TBEC Designates Carnegie Vanguard High School as a 2006 Honor Roll School

The Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC) has named Carnegie Vanguard as one of its 2006 Honor Roll schools for the state of Texas.  Carnegie is one of only 14 HISD campuses and one of only 3 HISD high schools to be so honored. 

TBEC announced its 2006 Honor Roll on October 10.  The list includes 268 public schools across the state. "We know there are great public schools in Texas," said TBEC executive director John Stevens, "but most of them don't get the recognition they deserve, even in their own communities. We decided to find all of them that consistently perform to very high standards. The 2006 Honor Roll Schools are models from which the rest of the system can learn how to educate all kids."

Every year, TBEC creates an Honor Roll of the most outstanding public schools in the state. It compiles its Honor Roll by analyzing three years of performance data for all Texas public schools. A school must have a high percentage of students meeting state standards on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) in all subjects for three consecutive years, with an emphasis on how many students score at the state's highest standard-commended-on all tests. Each school's student demographics, the number of subjects tested, and the grades served are also considered.

The Honor Roll Schools will be recognized December 4 and 5 in Austin at an awards dinner, and representatives from each school will also share best practices during a seminar. TBEC volunteers will present the Honor Roll banner to each school at a local ceremony so that students, parents, teachers, other staff members, and members of the community can join in the celebration. The volunteers will also tour the school, visit classrooms and talk with students and staff.

"This year's Honor Roll Schools have achieved performance levels higher than anyone could anticipate when the TAKS testing began four years ago," said Mike McGuire, the president of Chemshare Corporation in Port LaVaca and the head of TBEC's Honor Roll committee. "The success of these schools demonstrates that setting high standards and raising expectations for all students is an effective tool in raising performance."

TBEC is a nonprofit organization of business executives and education leaders dedicated to improving the performance of the public school system by influencing state education policy and stimulating community-based improvement initiatives.  In its seventh year, TBEC's Honor Roll program is underwritten by HEB, IBM, and Washington Mutual, with support provided by other business and education organizations that participate in TBEC.

-- Adapted from an article on HISD website