Evan Edward Worthing Early College High School is a secondary school located in the Sunnyside area of

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Worthing serves grades 9 through 12 and is a part of the

Houston Independent School District The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas, and the eighth-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and ...

. Worthing has Houston ISD's

magnet program In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

for Mathematics, Science and Technology.

History

Worthing Junior-Senior High School was built in 1958,Worthing High School History
"
Direct image link
''Worthing High School''. Retrieved on December 8, 2008. and it opened on January 27, 1958. The students zoned to Worthing previously attended Miller Junior High School and

Yates High School Jack Yates Senior High School is a public high school located at 3650 Alabama Street, very near Texas Southern University, in the historic Third Ward in Houston, Texas, United States. Yates High School handles grades nine through twelve and is par ...

. The school is named after Evan Edward Worthing, a Houston real-estate developer who set up a scholarship trust for African-American HISD students. A native of Michigan, he earned a mechanical engineering degree from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, where he was captain of the

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team. His will stated that African-Americans should inherit his wealth; this led to the opening of Worthing. The school originally covered grades 7 through 12. Worthing was originally located at 4330 Bellfort Boulevard; as the first building became overcrowded a new high school campus opened. Worthing moved to 9215 Scott Street at Reed Road, and Attucks Middle School opened at the former location. The first principal was Allen E. Norton, and he stayed in his position until circa 1978. Jacob Carpenter of the ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

'' stated that the "dedicated" staff and "tight-knit community" "ensured students received a quality education" despite the low socioeconomic status of Sunnyside. An increase in violence and recreational drugs and a socioeconomic decline began damaging Sunnyside in the 1980s. Despite this, enrollment remained stable in the 1990s. Carpenter stated that during the decade the "strong campus leadership" meant that the school had an academic performance in line with Texas standards. However, in the 2000s fewer students enrolled in Worthing and its test scores declined.

2008 Consolidation proposal

In November 2008 Houston ISD proposed to rebuild

Carnegie Vanguard High School Andrew Carnegie Vanguard High School, named after Andrew Carnegie, is located in the Fourth Ward of Houston, Texas near Downtown and was formerly located near Sunnyside. The school serves grades 9-12 and is part of the Houston Independent School ...

on a site adjacent to Worthing, rebuild Worthing, and have the two schools share the same cafeteria and other facilities. School board member Larry Marshall, whose jurisdiction at the time included Carnegie and Worthing, expressed support for this proposal or otherwise to house Carnegie and Worthing on the same plot of land. Parents at Worthing accepted the proposal while parents at Carnegie rejected it and asked for it to be discontinued. The Carnegie parents said that the higher violence levels at Worthing and the parents' fears of backlash against Carnegie students at Worthing cause them to be opposed to HISD's proposal. Peter Brown, the Houston City Council At-Large Position 1, opposed the idea. Brown said that the renovation of Worthing would be less costly than the consolidation. Brown also cited a

Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...

study to support his point. On December 4, 2008 Abelardo Saavedra, the HISD superintendent, said that he would for now shelve plans since they had insufficient support from the board of trustees. School board trustee Paula M. Harris expressed support for the consolidation plan, arguing that magnet schools and small neighborhood schools, many of which were closed by the district, should be treated in the same manner. Margaret Downing of the ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely by advertising ...

'' added that Worthing parents did not like how the controversy "denigrated" the school.

2008-2010s

Tamara Sterling became the principal in July 2009; she was the school's first female principal. She later switched jobs, taking one in the

Northeast United States The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic list of regions of the United States, region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast ...

, and Todd Nix replaced her in fall 2011.History
" Worthing High School. March 10, 2012. Retrieved on June 11, 2018. At one point Nix had been accused of promoting academic dishonesty in testing, at a school district he previously worked for, and he resigned from being principal at Worthing. He was later found to have not been responsible for academic dishonesty.
Audio file
/ref> HISD superintendent

Terry Grier Terence Wyly (Terry) Grier (born 12 August 1936) is a former Canadian politician, lecturer and university administrator. Grier graduated from the University of Trinity College in the University of Toronto in 1958. He served as the New Democ ...

chose John Modest as the new principal. Modest also resigned, but this time due to a severe illness. Duane Clark replaced Modest. Clark lost his job due to low test scores. The school's main football coach, also a special education teacher, stated in a 2018 ''

