Sending your teenager to a Houston-area high school can be a battle, quite literally.
More than 70 percent of the top 30 worst-behaved high schools in 2016 belonged to the Houston and Aldine Independent School Districts, according to an analysis conducted by Chron.com using data obtained from the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
The data provided by TEA included the total number and type of suspensions at Houston area high schools and provides a breakdown of offenses students committed. For most schools, students were disciplined for violating its code of conduct. Drug and fighting-related offenses were next on the list.
Aldine had the most schools make the list with 12 followed by Houston with 10. Aldine had the second worst behaved school with 56 percent of MacArthur Ninth Grade School's 1,118 students getting in trouble in 2016. A large majority of the total number of infractions were for violating the school's code of conduct (2,442) followed by incidents involving a controlled substance (16) and fighting (12).
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The 623 students who were disciplined at MacArthur Ninth Grade in 2016 committed 3,052 infractions.
A request for comment was placed with Aldine ISD's administration. Houston ISD's press secretary Tracy Clemons' provided the following statement Wednesday morning.
"The TEA Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) data report associated with student behavior lags one year for all school districts in Texas," Clemons said. "Current TEA reporting for student behavior does not include data from the most recent school year in which HISD implemented a suspension ban for its youngest students, the Social and Emotional Learning department and revisions to the code of student conduct."
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At the top of the list was Clear Creek Independent School District's Clear View, which is a school that only admits at-risk students, principal Michael Houston told Chron.com. The school conducts interviews with all students who are admitted, which often includes men and women who are overage, pregnant or have a child, on probation or on parole, homeless, failed two or more classes during a previous semester or year and student with behavioral issues.
Clear Creek questioned the accuracy of the data TEA provided to Chron.com.
"Clear View High School is an exceptional school for students who have perhaps not been successful in a traditional high school setting," the district said in a statement. "The school operates under great leaders with high expectations for students. One such expectation is that all students arrive to school on time, every day. After eight instances, students are assigned to In School Suspension (ISS). This may be why Clear View High School's ISS rate may stand out from others. The actual cases of discipline matters are commensurate with schools in Clear Creek ISD."
Houston ISD's worst behaved school in 2016 was Yates with 49 percent of its student body (1,075) getting in trouble.
The largest high school to make the top 30 was Alief Independent School District's Elsik High School. The school has 39 percent of its 4,667 students get in trouble in 2016.
See the slideshow above for breakdown of the 30 other Houston-area high schools that made the list.
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