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Jane Long Academy

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Coordinates: 29°42′18″N 95°29′53″W / 29.705°N 95.498°W / 29.705; -95.498
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Jane Long Academy
Address
Map
6501 Bellaire Blvd. Houston, TX 77074-6428

Houston, Texas

United States
Coordinates29°42′18″N 95°29′53″W / 29.705°N 95.498°W / 29.705; -95.498
Information
TypePublic secondary school
Websitehoustonisd.org/domain/1882

Jane Long Academy, formerly Jane Long Middle School, is a public grade 6-12 middle and high school in Sharpstown, Houston, Texas. It is a part of the Houston Independent School District. Long, in Sharpstown Section 1,[1][2] serves portions of Sharpstown, Gulfton, and Shenandoah for middle school.[3] Jane Long serves Sharpstown original sections 1, 1A, and 2.[4] The campus has a grade 6-8 neighborhood program together with a 9-12 Futures Academy, a non-zoned high school program that offers an Associate Degree track. Las Américas Newcomer School, a school for new immigrants, is on the Long campus.

History

The school is named after Jane Wilkinson Long. It opened in 1957.[5]

Around the early 1990s portions of the City of Bellaire west of the 610 Loop were zoned to Jane Long Middle,[6] while portions inside the 610 Loop were zoned to Pershing Middle School.[7] After its formation, the Bellaire Area School Improvement Committee (BASIC) installed a gifted and talented magnet at Jane Long. A 32% tax increase championed by HISD superintendent Frank Petruzielo funded the new magnet program which opened in August 1992.[6] The new principal started work that month. Donald R. McAdams, a former HISD school board member and author of Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools-- and Winning!: Lessons from Houston, wrote that the magnet program was "successful" and that the new principal was "extraordinary."[6] McAdams stated that "In a few years Long showed dramatic improvement in appearance, discipline, and test scores."[6]

McAdams described as a school that was "unacceptable" to non-Hispanic White Bellaire residents since it was less than 10% white.[6] McAdams added that even with the new program, to many parents in Bellaire, Long was "never going to be acceptable" due to the overwhelming Hispanic presence.[6] McAdams recalled that one parent told him "I don't care how good the gifted program becomes. I don't care what you do to Jane Long, I will never place my daughter there with all those Hispanic boys."[6]

In October 2006, Michael Marquez, president of the Hispanic Housing and Education Corporation, which operated the Las Américas apartments, announced to HISD in a letter that the organization would terminate the lease agreement between HISD and the apartment complex because of issues related to maintenance and management, affecting the HISD schools housed there. The district decided to vacate the property instead of appealing the decision.[8] In summer 2007, the former Las Américas Education Center closed.[9][10][11] The middle schools that were in the complex, Las Américas Middle School and Kaleidoscope Middle School, moved to the Long Middle School campus.[12][13][14]

In 2010 Long had 700 students. The building capacity is for 1,790 students. Diana de la Rosa, the principal, stated that area charter schools are attracting students who would otherwise attend Long. In the 2010-2011 school year the school had 244 sixth graders when it had been expecting 200. De La Rosa credited the institution of an after-school program jointly operated by Citizen Schools, the addition of monthly parenting workshops, and the extension of the school hours of Long Middle.[15]

In 2011 Long Middle School experimented with increasing the school day for sixth grade students by three hours as part of its partnership with Citizen Schools. For that reason, in 2011 Jane Long was selected as one of four schools to participate in the Partners in Learning program.[16]

In 2014 the district scheduled the elimination of the Long Vanguard program for the 2015-2016 school year.[17]

As of 2016, under the leadership of Dr. Marcela Baez, Jane Long Academy housed 1100 students, roughly 850 in middle school and an additional 250 in its high school. The futures program had its first set of graduating students, most of whom not only received their high school diploma, but also a two-year Associate's Degree in pharmacy technology through Houston Community College.[18] The 57 graduates of the inaugural class earned more than $2 million in scholarships, many full-ride, to finish at four year universities. The middle school has a allied health magnet program, wherein students study about the more than 100,000 jobs in the Houston Medical Center, and make preparations to attend the magnet high school. Four Jane Long Academy students were chosen[who?] to represent this new generation of hope and achievement by addressing the crowd of educators and community leaders at the State of the Schools event, March 2016.[19]

Programs

In 2010 the school had a Peer Mediator Program which teaches students how to peacefully resolve conflicts.[20] More recently, the school added the CHAMPs method for successfully managing classroom expectations and behaviors. JLA offers an accelerated program of study through Pre-AP/GT classes in middle school, and college classes in high school.

