Looking for Preschool & Elementary (Dallas, Plano: low income, credit, neighborhood)

[american.woman]

Hi, We r an Indian Family. We will be moving to Plano, TX next month, I am looking for elementry schools for my daughter & preschool for my son. i have heard that RISD is better than PISD.. also i have been looking at the feeder schools chart & got to know that JJ Pearson in Richardson & Plano West Senior High school is the best. Am i right? Any elementry school suggestions? also any good preschool. Thanks in advance for the help.

[TurtleCreek80]

Both districts are very good and have among the highest performing students in the North Texas area. The big difference is the school size once kids hit 9th grade. Plano has "mega" schools where kids are in one school for grades 9 & 10 and a senior high school for 11 & 12. The graduating class sizes in each of the 3 senior highs is 1,100-1,500 students. It's definitely a hard district to feel more than "just a number". Richardson has smaller schools and the traditional 9-12 high schools. Graduating classes range from 400-700. There seems to be more school spirit since kids are together for a longer period of time (9-12) and it's more neighborhood/community feeling.

JJ Pearce is definitely the "crown jewel" high school of RISD. Any elementary school that feeds into Pearce is great; they are all rated Exemplary by the TEA

Plano West and Plano Senior are more well regarded than Plano East- though all are top notch. Plano East is in a lower income area and has slightly lower scores. For Plano West, most elementary schools are Exemplary except for Daffron, Hagar, & Jackson (Recognized, 2nd highest rating) and Mitchell (Acceptable, 3rd of 4 ratings). The Shepton HS (9/10) feeder for Plano West appears to have the weakest elementary schools.

Regarding preschool, there is no public preschool unless you are low income. Most preschools are religious based (not necessarily religious schools, just run by churches) or tied to private grade schools. In the Plano area, Prestonwood Baptist probably runs the most well-known one. In Richardson, you are much closer into Dallas and can look at some great programs like Temple Emanu-El, Parish Day School, Greenhill School, etc. Applications are usually due in December-January for the following school year.

[TX75007]

Check out this link.

In general, the objective school rank is a function of National Merit Semi-Finalists (NMSF) percentage, AP Exam results, and number of kids going to Tier 1 colleges. In general, the NMSF rank is a good proxy overall.

National Merit Semi-Finalists: 2008-2012 Cumulative Totals - plus 2013 NMSFs

However, with your children being quite young, these rankings - especially for the publics, may change a bit by the time they are older.

So, public schools:

3.4% Plano West
3.2% Plano Senior
2.8% Highland Park
2.8% Flower Mound (LISD)
2.2% Coppell

Privates or Public "Exam" Schools:

28.4% St. Mark's
23.8% Cistercian
21.7% TAMS
14.7% Hockaday
7.5% Greenhill
6.0% ESD
3.4% Jesuit
2.8% Ursuline

There are some new privates in the northern suburbs that will get on this list as they expand their current middle schools into HS over the next few years.

The only caveat is if your children are profoundly gifted, meaning they have very high intellectual abilities. In general, if they are reading fluently by age four and can do multiplication/division by age 5, then the publics will not be a good fit and you will need to find other options.

There are a number of excellent Prek programs in the West Plano aarea - Plano Day School, Castle Hills Montessori, and the Primrose schools are all excellent.

[fndmom]

To search for preschools the NAEYC has a search function and these are all going to be excellent programs. There are several other great preschools in Plano and Richardson as well. What type of preschool are you looking for? Full time, part time, full day, half day, religious or not. Plano ISD also operates a couple of preschools on a tuition basis (not just low income). I've included some links that may help on the preschool search.

Accredited Program Search | National Association for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC Academy | Accreditation

Early Learning Centers : Plano ISD

Early Childhood Programs : Plano ISD

[FarNorthDallas]

Actually, most of the Indians have left Richardson ISD and have gone to Plano ISD and a few are in Frisco ISD. I work with quite a few of them.

