This school year, many CVHS students have transferred to neighboring high schools across the greater Houston area.
This trend can be explained by the compelling pull factors represented by other schools, such as higher academic success, ease of transit and extracurricular opportunities. However, these transfers are not without consequences. By transferring schools, students leave their friends and change group dynamics.
The reasons behind student’s transfers can be seen as clear cut, most commonly due to the rigorous course load CVHS presents to all students. However, there are greater truths behind these reasons.
“Carnegie just made me think that hard work just doesn’t give me what I want. And going to Strake really showed me the more I put in, the more I got out”. Alan Ta, a former CVHS Sophomore now Strake Jesuit Junior, said.
He elaborates on this by saying felt the amount of work he put in was not a good representation of the results he received on his exams when he went to CVHS. This high work, low reward relationship discourages students and may drive them away from continuing their education at CVHS. Although this perspective may be subjective to the student, Ta is not the only one who felt his efforts were not adequately rewarded.
“I feel like I’m learning more in the classroom. Teachers teach more than rather than sitting reading a textbook, or like me watching Edpuzzles. Like I feel like I’m doing a better job of actually absorbing information.” Esaam Zaman, former CVHS sophomore now Bellaire junior, said.
The transfers of these two students did not happen without hesitation, however. Their transfers also impacted the relationships with the people they went to Carnegie with.
“My friend group was disbanded. We just don’t see each other as much as we used to. Like we would eat lunch together every day. But when I transferred I kind of had to make new friends… The guys at Carnegie I just don’t see anymore.” Ta said.
Leaving friends wasn’t the only thing these transfer students had to forfeit when going to another school.
“I was captain of the track and field team. So I guess my transfer had a pretty big impact on the team”, said Zaman.
Both students left extracurricular commitments and relationships to transfer to their desired school, but both emphasized transferring was worth it despite the aforementioned factors.
As academics were a driving factor in their transfer, it should be noted CVHS’s academic policy states if a student is failing three or more of their classes by the end of the school year, they will be forced to transfer to another school due to not meeting the academic policy set by the school’s administration.
This transfer of students does not only affect the individuals who actually move schools, but can also affect the remaining student body as a whole. With 14 juniors transferring out of CVHS this year alone, the impact can be profound. Often, most students transfer out of CVHS within their Freshman or Sophomore year, but the consequences on the remaining student population is less felt, as students are often replaced by incoming transfers from other schools.
Once students reach junior year, however, students may transfer out of CVHS but are no longer allowed to transfer in. This causes the student body to dwindle in size as students progress into their Senior year, causing friend groups to become smaller and group dynamics to change. With CVHS’s uniquely small class size, it is not uncommon for students to know a majority of the people in their class.
“I feel like because Carnegie was smaller, and I knew more people. At Bellaire you won’t really walk around and just see everyone you know because it is such a big school.” said Zaman.
CVHS’s small environment makes student transfers all the more impactful due to the sense of everyone knowing each other festering as student’s progress through high school.
Overall, the constant transferring of students out of CVHS is rooted in the demanding academics of the school. The transfers not only affect the student who transfers, but also the student’s peers whom they left behind.
