Truth behind the Newsweek Best High Schools rankings- which schools have AP students who are actually PASSING AP exams?! (Dallas: credit, houses)

[TurtleCreek80]

I was pulling this info for a different thread and found it interesting, so here it is again->

Got curious, so here it is....I married up the Newsweek top ranked high schools (based on number of AP tests taken) with the AP pass rates (score of 3 or higher on 5 point scale. 3 earns collage credit at public university) as tracked by the TEA. I just tracked the open enrollment high schools and omitted thr magnets/charters of the list due to the application process for admission. The white student demographic's pass rate is in parentheses after the total school's rate-->

The first list is arranged by highest overall pass rate to lowest. Interestingly enough, only 4 area high schools are getting 50+% of all AP students to pass AP exams: Highland Park, Plano Senior, Plano East, and Garland. Also interesting, Southlake Carroll HS has the lowest overall pass rate at 16.4% (!!!!- unacceptable for a school with a reputation like Carroll.) The rank is where the school placed on the 2012 US High Schools list-->

35. Highland Park - Highland Park ISD. 62.8% pass rate (62.2% pass rate white students)
762. Plano Sr. - Plani ISD. 62.7% pass (61.5% white pass)
658. Garland - Garland ISD. 53% pass rate (75% white pass)
863. Plano East - Plano ISD. 50.5% pass (56.8% white pass)


338. JJ Pearce - Richardson ISD. 47.9% pass (57.9% white pass)
595. Coppell - Coppell ISD. 47.2% pass (45% white pass)
330. Richardson - Richardson ISD. 40.8% pass (59.7% white pass)
1124. Frisco - Frisco ISD. 38% pass (43.1% white pass)
1322. Allen - Allen ISD. 37.9% pass (41% white pass)
911. Flower Mound - Lewisville ISD. 37.7% pass (35.7% white pass)
267. Grapevine - Grapevine-Colleyville ISD. 33.3% pass (34.5% white pass)
271. WT White - Dallas ISD. 32.8% pass (59.2% white pass)
525. RL Turner - Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. 29.8% pass (42.8% white pass)
845. Hebron - Lewisville ISD. 31.7% pass (32.6% white pass)
1321. Creekview - Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. 31.3% pass (35% white pass)1295. Flower Mound Marcus - Lewisville ISD. 31% pass (31.2% white pass)
980. Centennial - Frisco ISD.*30% pass (30.3% white pass)
1155. Wakeland - Frisco ISD. 28.7% pass (31.6% white pass)
588. Woodrow - Dallas ISD. 25% pass (57% white pass)
598. Hillcrest - Dallas ISD. 24% pass (67% white pass)
652. Newman Smith - Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD 20.7% pass (40.7% white pass)
789. Southlake Carroll Sr. - Carroll ISD. 16.4% pass (14.8% white pass)


The second list is arranged by the % of white students passing. This list tells a very different story than the overall pass rates. 9 schools have an over 50% pass rate for white students, led by Garland HS at 75%. Hillcrest HS (DISD) tops even Highland Park and Woodrow Wilson and WT White (both DISD) rank in the top 9, while Carroll, two Frisco HS, the esteemed Flower Mound high schools, Grapevine HS, etc can't even get 35% of white AP students to pass the exams.

658. Garland - Garland ISD. 75% white pass rate
598. Hillcrest - Dallas ISD. 67%
35. Highland Park - Highland Park ISD. 62.2%
762. Plano Sr. - Plani ISD. 61.5%
330. Richardson - Richardson ISD. 59.7%
271. WT White - Dallas ISD. 59.2%
338. JJ Pearce - Richardson ISD. 57.9%
588. Woodrow - Dallas ISD. 57%
863. Plano East - Plano ISD. 56.8%


595. Coppell - Coppell ISD. 45%
1124. Frisco - Frisco ISD. 43.1%
525. RL Turner - Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. 42.8%
1322. Allen - Allen ISD. 41%
652. Newman Smith - Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD 40.7%
911. Flower Mound - Lewisville ISD. 35.7%
1321. Creekview - Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. 35%
267. Grapevine - Grapevine-Colleyville ISD. 34.6%
845. Hebron - Lewisville ISD. 32.6%
1155. Wakeland - Frisco ISD. 31.6%
1295. *Flower Mound Marcus - Lewisville ISD. 31.2%
980. Centennial - Frisco ISD.*30.3%
789. Southlake Carroll Sr. - Carroll ISD. 14.8%


Say what you want about DISD schools, but their top 3 high neighborhood high schools are kicking their white suburban counterparts' butts in SAT scores and AP exam pass rates....a much better indication of collegiate success than the silly TAKS test that drives the TEA's exemplary ratings.

