Westwood vs Anderson (Austin, Round Rock, Canyon: house, transfer, neighborhoods)

[paul6835]

I'm looking at homes that feed these 2 high schools. Looking for the boards thoughts on:


1. Demographics. Income, race, religion, etc. I realize this can be a touchy subject, but please don't withhold details.
2. AISD vs RRISD, does it matter which one?
3. Community involvement
4. Thoughts on the elementary schools and where thier boundries are (I can't believe its so hard to find this online)
5. Any other words of caution, give me the dirt
6. What % of kids feed to top schools (Ivies, Stanford, Chicago, Northwestern, etc)
7. Sports. I realize these aren't LT or WL, but do these schools even field competitive teams?

thanks!

[cwl1994]

So I am a student at Anderson but I live at the Anderson/Westwood border, so I know much of the teens perspective from both schools.

First off they are both top ranked schools and both in the top 4% of schools in the nation. RRISD has a stronger reputation for better schools. Anderson would be much more top ranking if they didn't allow transfers from the East Side AISD schools. AISD operates 11 zoned high schools, of which only 4 are really of any good standards. And of that 4, Anderson far excels past the others. From the 7 other schools, they can get transfers to other school and kids do. So you will find a much higher 'ghetto' population at Anderson than at Westwood due to transfers. The population of Anderson is still VERY WHITE AND VERY PREPPY so don't get scared of sending your kids there. Also I am in IB classes (both Anderson and Westwood are IB) and I don't really spend time with transfers because they aren't in the higher level classes but they will boost rankings. On the note about Rankings, Westwood is VERY high percentage of Asians and it is much harder to get in the top 8% there than at Anderson.

Work load between the two schools is pretty even though you may have to try harder at Westwood than at Anderson.

Boundaries for Anderson: Hill Elementary is the zoned area in northwest hills North of spicewood springs rd and also nearly everything west of 360, north of 2222, and south of 183. With a small exception of a part of great hills north of Rain Creek (around floral park) will go to Davis elementary. Doss Elementary is northwest hills south of spicewood springs road, west of mopac, and east of 360, and north of 2222. Davis Elementary is as i mentioned that small part of great hills area, balcones woods, and millwood west of the trains tracks. Summit Elementary is millwood east of the train tracks. Obviously since I went to Anderson I know the boundaries (and my dad is a relator) much better than an average kid. Do not hold every street to my word though, this is more of less just what I have observed from friends but this is over 90% accurate i'm sure.
Boundaries for Westwood: Now I know much less about westwood but I know Great Hills area around Yaupon as well as a part of the canyon near the spicewood golf coarse goes to Laurel Mountain. The rest of the RRISD portion of Great Hills goes to Kathy something? elementary. Spicewood Elementary takes the rest of the area around balcones country club not super close to spicewood springs road. Canyon Creek takes the canyon creek neighborhood further north around Anderson Mill Rd and 620. Purple Sage and Anderson Mill, I have no idea their boundaries. However, those are much more middle class neighborhoods than the rest of Anderson and Westwood so I doubt you are considering there.
Hill, Doss, Laurel Mountain and Spicewood are all super excellent elementary. I'm sure all are blue ribbion and have been recognized so many times for being great schools, and also ranked Excellent. Homes in Doss and Hill can be expensive, and so can Laurel Mountain. I went to Hill and loved it, but live by Laurel Mountain and know many kids who loved it there too.

Religion can play a role at both schools. Anderson and Westwood are both highly fratty and those kids do tend to like religion. Income, both schools are Upper-middle class schools, with Anderson area being more affluent overall. If you want to go swimming, lets say, especially in Anderson area, you won't have a problem finding someone with a pool. I believe the free or reduced lunch percentage for Anderson is 22% and for Westwood is 13% but that goes back to the whole transfer thing I talked about earlier. State Average is MUCH higher. Whites and the most at both schools and there is a very large population of Asians at westwood. Anderson still has many asians. Anderson has many more african americans and mexicans than westwood. But at the elementary level, Anderson's elementaries are much more white than westwoods. I'm not raciest in the slightest and I love the transfer kids because they do deserve more chances than maybe what is given to them at home. Anderson kids live at the border of central Austin and because of that you will find their mindset over all to be much more liberal than westwood kids. Comparing my friends to westwood friends, westwood kids for fun will sometimes go downtown but mostly hang out around the westwood area while Anderson kids will not hesitate to go to downtown, or even just stroll thru central austin. Anderson is about 500 kids less than Westwood, if that is any useful information. One word of caution though: Anderson is known to be extremely clickly. There are tons of clicks in Anderson and they are everyone. You really only hang out with one group of kids. But everyone likes the system that way because you have quite a few best friends and less just sometime friends. We have had a documentary filmed in the early 2000s about clicks.

