Houston's Top High Schools - Ranked by SAT's (2012 scores) (San Antonio: transfer to, best school)

[Meyerland]

Not sure how much trumpeting Eastwood gets here? Just heard about it myself this week, and I have been on city data for a awhile. maybe you are talking about my thread. That thread is just to provide information on districts in the area. More information can not be bad for people who move here, and it is an option if you live on the east side. Will it replace a school like Cinco ranch HS or memorial???no.

[14Bricks]

Originally Posted by Bad Haggis

Send them to a very poor school in HISD and you'll get a street smart valedictorian with a free ride to college.

lol, that's right, get into the top ten percent of your class and get a automatic admission into UT or A&M.

[fnh]

Here is a link to the Lamar profile stating the policy change per all students taking the SAT:
http://www.houstonisd.org/cms/lib2/T...s_2012-_13.pdf

You can actually see the drop in mean SAT scores from 2011 to 2012 (after policy implemented) while the ACT scores (not required) increased.

Lamar looks darn attractive.

[14Bricks]

Originally Posted by LizzySWW

I just looked into what you posted and TEA's website doesn't show 100% of Lamar(HISD) 11th graders taking the SAT. However, your post make me curious, so I randomly picked the following schools & looked up the % of 11th graders who took the SAT last year. All schools I looked up show 80%+ of 11th graders taking the SAT. (Taylor, Eastwood, Bellaire, Carnegie, Stephen F. Austin)

Looks like it's pretty normal for most 11th graders to take the SAT (in the better schools anyway). I wonder if schools or parents are pushing this? I guess it's a smart thing to do, since studies show that scores generally increase with more practice.



Seriously, can't you at least give it a rest with school info threads?



Houston beats the suburbs for the top "regular" school with Memorial HS. But you're right, unless your kid is in the 2% that can make it into Carnegie or Debakey Medical HS, the burbs are generally a better option.




Yeah, me too. I'd pay close attention to this school if I was looking in the outter-ring suburbs. Richmond is very pretty too (I've only been to a few Ranches though, not the newer subdivisions).



Eastwood is on the list because its had some buzz on the forum lately. It's a school by admission only (primarily looks for the best GPA applicants), so it's weird that their SAT averages are so low. But I assume that's because it's a 98% economically disadvantaged school.

Memorial is a spring branch school not HISD. So technically it's a suburban school too.

[DanielWayne]

Originally Posted by Meyerland

Not sure how much trumpeting Eastwood gets here? Just heard about it myself this week, and I have been on city data for a awhile. maybe you are talking about my thread. That thread is just to provide information on districts in the area. More information can not be bad for people who move here, and it is an option if you live on the east side. Will it replace a school like Cinco ranch HS or memorial???no.

Sorry, didn't mean that. In fact I didn't see your thread. I was referring to some over-the-top discussion that was on here in the past 1-2 years and still manages to pop up every once in a while just like people finding obscure reasons to link something to the president.

This SAT score list would be good for the people that want to move here with the Clements-or-nothing mentality. Your kid can still become a neurosurgeon or particle physicist if he/she attends any other Sugar Land, Katy, or Pearland school.

[jerbear30]

Originally Posted by Bad Haggis

The avg score in the US is 1500 out of 2400. Why is Eastwood even on this list??? Westside??? Anything below the top 10 posted arent good enough to be worth mentioning.

I think when you are thinking about public education, you have to kind of think of a lot of kids. I mean, the top ten are probably there for a reason, but they accommodate a very small amount of kids in the Houston metro. Perhaps the list was expanded to show the potential of some other schools?

[Meyerland]

I believe the average SAT score is 1500, with a perfect score of 2400.

I know many parents who start getting professional and expensive tutoring for their children starting in first and second grade. I can only imagine what it is like by middle school and high school. I think this pushes SAT score up in the upper and middle class burbs. It's bound to happen.

I was shocked at how Westside scored. I wonder what is going on over there? Is it like Lamar and testing more kids?

I know there is an AP and IB program results somewhere on the internet. If you have that that info, I know many parents would love that.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by Dopo

To me this list says more about the neighborhood where the school is locate than the actual school.

THIS.

There may be a subset of underperforming kids at a school, bringing the average down. It would be interesting to see the range and the median along with the average.

You are seeing an average score. Sending your child to one of these schools will not mean your child gets that score on the SAT. He or she will do either better or worse than that. It gives you a sense of the potential of the school; these are obviously all good schools. To take more than that away is to do a poor job of reading data.

[Kiovo]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

THIS.

You are seeing an average score. Sending your child to one of these schools will not mean your child gets that score on the SAT. He or she will do either better or worse than that. It gives you a sense of the potential of the school; these are obviously all good schools. To take more than that away is to do a poor job of reading data.

Well said Some parents put too much emphasis on their children going to certain schools because of academics. Academics is only part of the learning and growing process.

[LizzySWW]

Originally Posted by 14Bricks

lol, that's right, get into the top ten percent of your class and get a automatic admission into UT or A&M.

I hear you, but.......If you look into it you'll see what I've found. Kids in the top 10% of lower performing schools are largely kicked out of UT & A&M after their freshman year due to grades. They aren't prepared for the rigor. You can be in the top 5% at say....Kashmere HS but you probably aren't nearly as qualified as a kid in the upper 50% of Cinco Ranch HS.

If you want a source on this I'll have to get back to you, I have several current & reliable links to this info in my computer somewhere.

Originally Posted by fnh

Here is a link to the Lamar profile stating the policy change per all students taking the SAT:
http://www.houstonisd.org/cms/lib2/T...s_2012-_13.pdf

You can actually see the drop in mean SAT scores from 2011 to 2012 (after policy implemented) while the ACT scores (not required) increased.

Lamar looks darn attractive.

Lamar is the 2nd best school in HISD (excluding specialized schools) so it's definitely an attractive option.

But like I said before, TEA says that most of the better schools show that over 80% of 11th graders take the SAT. So Lamar's SAT average is on a level playing field. Or am I missing something? I could be looking at it the wrong way, I'm working on a few hours of sleep today! :-)

Originally Posted by 14Bricks

Memorial is a spring branch school not HISD. So technically it's a suburban school too.

A school near the 610 loop is in a suburb of Houston??

Memorial HS is in the city of Houston and close to the 610 loop just like Bellaire HS, it's also close to 610 inside the city of Houston.

Memorial and Bellaire are close-in old neighborhoods, but they aren't in "the suburbs". Generally speaking, Houston suburbs are outside of Beltway 8 and the Grand Parkway.......and even further beyond ex: The Woodlands, Clear Lake, Friendswood.