[7] Lee's multi-ethnic population changes parallel Houston's immigration waves, beginning with the Vietnamese families in the early 1980s.

[8] Stacey Childress, author of Transforming Public Education: Cases in Education Entrepreneurship, wrote that in the mid-1990s Lee "was one of Houston's most feared schools" due to the surrounding area having one of the highest rates of juvenile crime in the state and due to being the school with the lowest rate of English fluency in Houston.

[11] In 2007, a study by Johns Hopkins University and the Associated Press referred to Lee among American high schools designated as "dropout factories", where at least 40% of the entering freshman class does not make it to their senior year.

[22] Xochitl Rodriguez-Davila was promoted from HISD's Stonewall Jackson Middle School leader to become Robert E. Lee's 18th principal (its 14th since 1990) in July 2010.

[citation needed] During that summer Newsweek ranked Lee HS among the "America's Best High Schools" list.

[27] In 2010 Lisa Falkenberg said "The Lee of today, with its crumbling façade and graffiti on nearby buildings, is far from the glistening school on the prairie that opened in 1962 to relieve overcrowding at prestigious Lamar High.

[30] During that year, HISD reported that two distinct portions of the 49-year-old main school building's foundation are sinking into the ground at different rates.

[32] They are drawn largely from its attendance zone, which borders include Bellaire Blvd., Gessner Road, Buffalo Bayou and IH 610 West.

Football, cheerleading, and country club sports such as swimming, tennis, and golf were significant draws with numerous awards, records, and All-American recognition.

[34] In 2010 Harvin Moore, Lee's HISD school board trustee, said "There is no high school in Houston that has a more unique and difficult challenge with respect to a significant portion of the children who attend there," citing the concentration of older, immigrant students who come from third world countries and often lack basic education.

[33] In a 2003 article by the Houston Press, Amstutz stated, referring to the "Hispanic" designation, "But that covers from Nuevo Laredo to Tierra del Fuego.

In one campus, its students seem to personify every major socio-economic problem and demographic challenge facing urban schools today.

Successful, statewide award winning distributive teaching programs in Metal-fabrication and Woodworking have been built in recent years, as well.

[citation needed] In 2010, Lee had improved its state mandated TAKS test scores significantly, yet was named academically "unacceptable" by the TEA, due to its 30% dropout rate.

It was subject to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) "turnaround" model for reforming schools in jeopardy of closing, including replacing the administration and much of the existing faculty.

A March 2009 Houston Chronicle article stated that the student body took approximately 550 AP tests; eight times the number taken in 2004.

[23] Responding to the Newsweek ranking, HISD superintendent Terry Grier said "The efforts at Lee High School to encourage more students to take college-level courses are to be commended.

We must raise the level of achievement for all students, and it is for this reason that we will be initiating the Apollo 20 project at Lee in the next school year.

We will continue to build on the work you and your colleagues have done so that we can ensure that every child in our school district receives a quality education that will prepare him or her for college and career success.

Marla Morrow, a former student quoted in Education Week, said that prospective members of the Key Club were required to reproduce the financial statements of their parents.

[7] Robert E. Lee HS currently plays a full complement of UIL girls and boys varsity sports in District 21-4A, along with HISD's Waltrip, Davis, Yates, Sharpstown, Reagan, & Austin High Schools.

[5] American football games were the primary outlet of this rivalry, but it manifested itself in other ways; in 1975 Gregory Curtis of the Texas Monthly wrote that "the respective Key Clubs know year by year which club has sold more grapefruit in the Christmas drive and more tickets to the spring Pancake Breakfast.

"[46] According to Curtis, the rivalry "is as natural as it is intense" because the schools had students from the same social class and general geographic area.

[6] Steve Amstutz, the principal, explained that Lee founded the team to teach students how to learn to commit to a goal and to give them an activity that would keep them involved and attending school.

[53] Swimming and Diving was one of the school's outstanding programs in the 1980s and 1990s with swimmers and divers achieving All-American recognition and district, regional and state titles.

Two alumni, Tom Behrman, and John Carloss, began discussing possibilities of charitable activity with the school administration, including donating to the Lee NEXT STEP Fund, a nonprofit fund that places Lee students in career and university preparatory programs; mentoring; and holding speaking events.

[60] A significant number of Lee's students now come from the Gulfton community, a group of apartment complexes housing recent immigrants.

[7] Other areas zoned to Lee include Uptown Houston, St. George Place (Lamar Terrace), Larchmont, Briargrove,[61] Shenandoah,[62] Tanglewood, Tanglewilde, Briar Meadow, Briarcroft, Woodlake, West Oaks, Jeanetta, the Houston ISD portions of Piney Point Village and Hunters Creek Village, Sharpstown Country Club Estates, and small portions of Westchase east of Gessner Road.

[63] Lee High School served all areas within the Westside attendance boundary until its 2000 opening, including Walnut Bend, Briargrove Park, and Rivercrest.

[64] The pre-2000 Lee attendance zone bordered City of Bellaire, the communities of Alief and Spring Branch, and Greater Katy.