[american.woman]

Hi Farnorthdallas, Do u know the reason of indians being leaving Richardson ISD. My daughter gets along very well with white people rather than Indians. The language we use to communicate with her is ONLY English.

[american.woman]

Thank You Turtlecreek80 & TX75007 for taking out time & writing a detailed reply. I have been going thru the Plano ISD & found Beaty preschool which feeds into Centennial & centennial feeds into excellent schools too.
Also i surfed some preschools like Bright beginnings preschool & teddybear Junction in which they have regular Christianity teaching lessons, which is okay for me & my husband being a Hindu family.
but really confused !

[FarNorthDallas]

Originally Posted by american.woman

Hi Farnorthdallas, Do u know the reason of indians being leaving Richardson ISD. My daughter gets along very well with white people rather than Indians. The language we use to communicate with her is ONLY English.

They believe the schools in Richardson have declined as the numbers of poor Spanish speaking students have increased.

Here are the district demographics:

Plano ISD
11.2% - African-American
18.8% - Hispanic
48.9% - White
.4% - Native American
20.7% - Asian
23.6% - Poor

Richardson ISD
25.1% - AA
35.9% - His
31.3% - White
.4% - NA
7.3% - Asian
55.1% - Poor

Frisco ISD
12.2% - AA
13.1% - His
61.4% - White
.7% - NA
12.7% - Asian
12.8% - Poor

Allen ISD
11.1% - AA
13.0% - His
62.2% - White
.7% - NA
13.0% - Asian
16.0% - Poor

[american.woman]

Originally Posted by TX75007

Check out this link.

In general, the objective school rank is a function of National Merit Semi-Finalists (NMSF) percentage, AP Exam results, and number of kids going to Tier 1 colleges. In general, the NMSF rank is a good proxy overall.

National Merit Semi-Finalists: 2008-2012 Cumulative Totals - plus 2013 NMSFs

However, with your children being quite young, these rankings - especially for the publics, may change a bit by the time they are older.

So, public schools:

3.4% Plano West
3.2% Plano Senior
2.8% Highland Park
2.8% Flower Mound (LISD)
2.2% Coppell

Privates or Public "Exam" Schools:

28.4% St. Mark's
23.8% Cistercian
21.7% TAMS
14.7% Hockaday
7.5% Greenhill
6.0% ESD
3.4% Jesuit
2.8% Ursuline

There are some new privates in the northern suburbs that will get on this list as they expand their current middle schools into HS over the next few years.

The only caveat is if your children are profoundly gifted, meaning they have very high intellectual abilities. In general, if they are reading fluently by age four and can do multiplication/division by age 5, then the publics will not be a good fit and you will need to find other options.

There are a number of excellent Prek programs in the West Plano aarea - Plano Day School, Castle Hills Montessori, and the Primrose schools are all excellent.

Hi TX75007- I may sound dumb but what is NMSF is all about? I mean does that mean that 3.4 % of the plano west students got yhe scorlership? or 3.4% of the plano west applied for it? i read thru their website but i cudnt get it.
& the percentage difference is so big in public & private schools?
Thanks again for ur help.

[Big G]

Originally Posted by american.woman

Hi TX75007- I may sound dumb but what is NMSF is all about? I mean does that mean that 3.4 % of the plano west students got yhe scorlership? or 3.4% of the plano west applied for it? i read thru their website but i cudnt get it.
& the percentage difference is so big in public & private schools?
Thanks again for ur help.

NMSF is short for National Merit Semi-Finalist. The list is derived from the results of a national test (PSAT) administered in the fall of 11th grade. The cutoff to qualify as a NMSF is (I believe) a test result in the top 0.5% of the students in your state. So, if the Plano schools have 3% or more of their kids qualifying for this, they are performing at a rate 6X that of the average school.

(Actually getting such a scholarship can depend on factors unrelated to intelligence, so the NMSF qualification is a better measure than the number of scholarship winners.)

The public schools are educating kids from the full spectrum of academic potential. The private schools can cherry-pick only those kids with significant native intelligence. As a result, the percentages are going to be significantly boosted for the private schools.