Best School Plan for College Prep

[centralaustinite]

I am a proud UT alum with two grad degrees from the place but sheesh! It is hardly the only option for an undergraduate degree. And many MANY quality schools will jump (and provide significant aid) to students who did well at LASA, Westwood, Westlake etc as long as you are in the top 1/3 of the class. No one pays list prices at these schools unless your income is well north of $250,000 a year.

[G Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by philopower

No offense but how do your kids know that they are interested in engineering? They´re kids.

I wonder about that, too. All through grade school and middle school, my son thought he would go into physics. He had always expressed this desire, although in his leisure time, he read history. As he progressed through high school, it became apparent (to him and us) that although he got advanced placement in math, he was good but not crazy about math and science. By the middle of his freshman year in high school, he was passionate about history and political science. He is now half way through his masters degree in political science and is doing outstanding work. It certainly would have been easier for him to plan a career (and probably more lucrative) had he stayed in math and science, but it was not where his skills and passions were. You can't always tell when they are kids where their potential lies.

[PrimusPilus]

This might not be related to the OP's queries, but I'm surprised at the latest US News rankings. They do not conform in any way to the latest TEA ratings (Ex: Westwood vs Westlake) Obviously different metrics. But which metric can be trusted more for college prep/readiness?

[sloppymeg]

Originally Posted by janineg

I haven't moved to Austin yet myself (getting ready to sell our house soon, then moving in early summer), but I thought that for public schools, Grandview Hills in LISD might be interesting. It's an IB school, and I think that they're supposed to be more hands on.
But I also found a group on Facebook that is called "Central Texas Gifted and Talented": https://www.facebook.com/groups/343030809114328/ If you join it, you could try asking your question there.

Just an FYI-
One of the students in my son's class moved from Grandview Hills to our current school because Grandview Hill's QUEST class only met once a week instead of daily. You may want to check into if that's still the case if that would be a concern for you.

Hope your search has been going well!

[austinnerd]

Originally Posted by PrimusPilus

This might not be related to the OP's queries, but I'm surprised at the latest US News rankings. They do not conform in any way to the latest TEA ratings (Ex: Westwood vs Westlake) Obviously different metrics. But which metric can be trusted more for college prep/readiness?

What TEA ratings are you referring to (Exemplary vs Recognized)? If so, you have to understand what those ratings mean. Basically WRT the TEA, schools can be dinged for having some number of students not meet certain criteria (e.g. STARR/TAKS scores) for each student group (white, AA, hispanic, econ disadvantaged). So the student makeup of the school will often times have an effect on this rating (don't want to get into any discussions about this, the numbers prove the point). There is a reason why the TEA refers to them as "accountability ratings" and not "academic ratings".

OTOH, US News cares not about accountability, their metrics are trying to capture academics alone (other than student/teacher ratio).

So to answer your final question, neither can be "trusted" for anything other than what a bunch of statistics give you. Will your kid come out "more prepared" for college if they go to LASA vs Anderson, maybe, maybe not. If they're crushed by all the homework and/or the fact that they're trying their best but only coming out middle of the road class ranking wise, it might be de-motivating. Maybe they go to Anderson and take AP classes and really like the environment and teachers and therefore they excel and remain engaged. Hard to say.

I'd argue that the parents and the student are far more important in ensuring college preparedness than any school. I'd venture to guess that even at schools like Reagan, there are plenty of kids passing AP exams and are good to go for college if they and their families are making that a priority. Just like I can guarantee that there are plenty of kids at Westlake who are skirting by and likely won't make it past their sophomore year in whatever big $$$ college they end up going to.

[PrimusPilus]

Austinnerd: Thanks much for your clear and insightful explanation of the metrics used by US News and TEA. While I agree that neither can be trusted, some of us still need any kind of benchmarks. Given that parents and students do the maximum in ensuring college preparedness, having some kind of knowledge about the way individual public schools deal with college preparedness is important to people like me for a couple of reasons. I did not grow up in the US (just went to grad school here) and we are in the process of buying a home with the most important "metric" being teh quality of public schools. Thanks again.

[blackbunneh]

Originally Posted by philopower

No offense but how do your kids know that they are interested in engineering? They´re kids.

My son is obsessed with building and inventing. Of course he doesn't have to be an engineer. He could be a machinist, or an architect, or a construction worker. I'd rather give him the opportunity to be an engineer and see him choose to be a ditch digger than set him on the path of a ditch digger and have him wishing he could have gone farther in his studies.