Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center (SHMSTC) is a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located in the Hawthorne Place and Timber Garden subdivisions, in Houston, Texas, United States. Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center handles grades

nine 9 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 9 or nine may also refer to: Dates * AD 9, the ninth year of the AD era * 9 BC, the ninth year before the AD era * 9, numerical symbol for the month of September Places * Nine, Portugal, a parish in the ...

through twelve and is 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 ...

. Before 1955, it was located in

Downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10, Interstate 45, and Interstate 69. The ...

. Established in 1889, Sam Houston operates the oldest high school newspaper in Texas, the ''Aegis''. Additionally, the school boasts the world's first female-only military drill squad initially known as the ''Black Battalion'' but now called the ''Tigerettes''.About Us
." ''Sam Houston High School''. The school is often referred to simply as "Sam" by students, alumni, and faculty. Sam Houston High School Baseball Field is located at .

History

It was founded in

in 1878 as Houston Academy. Since then, it had several name changes. * Houston Academy: 1878 to 1881 * Clopper Institute: 1881 to 1886 * Houston Normal School: 1886 to 1895 * Houston High School: 1895 to 1926 * Central High School: 1926 to 1955 * Sam Houston High School: 1955 to 2008 (also referred to as Sam Houston Senior High School) * Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center: 2008 to now Until the 1950s the block bordered by Austin, Capitol, Caroline, and Rusk in Downtown Houston housed the institutions that make up what is now Sam Houston High School. Houston Academy was there in the 1850s. In 1894 Central High School was built. J.R. Gonzales 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 i ...

'' said that the school was " scribed as one of the finest high schools in this part of the country" and "also attracted negative attention for its incredible cost." The school had a price tag of $80,000, $1.9 million in 2010 dollars. In March 1919 the school burned down. A new Sam Houston opened two years later.Gonzales, J.R.
Sam Houston High School (old)
" ''

''. March 30, 2010. Retrieved on November 22, 2011. According to a 1936 ''Houston Chronicle'' article, Sam Houston was to be renamed after Dick Dowling, while the Sam Houston name would be taken by a new high school in southwestern Houston. This did not occur, and the school remained named after Sam Houston. In 1955, Houston High School moved from its Capitol Street location in Downtown to its current location. The previous Sam Houston High School became the

administrative headquarters. In July 1970 the first Hattie Mae White Administration Building became the new HISD administrative offices.Radcliffe, Jennifer.
HISD landmark demolished / Known as district's `Taj Mahal,' it won't be missed by everyone / Tearing away its old image
"

. Friday September 15, 2006. B1 MetFront. Retrieved on May 29, 2009. The Downtown Sam Houston building was demolished. As of 2011 a parking lot owned by HISD now occupies that site. A historical marker is on the south side of that block. In meetings it had been proposed as a new location for the

High School for the Performing and Visual Arts Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Kinder HSPVA, HSPVA or PVA) is a secondary school located at 790 Austin Street in the downtown district of Houston, Texas. The school is a part of the Houston Independent School Distri ...

. Sam Houston has Texas' oldest high school newspaper, the ''Aegis'', started in 1889. In addition, the world's first girls' Military Drill Squad (formerly known as the Black Battalion, but now called the Tigerettes) originated at the school. Sam Houston was previously reserved for white children (Hispanics being categorized as white prior to 1970Kellar, William Henry. '' Make Haste Slowly: Moderates, Conservatives, and School Desegregation in Houston''.

Texas A&M University Press Texas A&M University Press (also known informally as TAMU Press) is a scholarly publishing house associated with Texas A&M University. It was founded in 1974 and is located in College Station, Texas, in the United States. Overview The Texas A& ...

, 1999. , 9781603447188. // p
33
(Google Books PT14).) but it

desegregated Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

by 1970. Today, it has a mostly Hispanic student body.Sam Houston High School Profile
," ''

''Sam Houston High School
" ''SchoolDigger'' The names of the individual schools currently occupying the Sam Houston campus were chosen in 2008. On Saturday February 12, 2011, a state historic marker was dedicated at Sam Houston. The Oran M. Roberts Chapter 440 of the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

organized the event. Lynna Kay Shuffield, the president of the chapter, wrote a historical narrative about the school and its former location in Downtown. The Reconstruction of the Campus started in late 2016 and its estimated completion would be in 2019. The Sam Houston Tiger football team holds the distinction of having the both the longest active and all time district game losing streak in the entire state of Texas with 99 consecutive losses in district play as of 2021.

