Lakewood...IB and Magnet Application Process (Houston, Dallas: 2015, houses, neighborhood)

[dragonflycafe]

I am currently a DFW suburbanite and for years I have wanted to move to lovely Lakewood. We have friends in the area and the 3 hour daily commute to Dallas and back is killing my husband. We moved to the burbs many years ago for good schools and affordable housing, but now that we can afford it we'd like to move back to the city. We miss activities, diversity and the general hum of Dallas.

Anyway, can somebody break down the IB application process for Long/Wilson as well as the DISD magnet application process for me? I have an (incoming) 7th grader who is currently enrolled in a gifted and talented private school. He's tested at a 148 IQ and I am very motivated to get him in with other academically-inclined kiddos. I have heard good things about Long and Wilson on these threads but am also interested in the magnets. It's all new to me: the cap at students, how far in advance you have to apply, whether you need to currently reside in DISD before you apply (I would assume), etc. I'm not necessarily looking for this fall; probably fall '15.

I also have an incoming 2nd grader that would attend Lakewood...if there is enough room, that is

Any and all advice appreciated.

[robmab]

All students at Long are in the IB program. There is no application process. If you live in the Long attendance zone, your child will be in the IB Middle Years program. During the last year at Long, they will have the chance to choose which of the "academies" at Woodrow (IB, STEM, Arts, Business) they want to attend. I'm not sure if there is an application process involved. Someone with older kids in Long/Woodrow can probably chime in on that.

As for magnets, the only gifted/talented magnets for middle school are Travis and Spence. Travis is extremely competitive, Spence less so. The application deadline is usually the end of January. They will start having magnet fairs and open houses in December. Since your child is coming from a private school, you'll need to check with the school you're interested to determine what testing will be required. They use norm-referenced test scores (e.g., STAAR for public school students) as one of the admission criteria. More info on magnet application process is on the DISD website.

You do have to show proof of residency on your magnet application, so you'd want to secure an address within DISD boundaries before January of next year to qualify.

Lakewood is great elementary for your 2nd grader. Stonewall and Lipscomb also have a great reputation and are slightly less crowded.

You really can't go wrong anywhere in the Lakewood area. We don't want to live anywhere else!

[theloneranger]

Lakewood Elementary is overcrowded (currently at 155% of capacity excluding portables) but as far as I'm aware, DISD doesn't turn kids away from their neighborhood school because of capacity.

If by incoming 7th grader, you mean for the 2014-2015 school year, you're out of luck for the magnets for this coming school year, as the deadlines have already passed. You could try to apply for 8th grade, but at least at Travis, there are normally any places for entering 8th graders. That being said, your kid would probably be OK at Long. I'm not sure whether they have special TAG pullout programs or if they track the smarter kids into the same classes in the comprehensive middle schools or not. You could also keep him at the private school thru 8th grade and then look at either applying for IB at Woodrow (I believe there are 75 places per year, with Woodrow zone residents getting priority) or else at applying to TAG Magnet. While there are no guarantees, it sounds like your kid would be a shoe-in. Personally, though, unless your kid is solely academically focused, I'd pick Woodrow, which has much better extracurriculars, more social opportunities, and just as good a program for high-achieving students.

[theloneranger]

Originally Posted by robmab

All students at Long are in the IB program. There is no application process. If you live in the Long attendance zone, your child will be in the IB Middle Years program. During the last year at Long, they will have the chance to choose which of the "academies" at Woodrow (IB, STEM, Arts, Business) they want to attend. I'm not sure if there is an application process involved. Someone with older kids in Long/Woodrow can probably chime in on that.

As for magnets, the only gifted/talented magnets for middle school are Travis and Spence. Travis is extremely competitive, Spence less so. The application deadline is usually the end of January. They will start having magnet fairs and open houses in December. Since your child is coming from a private school, you'll need to check with the school you're interested to determine what testing will be required. They use norm-referenced test scores (e.g., STAAR for public school students) as one of the admission criteria. More info on magnet application process is on the DISD website.

You do have to show proof of residency on your magnet application, so you'd want to secure an address within DISD boundaries before January of next year to qualify.

Lakewood is great elementary for your 2nd grader. Stonewall and Lipscomb also have a great reputation and are slightly less crowded.

You really can't go wrong anywhere in the Lakewood area. We don't want to live anywhere else!

Stonewall is actually slightly more overcrowded than Lakewood. Lipscomb is at 96% capacity this year. Lee is the only school significantly under capacity, at 75% even including the Bonham kids (this is excluding Mata, which is at 34% capacity this year but is transitioning to a montessori school next year).

