Are Richardson North Junior High School, and J.J. Pearce High School good schools? (Dallas: fit in)

[panacea1982]

We are living in Frisco right now but may purchase a home in Canyon Creek neighborhood in Richardson. Are Richardson North Junior High School, and J.J. Pearce High School good schools? We basically compared their rankings on US News with middle school and high school in Frisco. Both seem less popular than Frisco schools. We have friends who lived in Richardson but moved to Plano because of the schools. So we just wanted to see people's opinions.

[NP78]

Originally Posted by panacea1982

We are living in Frisco right now but may purchase a home in Canyon Creek neighborhood in Richardson. Are Richardson North Junior High School, and J.J. Pearce High School good schools? We basically compared their rankings on US News with middle school and high school in Frisco. Both seem less popular than Frisco schools. We have friends who lived in Richardson but moved to Plano because of the schools. So we just wanted to see people's opinions.

Pearce is very well regarded. If comparing to Frisco, it looks like Pearce fares worse on standardized exams but once you delve into it the difference is basically just a different demographic mix. To put it bluntly, Frisco has a much larger Asian population which produces very high metrics in that regard. Pearce also more economic diversity (30% economically disadvantaged compared to 10-15% in Frisco generally).

Canyon Creek is one of my favorite neighborhoods in DFW, good luck if you decide to make the move.

[ilovepizza1975]

Pearce is well-regarded. Richardson High School has essentially caught up with Pearce reputation-wise.

Careful what you say about the schools in Richardson; comparing them to Frisco schools won't win you many friends there. People in Richardson fiercely support their public schools.

[FarNorDFW]

Originally Posted by panacea1982

We are living in Frisco right now but may purchase a home in Canyon Creek neighborhood in Richardson. Are Richardson North Junior High School, and J.J. Pearce High School good schools? We basically compared their rankings on US News with middle school and high school in Frisco. Both seem less popular than Frisco schools. We have friends who lived in Richardson but moved to Plano because of the schools. So we just wanted to see people's opinions.

What do you consider a good school?

If your students are advanced track, then Pearce will be a good school to you. Poster up thread is right, the demographic mix is just different between Frisco schools and Pearce. That saiid, the Frisco schools will have nicer amenities (esp in middle school), though it feels like RISD has been updating Pearce for four years now.

If you’re living in Canyon Creek and your kids are advanced track, and moving improves your commute, then it’s probably a fine trade off. Prestonwood, zoned to Brentfield Elementary in particular, might also be of interest to you.

[MurphyPl1]

Part of Canyon Creek is in Plano ISD and will feed to Plano Sr. It's the northern part in Collin Co.

[mastershake575]

The top 50% of the school is still top tier. The problem of Pearce and a reason why the rankings have tanked was pre 2010 they were very strict about the disadvantaged kids living south of Arapahoe having to go to Richardson high and not Pearce. Once they started to split the economically disadvantaged kids up between the two high schools pearces overall rankings took a hit.

Someone on this board was able to skew the stats to disclude economically disadvantaged kids about a year ago and when they did that Pearce was like 4th or 5th highest in all of North Texas for percentage of kids that where considered college ready (there top end is still strong).

Unless your kids are in remedial classes or goof off electives then I don't see any reason why Pearce wouldn't be considered a great school

As someone mentioned above me be careful with zoning for Canyon Creek. The Collin county line runs through Custer cove. If your in the Collin county portion the schools take a slight hit but your property taxes are significantly cheaper.

[TeamLynn]

Just a couple of thoughts.

#1. Where do your kids fit in? Does it help if you go to a top ranked school, but your kid is in the bottom 50%? Does that pull them up, or make things difficult for them?

#2. They're probably too young at this point, but if they have an idea of where they want to go to college or even if they want to go to college, then you might think about how going to a really tough school helps or hurts that. Someone more knowledgeable than me an probably advise you, but isn't it only top 8% or something like that can go to top Texas universities? So if you have even just above average student, but they go super competitive school, then they might fall below that and then get to go to OU, OSU or Uof Arkansas. Maybe if you put them in a smaller or less competitive school district and they're above average they graduate #1 or #2 in the class, then they get to go where they want to go and maybe even get some great scholarships.

#3 if they want to be the 1-2-3 kids from their school that go to UCLA, an Ivy League, Stanford, or a smaller liberal arts school, then my guess is they just need good grades, decent class ranking, and be good well rounded student and some luck to get in. I seriously doubt the admissions person at Harvard is looking at which school they attended and how it was ranked as an admissions decision. They're looking at the kid and their performance and chance of success.

#4 another thing I think most parents don't consider and I think I would in today's world if you can guess 4-8 years ahead is what is offered at each school and how that correlates with your kid's interest. Does the school teach Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, or Japanese? Do they have marching band or symphony? Do they have rocketry as a 3rd or 4th year science elective. Some schools have some pretty nice electives now for science and math and maybe some other areas, so if your kid is interested in some of those areas I would be checking those out. Probably most of the schools offer plenty of AP classes now, so if your kid is on that track and has that kind of motivation, I would check out what exactly is offered. Same with the dual credit classes. I see some kids graduating today with Associates Degree with HS senior graduation. That can be a big money saver in college in the right circumstances. Might also look to see if they have certain curriculum tracks like IB. No idea, but I would think that might make a difference to certain college admissions.

#5....just one more thing to think about....kid of a guy I worked with many years ago. He's from Vietnam and had been here for a few years, but the girl was left behind in Vietnam. Comes here to start 9th grade. Did not speak any English. Goes to what most people would say was one of the worst schools in Dallas. Graduates #1 in her class. Teachers loved her and seemed to embrace her because she studied and was a great student and was interested. Gets full ride I think to MIT. So you don't always have to go to the best ranked school to be a success. Game room at their house is called a study room. No games, just desks and books. I got the impression she was at home studying about 4 hours after school every day. I've read plenty of example like that the past couple of years.