Rating

Sam Houston, with

Jack 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 ...

and

Kashmere High School Kashmere High School is a secondary school in Houston, Texas that serves grades 9 through 12; it is a part of the Houston Independent School District. It is located in the Trinity Gardens neighborhood, and its namesake is the nearby Kashmere Gar ...

, are the three high schools in Houston ISD that were consistently low-performing in test scores from 2001 to 2004. Because of this problem, there were movements to have the state or another organization take over the schools for a period so the test scores will be at acceptable levels. While Yates got an acceptable rating in 2005, Houston and Kashmere continued to get unacceptable ratings. Abelardo Saavedra, the superintendent of HISD, described Houston as being "close" to getting an acceptable rating. In August 2006 the school learned that it again got an unacceptable rating from 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.

. HISD threatened to close Sam Houston. Sam Houston was not closed and it received another unacceptable rating from the TEA. Houston ISD, stated that the board would consider spending $300,000 to find a method to improve Sam Houston's marks from the TEA. In 2008 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.

Commissioner Robert Scott ordered the closure of Sam Houston; the ''

'' said that HISD would likely replace 75% of the teachers and change the name of the school. The campus now houses Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center for 2010–2012 and a ninth grade academy. The administration hopes that the changes would cause Sam Houston to get an acceptable rating. In 2007, an Associated Press/

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

study referred to Sam Houston as a "dropout factory" where at least 40% of the entering freshman class does not make it to their senior year.

Student body

During the 2005–2006 school year, the school had 2,678 students. * 91% were

Hispanic American Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spanish and/or Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include all Americans who identify as ...

* 6% were

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

* 3% were

White American White Americans are Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. As of the 2020 Census, 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were white alone. This represented ...

* Less than 1% were Asian American No Native Americans were enrolled during that school year. Approximately 89% of the students qualified for free/reduced lunch.

Neighborhoods served by Sam Houston

Several areas of Houston outside of the

610 Loop Interstate 610 (I-610) is a freeway that forms a loop around the inner city sector of the city of Houston, Texas. I-610, colloquially known as The Loop, Loop 610, The Inner Loop, or just 610, traditionally marks the border between the ...

that are far north of Downtown and south of Aldine are zoned to Sam Houston.Sam Houston High School Attendance Zone
" ''

''. Neighborhoods include Melrose Park, Hardy Acres, Hardy Heights, Assumption Heights, Roos Acres, Virginia Acres, Sunnyland Farms, Oakwood, and Northline Terrace. Two

Houston Housing Authority Houston Housing Authority (HHA), formerly Housing Authority of the City of Houston (HACH), is the public housing authority in Houston, Texas. The Mayor of Houston appoints the board of directors of the HHA, but it itself is not a department of th ...

public housing complexes, Heatherbrook Apartments and Oxford Place, are zoned to the school. Some small sections of

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

Harris County are zoned to Sam Houston High School.

Feeder patterns

Elementary schools that feed into Sam Houston include: * Barrick * Burbank * Coop * DeChaumes * Durkee * Janowski * Lyons * Moreno * Northline * Scarborough (partial) * Berry * Garcia * Herrera * Kennedy * Osborne All of Fonville Middle School-zoned areas and some areas of the Burbank Middle and Henry Middle School zones feed into Sam Houston.

Notable alumni

Melvin Baker Melvin Clyde Baker (born August 12, 1950) is a former American football wide receiver who played three seasons in the National Football League with the Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints, San Diego Chargers, New England Patriots and Houston Oil ...

: American football player * Joe Bowman: Class of 1943,

bootmaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as ''cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen an ...

and

marksman A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision shooting using projectile weapons (in modern days most commonly an accurized scoped long gun such as designated marksman rifle or a sniper rifle) to shoot at high-value targets at longer-than- ...

. *

William Goyen Charles William Goyen (April 24, 1915 – August 30, 1983) was an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, editor, and teacher. Born in a small town in East Texas, these roots would influence his work for his entire life. In Worl ...

, novelist (when it was Central High School) * Jack Valenti: former president of the

Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distrib ...

, special assistant to US President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Notable faculty

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

: 36th president of the United States (1963–1969), taught public speaking in 1930.President Lyndon B. Johnson's Biography
." '' Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum''. Retrieved on January 29, 2009.

References

External links

Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center
* Mellon, Ericka.

''

''. May 9, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Houston 1878 establishments in Texas Educational institutions established in 1878 Houston Independent School District high schools Public high schools in Houston Sam Houston Relocated schools