Thurgood Marshall High School

I graduated from Thurgood Marshall in 2009. And it certainly did not prepare me for college. Of course I was a star athelete and had multiple scholarship offers in football, but all my hopes and dreams of letting footbal be my ticket went down the drain after having 2 knee surgeries. There is no community involvement, the moral of the school tended to be low. I am not sure how much it has changed but gangs was a real big ordeal at my time of going to Marshall '05-'09. Since I have been out of High School 80 of my fellow classmates that I know are in jail. And at least 9 have been killed since 2009 (currently 2012). It is not totaly the school or the teachers fault. The district adds fuel to the demise of Thurgood Marshall, by not paying it any attention and most definitely giving it no support what so ever. At one point the school had started to pick up and become "succesful", but the district does not want that for a prodominetly African-American school. How do I know? Because any minute piece of success or positive light that comes to the school wether it be academic or sports related, count on the district to "re-zone students" or "Reassign adminstrators/teachers".
—Submitted by a student

From what I have observed, Marshall is a great school with wonderful teachers, students and an outstanding principal. They have had problems in the past but things have definitely turned around for the better. Bad language, student conduct and parent involvement have all made a tremendous change for the better. Students now enjoy going to the school and student expectations are much higher than ever before.Last year the graduating class of 2012 at Marshall HS had the second highest dollar amount of scholarships awarded in FBISD. Marshall is on the right path to become one of the most outstanding schools in Fort Bend ISD. GREAT JOB BUFFS! Keep up the good work!
—Submitted by a parent

If you are looking for a school that is going to challenge your child with a High School level curriculum, then go elsewhere!!! Marshall is a complete cake walk when it comes to teaching. In my English IV class we learned for 2 weeks about compound sentences..... seriously. Almost all of the teachers are there just to get there paycheck, so don't tell me how much the they are committed. All in all, Marshall is for a fact a below average school. I believe most 7th curriculum would surpass Marshall's 12th graders.

TMHS is a very good high school. The administration is committed to student excellence. The teachers are committed to educating the students placed in their charge. As a teacher of elective classes, I want to teach and not have to handle the discipline problems of students who do not want to learn and refuse to learn. Because they do not wan to learn, they disrupt the instructional time of their classmates. This also results in low TAKS scores. In several of my classes, I have great students and they enjoy learning the subjects. When the disruptive students are absent, I accomplish what I want to students to learn for the day. In order for us to do our jobs, parents have to do their job and not come up to the school and act unprofessional and disrespectful to the teacher. Remember we are their to educate your children.
—Submitted by a teacher

This school has no sound leadership and coupled with total disorder is a formula for failure . But I'm not going to put all the blame on the administration because half of the problems are sorry, lazy, disrespectful students that disrupt the classroom and keep the astute ones from learning.

My son has attended since 9th grade and is a senior this year. He is in the engineering program and participates in sports. He has received a good education in my view and the teachers he has had are very qualified and supportive. One complaint is all of the district's administrative rules/guidelines that seem to be administered so harshly to all instead of focusing on the bad apples. Unfortunately, there is a one size fits all approach.The school has areas for improvement, but I believe this principle is trying to address those issues. Parent's should stay on the administration to make sure students' needs are met.
—Submitted by a parent

This school is totally incompetent. My son started school on Aug. 8, 2009 and now it is Sept. 9, 2009 and still he has no textbooks. This is totally unacceptable and unprofessional. This type of attitude and situation setup students for failure. Whenever I call about this problem, I get some lame excuse 'They will be issued tomorrow or next week'.
—Submitted by a parent

My son has attended Marshall since 9th grade and will be graduating in 2009. Overall his grades are good even though the math department is lacking teachers. I suggest parents get involved and stay involved. Support your children in what ever their interest may be.
—Submitted by a parent

My son attended from 2006-07 and [frankly] it was the worst educational experience he has ever had. There was little regard for academics and most of the focus was given to sports or general disciplinary actions. Given the external community is largely middle-class, this still didn't result in a positive outcome toward the academic environment at Marshall. Simply stated, don't send your child to this school!
—Submitted by Lonnie, a parent

Thurgood Marshall is a good school. If you are involved you would know this. Those that are not involved feed off of the negative hear say. Get involved and see for yourself. Get to know the teachers and students. Marshall has received more scholarship money than the other schools in Ft. Bend and I am not just talking athletics, but academics.
—Submitted by InvolvedParent, a parent

I loved being at TMHS. I think its wrong to blame everything on the school. I went there and never got into a fight or even wrote up. I was a cheerleader and excelled in my grades. A school is made up of the children and they are made up of what their parents have taught them. I graduated top 10 percent in 05 and now am about to graduate from the University of Texas. The teachers were great and caring and the education, good. Of course there are always things that could be changed for the better, but I wouldn't change being at Marshall for anything.
—Submitted by a student

My child used to attend Marshall, but we removed her because of the lack of importance placed upon academics. Real high schools place more emphasis on academics.
—Submitted by a parent

While parents say that Marshall is ruff and i do agree, i feel that parents dont look at the other side of the situation. I didnt even want to allow the thought of my son attending Marshall. Then I realized that if i put him at a school where he didnt want to be, he wouldnt try like i knew he could. So i enrolled him for one semester and i he shocked me with his performance. He made honor roll his freshman year and was starting running back for the football team. I have a daughter attending now and i have full faith she will come out like her brother. My son graduated class of 2007, and he recieved a football scholarship to Georgia Tech. As a parent i suggest you give Marshall a chance.
—Submitted by a parent

It's an excellent school. Has the best athletic department. Think about it, if your child is in sports, they have to maintain a high enough GPA. I think this is a motivational tool.
—Submitted by G Shorter, a parent

The worst high school ever. My child attended from 9th -12th grade. Very unsafe!
—Submitted by a parent

This school is unsafe. There are too many people getting into figths.
—Submitted by Mike Jones, a student