Kashmere Gardens Elementary School
Kashmere Gardens Elementary School is a public primary school located in the Kashmere Gardens area of Houston, Texas, United States. It is a part of the Houston Independent School District. The school was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2003. History. The school opened in 1949; it was named after the neighborhood. In 1998, the school had high Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) results; for instance all of the school's fourth grade students passed the reading and mathematics portions of the test, 100% of third graders passed the TAAS reading test, and 99 % of third graders passed the TAAS mathematics test. 88 percent of all tested Kashmere Gardens students passed all TAAS sections. The school had a largely low income African American student body. The school was used in HISD's publicity campaign highlighting the district's high test scores. A cheating scandal regarding the school began in the northern hemisphere spring of 1999. The school's TAAS results in 1999 were far below that of the results in 1998. 17% of the school's fourth graders passed all TAAS sections. 20% of the school's third graders passed the mathematics test. 54 % of the third graders passed the reading test. 29% of all Kashmere Gardens students passed all TAAS sections in 1999. In 2008 criminals systematically burglarized several area schools, including Kashmere Gardens. School uniforms. Students are required to wear school uniforms. The Texas Education Agency specifies that the parents and/or guardians of students zoned to a school with uniforms may apply for a waiver to opt out of the uniform policy so their children do not have to wear the uniform; parents must specify "bona fide" reasons, such as religious reasons or philosophical objections. Community Partners Early Childhood Development Center. Circa  1990 Community Partners Early Childhood Development Center, a private preschool, was established at the school. In 2020 HISD sought to expel private preschools from HISD campuses as it sought to build its own public preschools. HISD receives state funding from public preschool students but not private ones. Feeder patterns. Residents zoned to Kashmere Gardens are also zoned to Key Middle School and Kashmere High School.