Yates High School - History

History

Yates was established on February 8, 1926, as Yates Colored High School with 17 teachers and 600 students. The school, located at 2610 Elgin, was the second school for African-Americans established in Houston. The first principal, James D. Ryan, served as the principal from the opening until his death in 1941.

In 1955, as a new Allen Elementary School opened in a neighborhood far from its original location, the former Allen campus, located in what is now Midtown, became the Yates Annex, a school for black 7th graders. In 1956, the annex was converted into J. Will Jones Elementary School.

On January 27, 1958, Worthing High School opened, relieving Yates. Yates relocated to its current location in September 1958. Yates's former location became Ryan Colored Junior High School (now Ryan Middle School), named after the first principal of Yates. Schools in HISD were named after former principals William S. Holland and James E. Codwell.

The Yates photography magnet school program began in fall 1978.

In 1987 a survey at Yates showed that 108 female students were pregnant and 50% of them were having their second pregnancies. In 1989 Chester Smith, the principal, prohibited the school newspaper from publishing a story about a pregnant female student.

In 1997 a geographic area south of Interstate 45 was rezoned from Austin High School to Yates. After the 2000 opening of Chávez High School, portions of the Yates boundary were reassigned to Austin High School.

In 2006, Houston mayor Bill White proclaimed February 7 as "Jack Yates Senior High School Day."

In 2007, a Johns Hopkins University study commissioned by the Associated Press cited Yates as a "dropout factory" where at least 40% of the entering freshman class do not make it to their senior year.

Yates, along with Sam Houston High School and Kashmere High School, was 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 would be at acceptable levels. Yates received an "acceptable" rating from the Texas Education Agency in 2005.

In a 2005 Houston Chronicle article Bill Miller, president of the Yates High School Parent-Teacher-Student Association, criticized the decrease in enrollment. Many students in the Yates High School attendance zone instead chose to attend other high schools. Miller proposed having HISD end its open enrollment policies.

In an e-mail sent in 2010, HISD board member and former Yates student Paula Harris said that she was responsible for having a principal at Yates removed from the school and for having the new principal installed.