'' article that morale among the teachers declined due to the constant principal turnover; there had been a total of six from 2008 to 2018. In the period 2011-2018 Worthing had the highest such administrative turnover rate of any Houston high school. In 2011, two persons opened fire during a powder-puff American football game at Worthing. One man, an 18-year old former student named Tremaine De Ante’ Paul, died. Five other people received injuries. Laura Insensee of

Houston Public Media KUHT (channel 8) is a PBS member television station in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Owned by the University of Houston System, it is sister station, sister to NPR member station KUHF (88.7 FM). The two stations share studios and offic ...

stated that the incident damaged the reputation of the school. The 2007 school bond specified that Worthing would receive a renovation. On Wednesday March 21, 2012, the school's renovation and expansion groundbreaking ceremony was held. The $805 million bond referendum, approved in elections in 2007, was to fund the renovation and expansion. At the ceremony, Licia Green Ellis, the wife of

Texas Senate The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per cons ...

member

Rodney Ellis Rodney Glenn Ellis (born April 7, 1954) is an American politician. He represented Texas' 13th state senate district in the Texas Senate from 1990 to 2017. The district contains portions of Harris County, including downtown Houston, and Fort Ben ...

, gave a $10,000 donation to the school. On December 11, 2014, the beam-signing ceremony of the new Worthing campus occurred. The several design changes and controversies about the construction had delayed the establishment of the wing. It is a part of the 2007 bond program, and as of January 2015 it was one of the few projects from that bond still not completed.

Stafford, Texas Stafford is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, in the metropolitan area. The city is mostly in Fort Bend County, with a small part in Harris County. As of the 2020 census, Stafford's population was 17,666, down from 17,693 at the 2010 census. H ...

-based Fort Bend Mechanical was supposed to build the Worthing wing but it got into a legal dispute with HISD. Gil Ramirez, another contractor, accused the owner of Fort Bend Mechanical, David "Pete" Medford, of giving

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

tickets and $25,000 to HISD trustee Larry Marshall in order to get a construction contract with HISD; Ramirez sued HISD and trustee Larry Walker. In addition, the City of Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering approved one set of building plans, but the architectural firm, Molina Walker, then used a different set of plans never approved by the city government to the contractors building the school. Carpenter stated that the delay in the renovation and the infighting reduced trust in HISD within the local community. The new building opened in 2016, around ten years after the intended opening.
Audio file
/ref> As part of the 2014-2015 rezoning, residents of

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...

located west of Martin Luther King Boulevard were rezoned from Jones High School to Worthing. John Modest, the principal, stated that he expected to receive 200 new students. In 2017 HISD officials installed Khalilah Campbell-Rhone, former Thomas Middle School principal, as the principal of Worthing, after the state government threatened to take control of HISD from its school board. The administration chose her because of the school's academic record during her tenure. The board spent increased student support services, added instructional coaches, and gave incentives to teachers, all totalling $1 million. It also removed 60% of the existing teachers and replaced them with new ones. In a five-year period ending circa 2018 Worthing received $8,100 in funding per student, an amount higher than many other area high schools partially due to the amount of federal funding.

Student body

In the 1990s the school had around 2,000 students. In 2000 Worthing had over 1,700 students. In the 2013–2014 school year Worthing had 640 students, in 2014-2015 it had 685 students,Mellon, Ericka,
Worthing project back on track after delays, lawsuits
" ''

''. January 1, 2015. Retrieved on November 21, 2015. and as of 2016 it had about 680 students. 86% were African-American, 13% were Hispanic, and the remainder were of other ethnic groups.Malislow, Craig
Worthing High Was Renovated, and HISD Doesn't Seem to Care How It Was Done
" ''

''. Tuesday July 26, 2016. Retrieved on August 2, 2016. In 2018 enrollment was around 850; the student body was about 50% of the size in the 1990s and 75% of the enrollment in 2011. In 2008 65% of the students were classified as being low income. Circa 2016 95% of the students were classified as low income. many U.S. Census tracts around Worthing have median incomes below $20,000. According to Worthing graduate

, who was the commissioner of Harris County Precinct 1 in 2018, many Worthing students had immediate relatives who were "trapped in the criminal justice system". Carpenter wrote "Nearly all Worthing students deal with the effects of deep, intractable poverty that create longer odds for success in school."

