Patrick Patterson

Patrick Patterson began his teaching career in 1981 at Holy Trinity High School in Chicago where he taught algebra and physical education while coaching basketball and baseball. After completing his M.Ed. at Chicago State University in 1983, he moved to Austin where he taught for eight years at Blackshear Elementary School and subsequently served as assistant principal at Summitt Elementary School, principal at Reilly Elementary School and principal at Dobie Middle School. In 1999, Patterson was named principal of Lanier High School, where he remained until 2004. In 2004, as part of the district blueprint initiative, he was named principal of LBJ High School, where he served until 2010. Patterson was the first person in the history of Austin Independent School District (AISD) to have served as principal at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

During his tenure, several of Patterson’s schools earned state and national recognition. Reilly Elementary received the Texas Education Agency’s Commendation Award in 1995-96. Dobie Middle School students and staff were recognized by the AISD School Board fourth highest test score gains in the district in 1997. In 2004, Newsweek ranked Lanier High School 206^th in the top 1200 High Schools in the U.S. Three years later, Newsweek ranked LBJ High School 95^th. In 2009, Newsweek ranked LBJ High School eighth in the country for having high percentages of students enrolled in advanced placement classes while still in high school. The same year, Patterson was named AISD Principal of the Year by Austin Partners in Education. The following year, he was named Administrator of the Year by the Texas Association of Journalism Educators (TAJE) for his stance on the communication of the press in a democratic society.

After retiring from AISD, Mr. Patterson joined the Longhorn Center for School Partnerships (LCSP) at The University of Texas at Austin as assistant vice president. The LCSP served 50,000 pre-college students statewide in Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley. Eighty-five percent of the students served went on to college after graduating from high school, which is significant because the LCSP worked with high-poverty, first-generation students.

In 2014, Patterson was honored by AISD with the H.L. Gaines Award for his continued work in the Austin community.