Frisco / McKinney - where to buy (schools, utilities)? (Dallas, Plano: condo, houses)

[PISDstudent]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

I disagree. Pre-suburban overflow, Plano was a tiny one traffic light town. McKinney was the only town of size for decades in Collin. There is a ton more older, poorer housing in East McKinney than East Plano. Much more. And as I mention above, that demographic is spread between all three McKinney schools.

% of Students who are economically disadvantaged, according to TEA:
McKinney Boyd-17.4%
McKinney High- 24.9%
McKinney North- 28.0%
Plano East- 28.0%

(data from 2011-12 Campus AEIS Report)

According to that data, Plano East students, while having the same economic playing field as McKinney North students, are outscoring those peers by over 100 points on the Math+Reading SAT. They also do a pretty darn good job with college admissions.

[MckinneyOwnr]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

Lower income students will bring down the scores of a district in almost every situation. McKinney decided to district the three high schools so that all 3 would have a mix of the wealthy western neighborhoods and the poorer eastern neighborhoods. They could have left all of them for McKinney High and let it be a lower scoring high school and, let Boyd have the cream of the crop and let North land somewhere in between. That is what you have in the neighborhoods surrounding each school. I prefer the current plan.

Point is, no child is getting a lesser education at a McKinney high school because of this. So what if Plano West and Highland Park are placing more in Ivies? They are the wealthiest areas in the metroplex, it goes without saying.

You don't even see the failure of your argument, do you?

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

McKinney has a higher minority population than neighboring burbs. Still overwhelmingly white, but being the older county seat, there are poorer neighborhoods in the original town (pre-suburban growth) that do house a poorer population of all ethnic backgrounds. When you see people on this thread denigrating McKinney schools, it is because there are a few more brown and black children rubbing shoulders with the white children.

To knock McKinney schools is to be racist. Plain and simple.

You want to argue that there are more economically disadvantaged students in McKinney vs Plano for example, and that's why the test scores are lower, that's fine. But don't come in here posting a bunch of complete BS about racism when what you are arguing is the economic demographics.

[DitsyD]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

I need to save this comment on a word document so all I have to do is copy and paste again as I feel I have to reiiterate myself on these threads constantly.

The idea that McKinney schools are less than neighboring burbs is so completely off that it makes me want to scream. McKinney schools are as good if not better than any of the neighboring districts.

OK, I will be more blatant here than in early posts on the subjects.

McKinney has a higher minority population than neighboring burbs. Still overwhelmingly white, but being the older county seat, there are poorer neighborhoods in the original town (pre-suburban growth) that do house a poorer population of all ethnic backgrounds. When you see people on this thread denigrating McKinney schools, it is because there are a few more brown and black children rubbing shoulders with the white children.

To knock McKinney schools is to be racist. Plain and simple.

If you want your kids to have an all white experience, then go to another district. But admit that is what it is about, not house values, not test scores. It is racial intolerance and there is no other way to get around it.

OK, through being blunt for the day.....

McKinney ISD:
http://www.mckinneyisd.net/informati...13_CIP_MHS.pdf
12.3% African American students
25.5% Hispanic students
56.1 % White students.
24.5% Economically Disadvantaged students


All of Plano ISD:
http://www.pisd.edu/about.us/documen...ity_Report.pdf
Plano ISD Education Foundation Donor Recognition Reception / News Archive : Plano ISD
11.28% Black or African American
22.61% Hispanic/Latino
41.44% White
25%+ Economically Disadvantaged students

I don't think that the numbers support your logic. And while the percentages may be similar, the sheer numbers are larger for Plano ISD.

[PlanoGirl]

Overall I appreciate Saintmarks comments standing up for Mckinney high schools. But I will say that the other posters are correct that Plano outperforms Mckinney as a whole. And by quite a lot. Not that that is a terrible thing....Plano outperforms almost everyone in the DFW with the exception of Highland Park, and maybe Coppell. So I don't have an issue with Plano coming out on top in Mckinney/ Plano comparisons... I feel those are valid and fair. But it does irritate me when Mckinney is seen as the dark horse of Collin County (like in the beginning posts of this thread). As a whole, Mckinney high schools are at least as good as Frisco's and Allen's, and maybe better, considering those cities high schools are in the 8-14% economically disadvantaged range compared to Mckinney's 17-28%.

[Keepingitsimple]

Originally Posted by PlanoGirl

Plano outperforms almost everyone in the DFW with the exception of Highland Park, and maybe Coppell.

Plano outperforms Coppell, and it goes neck to neck with Highland Park though demographics are quite different so technically it outperforms HP as well.

