Alternative Schools

  • CARTER CAREER CENTER—CLOSED 2011
    1700 Gregg

    Howard Payne Carter, a native of Tennessee, began his teaching career in Seguín, Texas. After military service, he came to Houston, eventually becoming the first African-American secretary of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). After organizing the first football team at Old Colored High School, he became the Texas manager for National Benefit Life Insurance Company. Carter Career Center was built in 1929.

    COMMUNITY SERVICES ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL
    1102 Telephone Rd.

    This school, which opened in the early 1970s, is referred to as “the school without walls” because it consists of three main components (home-bound services, agencies, and hospitals) that provide various goods and services to diverse student populations citywide.

    CONTEMPORARY LEARNING CENTER (CLC)—CLOSED 2011
    1906 Cleburne

    This school began in 1973 as the Continuous Progress Learning and Development Center. Today’s Contemporary Learning Center offers individualized instruction to students who are “turned off” by traditional methods of instruction.

    CONTEMPORARY OCCUPATIONAL TRAINING CENTER—CLOSED 1991
    2600 Travis

    The center opened its doors in 1976 as a vocational school for uninvolved youth. Its primary objective was to motivate young people who did not function well in the regular school program. COTC’s pre employment laboratories enabled students to learn job skills while continuing their academic education. It closed in 1991.

    CROSSROADS ALTERNATIVE
    4425 N. Shepherd

    This school was named for the choices people face throughout their lives and the decisions they make that determine their destinies. The school opened in 1991, and serves grades 6—12.
     

    DEVRY ADVANTAGE ACADEMY—CLOSED 2012
    1700 Gregg

    The DeVry Advantage Academy is located in what was formerly the H. P. Carter Career Center. It opened in the fall of 2011 as a partnership between HISD and DeVry University, and gave students an opportunity to graduate with both a high-school diploma and an associate’s degree in Web Graphic Design at the same time.
     

    GULF COAST TRADES CENTER—SEVERED TIES WITH HISD IN 1988
    143 Forest Service Road, New Waverly

    The Gulf Coast Trades Center was named by the founders of the private component of this campus, which were the Gulf Coast Building Trades Council and the City of Houston Mayor’s Office. The school opened in 1971 to serve disadvantaged youth and severed ties with HISD in 1988.

    HARPER ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL
    4425 North Shepherd

    Born in Baltimore, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was an African-American woman who was not born a slave. She was an abolitionist, suffragist, poet, and author. She published her first book of poetry at the age of 20, and the widely praised novel, “Iola Leroy,” at age 67. She began a career as a public speaker and political activist after joining the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1853. In 1894, she helped found the National Association of Colored Women. The school named in her honor was built in 1927 and moved to 4425 N. Shepherd in the fall of 2007.

    HARRIS COUNTY YOUTH VILLAGE—SEVERED TIES WITH HISD IN JUNE 1997
    210 J. W. Mills Drive, Seabrook

    Harris County Youth Village, which served troubled youth through a charter arrangement between the Harris County juvenile justice system and HISD, was founded in December 1972. It severed ties with HISD in 1997.

    HIGH SCHOOL AHEAD ACADEMY
    5320 Yale

    Opened in January 2010 at the former Henry Hohl Elementary campus, this school was designed to serve up to 450 over-age middle-school students who are two or more years behind in their studies. Immersion in core academic subjects, with a primary focus on math and English language arts, will speed up their readiness for high school. Online courses for high-school credit are also available.

    HOUSTON NIGHT HIGH SCHOOL—CLOSED SUMMER 2007 — SEVERED TIES WITH HISD
    1906 Cleburne

    As its name implies, this school was designed for young people who must work during the day and continue their education at night. Houston Night High School was created in 1975 as a comprehensive high school for grades 9—12.

    KAY ON-GOING EDUCATION CENTER—CLOSED SUMMER 2006—Relocated program to a centralized existing school
    4425 North Shepherd

    The original name of this school was Harrisburg Elementary, named by the pioneers of Harrisburg, then the capital of Texas. HISD assumed control of the school in 1927, and Savannah Georgia Kay became principal. Upon her death in 1951, the school was renamed in her honor. Kay was changed in 1975 from an elementary school to an alternative school for pregnant students. In 2006, the program was incorporated into the Carter Career Center, and the building on North Shepherd became a temporary home for the HISD Police Department headquarters. Harper Alternative School moved into the facility in fall 2007.

     LIBERTY HIGH SCHOOL

    6400 Southwest Freeway, Suite A

    Originally located on the campus on Lee High School, this school was originally named NEWCOMER CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL for the student population it serves: recent immigrants to the U.S. It was renamed in June 2007 and is now situated in a shopping center off of I-59 South near Sharpstown Mall. It opened in January 2005.

    MIDDLE COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL AT HCC FRAGA
    301 North Drennan

    Opened in the fall of 2014, this is one of two campuses offering personalized instruction to students in grades 9–12, while simultaneously providing them with opportunities to obtain college credits and workforce certifications. The middle college concept aims at re-engaging students who feel disconnected from or distracted by the traditional high school culture so that they can proceed with their studies and increase their college and career readiness.
     

    MIDDLE COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL AT HCC GULFTON
    5407 Gulfton

    Opened in the fall of 2014, this is one of two campuses offering personalized instruction to students in grades 9–12, while simultaneously providing them with opportunities to obtain college credits and workforce certifications. The middle college concept aims at re-engaging students who feel disconnected from or distracted by the traditional high school culture so that they can proceed with their studies and increase their college and career readiness.
     

    NINTH GRADE ACADEMY—CLOSED NOVEMBER 2005 — Students went to Sterling HS or their zoned school
    5655 Selinsky

    This school was named for the student population it served. It opened in August 1997 in south Houston and closed in November 2004.
     
     

    NORTH DISTRICT ALTERNATIVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL—CLOSED MAY 2011—See Eliot ES
    2310 Berry

    As its title implies, this school was named for the community that surrounds it. Opened in November 1995, it serves students in the District Alternative Education Program from age 6 through the sixth grade. It also acts as a School Community Guidance Center for all students in K—12.
     

    REGIONAL DAY SCHOOL PROGRAM FOR THE DEAF (RDSPD)

    Currently HISD’s Regional Day School Program for the Deaf (RDSPD) serves 275 students over four campuses. Services provided include sign language interpretation, audiological services and intensive instruction from a certified teacher of the deaf. Some students are provided services at their home campus by an itinerant certified teacher of the deaf.


    SOAR CENTER
    No Address
     

    SOAR is a non-public school continuum of placement options for students with disabilities for whom the Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) committee determines that individual instructional and related services for the student cannot be provided within the district.

    SOUTH ADMINISTRATIVE ALTERNATIVE ELEMENTARY AND DRUG-FREE SCHOOL—CLOSED  2011—See Eliot ES
    3555 Bellfort
    Located at 3555 Bellfort in south Houston, this facility shares a campus with Young Elementary School, which was formerly known as Sunny Side Elementary School. The school was renamed in June 1999 to honor Ethel Mosley Young, an HISD educator who began teaching at Sunny Side when it was just a two-room schoolhouse without electricity, heat, or indoor plumbing.