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Old 05-08-2012, 05:50 PM
 
13,194 posts, read 28,111,078 times
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Best High Schools in the US | Top US High Schools | US News & World Report

Top Texas High Schools | Best High Schools | US News

Area schools who were named to US News' "Best High Schools 2012" list are listed below. It basically supports what I usually say on these boards which is that HP, Plano West and Coppell are the three best public high schools in our area (far better than the rest of their public peers)....and that the DISD magnets kick butt year after year after year in the national rankings.


"GOLD MEDAL" SCHOOLS - TOP 500 RANK IN US
#1 - DISD TAG Magnet (100% students took AP exams with 100% pass rate)

#2 - DISD SEM Magnet (100% students took AP exams with 100% pass rate)

#37 - Westlake Academy (96% students in IB program with 92% pass rate)

#92 - Highland Park HS (91% students took AP exams with 69% pass rate)

#134 - DISD Booker T Washington Arts Magnet (87% students took AP exams with 62% pass rate)

#286 - DISD Irma L Rangel Young Women's Leadership School (100% students took AP exams with 39% pass rate)

#320 - DISD Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet (95% students took AP exams with 38% pass rate)

#326 - Plano West (57% students took AP exams with 50% pass rate)

#332 - Coppell High School (58% students took AP exams with 49% pass rate)

#417 - Colleyville Heritage HS (59% students took AP exams with 45% pass rate)

#445 - Carrollton-FB ISD Creekview HS (53% students took AP exams with 46% pass rate)

#448 - DISD Townview Business Magnet (83% students took AP exams with 36% pass rate)

#461 - Lovejoy HS (66% students took AP exams with 41% pass rate)

"SILVER MEDAL" SCHOOLS - RANKED 501-2000 in US
#529 - Grapevine HS (56% took AP exams with 41% pass rate)

#542 - Southlake Carroll HS (49% took AP exams with 43% pass rate)

#551 - Richardson ISD's JJ Pearce HS (56% took AP exams with 40% pass rate)

#558 - Plano Senior High School (48% took AP exams with 42% pass rate)

#564 - Prosper HS (52% took AP exams with 40% pass rate)

#578 - DISD School of Health Professions (92% took AP exams with 26% pass rate)

#642 - McKinney North High School (57% took AP exams with 35% pass rate)

#657 - DISD WT White HS (66% took AP exams with 31% pass rate)

#711 - Richardson ISD Richardson HS (54% took AP exams with 33% pass rate)

#796 - Keller HS (49% took AP exams with 32% pass rate)

#836 - Flower Mound Marcus HS (41% toook AP exams with 34% pass rate)

#875 - Argyle HS (43% took AP exams with 31% pass rate)

#885 - Flower Mound HS (43% took AP exams with 32% pass rate)

#903 - Frisco Liberty HS (39% took AP exams with 32% pass rate)

#919 - Carrollton- FB ISD Hebron HS (39% took AP exams wiht 32% pass rate)

#920 - Carrollton-FB ISD RL Turner HS (57% took AP exams with 26% pass rate)

#986 - Frisco Centennial HS (40% took AP exams with 30% pass rate)

#1026 - Plano East Sr High (38% took AP exams with 29% pass rate)

#1042 - Rockwall HS (40% took AP exams with 28% pass rate)

#1219 - Allen HS (37% took AP exasm with 24% pass rate)

#1242 - Richardson ISD Berkner HS (38% took AP exams with 23% pass rate)

#1280- Frisco HS (37% took AP exams with 23% pass rate)

#1337 - Garland HS (41% took AP exams with 21% pass rate)

#1470 - HEB ISD Trinity HS (35% took AP exams with 20% pass rate)

#1518 - Garland ISD Rowlett HS (34% took AP exams with 19% pass rate)

#1531 - HEB ISD LD Bell HS (34% took AP exams with 19% pass rate)

#1598 - Irving HS ( 39% took AP exams with 16% pass rate)

#1613- DISD Skyline HS (34% took AP exams with 17% pass rate)

#1683 - Irving MacArthur HS ( 33% took AP exams with 16% pass rate)

#1851 - Lewisville HS (25% took AP exams with 16% pass rate)

#1879 - DISD Molina HS (32% took AP exams with 13% pass rate)

#1984 - Mesquite ISD Poteet HS (24% took AP exams with 14% pass rate)

#1993 - Garland ISD Sasche HS (24% took AP exams with 14% pass rate)


Some other schools that frequently come up on City-Data:
DISD Woodrow Wilson - not recognized b/c general student body & minority groups don't perform above the state aveage. AP participation rate was 41% with a 43% pass rate which supports my theory that Woodrow is only good academically for those students who operate within the "school within the school" (IB academy, AP courses, etc). The school fails the general student body from an academic standpoint.