Academic performance

Carpenter stated that in the 1990s the "strong campus leadership" meant that the school had an academic performance in line with Texas standards but that this declined in the 2000s. In 2007, a

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

/Associated Press study referred to Worthing as a "dropout factory" where at least 40% of the entering freshman class does not make it to their senior year.Scharrer, Gary.
Report points to 'dropout factories'
" ''

''. November 7, 2007. Retrieved on May 17, 2010. In 2017, 10% of the students who took Texas state algebra tests performed at standard or above. Circa 2018 Worthing had multiple indicators of low academic performance. Worthing was the sole Texas high school which did not satisfy any of the

Texas Education Agency The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch of the government of Texas responsible for public education in Texas in the United States.

's academic accountability benchmarks in the period 2014–2018. In 2016 Worthing was the Texas high school with the third lowest the level of academic growth in the

State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, commonly referred to as its acronym STAAR ( ), is a series of standardized tests used in Texas public primary and secondary schools to assess a student's achievements and knowledge learned ...

(STAAR) tests in mathematics and reading. Around 25% of the Class of 2016 enrolled in a post-secondary tertiary institution. In the 2016–2017 school year, the passing rates for STAAR English I end-of-course examinations and algebra end-of-course examinations were 28% and 34-35%, the second lowest and lowest such rates in Texas. In 2018 the school administration began to make efforts to improve test scores. Carpenter described the preliminary STAAR reading passing percentage for 2017-2018 as "disappointingly stagnant". In the 2017–2018 school year the preliminary passing rate for the algebra examination was 68%. By 2019 the school's test scores increased; that time below 40% of the students who took Texas state algebra tests performed at standard or above. According to Jacob Carpenter, this test score matched a typical performance of a Texas high school with a similar socioeconomic makeup.

Student discipline

From 2013 to 2018 the school had 17.2 fights per 100 students, a rate higher than other HISD zoned schools.

Student culture

In the 1960s the

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

team played in the first integrated chess games in the Houston area.

Teacher demographics and quality

According to HISD's teacher appraisal system the percentage of teachers at the school ranked as "needs improvement" or "ineffective" was 37% for the years 2011–2016, among the highest of any HISD school, while the overall HISD average was 16%. 2019 over 40% of the teachers in each particular school year are not present in the following year.

Campus

A mural that was installed in 2016 in the library as part of the schoolwide renovation depicts the history of Sunnyside and Alma Allen and

, two state-level politicians from Sunnyside; it was made by Class of 1999 alumna Marye Dean, born and raised in Sunnyside and resident in the State of New York as an attorney. Dean considers Allen and Ellis to be her mentors. The mural has the slogan " Each One Teach One".

Neighborhoods served by Worthing

Worthing High School (Houston) mlk parade

Worthing High School servesWorthing High School Attendance Zone
"

. Retrieved on January 7, 2017. Sunnyside, Cullen Estates, Brookhaven, a portion of South Acres and Crestmont Park, a portion of South Acres Estates, Cloverland, Regal Oak

a portion of Minnetex, Houston, Texas, Minnetex Place,

City Park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

, Almeda, and Skyview Fores

Hence, Worthing's logo is "Sunnyside Pride." Worthing also serves unincorporated portions of Harris County, Texas, Harris County (such as Brunswic

Brunswick Lake

Brunswick Meadow

and Morningside Place). Portions of the city of Pearland, Texas, Pearland are in the Worthing attendance zone.

School uniforms

Worthing requires school uniforms. The

Texas Education Agency The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch of the government of Texas responsible for public education in Texas in the United States.

specifies that the parents and/or guardians of students zoned to a school with uniforms may apply for a waiver to opt out of the uniform policy so their children do not have to wear the uniform; parents must specify "

bona fide In human interactions, good faith ( la, bona fides) is a sincere intention to be fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. Some Latin phrases have lost their literal meaning over centuries, but that is not the case ...

" reasons, such as religious reasons or philosophical objections.

Notable alumni

August Alsina August Anthony Alsina Jr.(April 8, 2013)R&B Singer August Alsina Talks Working With The Dream, Preps Def Jam Debut, ''Life + Times'' (confirms middle name; other sources confirm he is a "junior") (born September 3, 1992) is an American singer f ...