Successful extracurricular programs include a variety of sports, including football, volleyball, basketball, soccer, and track and field. Jane Long Academy has also housed successful competition teams in robotics, Science Olympiad, and name-that-book and math competitions. In 2016, a partnership was formed between theater arts students at Jane Long and the Theater Under the Stars. Students were hosted by TUTS and viewed "In the Heights", a Lin-Manual Miranda play about Latino life in New York. Then actors from the play travelled to Jane Long Academy to work with the students, develop stories of their own, and produce a film representative of their cultures and lives.

In partnership with the Houston Rockets, NASA, and Houston Community College, Jane Long Academy students visited Space Center Houston and learned about space exploration and the physics of flight. They were given model rockets to build, which the students later launched at the northeast campus of HCC.[21]

It has been said that there are more than 50 different languages that are spoken by students at Jane Long Academy, and indeed the school welcomes immigrant families not only from Mexico and Central America, but also refugees from all parts of the globe, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ethiopia, Congo, and Nigeria.

School uniforms

The school requires its middle school students to wear school uniforms. As of 2013-2014 students are required to wear polo shirts of different shades of blue depending on grade level, and blue denim pants.[22] The school recognizes the hard-working nature of its high school students, and rewards them with several privileges, including free dress, laptops for every high school student, and other liberties.

The school first adopted school uniforms, called "standard mode of dress", in 1994. Robert Farquharson, the principal, stated that parents requested uniforms since many came from countries were students normally wore school uniforms.[23] Farquharson stated that in order to ensure all students will buy the specific uniform style, regardless of finances, the school did not require a specific uniform provider.[23] According to Farquharson the faculty members were in favor of uniforms, the parents were "ecstatic", and the students had "more mixed" viewpoints on the uniforms, "but I would expect that from adolescents."[23] The principal added that "We are trying to find ways to make kids want to do things that will keep them in a mode of fashion that is not going to get them into trouble. If we are going to have a gang, we are going to have the Jane Long gang."[23] At the time the dress required white shirts with sleeves, with plain White T-shirts being acceptable, and blue trousers or shirts, with blue jeans being acceptable.[23]

Feeder patterns

Elementary schools feeding into Long's zoned middle school program include:

Elementary schools partially feeding into the Long zoned middle school include:

All residents zoned to Jane Long may attend Pin Oak Middle School in Bellaire as an option.[30]

Portions of the Long middle school attendance boundary coincide with that of Bellaire High School, Margaret Long Wisdom High School (formerly Robert E. Lee High School), and Sharpstown High School.[31][32][33][34] Students within the Margaret Long Wisdom zone have the option to attend Lamar or Westside high schools.[35]

References

  • McAdams, Donald R. Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools-- and Winning!: Lessons from Houston. Teachers College Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-8077-7035-1, 9780807770351.