RISD Lake Highlands -not recognized b/c minorty groups perform below state average. AP participation rate of 40% with a 62% passing rate.

Frisco Wakeland HS - not recognize b/c minority groups perform below state average. AP participation rate of 35% with a 78% pass rate.

Frisco Heritage HS - did not report results. Is this school too new for results?

McKinney Boyd HS - not recognize b/c minority groups perform below state average. AP participation rate of 56% with a 68% pass rate.


RANKINGS METHODOLOGY PER US NEWS WEBSITE:
The criteria/ methodology for rankings is a three-step process in which ,first, ALL students are determined to be performing above "average" for the state, then second, whether the school's least advantaged students (income, race) were performing above state average among similar students, and third- schools who "passed" both of the first two criteria were judged for college readiness using AP or IB test data (participation rate AND pass rate for these exams).
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Old 05-08-2012, 05:59 PM
 
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I was reading this a few minutes ago. One thing to note is their listed passing rates are not passing rates, but rather the percent of all students who passed one AP exam (ie. you can fail five and pass one but boost the passing rate). I thought their methodology was especially confusing this time.
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Old 05-08-2012, 06:46 PM
 
13,194 posts, read 28,111,078 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PISDstudent View Post
I was reading this a few minutes ago. One thing to note is their listed passing rates are not passing rates, but rather the percent of all students who passed one AP exam (ie. you can fail five and pass one but boost the passing rate). I thought their methodology was especially confusing this time.
Good catch! I missed that. Some of the area schools should be REALLY embarrassed with pass rates so low considering all a student had to do was eek out one little "3".....
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Old 05-08-2012, 07:12 PM
 
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Quote:
Some of the area schools should be REALLY embarrassed with pass rates so low considering all a student had to do was eek out one little "3"
With this in mind the numbers for Flower Mound are REALLY surprising. Jeez...what's happened?
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Old 05-08-2012, 07:42 PM
 
1,101 posts, read 4,314,859 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80 View Post
#919 - Carrollton- FB ISD Hebron HS (39% took AP exams wiht 32% pass rate)
Hebron is actually Lewisville ISD.
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Old 05-08-2012, 07:52 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TriumphOfTheSprint View Post
Hebron is actually Lewisville ISD.
I was just going to point that out, too. So weird how we live less than a mile from Creekview but my son goes 4 miles over to Hebron. We just moved here so we are always scratching our heads over that one. He could WALK to Creekview! Either way, glad it ranked!
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Old 05-08-2012, 08:14 PM
 
350 posts, read 746,116 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mSooner View Post
With this in mind the numbers for Flower Mound are REALLY surprising. Jeez...what's happened?
I worded my first post pretty badly, but the percent shown is out of all students, not just AP students. For example, 43% of all FloMo students took AP exams, and 32% of all FloMo students passes an AP exam, so (32/43) 74.4% of AP students at FloMo got at least one three, which is pretty respectable. On the other hand, DISD Irma L Rangel Young Women's Leadership School and the Judge Barefoot Law school should really be concerned...
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Old 05-08-2012, 08:19 PM
 
2,348 posts, read 4,796,696 times
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Well this certainly provides a small amount of perspective that I have looked for hard data on, that I have come to the conclusion can not be found. Comparing high school quality from state to state, region to region.

I have been holding some districts down there in very high regard, but when I put them against where my high school ranks, they don't look quite as good.

Oh well..
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Old 05-08-2012, 08:44 PM
 
2,674 posts, read 4,374,877 times
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Property values in Park Cities are about to plummet...

But seriously, what is the validity of the testing longitudinally?

TAG kids are self-selected and highly tested, even moreso than HPISD kids. But then you get into a discussion of the intangibles...
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Old 05-08-2012, 08:56 PM
 
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Couple things I've never understood about this list:

1. TAG and SEM are magnets, yet they have a separate category for magnets. "Magnet schools are public schools that attract the most talented students in a region via an application process, often involving test scores and grade point averages. U.S. News brings you its list of the nation's best magnet schools."

How can TAG and SEM (or Thomas Jefferson, for that matter) possibly be compared to a Plano or HP that have no admission requirements?

2. Where are Stuyvesant and Bronx Science? I'm proud of TAG and SEM as much as the next person but anyone can admit that they are not quite in the same league as those schools. I had read somewhere that U.S. News excluded the true top dozen or so performers in the nation, meaning then that TAG and SEM were top of everyone else.

I've always considered TJ in line with Stuy and Bronx so I wouldn't put them in the same category with TAG and SEM. They've produced dozens of Intel winners, a couple of Nobels, SAT scores in the stratosphere, etc., etc.
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