Top 100 Best High Schools 2013 – DeBakey High School – Newsweek – 85/100
Top 100 Best High Schools 2013 – DeBakey High School – Newsweek – 85/100
DeBakey High School
City: Houston
State:TX
Grad Rate(%):100
AP/IB Tests:1.1
College Bound(%):93
AVG SAT: 1844
AVG ACT: 26.3
SUBS LUNCH:48
AVG AP SCORE:3.9
NEWSWEEK SCORE: 3.59
| Location | |
|---|---|
| 3100 Shenandoah, Houston, Texas, 77021United States | |
| Information | |
| Type | Public School (US) |
| School district | HISD |
| Principal | Agnes Perry-Bell |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Mascot | Vipers |
| TEA Rating | Exemplary (2010-2011) |
| Magnet | Medical Professions |
| Website | www.houstonisd.org/debakeyhs |
3100 Shenandoah St, Houston, TX 77021, United States
Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions is a medical secondary school located in the Third Ward area of Houston, Texas, United States.
It has been named the number one public high school in Houston by the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Press, and Children at Risk and number 26 in best high schools in the United States by US News in 2013. DeBakey High School, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Houston Independent School District and is east of the Texas Medical Center. It is the only HISD magnet high school for health professions. The school was named after Michael E. DeBakey, a famous heart surgeon. DeBakey does not automatically take in students from the surrounding neighborhood; the surrounding neighborhood is zoned to Yates High School. Nearly 1200 students take entrance exams for 200-300 spots each year.
History:
With an initial student body of 45, the High School for Health Professions opened in 1972 as part of a partnership between HISD and the Baylor College of Medicine. Perry Weston was the first principal.
In the 1984-1985 school year, of the HISD campuses, DeBakey had the lowest percentage of failing grades. In the fall semester, 7% of grades were failing, while in the spring semester, 6% of grades were failing.
The school was renamed after Michael E. DeBakey in 1996.
The school was a National Blue Ribbon School award winner in 1997-98[5] and 2003.
Plans for the school to be relocated within the Texas Medical Center were made but soon canceled because the Houston Independent School District decided to renovate instead. Renovations started August 2006 and ended in 2008.
In 2006 the HISD board considered moving the Kay On-Going Education Center, a special school for pregnant girls, to an unused area within DeBakey High School. DeBakey had around 30 unused classrooms, and HISD administrators argued that the Texas Medical Center location would be of use to pregnant students. Jennifer Radcliffe of the Houston Chronicle 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 in the Fifth Ward.
The Supreme Education Council of Qatar opened a branch version of DeBakey, DeBakey High School for Health Professions at Qatar, in its country, with Charlesetta Deason, formerly principal of the Houston school, as the head of the Qatar school.
In 2012, four DeBakey juniors qualified for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, two of them placed second place in their respective categories detailing chitosan nanoparticles.
Academics:
DeBakey offers pre-advanced placement(PAP) classes in foreign languages, mathematics, science, social sciences, and English in 9th and 10th grade, as well as 17 Advanced Placement classes: AP English Literature, AP English Language, AP Spanish Language, AP World History, AP US History, AP Computer Science, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Macroeconomics, AP US Government and Politics, AP Physics B, AP Statistics, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Environmental Science and AP Psychology.
DeBakey has been widely recognized for its performance in academics, particularly in math and science. The students score an average of a 3.7/5 on their AP examinations, which is higher than the typical average of 3.03. In 2011, DeBakey was ranked as the number 11 best school for math and science by the USNews Rankings, and it has been recognized each year for black student performance on the AP Calculus AB examination by the College Board.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/
