Kay On-Going Education Center was a middle and high school in

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 ...

. It was a program 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 ...

for pregnant girls. It had a campus on North Shepherd Drive.Radcliffe, Jennifer.
COMMUNITIES & NEIGHBORHOODS / School won't relocate to DeBakey High / HISD will move the program for pregnant teens elsewhere after controversy ensues
" ''

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 ...

''. Saturday June 24, 2006. B2. Retrieved on December 8, 2011. Pregnant HISD students were permitted to attend Kay On-Going, but they were not required to. Students received on-campus

prenatal care Prenatal care, also known as antenatal care, is a type of preventive healthcare. It is provided in the form of medical checkups, consisting of recommendations on managing a healthy lifestyle and the provision of medical information such as materna ...

.Greene, Andrea D.
Teen-age pregnancies: two success stories/HISD `could do better' to aid teens
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''. C1. Retrieved on December 8, 2011. In addition to the nursing care, the school also provided counseling to ensure that the girls remained enrolled in school.

History

Kay On-Going opened in 1975. It was housed in the former Kay Elementary School. It was named after Savannah Georgia Kay, who once served as principal of Harrisburg Elementary School, which became Kay Elementary.School Histories: the Stories Behind the Names
."

. Retrieved on December 8, 2011. During the 1984-1985 school year, 15% of the grades in the fall semester were Fs. At most HISD campuses, the percentages of Fs decreased in the spring semester because of the state-implemented

No Pass No Play No Pass No Play is a Texas public education policy that came about as a result of the passage of House Bill 72 by the Texas Legislature in 1984, and became effective in 1985. Under No Pass No Play, students must pass all their school courses to b ...

rule, which requires students in high school athletic programs to attain passing grades. Kay On-Going was the only HISD campus to have the percentage of its F grades increase for the spring semester; the new percentage of Fs was 25 percent. Kay On-Going and Night High School had the highest percentages of Fs that were recorded due to excessive absences. In 1988 a report by the

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) is a U.S.-based education policy and research center. It was founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of the United States Congress. Among its most nota ...

expressed a favorable assessment of Kay On-Going. In the 1988-1989 school year, girls gave birth to 70 babies. Annual HISD district reports stated from 1980 to 1989, the number of pregnant girls within the school district fluctuated between 443 and 581. In 1989 district officials told the ''

'' that the reports did not reflect the true pregnancy rate among HISD students. In 1989 Kay On-Going had 158 students. Around 1996, while HISD police officers were assigned to all other HISD middle and high schools, no officers were assigned to Kay On-Going. Funds from the 2002 HISD Bond were used to give the campus a $1 million renovation, which included renovated restrooms, a new roof, and additional repairs, to the Kay On-Going building. The renovation was completed shortly before June 2006. In 2006 it had 160 students.Radcliffe, Jennifer.
HISD offers plan to save school for pregnant teens
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''. Tuesday May 9, 2006. Retrieved on December 8, 2011. In the 2005-2006 school year HISD was required to provide free tutoring to low income students at Kay On-Going because, for three consecutive years, Kay On-Going did not meet state academic targets, which were set by the

No Child Left Behind The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based education ...

federal act. During the school year, 2,912 students at Kay On-Going, Lee High School, and Marshall Middle School qualified for the tutoring. The tutoring, which covered the

Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) was the fourth Texas state standardized test previously used in grade 3-8 and grade 9-11 to assess students' attainment of reading, writing, math, science, and social studies skills required ...

(TAKS), began on February 4, 2006. On the three campuses, 74 students, 3% of the eligible students, enrolled in the tutoring program. Mercedes Alejandro of the group Parents for Public Schools accused HISD of not effectively communicating that the tutoring was available to the communities at the schools.

Closure

In March 2006 the HISD board announced that it planned to close Kay On-Going. At that point the district had not decided whether the pregnant students program would stay at one campus or be divided among multiple campuses. At one point the HISD board considered moving the school to an unused area within DeBakey High School. The school had around 30 unused classrooms, and HISD administrators argued that the

Texas Medical Center The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a medical district and neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States, immediately south of the Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 60 medical institutions, largely concentrate ...

location would be of use to pregnant students. Jennifer Radcliffe of the ''

'' said that the proposed plan yielded a "mixed" reaction in DeBakey parents and students. Some signed a petition asking the district not to merge Kay On-Going into DeBakey. Ultimately HISD did not go forward with the plan. Instead it moved into Kay On-Going into the

Carter Career Center Howard P. Carter Career Center was a high school in the Fifth Ward area of Houston, Texas. The school, serving grades 6 through 12, was a part of the Houston Independent School District. The school served as a vocational school and pregnant girls' ...

in the Fifth Ward. The district also stopped considering Kay On-Going a separate institution; instead test scores of the girls were included with their zoned schools. The change would mean HISD would be no longer required to uphold the free tutoring requirement. The chief of staff for the Houston Federation of Teachers, Helen Wheatley, criticized the decision to dissolve Kay On-Going.

Harper Alternative School Harper may refer to: Names * Harper (name), a surname and given name Places ;in Canada *Harper Islands, Nunavut *Harper, Prince Edward Island ;In the United States *Harper, former name of Costa Mesa, California in Orange County *Harper, Illin ...

was scheduled to move into the vacated Kay On-Going school.School for recent immigrants may get new name
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''. Friday June 8, 2007. Retrieved on December 8, 2011.

References

{{authority control Houston Independent School District middle schools Houston Independent School District high schools Former high schools in Houston Public middle schools in Houston Public high schools in Houston Educational institutions established in 1975 1975 establishments in Texas Educational institutions disestablished in 2006 Defunct schools in the Houston Independent School District 2006 disestablishments in Texas