FBISD Global Studies Academy

Q&A June 3, 2014

The District has received additional questions and the answers to all of the questions will be posted by the
end of next week.
What is the actual number of students in the GSA program for 9
th
, 10
th
, 11
th
, and 12
th
grade for the
2013-2014 school year?
GSA enrollment is as follows: 9
th
120; 10
th
106; 11
th
58; 12
th
58. Total Enrollment = 342.

What % of students in the GSA program for 2013-2014 live outside the school zone and what % are
zoned to Clements?
For 2013-2014 GSA students, 88.6% are not zoned to Clements, and 11.4% are zoned to Clements.

What is the projected enrollment for 2014-2015, and how many zoned students will be in the GSA?
Projected enrollment is 393. Of this total, 38 are zoned to Clements.

What is the Clements student count in total versus students enrolled in GSA?
Enrollment for CHS is 2,474 and of that number, 342 are GSA students (13.8%), which includes zoned CHS
students.

Of the total number enrolled, how many students are coming from the GT Academy?
Seventy-nine (79) of the current 342 GSA students were in the GT Academy (23%).

How many Clements-zoned students apply to other academies at other high schools?
According to self-reported data in the 2013-2014 application database, 49 CHS-zoned students applied to
other high school academies for the 2014-2015 school year.

How many GSA students were ranked in the top 7% each year and how many are not zoned to CHS?
For the 2014 graduating class, six GSA students are ranked in the top 7%. None of these students are
zoned to Clements. For the 2013 graduating class, five GSA students were ranked in the top 7%. Two of
them were not zoned to Clements. For the 2012 graduating class, 17 GSA students were ranked in the
top 7%. Two of them were not zoned to Clements.

What % of the top 10 percent of the graduating classes of 2013 and 2014 were GSA students?
For the 2014 graduating class, eight GSA students are in the top 10%. None of them are zoned to
Clements. For the 2013 graduating class, nine GSA students were in the top 10% of the graduating class.
Four of them were not zoned to CHS. For the 2012 graduating class, twenty GSA students were in the top
10%. Three of them were not zoned to CHS.

Why are GSA students ranked with Clements students and not their home campus?
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Any students in attendance on a designated campus are ranked with their peers in attendance on that
campus regardless of any special program they may be a part of.

Is Clements overcrowded?
According to a recent facilities study, Clements HS is currently at 95% utilization, with it projected to drop
to approximately 83% utilization in 2018-19.The enrollment numbers used in the study were 2,502
students for 2013-14 and 2,186 students for 2018-19, with a capacity of 2,621.

Is there a limit/ceiling to GSA enrollments to ensure the program does not become a back door to
attending Clements?
All academies opened with the goal of a targeted enrollment of 400 students across the four grade
levels.

Do GSA students receive special consideration when teacher assignments are made?
For academy cohorted classes, students are placed with the cohort teachers. For all non-cohort academy
classes, students are scheduled like all other students.

Do GSA students attend different classes and do they have different teachers?
Academy students only have seven academy cohort classes (six credits) during their four-year high school
career and these are taught by the academy cohort teachers. No teachers are designated solely to the
academy cohort classes.

Why are there blocked teachers for GSA students as stated on the GSA website?
There are teachers designated to teach cohort classes; however, no teachers are designated solely to the
academy cohort classes.

Does human geography replace a core class or is it an added elective?
Human Geography is a required elective for GSA students.

Can you explain the Capstone course in more detail?
The goal of this course is to meld the work students have completed through their required four,
consecutive language courses, global studies courses, community service, cultural events, and personal
interest to develop research and a project that will benefit the local and global community, as well as
giving them an opportunity to uniquely customize the learning they wish to pursue.

Why is the mentor/mentee exclusive to GSA?
The mentor/mentee program was designed by GSA students and its coordinator as a recognized need for
incoming academy freshman.

Does GSA have language clubs exclusive for academy students?
All students are eligible to participate and join language clubs at Clements HS.

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What is the International Club?
The International Club, also known as I-Club, is an organization that promotes cultural awareness
throughout Clements HS. All CHS students are welcome to join.

Why do GSA students get a separate assistant principal and counselor?
All CHS students have a designated AP and counselor. The current Assistant Principal has responsibility
for all Academy students and 265 other students.

Do all GSA students get bus transportation regardless of how far their residency is from the school?
All academy students residing in Fort Bend ISD are eligible for satellite transportation stops if they live
outside the walk zone of the academy campus.

Does the district have future plans to put all academies in a single location/building and not assigned
to some high schools?
The district is planning to conduct a comprehensive review of all the academies. We will review options
during the next school year.
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