[CREW747]

Mc Kinney buses at the high school level to avoid uneven economic distribution of the students.Do they do it at the Middle school level?I understand why they do it, to avoid having one school with a mass amount of low income students.We were turned off on buying in Sonebridge Ranch when we found out about the busing.The racial makeup of the student body was not a factor for us.If the high schools were great-fantastic we would have considered Stonebridge Ranch.I have stated many times on here how nice I think that area is,west Mc Kinney.Allen,Prosper and Frisco for example are rated higher than Mc Kinney at the High School level. I think the busing turns certain buyers off once they find out about it.Is there a huge gap at the High school level when comparing Mc Kinney to other popular districts,no,but there definitely is one.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by PlanoGirl

Overall I appreciate Saintmarks comments standing up for Mckinney high schools. But I will say that the other posters are correct that Plano outperforms Mckinney as a whole. And by quite a lot. Not that that is a terrible thing....Plano outperforms almost everyone in the DFW with the exception of Highland Park, and maybe Coppell. So I don't have an issue with Plano coming out on top in Mckinney/ Plano comparisons... I feel those are valid and fair. But it does irritate me when Mckinney is seen as the dark horse of Collin County (like in the beginning posts of this thread). As a whole, Mckinney high schools are at least as good as Frisco's and Allen's, and maybe better, considering those cities high schools are in the 8-14% economically disadvantaged range compared to Mckinney's 17-28%.

OK, OK, Enough folks, I give! Plano is the promised land. My life and my kids' lives are forever diminished because of our foolish decision to live here.

Enough of that. Thanks Plano Girl, perhaps I should just shut up and let you speak for me next time. The original argument was not about Plano vs. McKinney anyway, it was about choosing between Frisco and McKinney and making it sound like McKinney was a hell hole and Frisco was the promised land in comparison.

I am wondering if Plano''s separation of 9th and 10th grades into separate high schools from the senior high has anything to do with performance on their testing. It is a wonder why they score higher. But I have a son that won a full academic scholarship coming out of McKinney Boyd and a daughter that didn't care that much about her academics while at Boyd but has a 3.9 at the University of Arkansas after two years (or close, only one B, all As otherwise). In other words, my kids were not interested in being the super brains, the eldest could have been if he had applied himself more, but they got very solid educations in a McKinney High School when they didn't put 100% into it like they could have.

I just get angry at the trashing of McKinney schools by many on here.

[Saintmarks]

Originally Posted by CREW747

Mc Kinney buses at the high school level to avoid uneven economic distribution of the students.Do they do it at the Middle school level?I understand why they do it, to avoid having one school with a mass amount of low income students.We were turned off on buying in Sonebridge Ranch when we found out about the busing.The racial makeup of the student body was not a factor for us.If the high schools were great-fantastic we would have considered Stonebridge Ranch.I have stated many times on here how nice I think that area is,west Mc Kinney.Allen,Prosper and Frisco for example are rated higher than Mc Kinney at the High School level. I think the busing turns certain buyers off once they find out about it.Is there a huge gap at the High school level when comparing Mc Kinney to other popular districts,no,but there definitely is one.

It depends on where you live. Must of the busing on the high and middle levels is to bring east side kids to the nicer, newer schools on the west side. There is little going the other way. There are areas (Eldorado Country Club for example) that are sent to Faubion for middle school instead of Cockrill which is a bit closer, but Faubion and McKinney High are still on the west side of the original McKinney, not east of McDonald Street which is the area considered "across the tracks" from days gone by.

The majority of Stonebridge goes to either Evans or Dowell for MS and Boyd for HS, the closest schools to SB. So it is disingenuous to post things like busing being an issue that hurts McKinney.

[frenzyrider]

Originally Posted by Saintmarks

OK, OK, Enough folks, I give! Plano is the promised land. My life and my kids' lives are forever diminished because of our foolish decision to live here.

I just get angry at the trashing of McKinney schools by many on here.

I hear you. It is just that there are lot of folks here who spell doom if you are not in Plano, Coppell, HP or Carroll. It may probably work on average but then again it is just an average. I would like to see median and standard deviation on that data. May be someone can help me with it. There are ton of variables and I know I have excellent kids who will do well regardless. Parenting is always the biggest factor.

[PlanoGirl]

Luv ya, SM! After all, I left Plano to come here to Mckinney, so I guess I'm really the foolish one...lol! Anyway, keep sharing...we need you

I agree the whole "busing" thing gets way overblown. If you even want to call it that...it's more just a matter of drawing the boundaries lines on an east/west orientation versus a north/south one.