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Old 06-23-2017, 10:49 PM
 
63 posts, read 90,379 times
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Originally Posted by applepiesf View Post
I appreciate all of your responses. Do any of you have experience with the particular middle schools I originally asked about -- Grisham, Four Points, or Canyon Vista?

I'll look into Cedar Park schools more as well. It's really hard to decide which high school will be the right fit for your kids when they are 6 and 10 years old. I tend to think a very competitive, demanding school will not be the best for my oldest, but it's hard to make that decision! What about McNeil or Anderson high schools?

Thank you!!
I don't have info on the schools you asked about but wanted to clarify the Cedar Park schools I mentioned are in Leander ISD as well as some of the ones you asked about. My son goes to Henry and we have been very happy there. I have a daughter with dyslexia and we have been happy with the help she is receiving.
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Old 06-23-2017, 10:51 PM
 
Location: Austin, TX
6 posts, read 10,163 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by applepiesf View Post
I appreciate all of your responses. Do any of you have experience with the particular middle schools I originally asked about -- Grisham, Four Points, or Canyon Vista?

I'll look into Cedar Park schools more as well. It's really hard to decide which high school will be the right fit for your kids when they are 6 and 10 years old. I tend to think a very competitive, demanding school will not be the best for my oldest, but it's hard to make that decision! What about McNeil or Anderson high schools?

Thank you!!
I have a son who completed 7th grade at FPMS last year and he'll be starting 8th grade at FPMS next year. We were new to the district and were very happy with the quality of teachers, instruction and athletics. He worked hard but it wasn't life consuming. I also have one at VHS starting 10th grade next year. The high school is a different story. It is really competitive, and even the strongest students have to work to excel (i.e. make top 10%). If you have specific questions let me know and I'll try and answer.
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Old 06-24-2017, 07:16 AM
 
7,742 posts, read 15,033,797 times
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the middle school is really less important than the high school. We used to track to westwood, but after all the stories from the kids we decided to move. The general perception from our neighbors is that canyon vista does a much better job than grisham for prepping kids to survive westwood. However the top 10% (or some other number) students at grisham are just as good as the top students from canyon vista. Canyon vista has a much deeper "bench" though.

The issue we had was that many of the asian parents get their kids to study way too hard so it becomes an arms race if you want a decent class rank. My daughter was at laurel mountain until 3rd grade, and some of the parents were having their kids studying and tutored until 9pm at night. If you look at pictures of the westwood academic clubs, national merit scholars etc, they are almost 100% asian. The top 10 at westwood are almost all asian (one white person in the top 10).

We are now in private school until 8th grade then will decide what to do about high school. We are zoned to anderson which is good, but a lot less competitive than westwood. In AISD you get choices like ann richards school for girls, lasa, and a decent but not (as) hyper competitive high school.


https://www.niche.com/k12/search/bes...in-metro-area/

This site seems to have a lot of reviews on each school so the stats might be reaching statistical significance. The zoning boundaries for the schools are wrong

For westwood you can see 98% felt safe, no bullying, 69% felt happy, 57% feel the student body is good at athletics. This reflects the stereotype that westwood is a nerd school, but also very stressful.

Anderson is 78% felt safe, 71% feel happy, 74% say students are athletic.

vista ridge 84% feel safe, 80% feel happy, 91% say students are athletic

westlake 86% feel safe, 64% feel happy, 94% say students are athletic

Last edited by Austin97; 06-24-2017 at 07:37 AM..
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Old 06-24-2017, 07:55 AM
 
11 posts, read 17,517 times
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I can't tell you how helpful this is. Thank you! On paper, it seems like everyone would want Westwood because it's so highly rated. My oldest has ADHD and is bright and doing well but honestly probably can't handle several hours of homework every night. Even if he could, I don't really want that for him. We're coming from San Francisco where I think the schools (in my experience so far) aren't challenging enough, but I'm not looking for the opposite extreme. I'm going to expand my search to other schools.