Sports: Both Anderson and Westwood are great at Dance. Both football programs are okay. I know Anderson has a strong wrestling, golf, and basketball programs. EVeryone at Anderson loves to go out to house park and watch the football games. No idea about westwoods, sorry.

Community involvement: Both schools have a great community involvement. You can produce great schools like these two without so much involvement from the community. Parents will do anything the teachers need at both schools.

I tried to be unbiased in this post but obviously I know much more about Anderson. You can't go wrong with either school though, and don't let AISD or 'transfers' scare you from sending kids to Anderson! It is a great school and you can find that your kid will thrive in any environment and will find their own good group of friends and will not really be influenced by 'ghetto' kids if that is a worry. Still going to westwood is a great choice!

[OpenD]

Well, I have to comment... I found your post to be extremely well written and interesting, so that speaks well of Anderson's quality of education.

One polishing point, the word you want is "clique," not "click.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Well, I have to comment... I found your post to be extremely well written and interesting, so that speaks well of Anderson's quality of education.

One polishing point, the word you want is "clique," not "click.

I found it to be filled with offensive racial connotations like, "Anderson is still VERY WHITE AND VERY PREPPY so don't get scared of sending your kids there." Well, THANK GOODNESS. I would hate to have to send my kids to school with too many of those scary, non-white kids.

But all those Asians at Westwood may be a problem.

[Idlewile]

The borders for elem schools (and all schools) in RRISD are on the RRISD website: Round Rock ISD : School Boundaries & Map


Ultimately, we chose to be in the Westwood track because of the exemplary feeder schools coupled with the fact that you can get a lot more house for your money in those areas vs. the Anderson zoned area we would want to live (the neighborhoods surrounding Anderson itself). Proximity to work, makes our chosen area a little more appealing too. Westwood is often considered "the best", aside from Westlake, so that's icing, I suppose.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by mm57553

I found it to be filled with offensive racial connotations like, "Anderson is still VERY WHITE AND VERY PREPPY so don't get scared of sending your kids there." Well, THANK GOODNESS. I would hate to have to send my kids to school with too many of those scary, non-white kids.

But all those Asians at Westwood may be a problem.

I dont think it is wrong at all for people to want to be with people like themselves. It is the reality of human nature. Whether that means culturally, ethnically or socio economically I dont think any of those reasons are invalid.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by Austin97

I dont think it is wrong at all for people to want to be with people like themselves. It is the reality of human nature. Whether that means culturally, ethnically or socio economically I dont think any of those reasons are invalid.

There's a difference between wanting to be with people similar to yourself and being scared of people who are "non-white."

[FueledByBlueBell]

You all realize that a kid wrote this, and while he used the word "scared" no one mentioned anything about being scared of different races.

[cwl1994]

Well some people say oh Anderson is a ghetto place but my experience it is very preppy and very white... and far from ghetto. The OP said that it could be a touchy subject so I was just saying what I have experienced. I have no problem with anyone from any race but if I have kids growing up, I wouldn't send them to a school with a ghetto environment.

[FueledByBlueBell]

Originally Posted by cwl1994

Well some people say oh Anderson is a ghetto place but my experience it is very preppy and very white... and far from ghetto. The OP said that it could be a touchy subject so I was just saying what I have experienced. I have no problem with anyone from any race but if I have kids growing up, I wouldn't send them to a school with a ghetto environment.

Your answer is appreciated and probably quite useful, but do know that the word "ghetto" really refers to an area populated by a single group resigned to that area because of racial, religious or economic reasons. What you are driving at is that you wouldn't want to send your kid to a school where the students weren't performing as high academically, which usually comes as a result of distractions. Kids from lower income environments typically perform lower academically because they live in a less stable envelopment-- and typically one that is facing economic challenges. Areas that are populated by a large percentage of "minorities" (though some are now the majority) do tend to be less economically stable because they are newer to this country and are establishing themselves economically-- therefore perform lower academically.

"Ghetto kids" might be the quicker way and more logical way to summarize everything I've said above, however, it does tend to convey a feeling of racism. As a kid you get a pass but this is probably good information to noodle over.

It is a tough call- do you send your kid to a school with more diversity so they can learn from different cultures or do you go with a school that has a history of high academic performance? Granted, these are questions for those that can afford to ask them. You then start to ask how to improve the performance of those schools with lower graduation rates, lower test scores, lower number of kids who go to college and/or move into a career.

So back to the OP's question- are most kids at Westwood doing well or a small subset that is skewing the numbers? Is performance more consistent at Anderson?