HELP! Moving to Downtown Dallas w/kids (Lakewood, Park Cities, ???) (Plano: 2015, apartments)

[bencronin04]

I think it all depends on the person. I've come across multiple listing under 1 million that I'd be more than happy to raise my kids in. Best public schools district, great sports programs, extremely safe, unbelievable contacts and a great sense of pride and community.

[Lakewooder]

Gator, are you getting the Buc News (J. L. Long newsletter)? Long does not use DISD or state curriculum, it uses International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme. It's one of only about two-dozen public schools in Texas offering this.

See: IB MYP Home / IB MYP

Even the report cards are different:
Tutorial for MS report card - YouTube

Here is something from a recent newsletter:

Greetings Buccaneer Family,
We are so excited to be wrapping up our IB report cards using a system known as Managebac which is the trusted choice of over 1,200 leading IB schools. Managebac is similar to Parent Portal in that you will be able to view your child's grades online. Be looking for a welcome email from Managebac soon. We will be having an informational meeting Tuesday, February 4th from 6:00- 7:00 p.m. in our auditorium to provide a better understanding of IB grading and the distribution of the reports. These reports will have detailed information about your child's achievement levels of the assessment criteria in each of the 8 subject areas along with the development of the Approaches to Learning and Learner Profile traits. I look forward to seeing you all at the meeting.

Sincerely, Dora Renaud IB Coordinator @ JL Long

I don't know exactly how this affects regular state testing but I assume that will continue. I know that the lege recently voted to scale back some testing.

[mdmat]

My family has lived in Lakewood for 12 years and we love it! We currently have children in the neighborhood, public schools--Lakewood El., J.L. Long IB World School and Woodrow Wilson HS (also an IB World School). My husband works downtown and is about a 20 minute commute from our house to his desk. It is very easy for him to get home to help with carpools, to coach a team and to attend special events at our children's schools. There are deep roots in this community and my HS daughter is in school with most of the same families we've know since kindergarten. The lake is a walk, run or bike ride away and there are wonderful local shops and restaurants in the area.

There is a good amount of misinformation about the performance standards of our public middle and HS so below are some links with current information. Currently, JL Long and WWHS are the highest-performing-comprehensive schools in DISD. There is also a great deal of debate/comparision between the Park Cities--which are historically well known for high performance--and the Lakewood feeder schools. That said, the demographic is radically different and if you compare similar demographics the Lakewood/Long/WW students are comparable in their scores. Other up-and-coming elementary schools in the feeder pattern include Lipscomb Elementary and Robert E. Lee. Both campuses have new, dynamic principals and are performing well.

Good luck with your decision making. Whatever you choose I hope your move goes well!

Lakewood: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfre...c057905171.pdf
Long: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfre...c057905053.pdf
WWHS: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfre...c057905022.pdf

[Gator-in-Steiner]

Lakewooder - I get that newsletter and believe me all I want for this feeder pattern is excellent schools but if you look at the raw scores on the important tests (SAT, ACT, AP test pass rates), the scores are not the best in the district for comprehensives and they are on the low end of the acceptable range for being considered college ready. For example, average SAT score at HPHS is 1792 and ACT is 26.6. At WW, this score for white students (I am only using this number because the overall school average is much lower and I will use white students as a proxy for intent to attend college) is 1599 and 22.4. My concern is that our kids are not receiving the same rigor of education that is being provided elsewhere. Either a big chunk of high performing kids is moving out of the feeder pattern after elementary or the school is not preparing the kids to perform at a high level. If WW is doing IB right, it should have kids qualifying as National Merit Semifinalists regularly and its not. The district is not producing NMSF at its top tier magnets either. This is highly concerning.

[Lakewooder]

This is the first year for the IB Diploma Programme to have seniors and there are 35. It's double the amount in the lower grades. Many students tried IB and were not able to handle the rigor or decided that extracurriculars were more important and dropped to the AP track or IBCC (which is mostly AP with a few IB classes). This year they said they would limit the incoming Freshman IB class to 75. I don't know how many applications have been received but apparently hey are split into about half from the attendance zone and half from outside.

As far as the SAT score for white students - yes we do have some white students who would be considered low-income. I think we were really unfairly bashed in another thread. If you look at white scores from other schools, we are in a pack with a range of a few points with Keller, Arlington Martin, Frisco Wakeland and Frisco Heritage. Whites at Woodrow scored higher than whites at Rockwall, Rockwall Heath, Argyle, Gunter, Richardson Berkner, Carrollton/Farmers Branch Ranchview (IB) and CFB Creekview, Denton (IB), Denton Guyer and Ryan, Arlington Lamar, Wylie and Wylie East, Mesquite Poteet, HEB Trinity (IB) and L.D. Bell, Byron Nelson and I think all the Mansifield high schools (usually touted as a good district).

The Dallas Morning News did a study of college readiness vs. demographics and found that only 20 North Texas schools exceeded expectations and one was Woodrow: DMN College Readiness Rating Comparison | The Dallas Morning News

[bencronin04]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

The Dallas Morning News did a study of college readiness vs. demographics and found that only 20 North Texas schools exceeded expectations and one was Woodrow: DMN College Readiness Rating Comparison | The Dallas Morning News

From that link it looks like WW is just your average Texas High School to me(yes I know about the IB program). Not sure how DMN rated WW as exceeding expectations when just looking at their own posted metrics....

[HockDad]

WW- 66% graduation rate is lacking. Moreover, don't tell me that you are only comparing white kids unless the kids are going to only interact with white kids. The basic argument that I hear from WW supporters is the "school within a school" is really great and has great kids and all of the other kids (non-white) must be the problem. I picture a football field surrounded by a track. The bad kids are on the track and the good kids are on the field. The bad kids will naturally try to pluck the good kids from the field and make them bad kids. Might not be a perfect analogy, but it somewhat fits.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by HockDad

WW- 66% graduation rate is lacking. Moreover, don't tell me that you are only comparing white kids unless the kids are going to only interact with white kids. The basic argument that I hear from WW supporters is the "school within a school" is really great and has great kids and all of the other kids (non-white) must be the problem. I picture a football field surrounded by a track. The bad kids are on the track and the good kids are on the field. The bad kids will naturally try to pluck the good kids from the field and make them bad kids. Might not be a perfect analogy, but it somewhat fits.

Your post sums up my entire argument against WW being a good choice. WW supporters only use the white kids' scores to pump up how great the school is, yet turn around and say that WW is better than lily-white schools like HP or Southlake because of all the diversity....how great is is that the school has such a diverse racial and socioeconomic mix, but nevermind the facf the non-white, non-rich kids can barely read or do arithmetic, much less put up college-ready SAT scores.

If WW white parents really cared for the brown & poor kids in the community that their kids allegedly become besties with at WW (according to Lakewooder at least), then you would think they would be up in arms that those kids aren't getting an equally good education.

[Lakewooder]

TC you yourself have used that argument with the scores of white kids, specifically about Woodrow. I could look it up, but you know you did. You have also used the-school-within-a-school situations in a positive light.

If you think that the white parents don't give a flip about the "brown & poor kids in the community" you demonstrate a basic lack of familiarity with our school over the last 40 years.

[bencronin04]

I'm still waiting for your rebuttal to my post? I think that chart obviously shows by those metrics that WW is just a normal Texas HS.