Notes

  1. ^ "Sharpstown Map." Sharpstown Civic Association. Retrieved on August 9, 2017. Text descriptions.
  2. ^ Home. Jane Long Academy. Retrieved on August 9, 2017. "6501 Bellaire Blvd. Houston, TX 77074-6428"
  3. ^ "Long Middle Attendance Zone". Houston Independent School District. April 9, 2014. Retrieved on November 25, 2015. Archived 2014-04-09 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "SCA's Sections and Boundaries." Sharpstown Civic Association, Inc. Retrieved on August 8, 2011. (Archive)
  5. ^ "Overview." Jane Long Middle School. Retrieved on November 14, 2013. Archived September 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine (Archive)
  6. ^ a b c d e f g McAdams, p. 57.
  7. ^ McAdams, p. 58. "Bellaire residents who lived east of the 610 loop were zoned to Pershing Middle School"
  8. ^ Radcliffe, Jennifer. "Education / Apartment complex and HISD part ways / Both sides cite maintenance as an issue at the ad hoc site for low-income pupils." Houston Chronicle. Wednesday January 31, 2007. B2. Retrieved on December 13, 2008. Archived October 16, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "School Histories: the Stories Behind the Names Archived 2011-05-22 at WebCite." (Archive) Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on September 24, 2008.
  10. ^ "Agenda September 12, 2000." County of Harris, Texas. September 12, 2000. Retrieved on December 13, 2008.
  11. ^ Barguiarena, Karla. "Gulfton area charter schools face closure." KHOU-TV. March 8, 2007. Retrieved on December 13, 2008.
  12. ^ "Charter School Agreements Renewed, But Las Américas to Close." Houston Independent School District. June 15, 2007. Retrieved on May 24, 2009
  13. ^ Home Page. Las Américas Middle School. February 17, 2005. Retrieved on December 13, 2008. "5909 Glenmont, Houston, TX 77081"
  14. ^ Home Page . Kaleidoscope and Las Américas Middle Schools. July 13, 2009. Retrieved on November 2, 2013. "6501 Bellaire, Houston, TX 77074"
  15. ^ Mellon, Ericka. "HISD faces politically tough choices in closing schools." Houston Chronicle. December 20, 2010. Retrieved on February 22, 2014. Archived March 7, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Christian, Carol. "Jane Long one of four U.S. schools in Microsoft program." Houston Chronicle. January 27, 2011. Retrieved on November 3, 2013. Archived December 9, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Mellon, Ericka. "HISD magnet programs put on watch." Houston Chronicle. October 16, 2014. Retrieved on October 17, 2014.
  18. ^ Clemons, Tracy (2014-09-24). "HISD's new programs focus students' on future careers". ABC13 Houston. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  19. ^ "Deigaard: Criteria for new Houston schools chief is a click away". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  20. ^ Turner, Allan. "Calling all teen filmmakers: Houston library wants you for festival." Houston Chronicle. November 26, 2010. Retrieved on November 3, 2013.
  21. ^ Team, HPM Digital (2017-04-13). "Houston-Area Students Launched Their Rockets Into Space Today | Houston Public Media". Houston Public Media. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  22. ^ "2013-2014 Jane Long FUTURES Academy Standardized Dress Code Policy." (Archive). Jane Long Middle School. Retrieved on November 14, 2013.
  23. ^ a b c d e Markley, Melanie. "Dressing for success/More schools have pupils don uniforms." Houston Chronicle. Saturday August 13, 1994. A29. Retrieved on October 25, 2011. "Largely because of the district's shift to school-based management, the policies vary widely from campus to campus. At Jane Long Middle School, for example,[...]". "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 4, 2013. Retrieved 2012-06-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  24. ^ "Benavidez Elementary Attendance Zone." Houston Independent School District. Archived February 27, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  25. ^ "Braeburn Elementary Attendance Zone Archived 2008-02-16 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  26. ^ "Cunningham Elementary Attendance Zone Archived 2008-02-16 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  27. ^ "Rodriguez Elementary Attendance Zone Archived 2012-02-14 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  28. ^ "Sutton Elementary Attendance Zone Archived 2012-02-09 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  29. ^ "Herod Elementary Attendance Zone Archived 2012-02-14 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  30. ^ "Pin Oak Middle School." The Southwest District, Houston Independent School District. February 14, 2002. Retrieved on May 24, 2009.
  31. ^ "Long Middle Attendance Zone Archived 2014-04-09 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  32. ^ "Lee High School Attendance Zone Archived 2007-02-03 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  33. ^ "Bellaire High School Attendance Zone Archived 2008-02-28 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  34. ^ "Sharpstown High School Attendance Zone Archived 2012-02-14 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Independent School District.
  35. ^ Home Page. Lee High School. May 9, 2005. Retrieved on May 25, 2009.
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