis; another is researching how different facets of the environment are affected by pollution; and another is studying the psychological effects of sleep deprivation.

Students at Carnegie Vanguard High School have formed a robotics club and Spanish, Latin, and French foreign-language clubs, and are members of the Spanish National Honor Society. All extracurricular clubs and activities must meet during lunch, since students are bused in from all over the district and have bus schedules to which they must adhere. During spring break and holidays, students and teachers have traveled to Mexico and other exciting destinations. This year, they will tour Spain.

Celebrating the Exemplary rating are (L-R): senior English teacher Cheryl Petterson, Spanish teacher John Falco, U.S. history teacher Andrew Dewey, world geography teacher Charles Swenson, Principal Ramon Ross, world history teacher Juan Garner, Board of Education Member Lawrence Marshall, South Region Superintendent Warner Ervin, HISD Chief of Staff Rosalind Young, South Region Director Kathleen Morgan, Chief Academic Officer Karen Soehnge, and Executive Principal Mary Addison. Click on the photo above to view a larger photo.

Still, like the two or three Shakespearian plays that Carnegie Vanguard students perform each year, the Exemplary rating was a bittersweet conclusion to a hard-won battle. Because Carnegie Vanguard High School was four years old, it could not submit the five years of data that the TEA required. Hence, the TEA gave Carnegie Vanguard the district’s overall rating of Academically Acceptable.

"It was a real blow," said Principal Ramon Moss. "Academically, the students had soared above Exemplary, so for the school to be rated two levels lower at Acceptable, was simply unacceptable." With the full support of HISD, Carnegie Vanguard High School appealed the lower rating and won. So as Shakespeare concluded in his aptly titled play, All»s Well That Ends Well.

This article is from HISD press office and appears on HISD website at following link: http://www.houstonisd.org/HISD/portal/article/front/0,2731,20856_142973398_196567759,00.html