2011 National Merit Semi-Finalists (Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano: neighborhoods, middle school, vs)

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by Big G

Lewisville ISD is doing amazingly well with the Flower Mound schools. Kudos to them.

Agreed!! Very impressive.

Originally Posted by Big G

I always like to bash HP, but the schools deliver what they promise. Hats off.

If you have the money, there's no better place to be:
-the kids are interested in school & want to do well
-100% of teachers have Master's Degrees by their 5th year of teaching
-the parents bend over backwards to raise funds for the district and to volunteer like crazy (5,000 parent volunteers last year.....there are only 6,400 students in the district)
-the athetics program and facilities are world-class (Sports Illustrated named HPHS #1 athletic program in Texas & #16 in the US....30+ state titles in 9 sports in the past decade)
-the arts programs dominate at state & national competitions
.....all while giving 69.3% (nearly $1 BILLION in the past 19 years) of tax revenues back to the state via "Robin Hood Act of 1991."

Originally Posted by Big G

Plano Senior out-does Plano West, as it does most years - I don't understand why so many posters on here consider PWSH superior to PSHS.

Because the housing stock in Plano West is more desirable.

Originally Posted by Big G

Paschal does an incredible job as the shining star of FWISD. Why can't DISD even come close to that?

Paschal draws from a unique neighborhood that includes TCU & surrounding area of $1M homes as well as surrounding lower-income areas. The closest thing I could compare to in Dallas is if you mixed the UP half of HPISD with the lower income attendance zone of Woodrow Wilson - you get a better product than Woodrow because even more neighborhood kids are staying with the public school in Paschal. It's an "ideal" DIVERSE city high school with a population mix that is:
36% white, 29% Gifted & Talented, 36% Economically Disadvantaged, 8% Limited English.
Compare to DISD's "star" neighborhood high schools:
Woodrow (18% white, 15% G&T, 54% Economically Disatantaged, 17% Limted English)
WT White (14% white, 16% G&T, 62% Economically disatvantaged, 19% Limited English)

The plain fact is, a significantly wealthier student body, a high percentage of G&T students, and a limited English rate that is 50% of Woodrow/Wilson is a better recipe for a successful big city high school.

Originally Posted by Big G

If Southlake Carroll is so great, why is it getting beat here by the likes of PESH, Frisco, Richardson Pearce, and even McKinney (!) ??? Maybe a few too many concussions on the football field?

Southlake Carroll is desirable for many of the same reason as HP- smart kids, little classroom "disruptions" caused by ESL kids/ kids with no parent support/involvement at home, etc; tradition of parent invovlement, storied athletics program, etc.

[Lakewooder]

The Dallas PSAT prep courses have moved from White, Hillcrest, Woodrow, Booker T. and TAG/SEM to a district-wide program which rotates locations - it was last held at Conrad. Obviously that isn't working as well - we've (WW) had anywhere from two to six semi-finalists in prior years. However, on the whole the AP and upper-level students are doing uniformly better - around 600 AP tests were taken this spring by a graduating class of 260 or so - 88% were accepted to college. 34 AP Scholars. ACT rate improved enough to be given college readiness award (only top 5% of high schools are eligible). $8 million in scholarships, that's almost double the usual amount. Also the IB Site Team will visit in the first part of November for the final approval process for the Diploma Programme. That is expected in the spring of next year. So soon, WW students will also be taking IB tests (cross your fingers). But it will not only benefit Woodrow, as students from inside and outside the district will be considered for transfer. Pre-IB is being taught to ninth graders this year - 112 are in that academy. From what I understand, Lamar High in Houston awards the most IB Diplomas in the state - over 100 annually.

[Matt2010]

Originally Posted by Big G

Here they are, ranked by %age of NMSFs in senior class.

very good information; where did you get this info.

I was wondering about "North Hills Prep", Irving. Do you know the stats for that school?

Thanks.

[Big G]

Originally Posted by Matt2010

very good information; where did you get this info.

Mostly just rummaging around school district web sites. Many high schools have "campus profile" sheets that they send off to colleges, along with student transcripts. A couple of schools (St. Mark's, for example) have their exact 2011 class size listed there, but most of them list the graduating class sizes for 2010 or 2009.

For the others, I found total enrollment info off the district web site or from TEA, and estimated by dividing by 4, 3, or 2, as appropriate.

I was wondering about "North Hills Prep", Irving. Do you know the stats for that school?

Thanks.

Sorry, I don't know anything in particular about that school.

[Matt2010]

Originally Posted by Big G

Mostly just rummaging around school district web sites.......

Thank you!!!, will check the school district sites.

[Big G]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

Because the housing stock in Plano West is more desirable.

I'll grant you that - although there are some real dumps in the Plano West area, and some nice areas in the Plano Senior part of town, not to mention the $1M+ homes over in the PESH area. But that's not the tenor of posts I see related to PISD. In fact, from another thread, you yourself said:

The only public ISD's that are significantly better than average are Carroll ISD (Southlake), Plano West part of PISD, Highland Park ISD, and Coppell ISD.

To me, that says that anything feeding to Plano West is great, and anything going to PESH or PSHS should be avoided. I don't think that's true. For example, the Jackson/Frankford/Shepton/PWSH feeder system is, IMO (as well as the opinion of the TEA), inferior to, say, Davis/Haggard/Vines/PSHS or Hunt/Murphy/McMillen/PESH.

Paschal draws from a unique neighborhood that includes TCU & surrounding area of $1M homes as well as surrounding lower-income areas. The closest thing I could compare to in Dallas is if you mixed the UP half of HPISD with the lower income attendance zone of Woodrow Wilson - you get a better product than Woodrow because even more neighborhood kids are staying with the public school in Paschal. It's an "ideal" DIVERSE city high school with a population mix that is:
36% white, 29% Gifted & Talented, 36% Economically Disadvantaged, 8% Limited English.
Compare to DISD's "star" neighborhood high schools:
Woodrow (18% white, 15% G&T, 54% Economically Disatantaged, 17% Limted English)
WT White (14% white, 16% G&T, 62% Economically disatvantaged, 19% Limited English)

The plain fact is, a significantly wealthier student body, a high percentage of G&T students, and a limited English rate that is 50% of Woodrow/Wilson is a better recipe for a successful big city high school.

DISD could have the same thing going with Preston Hollow. Instead, essentially NOBODY from that neighborhood chooses DISD.

Southlake Carroll is desirable for many of the same reason as HP- smart kids, little classroom "disruptions" caused by ESL kids/ kids with no parent support/involvement at home, etc; tradition of parent invovlement, storied athletics program, etc.

Yes, but as far as "smart kids", HP delivers (by this measure) and Carroll doesn't.

[Spree]

<< Yes, but as far as "smart kids", HP delivers (by this measure) and Carroll doesn't.>>

Checking the HPISD website, HPHS has 30 students National Merit Commended and 4 Hispanic Scholars.

[1928]

Originally Posted by Big G

DISD could have the same thing going with Preston Hollow. Instead, essentially NOBODY from that neighborhood chooses DISD.
t.

Typical Plano comment!

[Big G]

OK, I'm wrong. DISD is great. That's why HP with less than 500 seniors has more NMSFs than ALL the DISD schools put together.

[rantanamo]

some of the comments are silly. Stuff like this follows socioeconomics to a tee.