My husband will be commuting to the Domain area, so we're trying to find a place that will make his commute reasonable. I know that job won't be permanent, but he could drive to the MetroRail if his job changes later and he needs to get farther downtown. We want a safe, quiet area with other families with a large lot/yard. The Spicewood area was looking really promising, but now Westwood is scaring me off! Thank you again for all this very helpful information.
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Old 06-24-2017, 11:38 AM
 
63 posts, read 90,379 times
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We have lived in the area since 2002 and have done a lot of the research you are doing since we are looking to move. I think you will be happy with almost any school in the RR or Leander school districts if you stay south of 1431. Have you been researching on greatschools website? The ratings were just updated.
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Old 06-25-2017, 09:58 AM
 
7,984 posts, read 10,322,434 times
Reputation: 14999
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeb2112 View Post
I have a son who completed 7th grade at FPMS last year and he'll be starting 8th grade at FPMS next year. We were new to the district and were very happy with the quality of teachers, instruction and athletics. He worked hard but it wasn't life consuming. I also have one at VHS starting 10th grade next year. The high school is a different story. It is really competitive, and even the strongest students have to work to excel (i.e. make top 10%). If you have specific questions let me know and I'll try and answer.
We are zoned to VHS, and I will agree with this. But Westwood is even worse in that regard. Westwood takes competitive to a new level. And the other schools she's looking at feed into Westwood.
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Old 06-25-2017, 10:06 AM
 
11 posts, read 17,517 times
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You guys have really made me rethink this whole thing, and I appreciate your insight. Now we're looking at McNeil and Anderson, probably McNeil because we can get more house for our money up there. I see a new high school is going up next to Pearson Ranch MS, so maybe we'll end up in that area. A brand new school certainly has it's appeal. We'd all figure out how it goes together
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Old 06-25-2017, 11:26 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
6 posts, read 10,163 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CarnivalGal View Post
We are zoned to VHS, and I will agree with this. But Westwood is even worse in that regard. Westwood takes competitive to a new level. And the other schools she's looking at feed into Westwood.
We struggled in deciding between Westwood and VHS when we moved here. Ultimately, we decided on VHS because - in our opinion - Westwood was absurdly and pointlessly competitive. Any of the public high schools that typically cluster in the top 4 or 5 in the Austin area rankings (and the middle schools that feed them) can provide kids with a great education. The key is to find the school that works for your kids, your lifestyle and your location.
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Old 06-26-2017, 10:42 AM
 
668 posts, read 776,202 times
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McNeil's ranking (#2 in RRISD) and student body demographic is going to change when they build the new HS near Pearson Ranch. What makes McNeil second in RRISD right now is largely because of the students who will be zoned to the new HS in the future--most of the high achieving Asian and South Asian kids from Avery Ranch, Northwoods, etc. will no longer be going to McNeil. These kids have a similar work ethic and level of stress and parental pressure as their peers that Austin97 references in the Westwood track. (Did not realize that craziness starts in third grade though, WOW.)

I live in an area zoned to McNeil and parents in our area are really unhappy about the possibility of that new high school and the effects on McNeil's rankings and also their property values. Also, I will say that there is a reason the houses zoned to McNeil are less expensive and one of those reasons is because the schools are simply not as good--particularly in the elementary level. Westwood = Stresswood, but the lower level schools in that track are considerably better. We are planning on moving later this year or early next year for commute/traffic reasons, but if we were not I would begin aggressively pursuing transfers (the Joe Lee Johnston STEAM academy in Wells Branch is open to transfers now) or private school options. I would not send my girls to Deer Park Middle School under any circumstances.

TLDR: I would not purchase a house in the McNeil feeder area right now solely based on McNeil's current performance.

Last edited by eirenecat; 06-26-2017 at 10:54 AM..
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Old 06-26-2017, 10:43 AM
 
7,742 posts, read 15,033,797 times
Reputation: 4295
a
Quote:
Originally Posted by eirenecat View Post
McNeil's ranking (#2 in RRISD) and student body demographic is going to change when they build the new HS near Pearson Ranch. What makes McNeil second in RRISD right now is largely because of the students who will be zoned to the new HS in the future--most of the high achieving Asian and South Asian kids from Avery Ranch, Northwoods, etc. will no longer be going to McNeil. These kids have a similar work ethic and level of stress and parental pressure as their peers that Austin97 references in the Westwood track. (Did not realize that craziness starts in third grade though, WOW.)

TLDR: I would not purchase a house in the McNeil feeder area right now solely based on McNeil's current performance.
It actually starts in kinder... There were kids coming in doing long division and writing complete paragraphs in kinder at laurel mountain. Although the range varied tremendously as some kids did not know their letters.

In the kinder parent meeting, the #1 question was how do we get our kids into the talented and gifted program.
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