The parents at Lipscomb seem to love it, but at least as far as the STAAR goes, Lipscomb is actually the weakest school in the Woodrow cluster. Stonewall and Lakewood are the two best elementary schools in the city aside from Travis and Dealey (Stonewall #1, Lakewood equal #2 with Hexter and, surprisingly, Sam Houston).

[Spree]

>> I have an (incoming) 7th grader who is currently enrolled in a gifted and talented private school. He's tested at a 148 IQ and I am very motivated to get him in with other academically-inclined kiddos.<<

Magnets

[Renu.Uner]

Dallas magnet schools are really good but there is no guarantee for admission, pretty much a lotto.

[theloneranger]

Originally Posted by Renu.Uner

Dallas magnet schools are really good but there is no guarantee for admission, pretty much a lotto.

This is inaccurate. If your kid tests at the 99th percentile, he's going to get into TAG or SEM unless his grades are failing. It's not a lottery, it's competitive, and test scores are the single most important factor. The "lotto" is where your kid is in the 80th or 85th percentile and has been told he's talented and gifted all his life when he's actually just above average.

Comparing percentages of Woodrow grads with IB diplomas to Plano (assuming you mean PESH) is rather disingenuous considering that Plano ISD has had the program for at least a decade while Woodrow's first IB graduating class is this year. I also don't think there's any way 80% of PESH grads get an IB Diploma. Considering that Woodrow has over 1600 kids and only 300 are admitted to IB, 15% sounds about right.

As far as the GPA goes, most colleges adjust the GPA to take into account tougher courses (DISD does not award bonus points for honors or AP courses). However, DISD awards a massive bonus for taking AP and IB courses: a 100 in a regular class earns the same number of class rank points as a 77 in AP or IB.

[dragonflycafe]

Thanks...these are all great replies and help a bunch. Does anyone know much about the STEM and business tracks at Wilson? Is AP also offered outside of IB?

Also, I was kidding about not getting into Lakewood. I'm following the LEEF project and the WRISD story pretty closely. It's nice to see so much community involvement.

Any and all info is still appreciated. Going to DISD is still a leap of faith.

[theloneranger]

Originally Posted by Humilitea

All districts follow same guidelines for AP/IB, it's not exclusive for DISD or PISD.

All districts do not follow the same guidelines for AP and IB. In fact, virtually every district has a different policy. Plano gives a 1 point bonus for AP or IB and a .5 bonus for Pre-AP. DeSoto gives a 100 in regulars a 5.0, with a 95 getting a 4.5, a 90 getting a 4.0, and so on. On top of that, they give a 1 point bonus for both AP and Pre-AP, for a maximum of 6.0 for a 100 in AP. Jesuit uses a 100 point scale with a 5 point bonus for both Honors and AP.

DISD does not give bonus points in the GPA calculation for AP/IB or Pre-AP/IB, so in theory, it would "hurt" the GPA to take IB and get even 1 point lower than in regulars. However, the district uses a completely different scale for class rank which weights regulars at 7, pre-AP at 8, and AP/IB at 9, meaning a 100 in regulars earns less points than a 78 in AP/IB.

Of course, every college treats the grades separately. Many compute their own GPA based on the rigor of the courses taken, and ignore the district GPA completely. Many colleges ignore class rank entirely. On the other hand, UT Austin completely ignores high school GPA entirely, instead using class rank and SAT scores to compute a 'projected college GPA' for non-top 7% admissuon purposes.

In general, however, I don't think there's a college in the country where getting higher grades in regular courses is weighted more heavily than somewhat lower grades in AP or IB, and if such a school does exist, I don't know if I'd want to apply there.

[theloneranger]

Originally Posted by Humilitea

You are right. If your children are in 99th percentile then it shouldn't be a problem. I wonder how many families have all their children in 99th percentile.

I don't know where you and Renu are getting your info from but according to WW & PESH websites, 300 out of 1,600 WW kids take IB and less than 15% of 300 qualify for full diploma. In PESH, 300 out of 3,000 opt of IB and 75-80% of those 300 kids receive full IB diplomas. Ones who don't, they get regular high school diploma.

Well, exactly 1% of kids test at the 99th percentile...
I don't know how many of their families have ALL of their kids in the 99th %tile or even the top stanine, but the OP specifically mentioned that her son has an IQ of 148 and is in a GT private school.

I wasn't sure what the numbers were referencing, thanks for the clarification. Woodrow should have 75 IB kids per grade next year. 30 just graduated with IB diplomas, but I believe that's a smaller class for the first year. Whatever the numbers on the website mean, I'm positive that a larger number than 7.5 or even 15 a year are on track for a full IB diploma at Woodrow. It may not be at PESH's level, but 10% just does not make sense given that 30 kids just graduated with IB Diplomas.