Dallas Public Schools Has Number One and Number Two Top Public Schools in the Country (Jefferson: school districts, colleges)

[eastdallasson]

i'm not sure what you're talking about since the AP tests are national as well. and the AP tests are course related which shows a more direct relation to the teaching going on in the school. SAT may be a better measure of intelligence in some sense but not achievement. Also these are not really all rich kids. The schools until recently could not by law be more than 32% anglo and the kids come from all around the city, many do not come from privileged backgrounds. Check the free and reduced lunch numbers listed in many of the school ranking articles. Now if you want to look at numbers of scholarship $s or universities that graduates from these schools attended would that indicate any achievement to you? these are NOT private schools.

[DWong]

Originally Posted by eastdallasson

i'm not sure what you're talking about since the AP tests are national as well. and the AP tests are course related which shows a more direct relation to the teaching going on in the school. SAT may be a better measure of intelligence in some sense but not achievement. Also these are not really all rich kids. The schools until recently could not by law be more than 32% anglo and the kids come from all around the city, many do not come from privileged backgrounds. Check the free and reduced lunch numbers listed in many of the school ranking articles. Now if you want to look at numbers of scholarship $s or universities that graduates from these schools attended would that indicate any achievement to you? these are NOT private schools.

FACT: These rankings say nothing about HOW they did.

Again, these schools receive HUGE grants and funding to help students pay for these tests. Again and AGAIN people... these schools pushed for the kids to take these tests.. practically most of the student body. That's all they did and guess what ... you get an article saying how great you are. How do I know this..... I USED to work @ one on the list!

Look at the schools again, they aren't exactly public schools either - they function almost like Charter.

[eastdallasson]

if you actually want qualitative information about how these schools operate its not too hard to find. as far as that list ranking based on number of tests taken per student- just because it doesn't specify how many passed doesn't mean that number isn't incredibly high for TAG and SEM. here's a D magazine article that says at least a lil bit more specifically about the ACHIEVEMENTS not just the fact that the kids took the test. really I've got some pretty direct, recent, and extensive knowledge about both of these schools and Townview in general so let me know if you need any more info.

[eastdallasson]

sorry here's the article i was referring to a pdf that shows D magazines ranking based on tests taken and tests passed.

http://www.dmagazine.com/Media/Media...sapril2006.pdf

Making the Grade | Articles - Multi | test | D Magazine - Dallas Fort Worth's Resource for City Guides, Daily Blogs, D Bests, and Restaurants (http://www.dmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=5C1933F1D01C4247A724BAB13C6E670B&nm =test&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mi d=7155F7796F354F21B1183937D847D6DF&tier=4&id=9CF39 D62B53B4A41812EF43C8A1FAE05 - broken link)

[DWong]

Originally Posted by eastdallasson

sorry here's the article i was referring to a pdf that shows D magazines ranking based on tests taken and tests passed.

http://www.dmagazine.com/Media/Media...sapril2006.pdf

Making the Grade | Articles - Multi | test | D Magazine - Dallas Fort Worth's Resource for City Guides, Daily Blogs, D Bests, and Restaurants (http://www.dmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=5C1933F1D01C4247A724BAB13C6E670B&nm =test&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mi d=7155F7796F354F21B1183937D847D6DF&tier=4&id=9CF39 D62B53B4A41812EF43C8A1FAE05 - broken link)

Excellent info there! Just FYI though, the top 2 schools are all handpicked students from across the school boundaries. Yes, they are. Most states have such programs that put economically disad kids on college coursework to succeed, where if they stayed in their regular district boundaries they may have fallen on bad times.

Also, just another thing to notice... those schools have about as many students enrolled as an elementary school or less. These schools focus on college prep, high levels of tutoring and small class size. Not your typical DISD school.

Here is da beef:
Report: Dallas ISD's dropout rate is 7th worst in nation | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040208dnmetdropout.3bef48a.html - broken link)

[eastdallasson]

clearly you're not listening to me but thank you for explaining the magnet school concept. regardless of whether or not they are comprehensive high schools it is still impressive that DISD had the two top schools in the nation based on some ranking system. everyone agrees with you that DISD has major issues, what exactly is it you're trying to argue because i can't pin it down. first you seem to claim that the magnet schools aren't so impressive because the tests mean nothing to you. then they aren't impressive because they're made up of some of the best students in the district? but now its just that the district as a whole has problems? duh

[loves2read]

the point is I think that a magnet school is not necessarily a picture of a district overall--
that is is certainly possible to have strong, successful magnet schools and let the other schools fall by the wayside,
that having two successful magnet school in a district with one of the largest school populations in the US AND other significant negative statistics is really a slap in the face to all the parents of students in underperforming schools--since the success in the top-performing schools does not filter down to the typical school environment...
that the money, time, skill invested in those top performing schools makes that a very expensive public education--even if some of the money comes from grants

[Lakewooder]

No they are not typical DISD high schools. I did not like the magnets from the beginning when they were created to foster desegregation. That is no longer necessary. But I come to the realization that they are needed. Not everyone has an excellent school in their neighborhood.

We often hear people saying that all DISD schools are bad (despite the fact that nearly half of them are ranked exemplary or recognized). I often point out that an excellent education is AVAILABLE at many DISD schools but the naysayers just focus on the negative. Which leads me to believe a lot of it has to do with prejudice.

Even when comprehensive schools like Woodrow (and W.T. White and Hillcrest) are ranked tops in the country by Newsweek and DMagazine (notice it is ahead of many other 'hyped' schools), we still get people saying, "BUT WHAT ABOUT"...

[Grainraiser]

"Even when comprehensive schools like Woodrow (and W.T. White and Hillcrest) are ranked tops in the country by Newsweek and DMagazine (notice it is ahead of many other 'hyped' schools), we still get people saying, "BUT WHAT ABOUT"..."


This is so true. There is always a "what about" when talking about DISD.

[DWong]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

No they are not typical DISD high schools. I did not like the magnets from the beginning when they were created to foster desegregation. That is no longer necessary. But I come to the realization that they are needed. Not everyone has an excellent school in their neighborhood.

We often hear people saying that all DISD schools are bad (despite the fact that nearly half of them are ranked exemplary or recognized). I often point out that an excellent education is AVAILABLE at many DISD schools but the naysayers just focus on the negative. Which leads me to believe a lot of it has to do with prejudice.

Even when comprehensive schools like Woodrow (and W.T. White and Hillcrest) are ranked tops in the country by Newsweek and DMagazine (notice it is ahead of many other 'hyped' schools), we still get people saying, "BUT WHAT ABOUT"...

Being ranked exemplary or recognized isn't saying much in terms of how good a school is. Look @ all districts, they are just about the same.