John F. Kennedy Elementary is located in the North Region of the Houston Independent School District in Houston, Texas. Kennedy is approximately four miles from Downtown Houston and sits in the middle of Independent Heights which is the first Black City in Texas.
John F. Kennedy Elementary is one of seven elementary schools that make up the Booker T. Washington High School Feeder Pattern. Like the other six elementary schools in the feeder pattern, Kennedy is a School-Wide Title I school. Kennedy has a student population of 515 students in grades pre-kindergarten through fifth grade with the pre-kindergarten students attending full day. Kennedy Elementary offers a variety of academic programs including, Neighborhood Gifted and Talented, Speech, Life skills, and Inclusion for resource students. In addition to these programs, Kennedy offers Bilingual Education in pre-kindergarten through fourth grade and English as a Second Language in kindergarten through fifth grades. To meet the needs of the student population, Kennedy has a full time Communities in Schools program that provides Social Services to all students and parents on an as needed basis. Some of the services are tutoring, mentorship, and the Foster Grandparents that provide much needed emotional support to students experiencing emotional and physical separation from loved ones. At John F. Kennedy fifty-eight percent of the students are Hispanic, forty-one percent are African American, and one percent is Anglo and/or Asian. The 2007-2008 student attendance-rate was ninety-seven percent while our mobility rate was 12%. Approximately 93% of our students are considered economically disadvantaged. At Kennedy, 96% of students receive free and reduced lunch. Special Education students make up approximately 3% of our population and our GT population is at 4%. The average years of experience for teachers at Kennedy, is 9 years. We embrace the diversity of our student population and accept the challenge of creating a warm and caring learning community. The Kennedy Family believes that 100% our students will achieve at high levels with no excuses.
The John F. Kennedy Mission is student development. We work to release the inherent intellectual capacity of all children, build their self esteem and affirm their right to learn. The Vision is a school dedicated to producing successive generations of students prepared to constructively participate in society. The Kennedy Creed is…We commit ourselves to break the cycle of underdevelopment that restrains so many of our children of color. We will disprove the myth that these children cannot learn at high levels consistently. The Kennedy Motto is 100% NO EXCUSES!
While Kennedy sits in the middle of a low social-economic area, we believe in excellence. Our goal is always a 100% passing rate on all tested curriculum areas. Kennedy received the Academic Rating of Recognized from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the school years 2004 and 2007. The school earned the highest rating of Exemplary from the TEA in 2006 and 2008. Kennedy has also been recognized as a Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC) Honor Roll School for 2006, 2007, and 2008.
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About Kennedy 
