AGENDA - San Antonio Housing Authority

THE EASTSIDE CHOICE NEIGHBORHOOD TODAYPEOPLEIn comparison, 18.5% of adults in BexarCounty did not graduate from high school.There are significant, persistent challengesin the EPN and Choice target area, includinginadequate access to high quality earlylearning programs, struggling schools, overagestudents, low graduation rates, poorhealth conditions and insufficient or ineffectivesupportive services. In combinationthese indicators have produced the lowestcollege enrollment rates in the city. Also,EPN families tend to be highly transient, acorrelate to poor school performance. Ofthe students attending EPN elementary andmiddle schools over the last nine years, themobility rate is 100%, i.e., not one studentenrolled in kindergarten and continuedthrough 8th grade.In the 2010–2011 EPN Needs Assessment,Segmentation Analysis, and School ClimateNeeds Assessment completed as part ofthe planning grant, the indicators of needsstipulated by the Department of Educationprovided a vivid portrait of a community indistress. More than two-thirds of childrenfrom the neighborhood enter kinder withoutkinder ready skills—47% leave kinder withoutkinder ready skills.Only one in four (24%) of children ages 0to were in center-based care, SAISD Pre-K,Early Head Start, or Head Start (comparedto 31% for San Antonio). 62.8% of EPN 3rdgraders passed the 2010 TAKS reading testand 62% passed the math exam (comparedto 84% for reading at the district level and72% for math). The four year graduationrate for the Sam Houston High School classof 2009 was 45.9%, compared to 80.6% forthat school year.The quality of education in Eastside schoolsis poor, contributing to parents enrollingtheir children in private and charter schools.While 79% of elementary school-age childrenattend neighborhood public schools,only 63% of middle-school-age studentsand 50% of high-school-age students attendarea public schools. Standardized testresults verify parents’ concerns (67% of 5thgraders in public schools make adequateyearly progress in reading and 65% do so inmath). Other statistics include:• The dropout rate at Sam Houston HighSchool is 46% and students consistentlyperform below their counterparts in otherdistricts.• According to the latest 2011 Texas Assessmentof Knowledge and Skills (TAKS)scores, 49% of individuals across 9th–11th grade failed the overall exam, up11% from the previous year.• Sam Houston students ACT scores areconsistently lower than the average ACTscores for the district and city, with 2010scores for the high school 46% lowerthan San Antonio’s average ACT scores.The Eastside Promise Neighborhood aimsto address significant challenges faced bystudents and families living in high-povertycommunities by providing resources to planand implement a continuum of servicesfrom early learning to college and career.Plans include a range of services fromimproving a neighborhood’s health, safety,and stability to expanding access to learningtechnology and Internet connectivity,and boosting family engagement in studentlearning. Remedies for deficiencies in educationare examined in the People segmentof the Transformation Plan.EASTSIDE CHOICE NEIGHBORHOOD TRANSFORMATION PLAN15