[momof2dfw]

Then again, not something new to me knowing what I do and seeing it firsthand.

GO OWLS!!!!!!

[BigDGeek]

Thank you for that; I always thought ranking schools by how many AP exams a student took was stupid. Who cares how many they took? I want to know how many they passed!

[Spree]

Just wondering why is the data for just white students? Not to argue but don't we want all students to pass?

The data from the DISD - Woodrow scorecard shows that 30% of students took an AP test and of that 30%, 31% passed (and apparently this was 2007 values). How would one interpret the DISD scorecard?

http://www.dallasisd.org/scorecards/pdfcards/0910%20District%20Scorecard.pdf (broken link)

[FarNorthDallas]

Good stuff, Turtle.

I think white students are self-selecting in a lot of these diverse schools that have a "school within a school" thing going on. If a white student isn't able to be in all AP at Woodrow, Hillcrest, JJ Pearce and others, they don't attend those school. They are in private school.

Garland High houses the district's honors/IB/AP program, right, Mom? That influences their pass rate (in a good way).

[skids929]

Why the emphasis on whites?



In some academic studies, which I consider more credible than US News data, High School GPA is consistently the strongest predictor of four-year college outcomes for all academic disciplines. Standardized tests just make it easy to create data like this..Show me some GPAs for each then lets compare the validity of each data set.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by Spree

Just wondering why is the data for just white students? Not to argue but don't we want all students to pass?

The data from the DISD - Woodrow scorecard shows that 30% of students took an AP test and of that 30%, 31% passed (and apparently this was 2007 values). How would one interpret the DISD scorecard?

http://www.dallasisd.org/scorecards/pdfcards/0910%20District%20Scorecard.pdf (broken link)

I pulled out the white pass rates for the other thread where a parent has decided against DISD due to low scores overall. My point was that DISS students who skew affluent and prioritize education are performing equal to or even much better than their suburban counterparts at ISD's that are revered on this forum- Flower Mound, Frisco, Carroll. Overall scores aren't as important to a family who fits the affluent/education focused demographic and they should focus on how their demographic subset is performing vs overall scores.

There is more to the story than "DISD Hillcrest sucks" which is a common mantra on this forum. The overall Hillcrest performance does suck, but the white subset is outscoring Highland Park and every other area high school except Garland (which is also thought to be inferior to Frisco, Allen, etc on the forum).
Obviously we want all students to pass the exams and be ready to perform at the college level and DISD should focus on improving their low-performing subsets just as Southlake Carroll, Frisco Wakeland, Frisco Centennial, etc should work to improve their overall dismal pass rates.

[Big G]

Originally Posted by Spree

Just wondering why is the data for just white students?

To disprove the notion that white parents have to put their kids in private schools or move to CoCo to get a decent education.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by skids929

Why the emphasis on whites?

In some academic studies, which I consider more credible than US News data, High School GPA is consistently the strongest predictor of four-year college outcomes for all academic disciplines. Standardized tests just make it easy to create data like this..Show me some GPAs for each then lets compare the validity of each data set.

Just answered your question about why I pulled out the white segment in my post above.

The Advanced Placement exams aren't "standardized" like the multiple choice SAT or TAKS test. A very small portion of the exam is multiple choice, if at all.

The exams heavily focus on the student's critical thinking and analysis/ problem solving skills. They are 75%+ essay or written problem solving focused, similar to college exams. If the student skimmed through Nabokov's Lolita or slept through Spanish IV, they will have no chance of passing or even knowing where to start vs multiple-choice where students can narrow down and "best guess".

AP exams ARE the best indication of collegiate success because GPA's vary from school to school, as does instruction quality. The AP exams ask the same questions or prompts to all students who completed the class and put all students across the US on an even playing field.

If you haven't been to the AP website, go, and just read some of the literature or calculus prompts from the past decades. I think you'll be impressed by the quality.

[DaveG99]

the entire school should be included in the data not just whites.