- R&B singer from New Orleans *

- County Commissioner, Harris County Precinct One; former Texas State Senator * Milton Carroll - Chairman of CenterPoint Energy since 2002, Chairman of Instrument Products since 1977, Director of

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries ...

since 2006, Director of Health Care Service Corporation since 1998, Director of Western Gas Holdings since 2008, Director of LRR Energy, L.P. since 2011. * Gregory "Cadillac" Anderson -

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

basketball playerDistinguished HISD Alumni
." ''

'' *

Cliff Branch Clifford Branch Jr. (August 1, 1948 – August 3, 2019) was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders during his entire 14-year National Football League (NFL) career. He won three NF ...

- NFL football player for

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

, 3-time Super Bowl champion *

Terry Ellis Terry is a unisex given name, derived from French Thierry and Theodoric. It can also be used as a diminutive nickname for the names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence or Terrier (masculine). People Male * Terry Albritton (1955–2005), Am ...

- founding member of 90's R&B girl group

En Vogue En Vogue is an American vocal girl group whose original lineup consisted of singers Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones. Formed in Oakland, California, in 1989, En Vogue reached No. 2 on the US Hot 100 with the single "Hol ...

*Quannel Ralph Evans (

Quanell X Quanell X (; born Quanell Ralph Evans; December 7, 1970) is an activist and leader of the New Black Panthers, New Black Panther Nation in Houston, Texas. Early life Quanell Ralph Evans was born in Los Angeles, California. Both his mother and ...

) - leader of

New Black Panther Party The New Black Panther Party (NBPP) is an American black nationalist organization founded in Dallas, Texas, in 1989. Despite its name, the NBPP is not an official successor to the Black Panther Party.

in Houston * Chris Hudson - NFL football player for

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

* Brian Iwuh - NFL football player *

Dave Lattin David Lattin (born December 23, 1943) is an American former basketball player. He was the starting center for the Texas Western Miners in their NCAA championship year in 1966. During his playing career, he was listed at 6 feet 6 inches tall ...

- basketball player for 1966 NCAA champion

Texas Western The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

, 10th pick of

1967 NBA draft The 1967 NBA draft was the 21st annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 3 and 4, 1967 before the 1967–68 season. In this draft, 12 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball play ...

* Larry Micheaux - basketball player for NBA's Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, Kansas City, Milwaukee Bucks, and Kansas City Kings *

Mike Singletary Michael Singletary (born October 9, 1958), also known by his nickname Samurai Mike, is an American professional football coach and former middle linebacker. After playing college football for the Baylor Bears, Singletary was drafted by the Chi ...

- NFL football player for

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

, coach, member of

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...

Lemuel Stinson Lemuel Stinson (born May 10, 1966) is a former professional American football cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). Stinson was born in Houston, Texas, where he graduated from Worthing High School. Stinson played in the NFL for six ...

- NFL football player for

* Wesley Weston - Houston hip-hop artist better known as Lil' Flip * Al Dugas - drummer with Michael McDonald * Otis Taylor - NFL player for

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

, Super Bowl IV champion *

Gerald Dockery Gerald Dockery (born August 17, 1970) is a former American football wide receiver who played four seasons in the Arena Football League with the Texas Terror, Grand Rapids Rampage and Houston ThunderBears. He attended Worthing High School in Hou ...

- Arena Football League and CFL pro football player * Karl Douglas - former

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

quarterback * Robert Wilson - NFL player * Marcus Lakee Edwards - Houston hip-hop artist better known as Lil'Keke * LeMarcus Newman - Former Professional Football player - philanthropist https://www.blackenterprise.com/leo-lemarcus-newman/

Feeder patterns

Elementary schools that feed into Worthing include *Almeda *Reynolds *Young (formerly Sunnyside Elementary) Elementary schools that partially feed into Worthing include: *Alcott *Bastian *Law *Whidby *WoodsonWoodson K-8 Attendance Zone
"

. Retrieved on January 7, 2017. Middle schools that feed into Worthing include Attucks, Lawson (formerly Dowling), and Thomas.Thomas Middle Attendance Zone
"

. Retrieved on January 7, 2017. No middle schools have all of their attendance boundaries zoned to Worthing.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Worthing Houston Independent School District high schools Magnet schools in Houston Houston Independent School District Public high schools in Houston Historically segregated African-American schools in Texas African-American history in Houston School buildings completed in 1958 1958 establishments in Texas Educational institutions established in 1958